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4A No. 6 Lowell (10-1) at Concord (8-3) |
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Week
12 - Football Game of the Week Preview|
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4A No. 6 Lowell (10-1) at Concord (8-3) |
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A
USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
11-02-2007
When:
Friday, November 02, 2007at 7:00 p.m., CDT;
8:00 p.m., EDT in Elkhart, IN.
(The
other three games involving Elkhart County teams will start at 7:00 p.m. EST
which is 6:00 p.m., CST.)
Concord is an east side Elkhart, Indiana neighborhood that borders Goshen and it is 90-100 miles from Lowell. Generation coach Tim Dawson (19 seasons), who is also Dean of Students and assistant athletic director, made the Minutemen one of the more exciting teams in the state when he went to the "west coast" offense three years ago with now graduated QB Bobby Cira, who passed for a school-record 7,000 yards in three years.
Concord lines up four wide receivers on almost every play. Tall junior QB David Yoder (6-3, 175) was 15-of-25 for 248 yards and three TDs in the 49-27 sectional quarterfinal win over Clay. Speedy junior JaVontae Hence (5-8, 160) grabbed eight passes for 134 yards. That's how they roll.
Concord just began playing football in 1960, including 0-10 seasons in 1970 and 1971. Basketball was king. NBA star Shawn Kemp is from Concord and he led them them to the state finals in 1984. But since a 2-8 record in 1997, the Minutemen are 76-44 including 10-5 in 1998 and 14-1 last year. They seemingly has gone to a "basketball-on-grass" to use the God-given ability that's in the school.
Concord serves a largely unincorporated area between Elkhart and Goshen, a suburb called Dunlap. If the Dunlap area appears relatively new when you visit Friday, that's because it is. Most of the area was wiped out when two tornados roared through the neighborhood on Palm Sunday, April 11, 1965. They rebuilt it all.
As much as Lake County people brag about their football, they don't have anything over Elkhart County. On this night, Northwood (3A), Goshen (5A), Concord (4A) and Jimtown (2A) are all involved in sectional title games. All except Concord are former state champs and Concord lost the title game to Cathedral last year.
Jimtown (11-0) beat Fairfield (10-1), another Elkhart County school, last week in a battle of unbeaten teams. Northwood is 156-48 in the last 16 years. Jimtown is 288-53 in the last 28 years. Concord is 38-11 in the last 4 years. Fairfield is 21-2 in the last 2 years and both losses are to Jimtown. Everybody seems partisan to their own area, but some Elkhart County teams have been dominant in recent years and anyone would be wary of playing on the road there.
It wasn't always that way. Concord lost 24 game
sin a row from 1969 to 1972. The Minutemen were
embarrassing, scoring just 12 points in 10 games
in 1971 (0-10). But the tide turned in 1979
when Concord was 10-2 and they were 62-41 in the
1980s.
There was an 0-9 in 1992, but its been largely
good since then.
The high point was last year's team which scored
an outrageous 620 points (41.3 ppg.) per game
and rolled up 6,000 yards, reaching the state
title game before they got knocked down by
seven-time state champ Indianapolis Cathedral
38-14 in the 4A state title game. They do the usual preaching about how defense
wins. But this is an offensive team that can
give up 20 points a game and still win. That's
how they get things done. No one has held
Concord to less than 10 points in three
seasons. I don't know this, but Concord has
always been a basketball power. What I think has
occurred is that the coaching staff has
succeeded in getting the school's best athletes
(including the basketball talent) to play
football.
To do that, they utilize this offensive-style
attack.
It must be a lot of fun to play offense for the
Minutemen.
Concord does go against conventional wisdom. They run a four wide-receiver attack in a part of the country where three rounds of the state tournament are played in November. But its a style of play that has caught on in the Northern Lakes Conference. Wawasee plays this way and Plymouth did for a while this year until they reverted to a Lowell-style running game. Bad weather against a ground-based foe wipes the Minutemen out. Concord played in the rain and beat Kankakee Valley 35-14 last week (Oct. 26) but KV is not in the same class with Concord. Lowell is.
Concord football seems like its a good atmosphere with lots of fans. What you notice immediately on arrival is Concord's school colors. Green. Not green grass green or even Valparaiso high green. A soda pop like bright green (called Kelly green) that makes the Concord kids look like they glow in the dark. They have tradition here. A tradition that includes wide-open offensive football with lots of long touchdowns.
Lowell has realistic state finals hopes if they
win this game, but Concord, with all the TDs
they've scored and all the games they've won in
the last few years, probably feels the same way.
Where: at Concord High School - 59117 -
Minuteman Way, Elkhart, IN.
Concord serves Dunlap, a community between
Elkhart and Goshen, but the school is on the far
east end of Elkhart.
You need your spirit of adventure here. Many from Lowell got lost on the way to Concord two years ago, so I'm not going to try to direct you. Just a tip. If you are coming off the Indiana Tollway, the sign that says 'Welcome to Goshen' is the Good Lord's way of telling you that you have missed Concord. Stop and turn around. But if any of you are old and remember Lowell's game in Goshen in 1999, it is basically the same trip. If you have a lot of time (remember, it's Friday afternoon) you can take Route 6 east all the way through Hobart, Portage, Walkerton and Nappanee to Route 15 and then come north.
If you've got a lot of quarters, (this is not the shortest route) there is a Route 15 exit on the Indiana tollway in Elkhart County, and if you head south on 15 to Route 20, local folks can direct you from there. This is not a rural landscape. It's a suburban area that looks a little like Schererville and St. John. One thing to note. Do NOT try to follow the big yellow bus or the group of kids in the car who are obviously going to a football game. Four Elkhart County teams are playing Friday night and Jimtown, which is 10 miles from Concord, is at home. Everybody is going to a game this Friday night.
Allow three hours for the trip. I know it
looks like it can be done in two, but listen to
me on this one, it's two hours only if you know
exactly where you are headed and there's no
traffic. Many of you do the 'Mapquest' thing on your
computer. Be warned. A lot of folks found out
those instructions were not clear two years ago. Don't attempt to be Christopher Columbus and
find the school all on your own. Get close. Stop
and ask.
Tickets: $5
TV/Radio: WTMK (88.5) FM
Weather: Upper 40s, dry field. Skies are
forecast to be clear so once the sun goes down,
temperatures will plummet. Be ready.
Parking: There's a good-sized parking lot
here because Concord is almost a 5A school, with
enrollment of just under 1500.
Once again, you might want to make the drive in
daylight early Friday afternoon and kill a
couple of hours until game time.
An early arrival would also solve any parking
problems.
The winner: The winner of the Concord-Lowell game will host Hobart or travel to Griffith on Friday, Nov. 9. The regional host is the sectional final non-host. If two sectional hosts or two sectional final visitors meet at the regional, the tie breaker is the lower number sectional. Griffith and Hobart are in sectional 9, Lowell and Concord are in sectional 10.
Note: If Lowell hosts the regional, the Devils
cannot host the semistate no matter who the foe
is. The semistate tie-breaker is the higher
number sectional. Also, if Muncie South and
Griffith win Friday, and Dwenger then beats
Muncie South, Lowell will play ALL REMAINING
playoff games on the road.
OUTLOOK: The winner of the
Concord-Lowell game will have a tough road to
reach Indianapolis. Both sides want Hobart to
beat Griffith so they can get a home game on
Nov. 9. Everyone in the northern half of the state
would cheer a DeKalb upset of Dwenger (Dwenger
is a 13-point favorite), but the key game
bracket-wise is Muncie South and Jay County.
If Jay County beats Muncie again (they won the
earlier meeting 27-25), then Bishop Dwenger
hosts Jay County in the regional final and might
travel for the Semistate.
If Dwenger is on the road for the regional, they
host the semistate against any other school.
Lowell doesn't need to host the regional because
they wouldn't mind playing at Griffith, a half
hour trip. But if Lowell has to travel to Bishop Dwenger, they have a logistical problem. That
trip is 2-1/2 hours and you lose an hour heading
into the eastern time zone. Since the state
finals are played on Saturday. Lowell might
agree to play at Bishop Dwenger on Saturday,
Nov. 17. Nobody's going to talk about that
until we see who the sectional champions are.
4A, No. 6 LOWELL (10-1) at CONCORD (8-3)
Sagarin computer ratings: Lowell by 13
Elkhart
(11-02-2007) -
I
can almost guarantee you that Lowell will not win on the road by 13 points.
Concord is too good offensively for that. Despite Lowell's defensive prowess,
if the weather is good, this is going to be a high scoring game. Tall
pass-blocking offensive linemen like all-stater Kyle Magnuson (6-9, 301) and
junior David House (6-4, 220) are well-equipped to take on Lowell's pass rush,
led by Jeff Barker, Joe Carlson and John Black.
Concord will run more than expected here, spreading the Lowell defense with four wide receivers and running David Yoder (6-3, 175), the big junior QB in an option situation with senior Wes Smith (5-9, 155), who had six TDs on the regular season.
The wide receiver to watch is JaVontae Hence (5-8, 166), a track sprinter who has scored 18 TDs. Hence, who was a running back last year, symbolizes how Concord plays. You put your best ball carrier on the perimeter and throw him the ball. You don't line him up in the backfield. Hence (61 catches, 924 yards) has caught 12 TD passes, he has run for 3 TDs, run two interceptions back for touchdowns and scored on a kickoff return. He has to be watched on every play.
Senior Greg LeBold (6-3, 180) would be called the possession receiver. LeBold (45 catches, 718 yards, 8 TDs) caught eight passes last week for 110 yards. Yoder (170-277, 2,264 yards - 23 TDs, 9 interceptions) is 46-of-72 for 660 yards and six TDs in the last three weeks. He's thrown 19 passes to Hence for 357 yards the last three weeks. LeBold is excellent but clearly, you have to take Hence out of the game because he can go all the way on any play. Either Hence or LeBold has scored a TD in every game this season.
Wes Smith (103 carries, 744 yards, 11 TDs) gained 132 yards on 11 carries against Kankakee Valley last week. When they spread the defense, he can make the first tackler miss. Yoder also runs the QB draw play and he's a handful to bring down. The only drawback to this offense is that your QB takes a lot of hits. Yoder most definitely won't run 20 times because Concord does not want him laid out 20 times.
The most crucial matchup would appear to be Lowell's Jeff Barker (6-4, 205) at defensive end trying to get past Kyle Magnuson (6-9, 302). Magnuson did a good job against Barker in last year's 33-14 Concord win at Lowell, but that game was played on a field of mud. Magnuson may have a tougher time on a dry field. On the other hand, when the Minutemen run short yardage plays, they're going behind Magnuson, who will play for the University of Wyoming in 2008.
Defensively, Concord has been mediocre. They have 35 QB sacks, but that's because they have a speed-based, gambling, blitzing defense. Concord tries for big plays defensively and they aren't intimidated if you score a few times. The better for their offense to get the ball back. The Minutemen were actually out-gained by Kankakee Valley last week 354-335. They were outgained by Clay 393-318 in the Sectional 10 quarterfinal game that was won by Concord 49-27 on Oct. 19. Jimtown outgained Concord 416-171 and Elkhart Memorial outgained them 350-317.
Plymouth ran for 220 yards on Concord and Jimtown ran for 347 yards on them. Six teams have gained 300 yards on the Concord defense and a lot of that is the quick-strike offense, which doesn't take time off the clock. The Minutemen defense is on the field a lot and they do wear down. That could explain them allowing 3,078 yards (279 per game) in 11 games. The worst defense statistic Concord has is the fact that they have allowed 150 first downs and 100 first downs rushing allowed. It's not fatal to give up 15 first downs a game, but to give up 15 first downs a game rushing means you won't have the ball as much as the other side.
Defensive end Ryan McKee (6-0, 205) leads Concord with 111 tackles and injured
linebacker Casey Clark (5-11, 170) has 59 tackles and five QB sacks. The word
is that Clark pulled a hamstring last week against KV and is unlikely to play at
all.
Linebacker Tyler Huxford (6-0, 185) has 90 tackles and corner Wes Smith has
grabbed three interceptions and recovered six fumbles. Magnuson, Hence, LeBold,
House, fullback-linebacker Tyler Huxford (6-0, 171) and lineman/linebacker Tyler
McKee (6-0, 195) go both ways and that may be a factor, although it will be a
chilly night, perfect for boys to go both ways.
Yoder is the QB and the place-kicker with 32-of-39 accuracy on extra points. He booted a 39-yard field goal against Clay and a 42-yarder on Sept. 6 against Wawasee. He can win a close game, but I get the impression that Concord does not want to attempt many field goals. LeBold averages 35 yards a punt and he also averages 52 yards a kickoff, which is a factor, because Concord plays in high scoring games.
Lowell ran the ball 41 times for 204 yards last week and they'll need more than that this week. The Devils are coming off games against Andrean (8-3), Logansport (7-3) and Plymouth (5-6) and they have solidified their running game. Senior Steffan Peck (172 carries, 766 yards) and sophomore Brandon Grubbe (198 carries, 1,350 yards) compliment each other well and have been mistake free. Lowell has not lost a fumble in the last three games.
Tight end Jeff Barker has caught 13 passes for 265 yards. He has been a very good blocker, especially on wide plays because of his speed (he is a sprinter on the track team). There will come a time when they simply hand him the ball. Another secret weapon is senior Danny Remboski, a fullback, who has reinvented himself as a part time perimeter (DB-WR) player late in his high school career. Barker, Peck and Remboski block so often that they are prime candidates for screen passes.
The line, led by senior Geno Wentworth (6-2, 240), relies on quickness and strength more than size and they probably prefer a dry field where they can get good footing.
QB Kurt Monix (39 of 70, 702 yards, 5 TDs, 3 interceptions) has been excellent handling ball this season and he'll have better weather conditions to throw the ball this week than he did last week in the monsoon at Plymouth. But, to be absolutely honest, this isn't the week to attack through the air. Lowell wants to run for first downs and keep Concord QB David Yoder on the sidelines. The Devils will take a half dozen shots through the air, but they want to hit the Minutemen with their entire catalog of running plays first to wear the home team down.
Although, this might be the week Lowell lets Monix (5-10, 155) run that naked bootleg that seems wide open after they hand off to Grubbe four times in a row. Grubbe has been a revelation. Mentioned as only a promising newcomer in the preseason, Grubbe ran for a 68-yard TD on his first carry and never looked back. He has carried 70 times for 548 yards in his last three games. The best thing about Lowell's running attack right now is that if anything happens to Grubbe (Crown Point lost 1,800-yard rusher Russell Chick to a knee injury in the second quarter of last week's 13-7 loss at arch-rival Merrillville) Peck, a veteran of the 2005 state title team, has gained 2,000 yards (442 carries, 2,178 yards) in his career and could step in with no problem. Peck gained 417 yards on 75 carries in 2005 and added 995 yards on 195 carries in 2006.
I also think junior third-string halfback Cody Midgett (5-8, 150) has some big plays in him and you may see him on a trick play or two Friday. What is so intriguing about this week's game is that defensively, Lowell is geared to take on passing teams. Lowell's 'Bermuda Triangle' pass rush is where quarterbacks disappear. Senior defensive linemen Jeff Barker (6-1/2 sacks), John Black (4-1/2 sacks) and Joe Carlson (9 sacks) have led a potent defensive assault.
Black (6-2, 195) and Carlson (6-0, 205) certainly benefit from the fact that Barker, who played in the 2005 state title game and had a school-record 14 quarterback sacks is 2006, is much better known and defenses usually assign a lineman and a back to stop him. But Concord, which uses four wide receivers on most plays, often does not have a tight end or fullback on the field and they have to know that halfback Wes Smith (5-8, 160) is more valuable as a misdirection or 'draw play' runner, than as a blocker.
Lowell must get to the quarterback as quickly as possible and do damage and they have no problem with that. So Concord's Yoder will make quick decisions and fire the football and that will put the heat on the Red Devil secondary, which is led by seniors Lukas Palmer, who had 11 tackles and an interception at Plymouth last week and TJ Lukasik, who added eight stops. What Lowell has to have this week is extra defensive backs and they will probably be Chris Thompson (5-8, 153), Cody Midgett (5-8, 150) and Danny Remboski (6-0, 190), who will be asked to bump with big Minuteman receiver Greg Lebold (6-3, 180).
The Red Devil linebackers Justin Juarez (6-2, 220), David Eastling (6-0, 197), Ben Rigby (6-0, 170) and Bryan DeSomer (5-11, 176) have been very, very good. Rigby, who will blitz on one play and pass cover the next, was in on 13 tackles at Plymouth.
Rigby and DeSomer will drop into coverage this week and try to be in the right
spot when Yoder throws his quick slants. Because of his size, Juarez can
just up and blitz like another big defensive end.
This defense, playing the 48th toughest schedule (of 316) in the state, has
allowed 93 points (8.5 per game) all season and has shut out four teams.
Lowell will not shut out Concord, but if they hold them to 17 points (twice the
average), the Devils will win this game.
Lowell senior David Lang will be kicking in his 13th playoff game and he has field goals which won the regional in 2006 against Hobart, the Semistate in 2005 against Fort Wayne South and he kicked the game-winning extra point in the Devils' 28-27 state title victory.
This is an odd game because Lowell was in Sectional nine last season while Concord was in Sectional 10. So you have a rare sectional championship game between two multiple-time defending sectional champions. Concord has won the last two Sectional 10 titles, while Lowell has won the last four Sectional nine titles.
Because of that last fact and because of the matchup of Lowell's pass rushing, hard hitting defense against Concord's 21st Century spread offense, this is the best game in this part of the state Friday.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN...
ELKHART - Lowell always falls behind early and this game will be no
different. A reverse to speedy junior WR JaVontae Hence (18 TDs) will
score the first TD for the Minutemen late in the first period.
Lowell will be able to run the ball here and Steffan Peck will tie the game with
a short TD run midway through the second quarter.
TJ
Lukasik will intercept Yoder and score the go-ahead TD, but Hence will run the
kickoff back all the way to tie the game 14-14 at the half.
There will be a long half-time reminder of the fact that the Devils must
maintain possession of the ball and Lowell will open the third quarter with a
long, time-consuming drive leading to a Brandon Grubbe TD run and a 21-14 lead.
But nobody really stops Concord, and at home in decent weather, they will play
well. Yoder will score on a QB draw to tie the game late in the third
quarter.
After an exchange of possessions, the Devils' Lukasik will run back a punt for a
28-21 lead, but Yoder will lead a passing drive and senior Brandon Nance will
catch the game-tying TD midway through the final period. As the game goes
on, Concord's defensive line will tire, giving Lowell more rushing yards.
But Lowell's secondary will also tire as Yoder throws 40 times.
Lowell again will mount a rushing drive with Grubbe, Monix and Peck all carrying the ball. A reverse to Eric Roadruck will put the ball inside the 10-yard-line and David Lang's short field goal will give the Devils a three-point edge with a minute to play.
As the regional championship game ended in November of 2005, so will this game conclude. Yoder will pass for a couple of first downs, but the four final passes deep into Lowell territory will fall incomplete. These teams haven't changed game plans that much since 2005 and that game ended 30-23 on this same field. The names have changed, but this game will be the same.
After two regional title meetings, these teams certainly respect each other and they know what the promised land is like. They've both been there in the last two years. There will be a lack of nervousness Friday because these boys have played in so many playoff games. There's no way this isn't a high-scoring, entertaining game. Concord will pass for 250 yards, but Lowell will rush for 300 yards and a "drive for five" will be complete as Lowell wins a fifth consecutive sectional championship.
LOWELL 31, Concord 28