33rd Indiana State High School 5A Football Tournament
A Preview by USA-365's Mark Smith

10-27-2005

CROWN POINT (10-27-2005) - Class 5A is the elite class of Indiana football for a reason so obvious it is often overlooked. Smaller school fans and coaches often say that their team can play with anybody.  They are mistaken. They mean, anybody except Class 5A.  There are no exceptions.

The major reason is not a secret. Class 5A has no cap. Its like a Category 5 hurricane.  Once the winds get beyond 140 miles-an-hour, they can go to 300 MPH and it's still a Category 5 storm.

The exact same thing is true in high school football. Once you pass 1,500 students, you're 5A and even if you have 3,000 kids (like Penn and Warren Central), you're still 5A.  It doesn't matter if you're Griffith or the Indiana School For the Deaf, you cannot ride out a Category 5 hurricane.  You just turn tail and run as fast as you can.

And unlike the Category 5 hurricane, 5A schools in leagues like the Duneland Athletic Conference have to ride out seven Category 5 hurricanes in seven weeks.

Many schools schedule one or two 5A schools and brag when they win.  You can talk about coaching and character and heart. That's fine. But everybody selects their non conference schedule very carefully.

Let's take Griffith, for example. The top-ranked Panthers nailed down decisive wins over Class 5A teams Riley and Chesterton, prompting the lovable 'Griffith gestapo' to start touting the Panthers as good as any big school in Northwest Indiana.

A closer look shows how 'high' those claims and claimers are.  Chesterton has 1,833 kids and Riley has 1,525. They are small 5A schools with no history of football success. Griffith could probably get a game with Penn but why? They would be whipped like a government mule not just once, but every year and they know it. Penn has three times as many boys to choose from and state of the art facilities. Penn against Griffith would be like Mike Tyson fighting Cicely Tyson.

One of the first things coach Wally McCormack did when he got to Hobart was stop the insane practice of playing a season opening game with Portage, a school three times Hobart's size. Why start every year with a loss?

Lowell recently defeated Crown Point five times in six years. But when that streak began, CP was a small 5A. They are now 2,100 students strong and growing and victories for Lowell over CP are going to be few and far between in the years to come.

In Indianapolis, Roncalli has won three 5A state title in a row. The Rebels are 25 minutes from Warren Central and they won't play them.   Because a man's got to know his limitations.  No one involved in high school football who actually stands on the sidelines for 3A, 4A and 5A games that I have met honestly believes that 3A and 4A teams can play in the 5A state tournament and do anything but get beat like they stole something.

If someone says that 3As and 4As can win six playoff games from 5As,  ask them where they watch the game from. The press box? The stands? That's fantasy island.  Watch Crown Point play Merrillville at field level and then see if you still think that Griffith can play them nine times in nine weeks and do better than 5-4. 

If you can say yes with a straight face, I'll see if I can't get you a job in the Bush White House.

And then, watch Warren Central play North Central and tell me if you think CP or Merrillville could stay within 20 of them.  Class 5A is the Division I of Indiana high school football.  And no one who plays in any of the other four classes could go 6-0 in the 5A playoffs.  That's why the IHSAA should move the entire 5A state tournament to Saturday nights so everybody else could watch.  It's the major leagues.

CLASS 5A  -  Sectional  (1) One
Chesterton [3-7] at No. 2 Crown Point [10-0]
No. 10 Merrillville [8-2] at Michigan City [6-4]

CLASS 5A  -  Sectional  (2) Two
Elkhart Memorial [4-6] at No. 9 LaPorte [9-1]
No. 6 Mishawaka [9-1] at No. 7 Penn [8-2]

CLASS 5A  -  Sectional  (3) Three
No. 1 (Fort Wayne) Snider [10-0] at Homestead [8-2]
Goshen [5-5] at Marion [4-6]

CLASS 5A  -  Sectional  (4) Four
(Lafayette) Jefferson [5-4] at Hamilton Southeastern [7-3]
Anderson Highland [7-3] at Carmel [6-4]

CROWN POINT (10-27-2005) - It's been a surprising year in Class 5A in northern Indiana. Not only did few believe that Crown Point had a chance to go undefeated, I don't think anybody thought LaPorte and Mishawaka would go 10-1. Add those three to perennial powers Merrillville, Snider and Penn and the first season of the 2005 campaign went very well in the north.

No ranked teams lost in the first week but the big matchup occurs Friday (Oct. 28) as arch-rivals Mishawaka and Penn settle the Sectional 2 issue at Penn.  Both teams average in the neighborhood of 35 points, but Penn did it against a schedule that included Valparaiso and Ben Davis.

I have troubled accepting Mishawaka as a state contender when they only beat 2A Marian (8-2) by a 21-7 score.  Don't believe the hype.  This doesn't look good for Mishawaka.  Penn  may get all-league halfback Evan Sobecki, who has not played all year, back for this game. That would be a  large emotional lift.

Penn has also played South Bend Adams (0-10) two weeks in a row so they've concentrated on Mishawaka for three weeks now.  Cavemen QB Brandon White (69 of 107, 973 yards,  11 TDs, 2 INTs) has to be as effective as he was in the 41-35 Penn win on Sept. 30 when he hit 10 of 14 passes for 115 yards and a TD.  Halfback Nick Turrell (168 carries, 942 yards) has to move the chains without fumbles as they did before.

Mishawaka should have won the earlier game and there's a feeling they missed their big chance.  It's a red flag that Mishawaka rushed for only 185 yards in last week's 45-6 win over Elkhart Central.  John Carlson ran two interceptions and a kickoff back for TDS but that cannot possibly happen against Penn.

Penn QB Nick Keim (72 of 128, 1,013 yards, 13 TDs, 7 interceptions) won the first game with an overtime TD.  But the Kingsmen, on the road, gained 356 yards and 20 first downs. Everything favors Penn this time.

I think that Mishawaka's schedule is the reason they're 9-1.  Only 2A Marian and 3A St. Joe had winning records other than Penn. The Kingsmen played a soft South Bend schedule AFTER Ben Davis and Valparaiso. Don't bet against them.

That puts Penn in against LaPorte, a team with a state class offense. The Slicers will need 40 points to win this game and they've got more guns than an inner city high school with QB Lance Juergensen, (113 of 193, 1,856 yards, 26 TDs, 10 INTs) 1,000-yard rusher Airrence Shark (201 carries, 1,102 yards, 14 TDs) and 1,000-yard receiver Kris Staats (48 catches, 1,023 yards, 10 TDs).  Kicker Nick Ford has made only five field goals because he's attempted only five because the Slicers have scored so many (52) TDs.  Ford was 52 of 52 on extra points after 10 games.  The way to beat Penn is to throw the ball like St. Ignatius of Ohio did in Week five.

But I'm not buying it.  LaPorte has allowed 2,000 yards rushing and Penn is about to get their top running back off the disabled list.  Nobody in this part of the state is going to shut out LaPorte but the numbers don't lie.

LaPorte gave up 269 yards rushing to CP, 221 to Michigan City, 282 to Valparaiso, 266 to New Prairie and 256 yards rushing to Clay in the playoff opener.  If the Slicers give up 200 yards rushing to Penn, Penn wins Sectional 2.

I see no way that Merrillville and Crown Point don't go head-to-head on Nov. 4 for the Section one title.  Both teams are improved over the Labor Day weekend game where CP won 13-0.  The Bulldogs are very confident because they know that Merrillville has not seen QB Matt Jansen (44-466, 673 yards, 5 TDs), who was injured for the first six games and WR Matt Ernest (12 catches, 25 yards) who was hurt for the first seven games. But the Pirates' halfback James Aldridge (6-2, 220) is up to 1,100 yards and running much better than he was eight weeks ago.

There is more than one good matchup here. Jansen throws against a secondary that had 14 interceptions in a five-game span late in the year.  Aldridge and QB Evan Parker run against the No. 1 scoring defense in Class 5A.

CP's Donny Keiser (134 carries, 889 yards) and Jon Sertich (124 carries, 705 yards) run against the No. 2 5A scoring defense in the state.  

Who can run the  ball?  I've seen Valpo run on CP twice while no one has truly run on Merrillville. The Bulldogs got four turnovers in the earlier meeting and they can't win without getting two or three more.  Step back from this one.  The home team is the bigger, faster team, the one that lost the earlier matchup and the team with better runners.  I've always liked Merrillville to win a rematch.

Homestead has to outrun Snider and that doesn't get done very often. But the Greyhounds, as good as they are, have only met two 5A schools all year. Snider, with state class halfback MiQuale Lewis (170 carries, 1,226 yards) are geared to the speed of the Summit Athletic Conference (SAC) but a powerful physical team could upset them.  Homestead lost to 3A Norwell five weeks ago.  I just don't see them as that team.

That puts Snider through to the regional since the Greyhounds will outclass either Goshen (5-5) or Marion (4-6). In sectional four, Carmel has played a much tougher schedule than any of the 16 teams in this half of the 5A bracket.  In the computer rankings, Carmel is rated above Merrillville, Penn or LaPorte.  Two of Carmel's losses are to 5A No. 1 Warren Central and 4A No. 1 Cathedral.

It should be noted that didn't work for Valparaiso which played five top 10 teams, lost to all of them and finished at 5-5.  A similar fate awaits Carmel, a very big and deep team which doesn't have the speed and needs a bad field  or a rainstorm to beat Snider.

Merrillville-Penn would be a rematch of last year's 31-0 Penn win, a game where the Pirates' James Aldridge suffered a severe knee injury on the opening kickoff.  Merrillville has waited 365 days for the rematch, but they would have to return to Penn.  I think  that CP and Merrillville are the only two teams with the skill position players and the defensive efficiency to beat Penn, although it would be a four or five point game.

I'm not sure this is a great Snider team. They have a big line and speedy runners, but the Pirates don't give away the speed factor to any team.  Snider is very one dimensional and Merrillville would probably host the semistate.  I think the winner of the Nov. 4 Crown Point - Merrillville game reaches the state finals on Nov. 26 and I think Merrillville is that winner.

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Revised: October 29, 2005 .