59ers crush Red Devils 35-7 to finish regular season unbeaten

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

10-19-2011

Friday, Oct. 14, 2011, 55 degrees at LOWELL, IN

1st Qtr: ANDREAN (7-0) Brandon Pavlina, 16-yard pass form Matt DeSomer. 74-yard drive, 12 plays. Danny Wirtz kick. 5:37 left.
LOWELL (7-7) Danny Reyes, 40-yard TD pass from Bryan Thomas. 84-yard drive, 9 plays. Nick Kijurna kick. 1:24 left.
ANDREAN (14-7) Mason Zurek, 51-yard run. 63-yard drive. 3 plays.Danny Wirtz kick. 0:00 left.
2nd Qtr: ANDREAN (21-7) Mason Zurek, 10-yard run. 31-yard drive. 3 plays after Tom Levenda recovered a Lowell fumble at the Lowell 31-yard line. Danny Wirtz kick. 10:24 left.
ANDREAN (28-7) Mason Zurek, 35-yard TD pass from Matt DeSomer. 66-yard drive, 5 plays. Danny Wirtz kick. 1:14 left.
3rd Qtr: ANDREAN (35-7) Rick Johnston, 5-yard run. 80-yard drive, 16 plays. Danny Wirtz kick. 0:24 left.
4th Qtr: No scoring.

RUSHING:
ANDREAN (42 carries, 248 yards, 3 TDs, one fumble) Mason Zurek (FB) 12 carries, 110 yards, 2 TDs; Matt DeSomer (QB) 11-48 yards;
Ben Buoscio (HB) 9-36 yards; Ramon Guerrero (HB) 1-18 yards; Rich Johnston (HB) 4-19 yards, Shamir Johnson (HB) 5-17 yards.

LOWELL (30 carries, 57 yards, fumble) Nick Hamilton (HB) 12-53 yards; George Fields (HB) 4-10 yards; Bryan Thomas (QB) 11- (minus-11 yards) 2 sacks-minus-19 yards.

PASSING:
ANDREAN: Matt DeSomer (QB) 8-11, 154 yards, 2 TDs.
LOWELL: Bryan Thomas (QB) 4-10, 80 yards, TD; Jeremy Crocker (FB) 0-1.

RECEIVING:
ANDREAN: Brandon Pavlina (WR) 3-32 yards, TD; Nick Serrato (WR) 3-72 yards; Mason Zurek (FB) 1-35 yards, TD; Ramon Guerrero (WR) 1-15 yards.
LOWELL: Danny Reyes (WR) 1-40 yards, TD; Jeremy Crocker (FB) 1-16 yards, Nick Hamilton (HB) 1-10 yards, Noah Pavlina (WR) 1-14 yards.

TOTAL YARDS:
ANDREAN: 402 total yards, 16 first downs, one turnover;
LOWELL: 137 yards, 8 first downs, one turnover.

LOWELL (10-14-2011) When people saw Andrean impress in the pre-season scrimmage at Crown Point in mid-August, the question rose: Who's going to beat them?
The question still stands. Andrea completed what is undoubtedly the best regular season in school history with a 35-7 rout of Lowell in perfect late fall 55-degree conditions last Friday. The 59ers (9-0) out gained Lowell 402-137 and never trailed, completing the required season where they outscored nine foes 384-80 and held everyone under 20 points.

"This is the greatest team I've ever coached," said coach Phil Mason to his team after the game. "You've beaten some great teams this year because you are a great team."

Meanwhile, there was a bad feeling on the Lowell sidelines. Just days before the state tournament, the Devils (5-4) were powerless to stop a good opponent on Lowell's home field. Lowell was stepped on by a combined score of 63-15 in the final two games of the regular season and it's not because of injuries or bad luck. I think Lowell can rebound in time to defeat equally sinking Mishawaka (5-4) in the Class 4A Sectional 10 quarterfinal on opening night of the state playoffs next Friday.

But it doesn't matter what I think. The Devils don't look confident at all and they haven't the last two weeks. The Lowell offense has stalled and the defense is on the field too much. In 2002, Lowell lost the final two games of the regular season 31-7 to Munster and 31-0 to Andrean. The Devils defeated Roosevelt 22-12 and then lost to Morton. This year's team doesn't get to play Roosevelt.

"It comes down to how much they want to continue," said a disappointed coach Keith Kilmer of his players. "The state tournament is about how much you want it. It's tough now. How much do you want the season to continue?"

Andrean's excellence for a ninth straight week was overshadowed by some local drama as Lowell resident Matt DeSomer quarterbacked Andrean against the Devils for the first time. A sophomore up-and-coming baseball star, DeSomer (6-0, 175), whose older brother Bryan was a fullback-linebacker for the 2008 Devils, had an excellent night. The tall right-hander completed 8 of 11 passes for 154 yards in leading five touchdown drives. It was a rare, unnatural sight to see the 59er quarterback walking home from the high school in his Andrean uniform after the game.

"He's probably not going straight home," joked Kilmer, watching DeSomer walk down the road east of the field. "He's probably going over to the houses of one of our players."

Sometimes when an Andrean player returns to the town where he lives for a varsity game, he is treated rudely on the field or court. Nothing could have been further from the truth Friday. Lowell's defense rarely touched the 59er sophomore unless he chose to run. Nothing was yelled at him from the stands. He was treated as a favorite son, a player they wish they still had.

"I was nervous," he said. "Once we scored the first TD, I felt fine. It's good to beat them for the seniors. Without Mason (two-time 1,000-yard rusher Mason Zurek) we wouldn't be where we are. And the line blocking tonight was great. Obviously it's great. This is my first time playing here. I was going against my friends, which was tough. They were really physical. I was playing against all my friends, which was tough."

It was tough for Lowell's boys to play against DeSomer and Andrean, too. The 59ers took the opening kickoff down the field in 12 plays and 6-1/2 minutes, taking a 7-0 lead on a 16-yard pass from DeSomer to Brandon Pavlina.

Lowell came right back with three first downs setting up their highlight. On 3rd-and-6, Lowell junior Bryan Thomas rolled out to his left and fired a long pass to senior Danny Reyes, all alone behind the 59er defense. The 40-yard TD play tied the game late in the first quarter.

But the 59ers charged right back down the field in three plays. Zurek (6-0, 195), who has 1,240 yards in 145 carries this season, broke loose down the visitors' sidelines for a 51-yard TD on the final play of the first quarter.

The second period was all Andrean. Lowell's Thomas fumbled to Andrean's Tom Levenda at the Red Devil 31-yard line and the 59ers scored in four plays. Zurek's 10-yard run made it 21-7. Late in the second quarter, DeSomer tossed a screen pass to Zurek, who ran through several weak tackle efforts for a 35-yard TD and an insurmountable 28-7 lead.

"They're a very good team," said Niner coach Phil Mason of Lowell. "We thought the Griffith game was a good test. We had some adversity and we overcame it. We had some adversity tonight, too. But we just seem to be in a groove right now. We don't need a lot of rah-rah stuff. We just love the lights. Our guys can't wait for Friday nights. Hopefully, God willing, we'll have six more of them."

For Lowell, they are obviously facing immediate elimination unless they can stop people and move the ball better than they have the last two weeks.

"You can coach all you want," said Kilmer. "They have to decide they want to do for this. Our kids play really hard until the adversity comes. We had a great week of practice. But when things go wrong, we can't recover. You cant do the fire-and-brimstone speech two weeks in a row. We did that last week. Now, it comes down to how bad you want it."

DEVIL NOTES: Lowell-native Matt DeSomer, whose brother Bryan (a 2009 graduate) was a linebacker on the 2007 Lowell state finals' team, drew high praise from coach Phil Mason.
"He was very nervous," said Mason. "Absolutely. He's as nervous as heck before the game. What do you when you get in a situation like that? You get someone who falls apart or he plays the way he did. He's got a lot of composure. He was on his game. That's the reason we made him a quarterback."

"We knew he was coming in and we knew he was a good athlete because we saw his brother play. But that's the thing about Andrean. I don't see these kids until they get here. This kid has intangibles. There's a charisma about him. An aura. He loves to play. He's a great baseball player and he's a great football player."

DeSomer and center Dakota Beardsley botched five or six snaps or Andrean might have won by more. Mason didn't seem too upset.

"Most of the time we are a 'shot gun' team." he said. "We transition into an over-center team as the weather changes. It's something we're going to have to work on. Dakota's a really good center. He gets off the ball quickly. We'll get it worked out."

Mason Zurek, a two-time 1,000-yard rusher gained 110 yards on 12 carries as the 59ers won by 14 points or more for the eighth time this season. This was Andrean's first win over Lowell since 2006 and this was Lowell's worst home loss since a 31-7 loss to Andrean in 2002.

Andrean plays Wheeler (9-0) in 2A Sectional 25 next week while Lowell hosts Mishawaka (5-4) in 4A Sectional 10.

The only good news for Lowell was that there appeared to be no new injuries from Fridays game and next week's foe Mishawaka, also got smashed at home, 37-13 by South Bend Washington.