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Kankakee Valley (8-1)at Lowell (3-4) |
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Week
10 - Class 4A, Sectional 9 Football Quarterfinal Preview|
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Kankakee Valley (8-1)at Lowell (3-4) |
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10-04-2006
When:
Friday, October 20, 2006
Where: Lowell High School - Route 2 (Commercial Ave.).& Holtz Road, Lowell, IN.
Tickets: $5 - (for everybody).
Kickoff:
7:00 p.m.
Radio-TV: WHLP
(89.9) FM.
Weather: Upper 40s, wet, soft field. Not as cold as last week, but with the rain Wednesday and Thursday, this will be a soft field, which favors Lowell.
Parking: I am assuming a big crowd is coming up from Jasper County. KV has won eight games in a row and Lowell is a neighbor and rival..
THE SERIES: Lowell has a 15-2 lead in this series and has not lost to the Kougars since 1984. When these two teams were in the old Northwest Hoosier Conference from 1993-1997, Lowell won every game played. The Devils have won 12 in a row.
Rivalry: Kankakee Valley and Lowell are natural rivals. If you head southeast out of Lowell and cross the county line, you are in the Kankakee Valley school district. Some of the KV and Lowell students live within five minutes of each other. Plus, KV and Lowell meet in every sport. Only because of the Einsteins in the Lake Athletic Conference (LAC) were KV and Lowell not in the same division of the LAC. Hammond was in the same division as Lowell but KV was not. Don't try to figure it out. But that's just one of 1,000 reasons there is no more LAC. Lowell and Kankakee Valley cannot afford not to play each other in football. One school or the other lost $1,000 in gate receipts (and that's a conservative number) because KV and Lowell didn't play and draw a couple of thousand more fans than they would have with some other lame non conference foe the last three regular seasons.
There was no malice here. Just ignorance. Most folks in North Lake County think Lowell is in Kentucky and KV is somewhere in South America. Putting Highland and Munster in different divisions would never have been considered, but Lowell and KV had a costly separation. It's over now. Lowell and KV will be in the new seven-team (for now) Northwest Crossroad's Conference (NWCC), which guarantees a Lowell-KV game every year.
Lowell has a 15-2 edge in this series with KV's only wins coming in 1983 and 1984. But with Lowell being the southernmost Lake County community and DeMotte being the northernmost town in northwest Jasper County, this game always features high spirits. KV is a consolidation of the old DeMotte and Wheatfield high schools after the 1969 school year. There is no record of Lowell ever playing DeMotte and Wheatfield (Wheatfield teams were also called the Red Devils) in football, possibly because those schools played 8-man football in the Post-WW II era.
When Lowell joined KV in the now-defunct Northwest Hoosier Conference after the break-up of Lowell's old Lake Suburban Conference in 1992, the Lowell-KV game was dubbed the 'Milk Can' game, with a large black dairy farm style milk can becoming the traveling trophy awarded to the winner of the annual matchup. I'm not kidding. The winner will carry off a milk can Friday night. This is Indiana, folks. It might not be the most sophisticated thing to have an old piece of milking equipment symbolize the competition between two football teams, but the can hasn't done much traveling anyway. Lowell has won all 10 'Milk Can' games so far. But the 'Milk Can' fits Kankakee Valley more.
These communities are similar, but the DeMotte-Wheatfield area is more rural. Lowell basically borders Cedar Lake and Hebron to the north. DeMotte and Wheatfield don't border anything. There are only two high schools in Jasper County (Rensselaer and KV) and only two small ones in Newton County (North and South Newton) immediately west of Jasper County. There is only one high school in Benton County (Benton Central) which is immediately south of Jasper County. Pulaski and Starke Counties to the east have five small high schools combined.
This is highly debatable, but you can make the argument that because of the county line and consecutive bordering communities that NW Indiana ends with Lowell. Drive south down US 41 or Route 2 out of Lowell in the dark and you'll see what I mean. But KV wants to be considered a NW Indiana team. They want the credibility that Lowell finally grabbed by winning a state title last year.
Now that both teams will play in the new Northwest Crossroads Conference (NWCC), there is the distinct likelihood that these two will meet twice a year (as Lowell consistently does now with Hobart) with more than used dairy equipment on the line. But Lowell will return something like 15 starters next season and they will be a monster. If the Kougars are to get their hands on 'The Can' anytime soon, it will have to be this Friday night.
Kankakee Valley (8-1)
Coach: Mike Peo (8-1, 1st year)
Enrollment: 949
2005 record: 7-4*
Sectional titles: (0)
Regional titles: (0)
*Lost Class 4A Sectional nine quarterfinal 41-6 at eventual state champion
Lowell
2006 schedule
(L) 9-38 at Munster (5-4)
(W) 24-12 Rensselaer (3-6)
(W) 52-0 Lake Station (1-8)
(W) 48-20 at Bishop Noll (6-3)
(W) 42-21 Gavit (3-6)
(W) 38-8 Clark (4-5)
(W) 47-12 at Calumet (1-8)
(W) 30-21 at Wheeler (5-4)
(W) 49-35 Whiting (7-2)
4A Sectional 9 playoffs
10-20 (F) at LOWELL (4-5)
10-27 (F) vs. Gary Roosevelt (3-6) or Lew Wallace (0-9)
Class 4A Lowell
(4-5)
Coach: Kirk Kennedy (118-60, 15 years)
Enrollment: 1,150
2005 record: 11-4*
Sectional titles: (6) 1992, 1994, 1999, 2003, 04, 05
Regional titles: (3) 1994, 1999, 2005
Semistate titles: (1) 2005
State titles: (1) 2005
*Defeated three-time defending champion Roncalli 28-27 to win the 2005 4A state
title.
2006 schedule
(L) 0-17 at Crown Point (9-0)
(W) 63-6 Calumet (2-7)
(L) 0-35 at GRIFFITH (8-1)
(L) 17-21 Morton (4-5)
(L) 0-17 at ANDREAN (7-2)
(W) 35-12 HAMMOND (0-9)
(W) 15-14 Munster (4-5)
(L) 0-7 Hobart (8-1)
(W) 47-14 at Highland (2-7)
4A Sectional 9 playoffs
10-20 (F) vs. Kankakee Valley (8-1)
10-27 (F) vs. Gary Roosevelt (3-6) or Lew Wallace (0-9)
11-3 (F) probably at Hobart (8-1)
KANKAKEE VALLEY (8-1) at LOWELL
(4-5)
Kankakee Valley: Offense 37.7 ppg. - Defense: 18.6 ppg.
LOWELL: Offense: 19.7 ppg. - Defense: 15.9 ppg.
Sagarin
computer ratings: Lowell by 4
LOWELL
(10-20-2006) - You just can't get away from
the fact that Kankakee Valley played just
one 4A school all year and Munster beat them
by 29 points. Lowell has played four top-10
teams and they've been shut out by all of
them. But Lowell is 2-1 against 4A schools
including a 15-14 win over the same Munster
team that slaughtered Kankakee Valley. But Lowell has nobody with the speed of
Dustin Wilson (143 carries, 1,466 yards), a
400 meter state finalist who has scored 33 TDs and averages 10 yards a carry. Wilson
(5-11, 190) is not a zig zag runner, he's
more of a straight ahead lightning bolt. Lowell has above average speed on the
defense, but they don't have anybody this
fast.
The Kougars want to get him outside on
pitchouts where he can build up speed before
anyone can touch him. Wilson doesn't want to
run up in between the tackles against Lowell
because Lowell has some good size in there
and that's where the mud is. No rain is
scheduled for Friday but there's no way the
Lowell turf will be dry by Friday night.
Lowell simply has to follow Dustin Wilson
all over the field on every play.
Wilson had 229 yards on 33 carries and
seven TDs last week against Whiting and 191
yards on 21 carries on Aug. 25 against
Rensselaer. He scored six TDs against
Bishop Noll in a 48-20 win on Sept. 8.
KV junior quarterback Alex Byers (6-2, 175)
is the second option and he'll carry the
ball up field more than he'll throw to keep
the heat off Wilson. The Kougars will not go
to the air much. Byers is only 15 of 41 for
509 yards, 4 TDs, but four interceptions.
As you can see, they get 35 yards a
completion, but that's because the passes are
surprises or short pass-and-run plays. But
KV will run Wilson on 3rd-and-long because
they don't really want to throw the ball
down the field. And when they fake to
Wilson in passing situations, they are
probably throwing to Wilson.
Wilson also runs back kickoffs and punts and plays defensive back. He has scored on a 91-yard run, a 95-yard interception, an 84-yard kickoff return and a 95-yard pass. Wilson has beaten teams all by himself, but Lowell stopped him last season and they know all about him. The Kougars have faith in Byers and he's not coming out of the game no matter how bad it gets.
KV has only fumbled 10 times all year, but four of those fumbles were last week against Whiting in the 49-35 win. There has to be some doubt about holding onto the ball. Senior Wes Clifton (6-3, 240) leads the line and fullback Kevin O'Neal (5-9,180) leads the blocking and the Kougars have to get it done offensively. The Kougars have had five games this year where they did not average 30 yards a punt. Zach Schafer has booted five field goals and the longest was 35 yards.
Kankakee Valley's defense has allowed 600 yards passing the last two weeks, but they held Whiting to minus 2 yards rushing. It's hard to rate the KV defense because they've played five Class 2A schools and that's not the level of competition that Lowell plays. KV may go with a gimmick play in the first series to try to beat a Lowell defense that's been working on Wilson all week. KV cannot get behind on the road. They do not have the passing game to rally and they have key two-way players (including Wilson and Byers) who have not been in many close games this year.
Lowell took a serious hit defensively early in the year when they lost veteran Kaleb Layman (5-10, 190) for the year with a leg injury in the third game of the season. But the Devils have come roaring back on the strength of a quick defensive line, young, strong linebackers and a hard-hitting secondary. Ends Joe Carlson (6-0, 190) and Jeff Barker (6-5, 187) have combined for nine sacks with big Mike Staniewicz (6-7, 256) and Andrew Steuer (6-0, 222) in the middle. Dean Frigo (5-10, 175) and Ben Rigby (5-10, 165) trade size for speed while sophomore David Eastling (6-0, 187) and Justin Juarez (6-4, 197) have clogged up the middle.
In the secondary, Lowell has found two new junior regular players this year in TJ Lukasik (5-7, 165) and Lukas Palmer (5-11, 160) who have combined for 88 tackles and five interceptions. The Devils have allowed 2,180 yards (242 per game) and 143 (15.8 per game) points, very good numbers against a schedule that includes 5A No. 3 Crown Point (9-0), 4A No. 8 Hobart (8-1), 3A No. 4 Griffith (8-1) and 3A No. 7 Andrean (7-2).
On offense, Lowell tailback Max Znika (6-0, 171) is a study in perseverance. Znika (100 carries, 588 yards, 8 TDs) was a backup or part time player until the second half of his senior year when when he has run for 350 yards in the last three games, including 197 yards on 22 carries last week in the 47-14 win over Highland. Junior Steffan Peck (5-7, 165) began the year at halfback but has now moved back to the fullback position he held down during Lowell's state tournament run last year. Peck (157 carries, 774 yards, 9 TDs) is quick, stronger than he looks and a good blocker. He may have tried too hard at tailback, which caused fumbles. With recent game films showing Znika running wild, Peck will be a key alternative running between the tackles and catching passes.
QB Josh Kuiper (6-0, 187) has completed just 31 of 71 for 396 yards, just two TDs and seven interceptions. Like KV's Byers, Kuiper is not always a confident passer. But, as a basketball point guard and the starting varsity baseball catcher, Kuiper is a proven leader who can make the big play. Like Byers, he's the QB in a game like this. Barring injury, he'll start it and finish it.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN?
The Devils will send almost everyone to the
ball against track star Dustin
Wilson (143 carries, 1,466 yards). KV had
50 TDs and Wilson had 33 of them.
Lowell, as a team, hasn't scored 33
touchdowns. But, after facing the
1,000-yard rushers and breakaway threats of Hobart, Crown Point and Griffith, and after
reading about Wilson in the newspapers all
week, Wilson will be hit or tackled on every
play. That's the only way to stop him.
When the game starts, the Kougars have to go
from playing 2A Wheeler and 1A Whiting (the last two weeks) to playing 4A
Lowell. KV might want to be a little conservative early while they adjust
to the quickness of the Lowell defense.
Lowell will score first on a short run by
Max Znika, but Wilson will run back a kick or
punt for a TD to tie the game. The Red Devil
blockers, led by Mike Staniewicz, will
consistently get a push on the KV defenders
and Lowell takes the lead at the half on a
short run by Steffan Peck.
I don't like the match up of KV's
defensive front against Lowell running the
ball. Znika may steal some of the thunder
from Wilson in the first half because he and
Peck might be quicker than the front seven
of KV. Lowell can't get breakaway TDs
because Wilson is in the secondary. But they
don't want them. Lowell will produce a
couple of 12-play drives in the first half.
Lowell will use the 6-2 defense they showed
against Hobart. KV is not a spread offense
team but they might use some three wide
receiver formations to run out of. The
Devils will show single coverage and dare KV
to throw, if only because it takes the ball
away from Wilson. KV's strength is also
Lowell's strength. If KV cant throw to
occupy Lowell's perimeter defenders, Wilson
will have a long night.
Look for QB Josh Kuiper to hit Jeff Barker with a game-breaking TD pass set up by so much running the ball in the first half. The Kougars break through on a reverse with Wilson handing the ball to someone like Adam Mandeville to make it 21-14 but a KV fumble will set up another score by Znika and an interception TD by TJ Lukasik will end the scoring. KV has to decide whether they run star Dustin Wilson 30 times even though Lowell has worked all week and has an 11-man plan to stop him or try to get scoring elsewhere. I don't see where they have a 'Plan B.' I think KV runs Wilson 30 times and Lowell holds him to under 150 yards. Znika outgains Wilson in the only upset on this field on this night.