Hobart 2nd half rally upsets Bulldogs 21-17 at hot, humid Brickie Bowl

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

8-28-2004

Friday, Aug. 27, 2004,  80 degrees, humid at Hobart

1st Q:  HOBART (6-0) Marc Drobac, 16-yard run. 74-yard drive, 12 plays.
Kick wide. 5:15 left.
2nd Q:  CROWN POINT (6-7) Donny Kaiser, 28-0yard pass from Matt Jansen. 80-yard drive, 12 plays. Kaiser kick. 11:20 left.
CROWN POINT (6-14) Matt Ernest, 21-yard pass from Matt Jansen. 74-yard drive, 9 plays. Kaiser kick. 6:38 left.
3rd Q:  CROWN POINT (6-17) Donny Kaiser, 26-yard field goal. 23-yard drive, 6 plays. 7:38 left.
HOBART (14-17) TJ Pope, 2-yard run. 13-yard drive, 3 plays (after a 32-yard punt return by Josh Hughes) 3:10 left.
4th Q:  HOBART (21-17) Jon Foddril, 96-yard run. 97 yards, 3 plays (after CP's Donny Kaiser fumbled at the Hobart 3-yard line) 9:48 left.

HOBART (8-27-2003) - I know coaches don't think of the Friday night football games in terms of their entertainment value, but nobody's asking for their five dollars back after Crown Point games this year. Trouble is, the opposition has left fulfilled as well in the first two weeks.

In a roller coaster ride in midsummer heat and humidity, Hobart led by six, trailed by 11 and rallied to win 21-17 in front of sweaty fans on the floor of Hobart's Brickie Bowl.

In a spectacular game, Hobart had a flawless first possession after which Crown Point dominated for almost two quarters. But the decisive stretch came after a long punt return by Hobart's Josh Hughes set up the Brickie TD that cut the lead to 17-14 with 3:10 to go in the third quarter. After an exchange of punts, CP looked to clinch the victory.

Junior quarterback Matt Jansen (18-44, 243 yards) hit 6-foot-2 sophomore wide receiver Matt Ernest (10 catches, 154 yards) for a 28-yard gain to the Hobart 45-yard-line. Three plays later, junior running back Donny Kaiser, who had his best game, broke off left tackle and tried to outrun the tired Brickies to the goal line. But Hobart defenders spun Kaiser around at the 10-yard line and he fumbled, with linebacker Richard Mitchell falling on the ball at the 3-yard-line with 10:53 left in the game.

Two Hobart plays gained just one yard. But senior halfback Josh Foddrill, on a conservative 3^rd-and-9 running play, broke three tackles and stepped into the clear. With fans and teammates screaming for him to go all the way, Foddrill (5-9, 165), outran CP defensive back Jeremy Plummer for about 70 yards down the home sidelines on the sunken Brickie Bowl playing surface. The Hobart senior won the race, completing a 96-yard TD that proved to be the game winner.

“What a run he made,” said Hobart coach Wally McCormack. “What can you say about that? We had six guys going both ways. They had one or two. The heat was a very big factor. Our guys were dragging by halftime. It's to our credit that as tired as we were, we were able to come back.”

“That team (CP) has some very good players. It's just that they're young players. They've got as good a sophomore and junior class as anybody around here. They've indefinably got some people you're going to hear about.”

One of those people is Jansen, the hard luck CP quarterback, who directed near perfect scoring drives of 80 and 74 yards to build a 14-6 halftime edge. But, after a 9-of-15 first half, Jansen was plagued by dropped passes and the pressure of the home team rallying and completed 9-of-29 after the break.

“That first half was about as flawless a half as a quarterback can play,” said CP coach Chip Pettit. “He made some good throws in the second half but you're just not going to hit every one. The interception at the end, he had to make that throw. With four minutes to go, he's just trying to make a play.”

In a wild finish, Hobart quarterback Kyle Gonzales fumbles, with Ernest recovering at the Crown point 40 yard line with 7:04 to play. The tired Brickie defense stood tall and CP had to punt three plays later. CP got the ball back on a short Hobart punt that Jon Sertich ran back to the Hobart 49 with 3:44 to go.

On the first play, from a four wide receiver set, Jansen tried a lob pass down the middle against a spread-out Hobart defense to 6-foot-5 tight end Brian Maloney. But the ball was slightly underthrown and Mitchell (6-1, 210) made a leaping interception. That should have clinched the game but it didn't.

On a third-and-12 play at the Crown Point 39, Gonzales tried a deep sideline pattern that CP's Ernest, a basketball player, leaped and stole. It appeared that Ernest was out of bounds when he came down but Crown Point got the call and the ball at the Bulldog 18 with 1:45 and no time outs remaining.

From the shot gun formation, Jansen completed passes of 10 and eight yards to Ernest before connecting on a 10-yard toss to Tommy Isailovich at the Crown Point 45 yard line with 40 seconds to play. With both sides cheering sections standing, Jansen fired three incomplete passes before a 10-yard completion to Maloney moved the ball to the Hobart 45.

Jansen spiked the ball (intentional throw into the ground) to stop the clock. But two desperation passes failed in the final 16 seconds, the last one falling between Maloney and Isailovich at the Hobart 10-yard line.

It was an emotional win for Hobart, which had lost to Crown Point two years in a row. Three-sport star Josh Fuller was carried off the field in the second quarter when he took a knee in the head and was knocked out. With fears of a neck injury, the Hobart senior was carried off the field and driven away in an ambulance. McCormack was in touch with the hospital by cell phone immediately after the game.

“They told me it was only a concussion,” he said. “I'm not saying it was 'just' a concussion. That's serious. But apparently, that's all it was.”

On top of that, McCormack's wife Jenny, was in labor with the couple's first child and the Hobart coach made a quick post-game hospital call when contractions began to occur. “I've got 30 minutes left?” he said into the phone while the band played and reporters asked post-game questions. “Are you sure?”  “It's been a stressful night,” he admitted.

As disappointing as this loss was for Crown Point, the 378 total yards, especially the 131 yards rushing on just 25 carries, was a big positive. The Bulldogs are still shorthanded defensively and they know they're going to have to outscore teams when the Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) season begins next week at undefeated Merrillville (2-0).

You can argue that Crown Point has a better team than Hobart and Lowell, the team that defeated them 25-15 in week one, although the judgment on Lowell is questionable.

It is also irrelevant. Crown Point faces three top-10 teams in the next four weeks. The biggest task at Hobart was to improve over the game against Lowell. On both sides of the ball, the Bulldogs did that.

“We didn't make plays when we had opportunities to finish this game out in the third quarter,” said Pettit. “A little bit of that is inexperience. When you have a chance to make a play, you have to make it. We're driving for the score in the third quarter there and we fumble and they get a 96-yard run. That was the turning point in the game."

“I think we played pretty well. We just didn't make plays at crucial times. For a large part of the night, I was very pleased with how we played We're not going to beat ourselves up over this one.”

CP NOTES: Hobart coach McCormack was not overjoyed with then win, because of how his team had been handled in the middle periods.
“We take control of the game at the start,” said the second year coach, who led Andrean to the 2002 state finals. “And then we do nothing on our next two possessions. We know that you've got to keep their offense off the field. But we just kept giving it back to them. The heat really affected us and we were beaten up. But everybody on both sides were beaten up.”

Crown Point defender Mike Smith missed the entire second half after he just could not continue in the high humidity. Tailback-linebacker Jon Sertich also had to leave in the fourth quarter. 

“We had two guys going both ways,” said CP coach Chip Pettit. Mike Smith and Jon Sertich. And both of them had to leave the game.”

Despite the key fumble, Donny Keiser (5-11, 200) had his finest game on the varsity. The junior added three catches for 39 yards to 13 carries for 102 yards. Keiser also kicked a 26-yard field goal and two booming extra points. While the Brickies didn't have the team speed of Lowell, the CP offensive line was much improved over week one, allowing only one sack while Jansen got off 44 passes.

Brickie tailback Marc Drobac carried 16 times for 85 yards and made at least 10 tackles. He did not leave the game but had to be assisted as he walked to the locker room afterwards.

Hobart simply did not match up with Ernest, who caught 10 passes and dropped three or four more. Brian Maloney, the 6-foot-5 converted basketball player, also had a couple of drops but he showed he will continue to be a force with four catches for 34 yards.

Mike Smith caught four first half passes before the 80-degree heat and high humidity sent him to the bench. His loss crippled CP. Smith had five catches, a punt return TD and eight tackles in week one. With rain moving in on a hot late August evening, the Brickie Bowl, which is actually below ground at Hobart Middle School, was almost unbearable. There was no wind and players showed great fatigue from the second quarter on.

The victory was very big for Hobart, which lost 24-7 to 5A No. 6 Portage in the season opener. Portage smoked East Chicago 54-23 in week two, so Hobart's loss doesn't look so bad. The Brickies will compete for the LAC title beginning with the game with Hammond (2-0).

CP lost leads of 7-0 and 15-12 in a 25-15 season opening loss to 4A No. 7 Lowell (2-0). Lowell roasted Calumet 57-0 last Friday. A look at the sidelines tells you how shorthanded CP is. When boys are on the varsity, they are allowed to stand on the sidelines in pants or blue jeans and their game jersey. There were 11 such players on the CP sidelines including linebackers Chris Schillo, Jordan Rhye, Tommy Parks and Danny Davis. Senior lineman Kris Babic (5-10, 290), who was expected to contribute, has a leg injury and will not play any time soon.

CP has Jon Sertich (5-9, 160) starting at outside linebacker and sophomore backs Nick Rodich (6-1, 165) and Matt Ernest (6-2, 160) plus soph lineman Steve Williams (6-2, 240) playing significant time defensively.

When you're playing sophomores in the DAC, there is only so much success that is possible. Jansen, unofficially, is 34 of 71 for 412 yards, three TDS and two interceptions.

Hobart 21, Crown Point 17

Game Statistics

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Revised: August 28, 2004 .