Lowell offense passes first test of 2003 with 20-14 win over Crown Point

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

Team	1	2	3	4	F
CROWN POINT (0-1)	0	0	0	14	14
LOWELL (1-0)	3	3	7	7	20

Friday, Aug. 22, 2003, 74 degrees, light winds (season opener) in Lowell

1st Q: LOWELL (3-0) Korey Kildares, 36-yard field goal.
43 yard drive, 12 plays, 2:51 left
2nd Q: LOWELL (6-0) Korey Kildares, 29-yard field goal.
68 yard drive, 12 plays, 6:02 left

3rd Q: LOWELL (13-0) Chuck Thompson, 1-yard run. Kildares kick
87 yard drive, 15 plays, 3:51 left
4th Q: LOWELL (20-0) Toby Goetz, 1-yard run. Kildares kick
62 yard drive, 10 plays, 8:34 left
CROWN POINT (20-7) Matt Cowan, 12-yard run. Donny Keiser kick
63 yard drive, 5 plays, 3:07 left
CROWN POINT (20-14) Adam Hilliard, 2-yard pass from Matt Cowan.
Donny Keiser kick. 65 yards drive, 10 plays, :34 left

LOWELL (8-22-2003) - When Crown Point has beaten Lowell in recent years, it usually has been by a significant margin. When Lowell has beaten Crown Point, it's been a close game.
Trouble is, CP hasn't beaten Lowell very much recently. With an edge in experience, the home field and the memory of last year's 23-0 loss in Crown Point, the Red Devils rolled to a 20-0 fourth quarter lead and held on to reject the big neighbor Bulldogs 20-14 in the 2003 opener for both teams Friday night.

"We played a heckuva football game for 3-1/2 quarters," said Lowell's 13-year coach Kirk Kennedy. "We maintained possession and kept their offense off the field for long periods of time. We did exactly what we wanted to do. Play defense with our offense and score some points along the way. We were executing our game plan to perfection by that fourth quarter; then they got a spark and I don't know if we panicked, or what?"

"We're going to compete," said Crown Point coach Chip Pettit, who saw little consolation in the late rally. "We'll compete whether we're 0-10 or 10-0. But there wasn't a whole lot that went right tonight."

Crown Point did make a late run. Trailing 20-0, the Bulldogs drove 63 yards in five plays with Matt Cowan scoring on a 12-yard run with 3:07 left. The Red Devils, who rushed for 243 yards (48 carries) could not get a first down and Jeff Clemons' punt rolled out of bounds on the Crown Point 2-yard line.

But then Cowan hit a 35-yard pass to senior wide receiver Aaron Miller and the Bulldogs charged upfield. Completions of 18 yards to Miller along with a 15-yard sideline-to-sideline QB scramble and a 15-yard pass to sophomore running back Donny Keiser, set up another Bulldog score. Cowan passed two yards to Adam Hilliard to make it 20-14 with 34 seconds left.

But Lowell junior fullback-linebacker Toby Goetz fell on an onside kick and the clock ran out.

"I thought our defense played okay," said Pettit. "But offensively, the first half was just horrible. And they held us to three plays in the third quarter. He (Kennedy) has a good team this year."

It isn't accurate to say Lowell dominated the first half. The Devils held the ball for six minutes on their first possession and then received a positive omen.

Senior wrestling star Korey Kildares, making his debut as Lowell's place-kicker, lifted a 36-yard field goal that landed on top of the crossbar at the south end of the field and bounced between the uprights for the season's first three points.

The Bulldogs got one first down on an 18-yard run by Cowan but the Devils forced a punt and mounted another drive on a near-perfect 75-degree August night. Justin Henley gained 22 yards in four consecutive carries and sophomore Jeff Clemens, who played wide receiver, safety and punter, gained 10 yards on a reverse. A heavy rush by tackle Mark McInerney forced an incompletion from Lowell QB Chuck Thompson and stalled the drive. But Kildares' line drive boot from 29 yards out put three more points on the board with 6:02 left in the half.

After an exchange of turnovers, a sack by Lowell's Laren Childress stopped CP's final first half drive.
In the third period, the Devils established superiority. Scott Schulz fumbled the second half kickoff twice and had to fall on it at the Red Devil 13-yard line. But a 13-yard run by Thompson on a 3rd-and-5 play got Lowell out of the hole.

Goetz (6-0, 210), the Devils returning starter at fullback, caught an 11-yard pass from Thompson at the Crown Point 39 and Henley ran 15 yards on a draw play to the Bulldog nine yard line. As the smaller Lowell line effectively blocked the CP defensive front, Thompson completed the 87-yard, eight minute drive with a one-yard QB sneak to make it 13-0.

This was Lowell's best stretch of the game. Crown Point could not get a first down and Lowell mounted a 62-yard scoring drive. Goetz barreled up the middle for 19 yards to the Bulldog 39 and Henley, who had to go to the sidelines with muscle cramps occasionally in the second half, gained 11 yards to the Bulldog 10-yard-line.

Goetz gained the last three yards on three carries and the lead mounted to 20-0 with 8:30 to play.
The final score was deceptive. CP's new halfback Donny Kesier caught an 18-yard pass from Cowan but fumbled to Lowell cornerback Ed Overdorf at the Lowell 25-yard line with 6:36 left in the game. The Red Devils had the ball with a 20-point lead with five minutes to play in the game.

"We should never have been in that situation," said Kennedy of the final onside kick. "We have to learn to play four quarters. I believe there was a game last year at Morton that ended the same way only the score was in Morton's favor. We couldn't hold on at the end. You've got to give Crown Point and their coaching staff a lot of credit. They were fighting the entire game and they mounted a comeback at the end like they did."

"Hopefully we learned something tonight and we'll be smarter tomorrow."

The game wasn't definitive for either side. Crown Point's first three quarters were ominous when you consider the schedule ahead of them. But the spread offense began to work in the final period and the Bulldog offense produced two long TD drives against a quick Lowell defense. CP hosts Hobart, a 47-7 loser to Portage on opening night. With much of their defense starting for the first time against Lowell, CP should bounce back nicely.

Lowell wasn't able to get the ball to 6-3 tight end Jim Jeffries and, with a lot of players going both ways, they may tire late in games. But the running tandem of Henley (22 carries, 115 yards) and Goetz (16 carries, 74 yards) was in evidence on Friday against the largest team that Lowell will see. The Red Devil offensive line, the key to a team that is supposed to have a big winning season, performed very well.

It was Lowell' s third consecutive home field win over Crown Point and the Devils' fourth win over Crown Point in the last five seasons. It should be noted that this game always says more about Lowell than it does about Crown Point.

"Hopefully this does for us what it did for them last year," said Kennedy of CP's 8-3 season in 2002. "You always have doubts going into the opener. We had some questions and I think we answered them tonight. Not all of them. But some. You've got to like the effort."

DEVIL NOTES: Crown Point QB Matt Cowan was an unofficial 8-of-17 for 161 yards and Aaron Miller caught four passes for 66 yards. The third quarter took CP big back Dave Swenson (6-2, 230) out of the game. With his team trailing 13-0 before the Bulldogs even touched the ball late in the third quarter, the tailback-defensive end did not carry the ball at all in the second half.

The crowd was in the 2500-3000 range at the game Friday night and, despite construction going on at Lowell, there were few parking problems. Athletic director Don Bales credited his staff with doing the job in crowd control and handling as large a crowd as Lowell can draw.

"We had a staff of about 15 people and they handled everything," Bales said after most of the fans had left. "We had everybody in yesterday and we decided what we wanted to do. Today, they just came in and did what we'd planned. It's a credit to them. We had a real good crowd here tonight."

Principal Ryan Pitcock and all three of Crown Point's assistant principals were on the sidelines at Friday night's game. It was a return home for Tim Vassar, who lives in Lowell. Vassar's son Andy was a varsity football player for Lowell in 200 and 2001. Vassar was Lake Central's girls track coach for several years and came to CP this year after being assistant principal at Griffith last year.

Sophomore Donny Keiser made his debut as the Bulldogs' new place-kicker and boomed two extra points. Back-up quarterback Matt Jansen (6-2, 175) made his debut at wide receiver for Crown Point.

The linebacking core of senior Dave Metsch (6-0, 195), junior Will McInerney (6-0, 210) and sophomore Vince Lewis (6-1, 200) improved over the Highland scrimmage. Lowell, which will finish the season with two 1,000-yard rushers if Toby Goetz and Justin Henley suffer no significant injuries, gained an unofficial 243 yards on 48 carries but they broke no runs of more than 20 yards.
Kennedy praised Korey Kildares, a soccer player and wrestler until this fall.

"You've got to be proud of him," said the coach, himself a kicker in his playing days. "You could see from his first kickoff that he was nervous but he hit the first field goal and that seemed to energize him. He hit both of his extra points which was a key."

Oddly, Kildares' field goals barely made it and his extra points were boomed 20 yards beyond the goal post.

Neither team appeared to suffer a serious injury. Cowan took a lot of hard hits in the second half rally, and was still playing QB and safety in the final minutes. "He's a competitor," said Pettit afterwards. "And I think he played well."

Calumet, which will host Lowell next Friday (Aug. 29), roared out of the gate with a 39-0 victory against Gary Mann in week one. Big tailback Aaron Johnson (6-2, 185) ran for 102 yards and a TD. Fullback Billy Thourne (6-2, 205) ran for three TDs. QB Andy Zimmer was 3-of-8 passing and ran for a TD.