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Lowell (13-2) at Crown Point (8-3) |
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Week
1 - Football Game of the Week Preview |
Lowell (13-2) at Crown Point (8-3) |
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8-21-2008
When:
7:00 p.m., CDT on Friday, August 22, 2008
Where: Crown Point High School, 1500 South Main, Crown Point, IN.
Tickets: $5 (for everybody)
TV/Radio/Internet: WWLO (89.1) FM, WKIF (92.7) FM and WTMK (89.5) FM will carry this game live. Live Internet coverage on www.USA-365.com.
Weather: Mid-70s and humid at kickoff time. Warm, windy with a chance of rain. This opening night could be a good test for the drainage of CP's new artificial turf because it's going to rain at some time Friday.
JV game: Saturday, Aug. 23 at Crown Point - 10:00 a.m.
Freshmen: Thursday, Aug. 28 at Lowell -
6:00 p.m.
Numbers: Crown Point: Class 5A,
enrollment 2,510; LOWELL - 4A enrollment -
1,200
Parking: Lowell fans will want to
know that construction is still ongoing at
Crown Point high school. For a little while
longer, there is still just one entrance and
exit at CPHS, to the west of the school. Construction of a new south parking lot and
access road is underway. There are over
1,000 parking spots at CPHS but this game
may draw a near capacity crowd in the
5,000-seat Bulldog stadium so you are not
going to be able to just stroll up about
6:45 and find a place to sit. You can park in the St. Matthias church
lot just west of the school but note that
the church did begin charging two dollars a
car (come on, it's for the church) last
season. Also, remember, that you need to take
everything (including rain gear) with you
when you walk to the stadium. You are going
to be much too far away to walk back to the
car at halftime.
The SERIES: This might be the 91st meeting of Lowell and Crown Point and it might not be. We'll get to that in a minute. Friday's game will be the 12th consecutive year that Lowell and CP have met to begin the season. Lowell rallied to beat Crown Point 23-14 in 2007, the Devils' sixth win over CP in the last nine years. Lowell vs. Crown Point is the ˜Leather Helmet" game because the rivalry goes back to the early 20th Century, a time when you didn't need $250 to buy a football helmet. Seriously, these teams played ever year, (sometimes twice a year in the 1940s and 50s) until the old Lake Suburban Conference broke up after the 1992 season. After a gap of four seasons, both schools' athletic directors (CP's Jerry Caravana and Lowell's Don Bales) expressed a desire to resume the neighborhood match-up in 1997. Except for those four years (1993-1996), Lowell has played CP every season since 1903. This is the oldest football rivalry in Northwest Indiana, going back to a time when Lowell and Crown Point were the only two high schools south of Gary and Hammond.
Lowell had a 23-year period when they did not have a winning football team (1970-1993) including 0-10 seasons in 1978, 79 and 1983. Things changed dramatically in the last two decades under coach Kirk Kennedy as the Red Devils have soared into state prominence, climaxing in the 2005 state championship, which featured a two-touchdown fourth quarter rally against eight-time state champ Roncalli.
CP's rise is nearly as striking. The Bulldogs never won more than eight games in the first 80 years of the football program. Coach Brad Smith brought CP to the winner's circle from 1984-1991, winning 10 games each in 1984, 1987 and 1988. Smith's final winning team came in 1991 when the Bulldogs (9-3) won the Lake Suburban Conference, led on offense by QB Chip Pettit. Nine years later, Pettit took over as the Bulldogs head coach after an 0-10 season in 2000. Crown Point's record of 31-5 in the last three seasons is the best three-year mark in the long history of the school.
Lowell and Crown Point is the longest running football rivalry in this part of the state but no one is sure just how long that is. When the Devils head north to CP for Friday night's 7:00 p.m. kickoff it will arguably be the 91st meeting of the two schools according to the Crown Point football records, with CP leading 56-32, with two ties. But another source, the Northern Indiana Football.com web site, which details every year of prep football for teams in the northern third of the state, lists the all-time series record as 61-40-2 favoring CP, meaning this Friday's match is the 104th meeting.
If you add up the wins and losses, however, you get 60 CP wins, 36 Lowell triumphs and the two ties, which everybody seems to agree on. The difference probably comes from the early part of the 20th Century when Lowell and Crown Point were "charter members" of Northwest Indiana high school football. It is highly unlikely that, if they fielded teams (World War I was 1914-1919), that the Bulldogs and Red Devils did not meet between 1910 and 1920. Most of the Lake County schools that play football now had not even been imagined back then. The only high schools south of what is now Ridge Road were Lowell and Crown Point. But I have never seen or heard of any records from that time period, which makes all of the totals a little hard to accept with virtual certainty.
Nobody told me this, but one reason Crown Point played Lowell twice a year in the middle of the last century was because CP was 'off in the country' compared to Gary, Hammond and EC. Lowell was a fellow traveler and there were no other schools all the way down to Benton Central and the Lafayette area. Schools like Kentland, Morocco, DeMotte and Wheatfield (the forerunners of North Newton, South Newton and Kankakee Valley) played a version of 8-man football in the 40s and 50s so they couldn't play Lowell and Crown Point. There was no I-65, so traveling to the game was a much bigger adventure than it is today. Lowell-CP games made a lot of sense.
What isn't mentioned much is the fact that these are Cedar Lake's football high schools. You see a few Hanover Central jackets scattered in the stands at Lowell and Crown Point. HC has no football team, but Cedar Lake folks have neighbors and relatives who attend both CP and Lowell. It's interesting to see which side they sit on.
Lowell football records are hard to find as a rule and it's not hard to guess why. During the period between 1969 and 2001 when the Devils did not have a winning season, they went through several coaches. Relatively few cared about football during that time. That will not be the case Friday as a near-capacity crowd is expected to watch CP attempt to avenge a 23-14 loss at Lowell which began the 2007 season.
Crown Point and Lowell has become the traditional Northwest Indiana season opener, the annual neighborhood get-together of two schools 'right down the road from each other' who it seems like have been going against each other for 100 years.
Lowell vs. Crown Point - 105 years of
Competition
1900-1909: CP led series 2-1
1910-1919: no records available
1920-1929: CP led series 3-1
1930-1939: LOWELL led series 11-2-1
1940-1949: CP led series 11-9
1950-1959: CP led series 9-3-1
1960-1969: CP led series 8-2
1970-1979: CP led series 8-2
1980-1989: CP led series 9-1
1990-1999: CP led series 5-1
2000-2008: LOWELL leads series 5-3
* in the 30s, 40s and 50s, CP often played
Lowell twice in a home and home series.
Lowell and CP did not meet from 1993-1996.
The earliest recorded CP-Lowell games is a
71-0 CP win on Oct. 22, 1904.
2008 Crown Point Bulldogs
Head varsity coach Chip Pettit, 49-29 (8th
year)
DAC games in CAPs; 2008 record in
parenthesis
8-22 (F) Lowell
(13-2)
8-29 (F) at Hobart (8-4)
9-5 (F) at MERRILLVILLE (12-2)
9-12 (F) LAKE CENTRAL (7-5)
9-19 (F) PORTAGE (5-5)
9-26 (F) at VALPO (6-5)
10-3 (F) at LaPORTE (3-7)
10-10 (F) CHESTERTON (6-4)
10-17 (F) at MICHIGAN CITY (2-8)
5A Sectional 1 10-24 (Fri) Quarterfinals
vs. Kankakee Valley, Northridge, Plymouth,
Logansport, Clay, (SB) Washington and
Concord.
10-24 (F) Quarterfinals vs.
LC, Valpo, Portage, Munster, Chesterton,
Michigan City or MERRILLVILLE
10-31 (F) 5A Sectional Semifinals
11-7 (F) 5A Sectional 1 Final
11-14 (F) 5A Regional
11-21 (F) Northern 5A Semistate Championship
11-29 (S) 2008 Class 5A State Championship (7:00 p.m., EST)
Lucas Oil Arena - downtown Indianapolis
2008 Lowell Red Devils
Coach Kirk Kennedy, 135-67 in (18th year)
NWCC games in CAPs -2007 record in
parenthesis
8-22 (F) at Crown Point (8-3)
8-29 (F) Morton (6-4)
9- 5 (F) Kankakee Valley (4-7)
9-12 (F) at GRIFFITH (9-4)
9-19 (F) at HIGHLAND (1-10)
9-26 (F) HOBART (8-3)
10-3 (F) at Hammond (9-2)
10-10 (F) MUNSTER (3-7)
10-17 (F) at ANDREAN (9-4)
4A Sectional 10
Oct 31 (F) Sectional 1 Semifinals
Nov. 7 (F) Sectional 1 Championship
Nov. 14 (F) 4A Regional Championship
Nov. 21 (F) Northern 4A Semistate Championship
Nov. 29 (S) 2008 Class 4A State Championship
(4:00 p.m., EST)
Lucas Oil Arena - downtown Indianapolis
LOWELL - Most years,
Lowell appears to have a better defense than
they do an offense.
But this is not one of those years. The Devils have a lot coming back,
led by quarterback Kurt Monix (48-of-96,
1,000 yards, 6 TDs, 6 interceptions), a
strong-armed varsity wrestler who led
his team to the championship of the
Indianapolis Colts 7-on-7 summer
tourney. Brandon Grubbe (6-1, 175) set an all-time
Lowell rushing record for sophomores when he carried 281 times for
1,675 yards and 20 TDs.
I don't think Lowell is suddenly going to start firing 15-20 passes a game, but Grubbe, who has breakaway speed, caught just five passes, mostly short ones, last season for 123 yards. What if he catches 20 passes this year?
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| Lowell senior cornerback Cody Midgett (6) anchors the defensive secondary and will play wide receiver on offense in 2008. |
The Devils' offensive line is bigger than
usual with Nick Schultz (6-0,
238), Brian DeMario (6-3, 232), Justin
Juarez (6-3, 227), David Eastling (6-0,
223) and new center Ryan Russnak (6-3, 197)
and this unit is why hopes are high. These are all seniors, three of them will only
start on offense Friday, and the coaches
will demand the limit from this unit. The
new tight end, Trevor Kersey (6-1, 230) also has a lot of potential, but Lowell tight
ends are key blockers. Anything they catch
is a bonus.
One wide receiver will be Jake Belt (5-9,
160) and Cody Midgett
(5-7, 140) is getting the start at the
other one. Midgett is a converted running
back and Lowell may simply throw him the
ball and let him try to make a one-on-one
play. He could also be used as a mis-direction runner a half dozen times a
game because every defense is going to know
Grubbe by his first name.
Lowell appears to have more running backs than they can use. Andrew Eldred (5-10, 184), speedy Gavit transfer Deron Johnson (5-7, 162), fullback-linebacker Bryan DeSomer and big blocking wrestler Nate Cleveland (6-4, 200) who did not play in 2007, all may contribute. I think you'll see three-back formations on short yardage plays because the Devils have running backs to spare.
The defense returns three linebackers in Juarez, Eastling and DeSomer. Logan Wright (5-11, 256) will anchor the defensive line with senior rookie Craig DuBord (5-10, 220). DeMario, Kersey and Joe Bell (6-4, 191) are big defensive end candidates. The secondary is a bit of a surprise. Cody Midgett will start in the crucial safety position while James Zelenka (5-8, 160) and Kyle Bottos (5-10, 180) are first time starters on the corners. Lowell's secondary is the least experienced part of the team.
Lowell has a very dangerous trio of
kick returners in Belt, Grubbe and Johnson.
Matt Berkos, a soccer midfielder, is
Lowell's first new place kicker in four
years and Monix, the quarterback, will punt,
creating some interesting fourth down fake
punt possibilities. If half the first time
starters play up to their potential, this
will be a very good 4A team.
CROWN POINT - Crown Point hasn't been to the state finals twice in the last three years like Lowell has but the Bulldogs are 31-5 in the last three years, the best stretch in school history. The winds of change have blown thrown CP. After four seasons of left-handed passing QBs in Matt Jansen and Blake Mascarello, right-handed, roll-out rookie senior Marcus Shrewsbury (6-2, 210) takes over. After three consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seniors (Donny Keiser, Jon Sertich and Russell Chick), the next star runner may be senior Nick Bruno (5-6, 155) or slippery junior Mason Popovich (5-9, 170).
The original idea is to play Popovich so Bruno won't have to play every game both ways, but Bruno ran very well in the scrimmages and he is a senior veteran who will probably get the start. The Bulldogs are also deep in running backs, although they, in the past, have used a lot more one back formations than has Lowell. Sophs Cody Bacon (5-8, 150) and Victor Childs (5-6, 155) are good bench strength at tailback while Dan Downes (5-6, 190) and Jon Hannon (5-11, 195) may play at fullback, especially if Kozlowski, CP's starting fullback, plays a lot at linebacker.
The Bulldogs' strength will be on defense where Bruno (84 tackles) returns at safety with experienced seniors Danny Osojnicki (6-0,175) and Nate Haverstock (5-8, 150), a potential, star kick returner on the corners. Linebacker Lance LaMere (6-0, 205) is one of CP's five starting linebackers. The Bulldogs' 3-5-3 formation has spread like wildfire throughout Northwest Indiana.
CP's Michael Lipton (6-2, 205) plays football on Fridays and soccer the rest of the week. Lipton has kicked four field goals in each of the past two seasons and he followed his (45-of 52) 92% score on extra points in 2006 with a (32 of 35) 91% rate in 2007. Senior baseball star Kozlowksi returns as the punter and a dangerous pass catcher out of the backfield.
The Bulldogs' offensive line is almost
all new. Senior Nick Colonna (6-2, 240) is
the only returning starter. Many may play
here, but big John Cooke (6-4, 280) and tall
Chris Lakich (6-5, 220) are being counted on
to lead the group. The line figures to be solid later in
the year, but like Lowell's secondary, this
is the most inexperienced platoon on the
2008 Crown Point team.
Unlike the Lowell secondary, the CP
offensive line is the key to this team.
The Bulldogs have a lot of play makers, but
it won't look like it unless the line has
some good nights.
What will happen...................
LOWELL at CROWN POINT
CROWN POINT (8-22-2008) - Unless somebody runs
the opening kickoff back for a TD, this is
going to be a low-scoring first half. Conditions may be difficult (rain) or at the
least, unusual (wet new turf) so both sides
will want to be the conservative running
teams they were in 2007.
CP's strength is in the secondary and
Lowell will probably not challenge the deep
outside third of the defense early on this
opening night. I think the Bulldogs will be able to run
the ball early in the game, but not later, as
they have more difficulty getting to
Lowell's linebackers to block them.
CP's Marcus Shrewsbury's will be able to get
short yardage on his own and halfback Nick Bruno will prove hard to tackle.
But I'm seeing this as a game of missed opportunities. The Bulldogs will move the ball well, but they will consistently have to settle for Michael Lipton field goals. When we get to the short field (inside the 20 or 30 yard line), Lowell's defensive speed will keep the Bulldogs out of the end zone.
Lowell has such dangerous kick returners, I think there will be a kick return TD on opening night by the Devils.
If you could put together an all-new offensive line and have them play perfectly in the season opener, everybody would have a winning team every year. I expect CP to gain 150-200 yards rushing, but Lowell will gain more than that. I think CP will be surprised by how much quicker and stronger Brandon Grubbe has gotten. He'll get 100 yards, but Shrewsbury will have a strong debut running the ball as well.
After last year's loss, CP is very much ready to play Lowell and they will hold a small lead at halftime. The Bulldogs need a big lead in the first two quarters, because Lowell will come back later. Lipton will boot three field goals, but that's not necessarily a good sign. In high school football, the team with the most field goals often gets beat. In the opening game of the season, you want to ride with the team that has the returning starting quarterback and the most returning linemen because that will tell the tale in the second half. That team, this time, is Lowell.
LOWELL 27, CROWN POINT 16