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5A
No. 18 Lake Central at
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Week
4 - Football Game of the Week Preview |
5A
No. 18 Lake Central at
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9-06-2006
When:
Friday, September 8, 2006
Where: Crown Point high school - 1500 S. Main, Crown Point, IN.
Tickets: $5 - (for everyone).
TV/Radio/Internet:
www.USA-365.com
Weather: Warm. Low-70s with a chance of rain. This is still a little warm for players, but good for fans. There can't be too many more weeks of 80 degree Friday afternoons. I think the good weather is leading to higher scores, but it may also wear out teams without depth.
Parking: This game won't sell out, but a very large crowd is expected for another of CP's neighborhood foes. If it does not rain you'll need to be in the parking lot by 6:30 p.m. or, well, you won't be in the parking lot. In the late 1980s and early 90s, CP-LC was a monster rivalry that drew very large crowds. Indications are, LC's 'blue nation' will show up in force Friday night.
The series: Lake Central and Crown Point have always been the signature South Lake County schools and they are next door neighbors. You can have a Crown Point postal address, live in the Lake Central school district, and have a Merrillville phone number. Don't ask me how I know.
Lake Central is an enigma. How could they have fallen from a dominating state finals team in 1993 to a record of 5-25 from 2003 to 2005? They had a strong feeder system, the Tri-Town Raiders football organization, which has been sending little players into LC for years. The large school enrollment always put large numbers in the blue and white uniforms on the Indian sidelines.
The best theory is, what happened to LC happened to CP a few years earlier. When you play a big school schedule, your foes beat you down and keep you down. If you have a bad class it hurts your turnout. When you are playing large schools, a bad class gets you whipped. That sends a message through your school. Don't come out for the team. They're 'losers.' When you get down, even an influx of good players can't lift you quickly as it can at smaller schools like Morton, which went from 1-9 to 10-2 in four years. You can't do that at LC because of the competition.
You have to build slowly and that's what Lake Central is doing. They won't go 10-2 this year. They may go through peaks and valleys until they get a top-heavy winning squad. They may not get back to that 1st place level in this decade. It's a slow climb. But Bill Melby, the old center-linebacker from Munster high school, is slowly lifting the program. I hope he gets four or five more years because, in big school football, that's what it takes.
Lake Central is a descendent of Dyer Central, which began football in 1949. Dyer Central was on Route 30 where Kahler Middle School now sits. The actually Dyer Central building was torn down in a renovation in the mid-90s. The football field at Kahler, which was used for LC varsity soccer as late as 2002, is the old Dyer Central football field.
Dyer Central beat Crown Point 7-0 on Nov. 1, 1949 and they were 4-2 against CP. Seventeen years later, Dyer Central, which competed in the old Calumet Conference, became Lake Central. Crown Point defeated Lake Central 13-0 on Sept. 30, 1966 and CP leads the all-time series with Lake Central 22-19-1. The point is, LC has always played CP. And they always will.
The Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) hasn't really jumped on board with the obvious yet, but there will be a Class 6A in football and with soaring enrolments, both CP and LC will be 6A before your baby brother grows up. If you expand to 6A, there's probably initially going to be 6-team sectionals and the six teams would be Portage, Merrillville, Crown Point, Valparaiso, Portage, LaPorte and Lake Central. Chesterton is significantly smaller than CP and LC and 5A East Chicago will almost certainly be 4A next season. In all likelihood, Sectional One would become a seven team group next year with a first round bye for someone.
Lake Central and Crown Point were rivals in the old Lake Suburban Conference, which disbanded in 1992. Crown Point went to the Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) immediately. But for reasons that are not clear, Lake Central was not admitted until 10 years later. Some were afraid of the competition being too tough in league play, hurting the records of all DAC teams and some of that has come to pass. Media, fans and parents aren't known for their knowledge of the game. As DAC teams like Valparaiso last year went 5-5, teams like Lowell (11-4), Andrean (8-2) and Morton (8-4) reaped great honor and acclaim locally. The records give the illusion that those three teams could have beaten Valpo, but that's a fantasy. Valparaiso, with far more depth and skill, would have defeated any of them decisively.
What does that matter? Your community judges you by wins and losses, not who you play. All coaches secretly want a soft league game and there aren't any. I think LC was not allowed in the DAC for years because not all of the other seven DAC schools truly wanted seven difficult league games. So LC and CP will have many meaningful games in the 21st century. Both are destined to have 3,000 students (LC had 2,834 last year) and will again both will be football powers, although the days of undefeated teams in the DAC are coming to an end.
For now, Crown Point has the upper hand with four victories in a row. Eventually, Lake Central will come back to power and start evening the score. It's just a question of whether it's now or five years from now.
5A
No. 3 Crown Point (3-0)
Coach:
Chip Pettit (31-26, 5 seasons)
Enrollment: 2,387
2005 record: 11-1
Sectional titles: (2) 1988, 1991
Regional titles: (1) 1988
Lost Sectional 1 championship 16-13 at eventual regional champion Merrillville.
2006
Crown Point Schedule
9-18
(W)
17-0 Lowell (1-2)
8-25 (W) 34-20 at Hobart (2-1)
9-1 (W) 17-2 at MERRILLVILLE (2-1)
9-8 (F) LAKE CENTRAL (3-0)
9-15 (F) PORTAGE (1-2)
9-22 (F) at VALPARAISO (1-2)
9-29 (F) at LaPORTE (2-1)
10-6 (F) CHESTERTON (1-2)
10-13 (F) at MICHIGAN CITY (1-2)
5A Sectional 1 playoffs
10-20 (F) quarterfinals
10-27 (F) semifinals
11-3 (F) championship
5A
No. 18 Lake Central (3-0)
Coach:
Bill Melby (5-8, 2 years)
2005 record: 2-8, lost a 5A sectional 1 quarterfinals 48-3 to Merrillville
Sectional titles: (4) 1990, 1993, 1994, 1999
Regional titles: (1) 1993
Semistate titles: (1) 1993
2006 schedule
8-18 (W) 29-28 5A Goshen (2-1)
8-25 (W) 47-0 5A East Chicago (1-2)
9-1 (W) 13-3 at 5A Portage (1-2)
9-8 (F) at 5A Crown Point (3-0)
9-15 (F) LaPorte (2-1)
9-22 (F) Michigan City (1-2)
9-29 (F) Chesterton (1-2)
10-6 (F) at Merrillville (2-1)
10-13 (F) Valparaiso (0-2)
5A Sectional 1 playoffs
10-20 (F) quarterfinals
10-27 (F) semifinals
11-3 (F) championship
CROWN
POINT (9-8-2006) I questioned the
Sagarin ratings last week, but they said Crown Point by 13 over Merrillville and
CP won 17-2, so I'm going to shut up about them this week.
Lake Central is probably looking forward to this game as a chance to prove themselves. They need to. LC's opening game win 29-28 over Goshen came with a 10-point fourth quarter rally against a team that had no coach. The Goshen coach resigned the week of the first game for undisclosed reasons. LC romped over East Chicago in week two, but EC is truthfully a 4A team that has not been strong for almost a decade. It's hard to read their 10-3 win over Portage last week as well. Portage used three quarterbacks in the game and they simply have not been able to get themselves in order offensively.
Senior Lake Central QB PJ Gbur has completed 36 of 60 passes for 545 yards and 4 TDs. He has quality targets in basketball starter Joe Wingis (6-5, 204) and Austin Macak (5-10, 167) and a good running back in junior Tony Morang (5-10, 203). But what we don't know about is the line play of LC. Three starters returned, but they are back off a 2-8 team. Senior Kevin Waters (6-2, 245) keys a line that will average about 240 pounds per man. Defensively, LC held East Chicago to 121 yards and Portage to just 112 yards. The LC secondary has six interceptions including three last week. The defensive line has Danny Mannick (6-5, 215), Ryan Myszak (6-5, 225), Hans Oskam (6-1, 240) and David Briski (5-11, 220). The secondary is big with Adam Hill (6-2, 190) and Austin Macak (5-11, 170). The place kicker Scott Spicer is excellent with four field goals of 19, 20, 27, 32 yards.
This is a big team that has been physically imposing so far. The Indians will be the first team this season that is bigger than Crown Point. But the Indians have not been smooth offensively. LC has scored three first half TDs all season so far. When a team kicks a lot of field goals that means their offense is not what it could be. Powerful high school offensive teams do not kick many field goals, because they aren't stopped near the goal line. LC has committed only three turnovers all season. If they lose, it probably won't be by a large margin.
Crown Point has been very good defensively for a year and a half now. The Bulldogs shut out a young team on opening night and basically shut out Merrillville 17-2 last week. Against Hobart's 40 points per game attack, Crown Point gave up two TDs after they had built up a 21-point lead. The Brickies did run the ball fairly well on CP and hit several short passes. But they also gave up two key turnovers that led to 14 points.
The Bulldogs seem to be using a little more four man line early in the season with senior Michael Damjanovic (21 tackles) stepping up into the line with Danny Byrd (5-6, 210), Zach Cecich (6-2, 220) and Nick Hladek (5-8, 165). Crown Point's secondary has allowed 289 yards on 32 of 60 passing with safety Jon Sertich between rotating corner backs Anthony Stahl (5-5, 155), Ryan Forney (5-8, 165) and Matt Ernest (6-2, 175).
CP's all-new linebacker crew has been a success with Lance LaMere (17 tackles), Nick Cottrell (19 tackles), Joey Patrick (15 tackles), Tony Conway (14 tackles) and Andrew Szymborski (13 tackles). You want the linebackers to make tackles and that's where the buck stops on CP. The Bulldogs have allowed only 268 yards rushing against three teams that have run the ball on other teams.
Offensively, the Bulldogs have 549 yards rushing and 5.1 yards per carry with Sertich (53 carries, 293 yards) and Tommy Parks (40 carries, 242 yards). Quarterback Blake Mascarello is 24 of 44 for 281 yards, 5 TDs and just one interception. Most of the completions have gone to running backs Parks (7-85 yards) and Sertich (6-46 yards). WR Matt Ernest has caught only three passes in three games but that lack of catches is unlikely to continue. If they win, it probably won't be by a big margin.
Crown Point has won 12 consecutive regular season games and 14 of 15 overall. As impossible as this may seem, in the entire history of Crown Point high school football, I cannot find another time when CP has won 14 of 15 games. This should be a very confident team. The Bulldogs have won all three games this year by 10 point or more. They appear to expect to win even when they don't play well, which is a tough attitude to beat.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN: CP won 23-0 last season and this is unlikely to be a high scoring game this time either, because both defenses have outplayed both offenses so far. The problem for LC will be to establish the run, something they have not done this season. The Indians have 420 yards rushing which, in three games they have won against struggling teams, is not much. We're looking at a scoreless first quarter and possibly a first half without any touchdowns here.
This is the kind of night when the intensity may not be as high as it should be. Crown Point's 'big' game was last week against Merrillville, while LC overcame a big hurdle with their first DAC victory in three years. Crown Point finally takes the lead on a quick slant pass to Ryan Forney in the third quarter and LC quickly gets away from the run, throwing on two out of every three downs. Gbur will fumble on a sack, and a run by Tommy Parks will make it 14-0 late in the third quarter. The Indians will get Joe Wingis loose for a long pass to set up a TD by Tony Morang, but a field goal by Michael Lipton will edge the lead to 17-7 in the fourth quarter.
The
Indians will lift the visitors' crowd with a drive in the late going, but an
interception TD runback by Matt Ernest will end the scoring. Lake
Central's Gbur will throw 30 passes and the CP secondary will get a thorough
test. But a low-scoring game will again go to Crown Point. Lake
Central will feel confident going into a rematch in the post-season, but they
have not played the schedule that would prepare them to win this Friday.