Track star Antoine Brown rushes 138 yards for 3 TDs to lead Indians over Bulldogs 56-0

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

Team	1	2	3	4	F
CROWN POINT (3-2)	0	0	0	0	0
Portage (5-0)	28	21	7	0	56

Friday, Sept. 19, 2003, 61 degrees in Portage

1st Q: PORTAGE (7-0) Antoine Brown, 41-yard run. Mike Hutchins kick. 52 yards drive, 4 plays, 9:54 left.
PORTAGE (14-0) Steve Vaught, 13-yard pass from John Huston. Mike Hutchins kick. 29 yards, 3 plays, 7:33 left.
PORTAGE (21-0) Antoine Brown, 39-yard run. Mike Hutchins kick. 55 yards drive, 5 plays, 3:47 left.
PORTAGE (28-0) Danny Paulsen, 26-yard pass from John Huston. Mike Hutchins kick. 58 yards, 4 plays, :41 left.

2nd Q: PORTAGE (35-0) Antoine Brown, 13-yard run. John Huston kick. 15 yard drive, 2 plays, 11:54 left.
PORTAGE (42-0) Antoine Brown, 7-yard run. John Huston kick. 62 yards drive, 5 plays, 3:13 left.
PORTAGE (49-0) Alfredo Sanchez, 1-yard run. John Huston kick. 82 yards drive, 9 plays, 2:27 left.

3rd Q: PORTAGE (56-0) Antoine Dranchak, 2-yard run. 52 yards drive, 4 plays, 8:00 left.

4th Q: No scoring.

Portage (9-19-2003) - Sometimes you get to knock on the door and sometimes you just get knocked out. Crown Point's Bulldogs went to Portage Friday looking to shake up the state polls with an upset of the fourth-ranked big school team in the state. What they discovered was that there are a lot of really good teams in this part of the state and that they aren't one of them.

There's only so much sugarcoating you can do when our team gets smoked 56-0 in front of 4,000 fans on a perfect 60-degree Friday night in the fall.

"We were totally outclassed by a superior team," said Crown Point coach Chip Pettit before he headed for the bus. When it's 14-0 after five minutes and 28-0 after 12 minutes, questions like 'What do you think the turning point was, coach?' are a bit foolish.

Crown Point has a problem with Portage. The Bulldogs' 1993 entry into the Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) coincided with the 1994 arrival of coach Craig Buzea and the Indians rise to power. CP has met Portage 13 times in the past 10 years and has now beaten them just once, 22-6 in 1997.

Pettit has said that he wants his program to be like Valparaiso and Portage and even though CP has won 11 of their last 16 games, this win hints that the Bulldogs aren't as close as they want to be. Especially when you factor in last November's 40-3 CP loss in Portage.

"Like I told coach Pettit at half-time," Buzea said later. "We aren't this good and you aren't this bad. I have nothing but respect for the job Chip Pettit has done at Crown Point. This was just a night where everything we tried, worked."

"Our defense has to get a lot of the credit. They heard all week about the number one passer (CP's Matt Cowan) and the number one receiver (CP's Aaron Miller) were coming in on Friday. And I don't think he caught one pass."

This was as total as football domination gets. Portage outgained Crown Point 454-127 and scored the first eight times they had the ball. The Bulldogs' first first down was a 12-yard pass from Cowan to Mike Smith with 2:50 left in the second quarter.

The first quarter was so embarrassing that you were glad that only about 500 people from Crown Point actually witnessed it.

After Curt Magurean returned the opening kickoff 36 yards to the Portage 46-yard line, CP's Dave Swenson fumbled on the second play of the game and Portage's Alfredo Sanchez recovered at the Indians' 48-yard line. Two plays later, Portage tailback Antoine Brown took a pitchout to the wide side of the field and cut back through the Crown Point defense on a 41-yard touchdown run with 9:54 left in the first quarter.

CP gained just three yards on three plays from scrimmage and Portage's Milton Rivera returned Nate Soltis' punt 34 yards to the Bulldog 29-yard line. Two plays later, Junior QB Johnny Huston (8-10, 192 yards, 2 TDs) tossed a play-action pass into the northwest corner of the end zone where tight end Steve Vaught (6-3, 125) grabbed it for a 14-0 lead.

Crown Point had rallied to win two weeks in a row but they seemed intimidated by Portage, dropping passes and running plays at less than maximum speed.

After another 3-and-out sequence, Portage drove 55 yards in five plays with Brown scoring a humiliating TD run to make it 21-0. On a 3rd-and-6, Portage used three wide receivers along with Vaught at tight end. CP attacked the passer and Huston handed off to Brown on a draw play. Brown raced straight down the center of the field to the roar of the red-clad Portage crowd with no one within five yards of him at any time. That 39-yard score, with 3:47 left in the opening quarter, signaled the end of competitive competition on this night.

To be fair, Brown, a transfer from Merrillville, is the defending DAC champion in the 100 meters and Crown Point does not have speed like that. Portage's line of Darrell Hobgood (6-2, 235), Matt Knez (6-3, 270), John Kornacki (6-2, 200) and Kyle Autrey (6-4, 275) and Don Catlin (6-3, 305) is also a tad bigger and strong than the CP front. Receivers Danny Paulsen, Joe Montoleone, Steve Vaught and Milton Rivera are a better bunch than CP can muster and maybe that's the point.

The Bulldogs' program simply does not match up with the team they have to beat.

"Portage high school is undefeated," Buzea told his boys in the locker room. "The varsity is 5-0, the JV is 4-0 and the freshmen are 4-0. And we don't want that to end."

It wasn't going to end on this night. Brown made the score 35-0 with his 15th touchdown of the year, a 13-yard run in the first minute of the second quarter. A 49-yard pass from Huston (8-10, 192 yards) to Rivera (4 catches, 106 yards) set up Brown's fourth touchdown on a 4th-and-goal pitchout from the seven yard line. Sanchez scored on a 1-yard run with 2:27 left in the half.

"Our first game with them last year (a 19-15 Portage win at CP) should not have been close," said Buzea. "The coach got a little carried away throwing too much. In that second game (the 40-3 playoff win in Portage) we got back to basics. Let's not get carried away. We've got things to work on."

You can't really ask for more than 56-0, can you coach?

"Oh sure I can," Buzea smiled.

There was no smiling for the Bulldogs. Most seniors were benched at halftime. Cowan was 2-of-8 passing and he was always under a heavy rush. For the second week in a row, the Bulldogs fumbled three times. A loss of this magnitude puts what appeared to be a good season in jeopardy. With nemesis Valparaiso, powerful Chesterton (4-1) and unpredictable LaPorte still to come, CP has clearly come to a crossroads.

The Bulldogs' pride has to speak without words this week.

Because 56-0 speaks for itself.

DUNELAND ATHLETIC CONFERENCE (DAC)
                                  Conference         All games
                               W- L Pts Opp     W- L Pts Opp
Portage                   3- 0 120   23          5- 0 206   42
Chesterton               3- 0 116   44         4- 1 155   85
Crown Point             2- 1   40   94          3- 2   84 127
LaPorte                   2- 1 114   63         2- 3 127 104
Merrillville                1- 2   64   61          3- 2 136   81
Valparaiso               1- 2   70   92          2- 3 124 119
Michigan City           0- 3   28 109         2- 3 108 133
Lake Central            0- 3   39 105         1- 4   87 147

Scores from Friday, Sept. 19, 2003
Chesterton 42, Valparaiso 14
LaPorte 48, Lake Central 7
Merrillville 35, Michigan City 14
Portage 56, Crown Point 0

Schedule for Friday, Sept. 26, 2003
Chesterton at Portage LaPorte at Merrillville
Michigan City at Lake Central Valparaiso at Crown Point

DOG NOTES: Portage has outscored five foes 206-42, they have outrushed them 1,266-442 and outpassed them 689-464.

Antoine Brown played less than a half and he finished the game with 138 yards on 12 carries, giving him 819 yards on 86 carries.

Buzea agreed that Brown's arrival was a little tough on senior Chuckie Severs and junior Alfredo Sanchez, who'd planned on sharing the starting tailback position this year. They had to accept Brown and the fact that they wouldn't be in the starting lineup.

"He made it easy," said Buzea. "He never missed a workout all summer. He earned respect. The boys saw how hard he worked. Plus, Sanchez and Severs are not dummies. They realized that he was better than they were."

Freshman coach Jeremy Williams and former CP all-state lineman remembered CPs' 53-13 loss to Merrillville, a game he played in at Merrillville in 1998.

"That was 49-0 at the half too. You're standing on the sideline and you can't understand how it's gotten to be 49-0 so quickly. You don't know what happened."

Senior Crown Point halfback Jordan Struebig carried 12 times for 61 yards in the fourth quarter. Lineman Mark McInerney, who was thought to have a serious knee injury in the 17-16 victory at Lake Central on Sept. 12, returned and played on offense with a knee brace.

What is ominous about Portage is that there is a sophomore halfback behind Brown named Justin Smith (5-9, 170), who carried seven times for 34 yards in the final quarter and might be almost as fast as Brown is. No one has seen him because he's only carried 12 times all year.

"We're in pretty good shape if anything happens to Brown," said Buzea.

Nine years ago, Crown Point lost to Portage 56-24 in the Bulldogs' second year in the DAC. The Bulldogs also lost 56-28 at Chesterton on Oct. 8, 1999.