Grubbe's 259 yards rushing and 4 TDs leads Lowell to 35-19 win over rival Griffith

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

9-12-2009

Friday, September 11, 2009,  85 degrees & clear, Northwest Crossroads Conference at LOWELL, IN

1st Qtr:  LOWELL (7-0) Brandon Grubbe, 67-yard run. (1st offensive play from scrimmage.) Boge Pejoski kick. 11:42 left.
2nd Qtr:  GRIFFITH (7-7) Derek Revis, 28-yard pass from Calvin Bonewits. 35-yard drive, 4 plays.  Cody Stidham kick. 11:54 left.
GRIFFITH (13-7) Danny Miller, 12-yard pass from Calvin Bonewits.  Kick blocked by Jordan Juarez.  3:39 left.
LOWELL (14-13) Joe Bell recovered Calvin Bonewits fumble in the end zone.  Boge Pejoski kick.  1:48 left.
3rd Qtr:  LOWELL (21-13) Brandon Grubbe, 33-yard run. (One play after Griffith failed on 4th-and-1 at the Griffith 32.) Boge Pejoski kick.  10:43 left.
GRIFFITH (21-19) Troy Yarnelle, 2-yard run.  50-yard drive, 10 plays. 2-point pass failed.  6:33 left.
4th Qtr:  LOWELL (28-19) Brandon Grubbe, 15-yard run.  62-yard drive, 11 plays.  9:01 left.
LOWELL (35-19) Brandon Grubbe, 71-yard run.  90-yard drive, 5 plays.  4:41 left.

RUSHING:
GRIFFITH (44 carries, 176 yards, TD): Adam Mackenthun (FB) 14-64 yards, Shawn Gallina (HB) 4-16 yards, Derek Revis (TE) 1-2 yards,
Kevin Graham (FB) 1-7 yards, Troy Yarnelle (HB) 3-2 yards, Cal Bonewits (QB) 24-85 yards.

LOWELL (36 carries, 271 yards, 4 TDs, one fumble): Nate Cleveland (FB) 3-15 yards; Jordan Juarez (FB) 2-5 yards, Ray Skamay (QB) 5 (minus-10 yards),
Cole Midgett (WR) 1-2 yards; Brandon Grubbe (HB) 25 carries, 259 yards, 4 TDs.

PASSING:
GRIFFITH: Calvin Bonewits (QB) 3-11, 65 yards, 2 TDs, one interception;
LOWELL: Ray Skamay (QB) 1-3, 4 yards, one interception; Cole Midgett (WR) 0-for-1 one interception.

RECEIVING:
GRIFFITH: Derek Revis (TE) 2-54 yards, TD; Danny Miller (WR) 1-12 yards, TD.
LOWELL: Joe Bell (TE) 1-4 yards.

TURNOVERS:
GRIFFITH: (2) fumble, interception;
LOWELL: (2) fumble, interception.
 

LOWELL (9-11-2009) You get the feeling it's not totally over.  While Lowell defeated Griffith 35-19 in Northwest Crossroads Conference play on Friday, there was an air of uncertainty surrounding the future of one of Northwest Indiana's traditional high school football matchups.  Griffith (1-3) moved the ball and stayed closed for three quarters against the undefeated Devils (4-0), who never seemed to have the game under control.

"Our little guys just kept fighting tonight," said Griffith coach Russ Radtke.  "We had our chances.  We're going to be a better team.  We're getting there.  There's no doubt about that.  We just didn't have an answer for number six when he popped outside.  He's a great athlete."

'Number six' was Lowell halfback Brandon Grubbe, who had a great offensive night against Lowell's greatest rival.  Grubbe, the 195-pound senior halfback, carried the ball an unofficial 35 times for a career-best 259 yards, including touchdowns of 13, 33, 67 and finally 71 yards with 4:41 to play, clinching Lowell's 18th consecutive regular season victory.

But Griffith junior QB Calvin Bonewits tossed two touchdown passes and directed a potent Panther attack that had Griffith ahead 13-7 in the second quarter and within 21-19 after three quarters in front of a large crowd that revealed some glaring empty spaces in the visitor's grandstand.  The Panther fans should have come.  For one thing, Griffith and Lowell have met every year since Griffith began playing football in 1934.  It's a tradition.  Plus, in each of the last two years, Griffith and Lowell have met for the regional championship and Friday night's game, played on a cool, humid late summer night, showed they could meet again in November.

"We knew they'd come to play," said Grubbe, who pulled up near the 4,000-yard career rushing yard mark, the second best total (Michael Pickett has 4,198 from 1992-1994) in school history.

"Of course. They're a rival.  It's Griffith.  They're as big a rival as Crown Point or Hobart.  They come ready to play all the time.  Their offense makes plays.  That's just them."

This is a game that Griffith could have won.  Lowell fumbled the opening kickoff but was able to fall on it.  On the next play, Grubbe broke a tackle at the line and went 67 yards for a touchdown.  After Griffith tied the game 7-7, the Panthers sacked red Devil QB Ray Skamay and Griffith's Gilbert Eatman recovered the ball at the Lowell 25-yard-line.  Five plays later on 2nd-and-8, Bonewits faked a handoff and fired a 12-yard TD pass to big tight end Derek Revis (6-3, 215) for a 13-7 Panther lead.

But in the final two minutes of the first half, Griffith's Cody Moglin chose to field a punt at the Griffith 5-yard when he should have let the ball bounce towards the end zone.  Two plays later, a fumble by Bonewits was recovered in the end zone by Lowell defensive end Joe Bell for a 14-13 Red Devil halftime lead.  This was a game the Panthers could have led 13-0 at halftime.

"You can't field the ball on the 5-yard-line," Radtke said later.  "They had their fumble and we scored, but they we had our fumble and they scored.  That was an upperclassman.  We've got a lot of sophomores out there.  We're 1-3 and we've played hard with every team except Valpo."

In the third quarter, Griffith failed to gain anything as Bonewits bobbled the snap of a 4th-and-1 play at the Griffith 33-yard line and Grubbe broke away again for his second TD of the night, from 33 yards away.

The Panthers rallied as Bonewits and fullback Adam Mackenthun (5-11, 195) were able to run the triple option and broke enough tackles for first downs.  The Panthers scored on a 2-yard run on a counter (misdirection) play to cut the lead to 21-19 late in the third quarter.  A two-point conversion pass was deflected by Lowell defensive back Cole Midgett.

Griffith had the ball once again, trailing 21-19, but they punted from their own 38 and Lowell drove 62 yards in 11 plays against a Panther defense that appeared to be tiring.  Grubbe's 15-yard run with 9:01 left in the game made it 28-19.  On Lowell's next possession, Grubbe broke a 71-yard run where he out sprinted Griffith's speedy Eatman to the goal line.

"I couldn't let him catch me," Grubbe said later. "Everybody on the line works so hard to get me open.  I can't let people catch me from behind.  I looked back and I said 'Uh oh. I've got to make the line work good. They're working hard for me. I've got to make plays for them.'"

Grubbe said repeatedly he 'doesn't care about numbers', but he's probably the only one who doesn't where his chase of all-time records are concerned.  Simply put, Brandon is on line to become Northwest Indiana's all-time leading rusher.  Unofficially, he has 55 carries for 442 yards in 2009 which puts the three-year starter at 652 carries for 3,994 yards.  With a guaranteed six games left, Grubbe needs 170 yards game to reach 5,000. Everyone says publicly it doesn't matter and they should say that.  But this isn't a school record.  The all-time Northwest Indiana rushing leaders are both Whiting players: 1994 graduate Mike Barsich (5,062 yards) and 1999 graduate Paul Strabavy (5,024 yards) and those numbers are within reach since Lowell's tailback runs 20-30 times a game no matter who it is.  Nobody left on the Red Devil regular season schedule, with the possible exception of Andrean, has a good-looking rushing defense.  Barring injury, Grubbe is going to come very close to being the all-time rushing champion of Northwest Indiana high school football.

But the Devils don't want to rush what is obviously going to be a good season.  They host Highland (3-1) next week and they don't necessarily need all these games to be as close as the first four have been midway through the game.

"We did make a lot of mistakes tonight," said Grubbe.  "And we made a lot of plays.  It balanced itself out.  In the line we dominated in the third and fourth quarter."

Kennedy wasn't happy.  Lowell is allowing too many points (58 in the last three games) to keep on winning.

"We gave up two touchdowns in the first half against Kankakee Valley," he said of the 40-13 win seven days earlier.  "Tonight we got ahead and we keep letting them come back.  We have got to learn how to finish teams off when we have them down."

"You've got three responsibilities on the option.  The quarterback.  The dive and the pitch.  We've got people attacking the gaps.  And the guys on the quarterback aren't blocked.  The tackling was horrible.  We're either hesitant.  Or we're diving in past the fullback.  They were making a living riding the fullback."

Lowell hasn't played anyone with a winning record as of yet.  And sectional foes Concord (4-0), Logansport (4-0) and Plymouth (4-0) are riding high.  The Devils know they need to be better than they have been in the first half of the regular season.

"Maybe we read it all week about how 'down' they (Griffith) were, suggested Kennedy.  "We saw how much better they got against Hobart (in week three).  The Valpo game was a 'perfect storm'.  Everything that could go wrong for them did."

"They came out totally different against us and their quarterback (Bonewits) is pretty good.  He made big plays against Hobart and the key to their offense IS the quarterback.  When their QB gains confidence, that offense is tough."

"We're just not seizing all our opportunities.  We let the scoreboard dictate how we play.  An experienced team does not do that."

DEVIL NOTES:  Late in Friday's game, many on the home sideline wondered if Lowell's Brandon Grubbe had set a record Friday night with his rushing total.  The answer is no and, as it turns out, not even close.  The single game rushing record in recorded Lowell history was set by 2005 graduate Toby Goetz in 2004 against Morton when he rushed 22 times for 302 yards on September 10, 2004, a night where Lowell rushed for 502 yards.  Michael Pickett, Lowell's all-time career yardage record holder who is now Hobart's offensive coordinator, gained 298 yards on 41 carries against Rensselaer on October 14, 1994.  Pickett had four 200-yard games.  Scott Gray's best was 252 yards on 31 carries in 2004.

The truth is: Nobody knows.  Lowell high school football is over 100 years old and records before the 1990s are almost nonexistent because Lowell was not exactly a football power.  It is likely that Toby Goetz' 302 yards is the single game record, but nobody knows for sure.

Grubbe appears 100% healthy after a week one concussion and he's playing with his class, which is always a boost.  Brandon has always been the young back playing with the older team leaders.  Now his class is looked on for leadership.

"I feel better now," he said.  "I know these guys.  We played Pop Warner together.  Last night at the team meal, we had a picture from Pop Warner football and it was me and (QB) Ray (Skamay), I was taking a handoff from him.  It looked just like it does now.  These are my guys."

Lowell may move up in the state rankings if they keep winning, but the Devils are not going to be top-ranked in Class 4A during the regular season.  Class 4A No. 1 Cathedral (3-1) crushed 3A No. 1 Bishop Chatard 31-7 Saturday at the Lucas Oil Arena, Cathedral's third win over a team ranked No. 1 this season.  Cathedral opened the season with a 7-3 win at 5A pre-season No. 1 Carmel (3-1). The next week, they rallied to knock out then 5A No.1 Warren Central (3-1) by a 35-32 score.  Cathedral's only loss was 19-10 to Ohio powerhouse St. Xavier of Cincinnati, which was ranked No. 21 in the nation last week.

Lowell has reason to be worried about their depth because some of their young backups are injured and unavailable.  Promising sophomore Jeremy Crocker is out for the year with a foot injury, a serious loss as Crocker was expected to play significantly as a linebacker.  Lowell backup quarterback Chris Sekuloski (6-3, 172) was injured against Morton and missed his second consecutive game.  It is hoped he will return, possibly by the sixth week against Hobart.  Crocker was the third string quarterback.

Tyler Kristoff (6-2, 195), another sophomore who was going to get playing time at tight end or linebacker or safety, was also in street clothes for the Griffith game.

"Kristoff was hurt in practice after the Crown Point game," Kennedy detailed.  "Crocker got hurt against Morton.  He's got that injury where the ligaments that hold the end of your foot together came apart.  Nathan Kersey had the same thing for us in the late 90s.  Crocker's got to be in a cast until February."

"Sekuloksi hurt his knee.  He ran a sneak against Kankakee Valley and he got caught up in a scrum.  He's got a sprained knee."

Griffith coach Russ Radtke didn't want to be specific but it was obvious that the Panthers were shorthanded.  Senior tackle Eddie Boncella (6-1, 245) was unavailable at Lowell and he was missed.  Also Ed Johnson, a 1,000-yard rusher from 2008, served the fourth game of what is believed to be a five-game suspension.

Lowell played a five-lineman, four linebacker defense daring the Panthers to throw the ball.

"We did some of the same things to them," said Radtke.  "We had five-man and four man fronts and we ran some slants out of it.  It'll probably make them better having seen it.  It was just two great coaching staffs going at each other.  They didn't have a first down (other than Grubbe's first two long TDs) until 34 seconds were left in the third period.  We didn't hear 'First Down Red Devils!!" (over the public address system) until the third quarter."

Lowell coach Kirk Kennedy couldn't understand Griffith' two passing touchdowns, both passes, over the nine man front.

"We were still in man-to-man coverage," he said.  "But our kids are looking in the backfield.  That's the most misleading 'read' you could have.  Our eyes are in the backfield and our man is going by us.  We had two guys over 20 yards behind the line because our guys aren't looking at their man.  What he does will tell you what the play is.  Whether he blocks down on you or tries to go around you."

"But our kids are focused on the ball in the backfield and they got fooled.  I've been to clinics with college and pros and even they can't tell you how to keep the defenders' eyes out of the backfield.  But wouldn't you want to take care of YOUR assignment and make sure that if you get beat, it's somebody's else's assignment that beats you?"