Week 12 - Football Game of the Week Preview

Crown Point (5-5) at Merrillville (5-5)

Merrillville has not won the Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) the last two seasons but they have won found a way to win the last two Class 6A sectional championships. The Pirates try to make in three in a row Friday night against Crown Point. (Photo by Mark Smith)

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

11-04-2016  
 

When:  7:00 p.m., Friday, Nov. 4, 2016

Where:  Merrillville High School's Demaree Stadium, 276 E. 68th Place, Merrillville, IN 46410 (2 blocks east of Broadway on 68th Place).

Tickets:  $6
TV/Radio/Internet: No over-the-air radio. Live Internet audio stream on www.USA-365.com.

Enrollment: CROWN POINT - 2,664; MERRILLVILLE - 2,228.
 

WEATHER: Still good. Low 60s during the day Friday and mid-50s after dark. No rain is expected and any winds will be light. Weather should have no effect on the game and it will only be slightly cool for those who will be watching. It'll be a good night and long range weather suggests that Nov. 11 will be good as well.

PARKING: Lake Central did not bring a large crowd to Crown Point last week and I'm wondering how many CP folks will go to nearby Merrillville. I think that some friends and fans who show up at home games just don't go to any road games, especially after the regular season ends. Some buy 'season pass' tickets which end with the regular season. Maybe some just like home games where they are familiar with parking, concessions, where to sit. Sometimes it's the weather or the overall prospects of the team going forward. I honestly do not know. But attendance sometimes drops off in the first couple of sectional weeks. Both Merrillville and Crown Point have .500 teams. I'm curious to see how many will come out on a good weather night to watch the Pirates and Bulldogs actually play for something.

WHAT's AT STAKE: This is the sectional championship game and there's only 16 teams left for the 6A state championship. Look at how many are from the Indianapolis area. Warren Central, Southport, Cathedral and Lawrence Central are Indy city schools and Fishers, Carmel, Center Grove and Avon are suburban Indy schools.

Warren Central and Southport are in the southern half of the state tournament bracket because there just aren't very many large 6A schools south of the Indianapolis suburbs. That's how we have, in the past, gotten two Indianapolis area schools playing for the state championship.

But we have two 5-5 teams on the field this Friday and I'm not sure either side is convinced they're going to win the state championship. So that makes this game the 'Super Bowl'. Especially for the seniors on both sides. How much do they want to say they won the sectional championship their senior year? How much do they still believe they can win this game?

The 'Distant' Replay

 

MERRILLVILLE: This 'not so distant' replay is of the Labor day weekend matchup of these two schools, one of the most spectacular games in recent years. After Merrillville matched Crown Point's quick start, CP took the 8-point halftime lead on a perfect pass from Grayson Lynk to Shane McCormick down the visitors' sidelines. A fumbled punt set up the Pirates to tie the game 21-21 on the first Cam Wright to James Kirklen TD and a Pirate interception by Sean Roche gave the home team a chance to take the lead. But Zach Stewart intercepted a long pass from Wright late in the third quarter and made a memorable weaving 75-yard run across the field for his second TD that gave CP a 28-21 lead going to the fourth quarter.

But the Pirates mounted a fourth quarter rally where Cam Wright completed 3-of-3 for 75 yards and two TDs and Davion Ervin-Poindexter ran nine times for 49 yards and the final TD. It was the third rally for the Pirates on the night and Merrillville won going away.

Cam Wright suffered a shoulder injury a couple of weeks later and he's out for Friday's game. CP's Grayson Lynk also will not play. Both teams suffered three-game losing streaks in September, but bounced back to win the season finale and the playoff opener. The rematch this week will not resemble the game 10 weeks ago and, if you don't care who wins, that's too bad.

MERRILLVILLE Update:

MERRILLVILLE - What jumps out at you on Merrillville's statistics page is that they've allowed more points (24.9 per game) than they have scored (24.0 per game). But the Portage team that upset LaPorte (9-1) and Lowell (7-3), lost twice to Merrillville. A couple of notes. The Pirates have not attempted a field goal this fall and their place kicker is girl soccer captain Meagan Wise, who is 26 of 28 on extra points. Wide receiver James Kirklen has caught 28 passes for 512 yards, but that's misleading because he missed at least two games with an injury. I do not know that starting QB Cam Wright is unavailable, but he missed the last three regular season games and, even with the bye week, Wright did not play on Oct. 28 in the 22-21 win over Portage. Merrillville has won this sectional the last two years and lost to Penn at the regional level. Two years ago, the Pirates defeated CP 45-42 and topped Lake Central 21-19.

WR-LB-QB Kameron Jackson (6-4, 191) Senior:
Kam Jackson is the second most important player in Friday's game. Since starting QB Cam Wright (90 of 162, 1,340 yards, 11 TDs, 9 interceptions) was hurt in September, Jackson (26 of 60, 434 yards, 4 TDs, 4 interceptions) has moved in at QB with increasing success. Jackson has also run 55 times for 215 yards and three TDs. Earlier this year, he caught 13 passes for 135 yards. Kam also kicks off and punts (49 times) for a 31.3 yard average. Kameron Jackson will be a major reason if Merrillville wins Friday.

RB - Davion Ervin Poindexter (5-10, 180) Junior:
Poindexter has been a major factor all year, but even more so now with Cam Wright out. The junior has carried 213 times for 1,039 yards and 14 touchdowns, two of them in the earlier game against Crown Point. Poindexter doesn't dance around much. He is a straight ahead runner who can break tackles. DEP is going to get the ball 15-20 times Friday.

OLB - Anthony Sams (5-11, 209) Senior:
Anthony Sams is one of the leaders on a small, fast Pirate defense. Sams has been in on 56 tackles and has made 10 tackles for losses. Anthony also has three quarterback sacks for 23 yards in losses. Sams, Alfred Stubbs (6-0, 228), top tackler Moses Johnson Junior (5-7, 173), and Branden Bramson (5-7, 165) all have 10 tackles for losses and at least 50 stops. The Pirates do the 'bend but don't break' thing. You can run on them. But it's hard to run wide with players like Anthony Sams.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN:

MERRILLVILLE (11-04-2016) Whenever I suggest that a Crown Point game is going to be high scoring, it isn't. I know that Merrillville scored 41 points on Crown Point in September. In this Friday's rematch, there won't be a combined 41 points scored by both teams. Both offenses will struggle through a scoreless first half, created by fast defenses and offenses that have been altered with new quarterbacks.

Kameron Jackson will run for the games' first TD in the third quarter, but CP will tie it up on a short run by Tyler Gomez early in the forth quarter. CP will gain ground on an exchange of punts and Ben Fridrich's field goal will give CP their first lead midway in the final period.

A Bulldog pass interception and a late Fridrich field goal will give CP a six-point lead. A second CP interception will allow CP to run out the clock. I know the first matchup was 41-28, but this one just won't get anywhere near that. We've got two defenses that will stop the other side most of the night. CP will get three turnovers and win their first sectional since 2011.

 

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Revised: November 03, 2016 .