Ft. Wayne Dwenger beats Lowell 38-22 to win 4A Northern Semistate

FORT WAYNE (11-22-2008) I've learned that it doesn't matter what you want.  Nobody cares.  It only matters what you are.  The only good thing about the drive back down US 6 from Fort Wayne in the dark and the cold after undefeated Bishop Dwenger's 38-22 victory over unbeaten Lowell in the Class 4A Northern Semistate Saturday night was perspective.

In the three hour return to Lake County amidst the caravan of brightly painted Lowell cars full of disappointed Red Devil fans, I was unable to come up with any reason to be truly unhappy in the wake of Lowell's 16-point loss to the three-time state champions, who will now face six-time state champ Cathedral in the 4A title game at 3:30 EST next Saturday.

Like the players and coaches, I wanted the Devils to reach the state finals for the third time in four years, but that chance disappeared when the Saints (14-0) posted 31 second half points in sub-freezing weather in front of 4,000 fans in Fort Wayne's Zollner Stadium.  You're supposed to report what you see and I saw a lot of Lowell boys hanging their heads after losing one game from the state championship game after holding a 22-16 late third quarter lead.

But I also saw Lowell playing Dwenger for the right to meet Cathedral, something incomprehensible even 10 years ago.  In the recent Red Devils success (44-13 in the last four seasons, six consecutive sectional titles), it has been somewhat forgotten that Lowell has been going toe-to-toe with the true iron clad contract players of Indiana high school football and battling them on even terms, if Saturday, only for three periods.

"We don't want to be the equal of these programs," said longtime coach Kirk Kennedy on the field after the loss. "We want to be better than them.  But until we prove it on the field, there's a lot of work to do."

What the Devils were Saturday in a rematch of Lowell's 10-7 semistate victory over Bishop Dwenger in 2007, were 22-16 leaders with 2:22 left in the third quarter after Brandon Grubbe's 37-yard TD run.

But Lowell's formula for success: Run the football consistently and wear down the opposition, had not worked well enough against the larger Saints in the first half and the Devils' defense was wearing down.  Bishop Dwenger, the undisputed champion of Fort Wayne's Summit Athletic Conference, quickly regained the lead on a 63-yard TD pass from senior quarterback Trevor Yerrick to junior receiver Joel Gerardot, a play in which Dwenger used 6-foot-5 all-state wide receiver Tyler Eifert as a decoy, tying the game at 22.  When Yerrick faked the extra point and threw a high arching two-point pass to Eifert, Dwenger had a 24-22 lead and they began to take control of the game.

Eifert, who will be a scholarship player at Notre Dame next season, made a diving catch of a 19-yard, TD pass on 3rd-and-goal with 5:39 left in the game to give the home team a 30-22 lead.  Yerrick executed a stop-and-go pump fake 27-yard pass to Gerardot with 57 seconds left to ice the game.

"Their play makers made some plays," said Kennedy.  "Like I said earlier in the week, they had chances to win and we had chances.  They took advantage of theirs and we missed on some of ours."

Lowell (13-1), which was attempting to become the second NW Indiana team to reach the state finals three times in four years (Hobart was the first), survived a stumbling first half and could easily have won this game.

The Devils stopped Dwenger's 35-points-per-game offense three times inside the Red Devil 20-yard line in the first two periods.  The Saints missed a 21-yard field goal and Yerrick threw an interception to linebacker Jordan Juarez inside the Lowell 10-yard-line.

When Grubbe scored on a 20-yard short pass-run from quarterback Kurt Monix, Lowell had a 7-0 lead with 33 seconds left in the half.  But Dwenger's Eifert then made a play that few can make.  Set back to return the kick, Eifert slipped and the ball fell and bounced loose.  The big multi-purpose player then regained his footing, scooped up the ball and took off down the home sidelines on a 77-yard kickoff return.  Yerrick, a senior rookie, who would throw for a career-high four TD passes, found halfback Joe Colone over the middle for a 7-yard TD, tying the game five seconds before halftime.

"When the ball's loose," Kennedy explained, "everybody loses their lane discipline.  They lose their focus.  Then the guy gets the football and the returner gets around us.  That kid (Eifert) was head and shoulders the best player on the field."

In the second half, Dwenger would go to three wide receivers on the same side of the field, with Eifert furthest from the quarterback.  The formation makes it very difficult to double-team the outside receiver because that would leave a man-on-man mismatch somewhere closer to the ball.  Single covering a 6-foot-5 Division 1 receiver is a risky proposition.

"It stretches the defense," said Kennedy.  "It forces you to make plays in space (with no help) against a guy who's a lot better than anybody you have on the field.  Again, that's their playmakers making plays.  We all felt each other out in the first half and in the second half everybody started making plays.  They made a lot of great plays."

The third quarter was full of plays.  Dwenger's Alec Bloom ran the second half kickoff back 30 yards to the Lowell 32-yard-line and the Saints got a field goal from Emerson Ueber to give the home team a 10-7 lead.  Lowell found the ability to run the ball, largely off the right side of the line behind Justin Juarez and David Eastling.  Cody Midgett broke loose for a 44-yard TD to give the Devils a 14-10 lead with 8:11 left in the third quarter.  Joe Colone ran 58 yards out of Saints shot gun spread formation to give Dwenger a 16-14 lead with 7:24 left in the third quarter.  But Brandon Grubbe broke through the defense for a 37-yard TD with 2:22 left in the third period, pushing Lowell ahead 22-16 to the delight of the 2,000 Lowell fans.

"We hit the hole a little quicker," said Lowell offensive coordinator Jim Carlson.  "We did put Cody (Midgett) and Brandon (Grubbe) together in the same backfield.  But we just got a better effort up front in the second half."

"I just think our sense of urgency picked up," agreed Kennedy. "Our effort picked up.  Our pride came through and Grubbe just hit the line a little harder."

It wasn't enough because Dwenger had a great second half offensively.  Yerrick, who had 19 TD passes and just one interception, fired a 63-yard TD pass to Joel Gerardot on a play where the pass catcher lined up inside of Eifert and Lowell missed the coverage.  On what looked like a fake conversion, Yerrick lofted a pass over Lowell's 6-foot-4 Justin Juarez to the even taller Eifert, who leaped high in the back of the end zone to give the Saints a 24-22 lead after three quarters.

The Lowell defense wore down in the fourth quarter.  Colone broke away on a 48-yard run to set up the Yerrick 28-yard pass to Eifert for a 30-22 edge with 5:39 left.  On that play, Eifert beat the Devil defense and dived towards the corner of the end zone to catch the ball for another spectacular play.

Juarez blocked the extra point and the Devils still had a chance to tie with an eight point TD.  But Lowell could not get a first down and they failed on a 4th-and 4 from their own 36 yard line.  Dwenger scored the final TD on the well-executed stop-and-go to Gerardot with 57 seconds left.

"They made diving catches for touchdowns.  That's 14 points right there," commented Kennedy.  "We made some plays, too, but it emphasizes what we did not do in the first half."

Dwenger coach Chris Svarczkopf credited his offensive line for the TDs.

"It all starts up front," he said.  "He (Yerrick) had time.  The offensive line didn't lose their cool against a good defense.  All those calls came from upstairs.  They come through me but the coaches called all those plays upstairs."

At the end of the game, Dwenger's students rushed the field to celebrate with the players, which in effect, is another back-handed compliment to Lowell.  For most of the history of both schools, not only would Dwenger, which has won a state record 15 regional titles, have never met Lowell in the post-season, but Saints fans wouldn't have cared about a victory over the Devils.

"We put our defenses back against the wall too many times," admitted Kennedy.  "We gave up a big kickoff return at the end the half.  If we'd have played better in the first half, we wouldn't have been in the situation we were in in the second half.  There's a lot of disappointment here tonight, but when the dust settles, they'll realize our accomplishments this year."

"If somebody had given me a paper at the start of the season and it said '13-1' said Kennedy, "I'd have signed it.  But we'll never be content.  We'll never be satisfied with what we've done.  We're always looking for bigger and better things."

In 2005, Lowell's season ended with their being exactly where and what they wanted.  The irony of being a good team is that the more success you have, the more you want.  But that kind of ever-increasing, always-expanding success is just not the real world.  A place where Lowell finished the 2008 season with an all-time best record of 13-1.

SEMISTATE NOTES:  It is hard to believe, but the 38 points scored on Lowell is the most any team has tallied on the Devils in seven years.  Griffith defeated Lowell 42-3 on Sept. 21, 2001.  Every Lowell offensive starter except for halfback Brandon Grubbe and receiver Ray Skamay are seniors.  Defensively, defensive ends Joe Bell and Nate Cleveland return.  Cole Midgett and Jordan Juarez have two more seasons and will fit in somewhere on offense and defense.  The biggest task in the off-season will be to replace Lowell's 2008 all-senior offensive line.


The Devils and everyone on the sidelines wants to thank Tri-Creek Rentals for three heavy duty electric heaters that were carried to Fort Wayne and placed on the sidelines behind the Lowell bench.  Temperatures dropped to 21 degrees by the end of the game.  It's a lie to say the sub-freezing conditions were not a factor, but the weather was not a decisive factor. Both sides made enough plays to be in position to win.

Nobody liked the 7:00 p.m. (EST) starting time for a Saturday night game in the winter, but there may have been some logic.  No official reason was offered for the late start, which insured painful weather conditions for fans and players.  The prevailing thought was that the annual Indiana-Purdue football game, scheduled for 12 noon (EST) was a factor in the late start.  When the decision was made to move the Lowell-Dwenger game to Saturday, the fact that some fans of each school may have had tickets to the big in-state rivalry game was considered.  Since Purdue beat IU 62-10, maybe they should have played the high school game at 12 noon after all.

Fort Wayne's Zollner Field is an odd place because the 'home' bleachers are as large as the 'visitors' bleachers.  In fact, there are no visitors' bleachers. Since Zollner Stadium is shared by Concordia and Dwenger (the field is across the street from Concordia) one set of stands bear the sign 'Home of the Saints' while the other has a sign that reads 'Home of the Cadets'.

It's trivia but in each of the past five seasons, Lowell has either gone to the state finals or lost to an undefeated team.  The Devils lost to East Noble (14-1) in 2003, Wawasee (14-1) in 2004 and Concord (14-1) in 2006.  In all three of those years, the team that beat Lowell was 14-0 and lost the state championship game.  Last year, Lowell went to the finals AND lost to an undefeated team.

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Revised: November 28, 2008 .