Griffith's Nelleman leads passing and rushing attack to 21-0 shutout of Lowell Red Devils

Friday, Sept. 2, 2005,  78 degrees, sunny/clear in Lowell

1st Qtr:  No scoring.

2nd Qtr:  GRIFFITH (7-0) David Alexander, 62-yard pass from Matt Nelleman. 66-yard drive, 3 plays. Nate Vaughn kick. 1:27 left.
3rd Qtr:  GRIFFITH (13-0) Matt Nelleman, 10-yard run.66-yard drive, 9 plays. 2-pt pass intercepted. 8:13 left.
4th Qtr:  GRIFFITH (21-0) Drew Rogowski, 3-yard run. Matt Alvarez 2-pt. run. 91 yards, 5 plays. 6:52 left.

RUSHING: 

Doug Ashenbaugh (G) 18-70 yards; Matt Alvarez (G) 8-41 yards; Matt Nelleman (G) 7-98 yards; Drew Rogowski (G) 9-34 yards, TD.; Scott Gray (L) 14-42 yards; Ethan Winel (L) 2-5 yards; Jimmy Ritter (l) 7-1 yard; Jeff Clemens (L) 5-14 yards; Steffan Peck (L) 1-3 yards.

PASSING: 

Matt Nelleman (G) 5-7, 166 yards, TD, one INT.

Jimmy Ritter (L) 11-26, 173 yards, one INT

Jeff Clemens (L) 0-1, 0 yards

RECEIVING:

Matt Alvarez (G) 1-8 yards; Drew Rogowski (G) 1-27 yards; David Alexander (G) 2-116 yards; Mike White (G) 1-15 yards;

Jeff Clemens (L) 6-75 yards; Chris Lampa (L) 1-61 yards;

Ethan Winel (L) 1-20 yards; Scott Gray (L) 1-7 yards; Joe Wojcik (L) 2-10 yards.

TOTAL YARDS:

GRIFFITH – 409 yards (166 passing)

LOWELL – 238 (173 passing)

TURNOVERS: 

GRIFFITH (2) one fumble; LOWELL (2) one fumble

LOWELL (9-2-2005) - Some high school football games you walk away from satisfied in the knowledge that you know what you saw.  Friday night at Lowell was not one of them.

If you would have told me that Lowell would throw 27 passes against third ranked Griffith and still lose, I would tell you that you must've been wrong. About the 27 passes.

When you looked at the score book after Griffith's 21-0 win over Lowell and saw over 400 total yards, you'd say they dominated the contest.

Lowell tried a lot of different things offensively but only about half of them went as planned. Despite a few weak moments, Griffith left Lowell with the mission accomplished as the third-ranked Panthers used some big plays to win 21-0 in a matchup of Lake Athletic Conference (LAC) rivals in front of a sellout crowd of 3,000 fans.

“I'm proud of our effort physically,” said Lowell coach Kirk Kennedy. “But we stopped ourselves with mistakes and penalties. Mentally, our effort was lacking.”

There's not much question that Griffith (3-0, 1-0 LAC) is the better team. The Panthers have a strong defensive line and that near-unstoppable option offense. They also have a lot of speed on the perimeter which increases their big play potential beyond almost any 3A team they're going to see short of the regional level.

“You have to play consistent against Griffith,” Kennedy said. “You have to play every play. You can shut them down 80-85% of the time and then they go for a long touchdown.”

True enough. Griffith scored on a deflected 62-yard pass from senior QB Matt Nelleman to sophomore wide receiver David Alexander with 1:27 to go before halftime.

The Panthers then drove 80 yards in nine plays with the second half kickoff to make it 13-0 when Nelleman scored on a nine-yard keeper.

Griffith's final TD was set up by a 71-yard option run by Nelleman, who gained 900 yards as Griffith's fullback in 2004. Drew Rogowski, largely held in check all night long, scored on a three-yard run with 6:52 left in the game.

Lowell had two long drives where Griffith seemed temporarily unable to stop them. The Devils went 51 yards in 7-½ minutes and 14 plays with the opening kickoff, only to be stopped when Dan Calhoun sacked Lowell QB Jimmy Ritter for a 14-yard loss on 3^rd-and-6 from the Panther 25.

Trailing 13-0 in the third quarter, Lowell stopped Nelleman on 4^th-and-goal from the Lowell 2-yard-line and the Devils drove 80 yards in 14 plays. But on 4^th-and-14 from the Griffith 23, Ritter was stopped for only a six yard gain on a desperation scramble.

Since the Panthers are 3A and Lowell is a 4A team, what happens when the two teams meet on the Labor Day weekend has no long term meaning. Except for two things.

First, those 27 passes. Ritter was a career-best 11 of 26 for 173 yards. In box scores that go back 15 years, you can't find a game where Lowell threw the ball 27 (Jeff Clemens threw one pass) times. One factor was that Griffith held Lowell to just 65 yards on 29 carries.

“We shut it down,” said Griffith coach Russ Radtke, who saw Lowell's passing spree as part something the Devils were forced to do and part something they now intend to do.

“For them to be working on it this early (in the season),” he said, “They (Lowell) must see that as something they want to do.”

Kennedy explained, “It was something that was dictated by the way the game went. That (the passing) was in response to game situations. We came out and had a nice first drive and established field position. We moved the ball a lot but, what do you get for moving the ball.”

Radtke added, “We bent a little but they didn't break. Their offensive coordinator threw a lot of things at us. But you've got to stop their running game first. No. 2 coming out of the backfield was something we planned for but he's a better athlete than some of our guys so we had to double-team him.”

The other long range hangover might be injury. Lowell's 'No., 2' , Clemens, the Devils top receiver, all-NW Indiana strong safety, kick returner and punter, left the game with a rib injury in the middle of the fourth quarter. Junior fullback, linebacker Ethan Winel, another crucial player, suffered some form of lower leg injury and left the game in the third period. Both would have to be considered highly doubtful for Lowell's next game, at LAC rival Morton on Sept. 9.

“I've got two cracked ribs,” said Clemens, who caught six passes for 75 yards and intercepted Nelleman in the first period.. “I think I did it last week in practice and I aggravated it tonight.” Lowell has a lot of running backs and can adequately replace Winel and Clemens on offense. But defensively, Winel, an all-state wrestler and Clemens, an intimidating hitter, would be hard to sub for effectively.

“Cracked ribs could be a month,” said Kennedy as he walked off the field. “Winel might have broken bone in his leg. But that's the worst case scenario. We just don't know yet.”

Griffith did not appear, on this night, to be in the consistent class of Bishop Chatard, the seven-time state champ and annually the gold standard in Class 3A in Indiana. But they potentially could be as good as Andrean's 2004 state title team although that alternative future could be 2006. Defensive end Ben Geffert (6-5, 245), defensive tackle Dan Calhoun (6-2, 221), kicker Nate Vaughn and hard-to-tackle halfback Matt Alvarez (5-11, 181) is a junior, fullback Doug Ashenbaugh (6-3, 185) and wide receiver David Alexander (6-3, 171) are just sophomores. Griffith has allowed over 450 passing yards in three games although that might be, in part, a product of no one being able to run on them. Lowell was the third consecutive team to fail to rush for 100 yards on the Panthers' defensive front.

“I think we have speed all around on our defense,” said Radtke. “There's got to be some formation we cant adjust to. We've seen a team that goes shotgun and the time and we've seen Lowell's I-formation. So far, we've seen just about everything. It's an accomplishment to our defensive coaches that we can make adjustments.”

“We put pressure on them with our time of possessions,” said Kennedy, “ and with our field position. But we didn't put any pressure on them on the scoreboard.”

“It s frustrating to play your butt off physically and not get anything at all. We didn't get any breaks and we made too many mistakes to win.”

Lowell is sub-.500 at 1-2, but the losses are to undefeated top-10 teams. Many prep squads have lost to ranked teams before Labor Day and come back to win some type of championship.

But whether the Devils' destiny is sectional success or sub-.500 depends on what team you think you saw Friday.

DEVIL NOTES:  Without saying it, Kennedy showed great confidence in Jimmy Ritter by staying with him the entire game Friday. Junior QB Josh Kuiper is a better natural passer, but Ritter did a fine job moving the team.

“He (Ritter) had an outstanding game in some respects,” said Kennedy. “But he made some mistakes, too. I thought we had a touchdown here in the third quarter with the tight end (Chris Lampa) at the five yard line but he under threw him. He had a good effort.”

Ritter appears to throw the ball like he's throwing darts, but for Lowell QBs, he has been unusually successful.

“Jimmy doesn't have a real fluid throwing motion,” admits Kennedy. “But that's how he throws the ball. He's not half-throwing it, That's just how he throws.”

One crucial play came after Griffith stopped Lowell's long opening drive. The Devils' defense immediately forced a Griffith punt, which Chris Lampa fumbled back to Griffith at the Lowell 39-yard-line.

“They did not score after that fumble,” recalled Kennedy, “but we lost all our field position.”

Lowell almost scored twice. Sophomore kicker David Lang missed a 32-yard field goal on the final play of the first period and Chris Lampa could not outrun Griffith's secondary on a down-and-out pass from Ritter on the first play of the final period. The 61-yard pass-run play was stopped at the Griffith 30-yard-line and the Devils could get no closer than the Panther 19.

Lowell's girls volleyball team collected cash donations for hurricane victims in New Orleans and Mississippi. Many high schools did that at Friday's games.

Parking for the crowd of 3,000 was easily handled on the renovated Lowell campus. Ten minutes before game time, there were still paved parking spaces in front of the high school.

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Revised: September 07, 2005 .