Bulldogs' Cowan, O’Drobinak, Kutanovski light up scoreboard in 34-14 sectional win over Chesterton
A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

Friday, Oct. 25, 2002   48 degrees, muddy, light rain in Crown Point

Scoring Summary:

1st Q: CHESTERTON (0-7) Jim Sosnowski, 1-yard run. Steve Joyce kick - 8:42 left. 74- yard drive, 6 plays including a 33-yard pass from Ryan Kelley to Logan Newkirk on the first play from scrimmage.

CROWN POINT (7-7) Chris Kutanovski, 35-yard run with lateral from Sean O'Drobinak, who caught an 8-yard pass from Matt Cowan. Kutanovski kick. 62 yards, 6 plays. 6:52 left.

2nd Q: CROWN POINT (13-7) Chris Kutanovski, 1 -yard run. Kick failed. 86 yards, 13 plays, including runs of 16 and 16 yards by Matt Cowan. 4:41 left.

CHESTERTON (13-14) Nick Johnson, 4-yard run. 67-yard run, 3 plays including runs of 14 and 43 yards by QB Ryan Kelley. 3:59 left.

CROWN POINT (21-14) Chris Kutanovski, 6-yard run. 70 yards, 6 plays including a 36-yard pass from Matt Cowan. Cowan conversion run. 0:54 left.

3rd Q: CROWN POINT (28-14) Sean O'Drobinak, 11-yard pass from Matt Cowan. Chris Kutanovski kick. 63-yard drive, 6 plays (including a 22-yard pass from Cowan to O'Drobinak) after a short second half kickoff. 10:66 left.

4th Q: CROWN POINT (34-14) Sean O'Drobinak, 6-yard pass from Matt Cowan. Bad snap on kick. 81-yard drive, 13 plays. 6:51 left.

CROWN POINT - There was the thought that Chesterton, a 35-21 loser in Crown Point on Oct. 11, could retool and adjust for an Oct. 25 rematch. The problem was, that Crown Point could also adjust. The Bulldogs, who did not dwell on the secondary mismatch between 6-foot-4 senior receiver Sean O'Drobinak in the first game, worked it to death in the rematch, demoralizing the Trojans in a 34-14 Class 5A Sectional quarterfinal showdown. Junior Crown Point quarterback Matt Cowan completed 14 of 22 passes for 253 yards, 10 of them to O'Drobinak, who scored two touchdowns and lateralLed to teammate Chris Kutanovski for another in a game that was about as close as the score indicates.

“They didn't double team him at all,” said Cowan, who was 12 of 24 (just four to O'Drobinak for 180 yards in the earlier game). “I don't know why. But he kept getting single coverage so we kept going back to him. It's just one more step closer to where you want to be. You can't get all excited because we won one game. You just want to keep cranking it out as much as you can.”

Crown Point used four and five wide receivers on most plays out of a 'shotgun' formation for most plays. Chesterton (6-4), which gave up almost 900 yards passing against CP, Portage and Merrillville in three late season games, again had no answer for a perimeter-based passing attack.

“We just felt that coming in there were some match-ups that we could exploit,” said CP coach Chip Pettit. “We wanted to make sure that if we lost tonight, we could say we did everything we could to accentuate those matchups.”

And while there were some lukewarm attempts at celebration of CP's first playoff victory since 1997 (including students running on the field and jumping on the CP players and a water bucket toss that missed coach Pettit after the game), the second year CP coach echoed Cowan's comments that this winning thing needs to become routine.

“It's more a matter of looking ahead to next week,” he said. “We're going to have our hands full again (at Portage). We're going on the road. You always have a challenge when you go an the road.”

Chesterton, which lost their last two regular season games by a total of 38 points, seized the moment early when QB Ryan Kelley (9-of-21, 94 yards) hit a 33-yard pass to end Logan Newkirk on the first play of the game. The Trojans drove for a quick score on a one-yard run by fullback Jim Sosnowski.

But the Trojans’ defense could not contain Cowan and O'Drobinak, who hooked up for five pass completions in the first half. The first catch, a short pass to the home side hash marks with 6:62 left in the first quarter, was a trick play. O'Drobinak caught the ball and lateralled to running back Chris Kutanovski, who rumbled down the sidelines into the end zone completing a 42-yard scoring play that tied the game 7-7.

Chesterton's Nick Johnson ran 48 yards on an option pitchout to the Crown Point 36 on the next series but the drive stalled three plays later. The Bulldogs took the ball at their own 14 and drove for the go-ahead score. Cowan hit a 14-yarder to O'Drobinak, but he also scrambled for gains of 15 and 18 yards. Chris Kutanovski, filling in at tailback because tailback Dave Swenson was filling in for injured offensive lineman Riste Jakimoski, scored from the 6-yard line to make it 13-7. Two more keys to the game were the performances of Kutanovski and Swenson. Kutanovski, who starts at middle linebacker, gained 62 yards on 17 carries and scored three touchdowns for the second consecutive week. Swenson, who carried 17 times for 60 yards and scored two TDs against Chesterton on Oct. 11, did a better than average job against the big Chesterton defensive line, led by big junior Spencer West (6-2, 295).

“He played offensive tackle last year,” said CP's line coach Mark Reid. “He made a couple of mistakes. Spencer spun around on him, and I took him aside and told him, he's got to stay low and keep his butt down to get leverage. He'll play whatever (position) we want. One thing though. I give the linemen T-shirts before each game. He wanted one, so he got a free T-shirt.”

I’m just a lineman running the football,” smiled Swenson afterwards. “The win is much more rewarding playing in the line. I sensed it (his switch back to the line) as soon as Riste did that (injured ACL) to his knee. I knew Saturday (Oct. 19) for sure. It's just what you've got to do. Whatever it takes to get us through the sectionals.”

Chesterton led 14-13 in the second quarter when the Bulldogs went 70 yards in six plays. Cowan hit passes of 12 yards to Chris Sprehe and 14 and 36 yards to O'Drobinak, who consistently used his height to pull down lob passes from the Bulldog QB. In addition to his 10 catches, O'Drobinak also drew two pass interference calls from scrambling Trojan defenders.

“When we go into our open sets, it gets single coverage,” explained Pettit. “When we use five receivers, there's only so many guys to play them. If you use four down linemen, that puts 7-on-5. They chose to use two linebackers. That's our way of assuring that we’ll get single coverage." Pettit credited Cowan for his ability to escape the rush and get the ball away and also noted an unsung hero.

“A lot of credit goes to (center) Nick Hoffman. Sometimes they were rushing six and we were blocking five but they still didn't get us because Nick is calling the right blocking scheme.”

The second half was a foregone conclusion after CP took a short squib kickoff and drove 53 yards in five plays to make it 28-14. Cowan's lob pass to O'Drobinak scored from 11-yards away.

The win ended a five-game sectional quarterfinal losing streak but there was an anticlimactic feel to it in the late going. The crowd was about half as large as the 4,300 that showed up on Oct. 11 and the Chesterton people headed for the parking lot early in the fourth quarter.

The victory pushed CP's record to 8-2 and a sectional victory plus the Bulldogs' second place finish in the Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC), seemed to fulfill anyone's pre-season wishes after CP went 1-9 in 2001. Haven't the Bulldogs done everything they wanted to do back in August?

“No,” said Reid. “They didn't win the DAC. They want a (sectional title) patch on their shoulder. These guys are real. They're playing real well right now."

DOG NOTES: The crowd was disappointing. CP had larger crowds in 2000 when they were 0-10. To be fair, heavy day-long rains that cleared about 5:30 p.m. surely influenced some people to stay home. Jakimoski is out for the season, with the ACL problem in his knee. Crown Point now leads the all-time series with Chesterton 9-8. Highly-regarded Chesterton sophomore Matt Maple (5-9, 145), who missed the entire regular season with a broken leg, made his 2002 debut and caught six passes for 52 yards.

The Sectional One semifinal match-ups are Crown Point (8-2) at Portage (7-3) and Valparaiso (9-1) at Lake Central (5-6). LC joins the DAC next year and will play CP, Portage and Valpo. The biggest upsets in Class 5A were No. 9 Perry Meridian, 9-0 during the regular season, losing 38-36 to Northwest high school in Indianapolis. LaPorte, which was 6-3 with four shutouts and two overtime losses during the regular season, fell apart defensively and lost 47-33 to a supposedly poor Elkhart Central (4-6) team. Reitz (9-1) took out No. 8 Castle (9-1) in the Evansville area but that probably isn't an upset.

GRID GRADES

OFFENSE (B)

No turnovers, 370 yards and five touchdowns leave little to be desired. The Bulldogs showed a lot of confidence in their five wide-receiver set, believing they could still protect the QB. Dave Swenson was good enough in the offensive line that Chris Kutanovski (with Troy Bush as the lead back) ran several plays at his guard position.

Six different receivers caught passes for CP, which won with little but decoy help from speedy Bobby Rutherford, their leading scorer, who caught just 2 passes for 14 yards. Rutherford will be much more effective on what is predicted to be a dry field next week at Portage. Kutanovski looks very good at running back, a position he would tell you he's always wanted to play. The only knocks on this night are seven penalties (most on offense) for 72 yards and just 117 yards rushing, which will probably not be enough this coming week.  

DEFENSE (C)

CP was caught off guard by the long pass on the first series and they fell behind 7-0 for the second consecutive week on a long drive by the opposition. That can't happen again because the Bulldogs are now stepping up into competition solely against state elite teams. There were some wobbly passes and CP should've grabbed more than one interception. The Bulldogs were good against the option again. Sean O'Drobinak and Eric Gulbrandson created problems for the Trojans turning plays upfield. CP could've been a little quicker to the ball but the field probably had a lot to do with that.