A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

08-19-2007

Saturday, September 18, 2007,  65 degrees, light rain at Merrillville, IN

1st Qtr:  WARREN CENTRAL (3-0) Tommy Martin, 35-yard field goal. 5:00 left.
2nd Qtr:  MERRILLVILLE (7-3) Dolapo Macarthy, 4-yard run. Ryan Stokes kick. 0:27 left.
3rd Qtr:  NO SCORING.
4th Qtr:  WARREN CENTRAL (10-7) Jeff Groves, 5-yard fumble recovery. Tommy Martin kick. 7:25 left.
MERRILLVILLE (14-10) Roosevelt Williams, 1-yard run. Ryan Stokes kick. 5:52 left.
MERRILLVILLE (17-10) Ryan Stokes, 27-yard field goal.  3:05 left.

TOTAL YARDS:
Warren Central - 313:  MERRILLVILLE - 154

RUSHING YARDS:
Warren Central (46-161 yards)  Eric Williams (HB) 9-46, Logan Worley (QB) 13-46, George Cheeseborough (HB) 10-45, Drae Taylor (HB) 13-26.
MERRILLVILLE (30-22 yards) Dolapo Macarthy (QB) 16-28; Ronneal Williams (HB) 6-0 yards; Roosevelt Williams (HB) 5 (-3 yards);  Jordan Thomas (FB) 1-1.

PASSING YARDS:
(WC) Logan Worley (QB) 13-22, 152 yards, 0 TDS, 2 INTs; Dolapo Macarthy (QB) 65-12, 132 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs.

RECEIVING:
Warren Central - Eric Williams (RB) 4-39 yards;  Jeff Williams (WR) 1-32; William Campbell (WR) 3-26; Drae Taylor (RB) 1-26;
Anthony Freeman (WR) 2-15; George Cheeseborough (RB) 2-14;
MERRILLVILLE - Clay Cooper ((WR) 3-39 yards; Ronneal Williams (RB) 1-19;  DeMarrio Richardson (WR) 1-4 yards,

FIRST DOWNS:
Warren Central - 14; MERRILLVLLE - 5

TURNOVERS:
Warren Central - 6 (4 fumbles); MERRILLVILE - 3 (3 fumbles)

PENALTIES:
Warren Central - 5 (49 yards); MERRILLVILLE - 4 (30 yards)

MERRILLVILLE (8-18-2007) - In the opening game of the season, anything is possible.  But this?

Merrillville, daring to sign up for a two-game series against the four-time Class 5A big school champion of Indiana, gave their program a statewide reputation Saturday night when they ended the 21-game winning streak of 5A No. 1 Warren Central 17-10 in a rainy, muddy Demaree Stadium.

In front of a rain-shrunken crowd of about 3,500, Pirate QB Dolapo Macarthy fired completions of 29 and 32 yards to senior Clay Cooper fueling a 71-yard, five-play drive to give Merrillville a 14-10 lead with 5:52 to go in the game.  Ryan Stokes added a 27-yard field goal with 3:05 to play after Warren Central's sixth turnover, giving the Pirates the margin of victory.

Warren Central lost 16 starters off last year's 15-0 state title team, but they still had an offensive line which included tight end Ed Hazlett (6-9, 265) and tackle Asrie Dixon (6-3, 330). The Warriors out-gained Merrillville 313-154, but the fast, athletic Pirate defense combined with the moist conditions to help force the six turnovers, including four WC fumbles.  No team in Indiana had ever won four consecutive state football titles until Warren Central, 58-4 in the last four seasons, set the standard for Hoosier state teenager football.

"I know this is a cliche'," said second year Pirate coach Zac Wells.  "But our 90 guys really believed we could win this game.  You can go ask them.  I think only the 90 players and 10 coaches actually thought we could win this game."

I'm not sure all 90 Merrillville players thought they could win.  Warren had won 21 games in a row, all by 20 points or more.  The warriors averaged 50 points a game last season and the offensive line averages 270 pounds per man.  I'm also sure some of those 21 victims, like Carmel and Ben Davis, also thought they could win, too.

But the speed and depth of Merrillville, the reason a lot of Northwest Indiana schools aren't beating down the purple doors to play them, quickly bolstered whatever pre-game confidence the Pirates had.  Their own ability and the game plan allowed them to counter punch the favored Warriors and come away with perhaps the most stunning upset in a quarter century of Merrillville football.

"Nobody wanted to play us," Macarthy said of past nonconference teams.  "So we had to put Warren Central on our schedule.  Everybody's been talking abut this.  It's been the talk of  the town.  Our coaches and all our teammates -- we just believed we had a chance."

"I had to stand up tonight for my coaches and teammates.  I took a couple of shots.  But I had to hang in there for my teammates."

Macarthy compared Warren Central's state class (they are also the two-time state track champs) defensive speed to Merrillville' footspeed, which is feared in NW Indiana.

"It is about the same," said Dolapo, "but they are faster.  That's college speed."

The game didn't start well for Macarthy and the Pirate offense.  A steady rain, which began a half hour before game time got stronger at the opening kickoff.  The Warriors, who dressed over 100 players, outgained Merrillville 83-7 in the first period and the speed bottled up Macarthy and the Pirate running backs.  Warren Central, dressed in all white, scored the first time they had the ball, driving from their own 27 to the Merrillville 19 before a 35-yard field goal by Tommy Martin gave the Indianapolis boys a 3-0 lead.

These were two especially fast teams defensively and there were no second quarter first downs at all until a fourth down run by WC halfback Drae Taylor with 3:44 to go.  But a 23-yard completion from new Warrior QB Logan Worley to Eric Williams ended in a fumble, recovered by Ronneal Williams at the Pirate 22.  Turnovers on three consecutive Warren Central possessions kept the Pirates in the game in the second quarter until Macarthy (6-6, 195), an untested junior with almost unlimited potential, drove his team 78 yards in eleven plays, culminating in a Macarthy's four-yard run and a 7-3 Pirate lead with 27 seconds left in the half.

Merrillville, which has never played in the 5A state title game, drove 78 yards for a TD inclduing a play-action, 42-yard pass from Macarthy to Cooper down to the WC 27-yard line.  Then, on a 3rd-and-6, Macarthy rolled right and flipped a quick screen pass in the opposite direction to Ronneal Williams (6-0, 186), one of the Pirates senior twin brother halfbacks, and the ball moved down to Warren Central 4-yard-line.

On 2nd-and-goal, Macarthy rolled out and ran to the goal line for the season's first Pirate TD.  There was an exchange of quarterback fumbles in the final 22 seconds that got the crowds on both sides riled up and worried both coaching staffs.

Warren Central took the second half kickoff and ran for two first downs before a tipped pass was intercepted by speedy junior linebacker Chris Stokes who raced 50 yards to the Warren Central 8-yard-line.  But senior DeMarrio Richardson fumbled on the next play and that opportunity slipped away.  The Pirate defense forced a punt three plays later, but Merrillville also could not move and a 49-yard field goal attempt by the Pirates' all-state kicker Ryan Stokes fell two yards short.

When you look at the stat sheet from the game, one thing stands out.  Warren Central threw 22 passes.  The Warriors could not break off tackle and get outside against the speedy Pirates, led by linebacker Dionte Day (5-8, 206), who seemed to be in on every other tackle.

"We wanted to shorten the game," said Wells, a star Pirate linebacker in the early 90s, who explained the game plan.  "They are very quick and they were very difficult to defend.  Our defense was on the field for a long time.  We were just trying to get some first downs.  We thought there were things we could hit against them as the game went on.  We got a couple of turnovers, but you can say what you want.  The kids still have to make plays."

It appeared that Merrillville would fall painfully short in the fourth quarter.  Trailing 7-3, Warren Central picked up four first downs and punted the ball down to the Merrillville 5-yard-line. On the first play, Ronneal Williams fumbled and WC's Jeff Groves picked up the ball and ran it in for a TD to put the visitors ahead 10-7 with 7:25 left in the game.  The roar from maybe 500 Warren Central fans on the visitors side indicated they thought they'd survived a close call and pulled out a 22nd win in a row.

"It's not hard to overcome mistakes in a game," said Macarthy.  "Because that's what we work on in practice.  That's our mindset.  If I mess up and throw an interception.  Forget about it.  Learn from it and come back.  When we fumbled and they scored to make it 10-7, all 11 guys on offense, forgot about it, learned from it and came back."

It was at this point that Merrillville found offense they only hoped they'd had.  Macarthy dropped back on first down from his own 29 and tossed a high-arching 38-yard pass to Cooper (6-0, 188), who made a leaping catch at the Warren Central 33.  Two plays later on a 3rd-and 10, Macarthy and Cooper used what may become a trademark play for them this year. The 6-foot-6 right-hander fired a quick slant to the senior receiver who race down to the WC 4-yard line.  Roosevelt Williams scored on the next play to put Merrillville ahead 14-10.

"I just faked to Demure and threw it up to Copper," said Macarthy.  "I don't know how he comes down with those but he does.  The slant pass was an easy read.  They were in man and the safety was back.  The seam was there."

Warren Cental completed a long pas to Eric Williams, but he fumbled to Pirate linebacker Marcus Howard (5-10, 183) who ran it back to the WC 17-yard-line.  Three plays later, Chris Stokes, who had a very good night with five touchbacks on kickoffs, booted a 27-yard field goal to make it 17-10 with 3:05 left.  WC didn't quit.  And a 33-yard pass from Worley to Jeff Williams put the ball at the Merrillville 19-yard-line with 1:50 to go.  But a short run and three incompletions later, the final one batted down by Ronneal Williams at the goal line, and the Pirates took over on downs with less than a minute to play.

The celebration saw the Pirate players run over to the high-rise stands at Merrillville, holding their helmets in the air.  Former Pirate coach Jeff Yelton, who retired to follow his son Kyle, a punter at the University of Illinois, was one of the first to congratulate Wells in the center of the wet field.

But there was no rushing the field by students and the handshakes came quickly.  Merrillville acted like they'd won big games before because they have.  Some on the Merrillville sideline began to speak of Griffith (1-0), the Pirates next opponent and that's an intriguing matchup, too.  But whether they beat the Panthers or not, it will not change the impact of the 2007 season opener.  Six time state champ Warren Central's first visit to Lake County ended in a seven point loss at the hands of Merrillville.

"This is huge," said Macarthy.  "I feel great right now.  I can't even explain it."

PIRATE NOTES:  Merrillville coach Zac Wells talked about state of mind after the game.  He insisted, as unlikely as that might seem, that every single player in his program believed they could defeat a program that averaged 50 points a game and had won 24 consecutive state playoff games.

"It shows what you can do when you have a strong state of mind," he said.

"But coach, the Pirates had no reason to believe they could win.  They had nothing to base it on.  Carmel was 0-2 against Warren Central last year.  Carmel dominated LaPorte and LaPorte beat Merrillville 41-14.  When did this belief that they could beat Warren Central surface?"

"Let's see," Wells said.  "When did we get out of school?  June 6?  About June 10.  Those guys were in the weight room four days a week.  The 90 guys we had were doing that or playing another sport.  And the harder you work, the harder it is to fold."

"We knew what we were up against.  But we played and practiced one day at a time and that's all we tried to look at."

Former Merrillville coach Jeff Yelton, who was the one who, along with athletic director Janis Qualizza, agreed to play Warren Central, says he did it partly because a lot of teams simply refuse to play Merrillville in nonconference games.

"We signed up (Chicago) Dunbar," Yelton explained.  "They've sent a lot of kids to D-1 colleges.  But by the time we played them, their program had gone down.  Same with East Chicago.  We tried to get Andrean.  We tried to get other teams.  One day Janis told me that Warren Central had an opening.  Do you want to play them?  I said, 'Sign the contract.'
We need good competition.  You want to play the best."

The crowd was estimated at 3,500 in the 8,000-seat Demaree Stadium.  The untimely rain clearly persuaded many to stay home, but the final attendance isn't certain.

"We had an advance sale of over 3,000," said Qualizza.  "But the rain just killed us tonight.  Last night (Friday) was perfect."

Zac Wells played in the last super-hyped game at Merrillville, the 1991 confrontation between then 4A No. 1 Hobart and the 5A No. 2 Pirates.  Both teams were undefeated until the Pirates won 24-6.

"The difference is, we knew we were the better team that night," said Wells with a smile.  "We whipped the tar out of them.  We should have beat them by more.  In '91, we had a feeling we were going to win.  In this one, there was lot of confidence around here.  But tonight, I think only we thought we could win.  The players told me to just stay quiet about it."

Dolapo Macarthy (6-6, 195) is a college prospect at quarterback, because he has not played the position and his potential is untapped.

"I was a wide receiver when I was a freshman," he explains.  "Tony Klimczak at Wheeler switched me to quarterback.  He made me a QB going into my sophomore year.  Coach Sliwa (Pirate assistant Zach Sliwa) has been working with me every day.  I have to thank him so much because he is hard on me.  He knows I can be one of the best quarterbacks ever at Merrillville."

Word is that as many as ten Division I schools want to recruit Macarthy, probably redshirt him for a year, and try to make a classic drop back QB college star out of him.

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Revised: August 19, 2007 .