Week 7 - 2005 H.S. Football Preview: LaPorte at Crown Point

Note: For fans coming from LaPorte who may not have been to CP in several years, this is the 'new' Crown Point high school directly 1/2 mile south of the downtown square. The old school directly west of the downtown square has been demolished.

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Parking: In good weather, LaPorte brings lots of orange-clad fans. LaPorte probably supports better than any other school in the six county area we call NW Indiana. In dry weather (and that is what is predicted), this game will draw a near capacity crowd to the 4,800-seat CPHS field. There is plenty of parking for a crowd this size but the flaw is there is only one entrance to the parking lot. If you do not mind walking, you can park at the middle school north of the high school complex. But you need to have deep love for walking, because it's about 500 yards from the middle school lot to the stands. Any way you look at it, if you arrive at 6:45 for this game, you're late. Again, you are asked not to park in the St Matthias church parking lot just west of the school. But as the Bulldogs have been winning this year, I have noted football-Friday sinners who have been weak and parked in the holy lot. They have been forgiven.

The rivalry: Due to the distance between them (45 miles) these two schools have very little history in any sport. Before CP joined the DAC in 1993, the last meeting was a 46-13 Slicer win in 1959. LaPorte has clinched a fifth consecutive winning season, but it has not always been like that. The Slicers were 0-10 in 1976 and 1983. They had only two winning seasons in the 1980s and just three in the 1990s. In the four decades of the state tournament, LaPorte has never advanced beyond the sectional level. The Slicers' lack of post-season success is understandable. They have four-time state champ Penn as a sectional rival.

The rise of football at this LaPorte County school is something that is probably gratifying. Baseball has won eight state titles and boys basketball has been tradition rich and successful. The LaPorte volleyball team has also come to power recently and are presently in the top-10 with an outside chance to reach the state finals. Football has been the slacker until this decade. LaPorte has always sat directly between the Michiana (South Bend/Elkhart/Niles, Michigan/Mishawaka) area and Northwest Indiana (Lake and Porter County). For reasons I do not know, the Times newspaper, the largest paper in NW Indiana, does not cover LaPorte even though they do cover South Central which is, at worst, a western suburb of LaPorte. Sometimes many trees are sacrificed to write reams of platitudes about Lake County squads when superior LaPorte teams are ignored. This is especially true in baseball where LaPorte is state class on a consistent basis.

This is changing. LaPorte comes into Lake County consistently now that Lake Central is a league rival and when the IHSAA goes to Class 6A in football (and they will in this decade), LaPorte will be a 5A team and will be grouped with Lake and Porter County squads at playoff time instead of being grouped with South Bend schools. LaPorte was actually in the Northern Indiana Conference with South Bend area schools from 1927-1973. In the early days, some Lake County schools were in the Northern Indiana Conference. It's possible the lack of attention was because LaPorte, somewhat like Lowell, was always a doorman in football in the second half of the 20^th century.

LaPorte leads the all-time series with CP 12-3 and won 37-23 last season. But nothing was on the line. The LaPorte football program has won only two league championships in school history, the NIC in 1964 and the DAC in 2003. That could explain their rabid fan following now, as well as why a victory in Crown Point Friday night, giving the Slicers a one-game league lead with two games left, would be a major triumph.

East Chicago, Lake Central, Michigan City, Portage, Chesterton, Valparaiso, Merrillville and Crown Point.

Riley, Clay, Adams, Elkhart Central, Elkhart Memorial, Penn, Mishawaka and LaPorte.

CROWN POINT (9-30-2005) LaPorte and Crown Point are both more than halfway through the seven rooms of doom, the Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) schedule that has worn down better teams than these two. This game, at first glance, is for the DAC title but the reality is that both teams still have to get by Michigan City (4-2) in the final two weeks of the year. Both teams were fortunate to win in week six with Crown Point scoring in the final minute to beat Valparaiso and LaPorte getting a second overtime field goal by Nick Ford to win 38-35 at Merrillville.

LaPorte has more weapons than the your local street gang with QB Lance Juergensen (64-113, 1,164 yards, 14 TDs, 5 INTs), two tall receivers in 6-3 Kris Staats (29 catches/661 yards) and 6-4 Mike Walls (12 carries/137 yards) and 6-3 Chase Coburn (16 catches/324 yards). Running the ball will be 210-pound HB Airrence Shark (133 carries/696 yards, 10 TDs) and Division I kicker Nick Ford (30-of-30 extra points, 4 FGs), who can hit from 50 yards away. But all these talented boys don't get on the field unless LaPorte stops the Crown Point offense and LaPorte hasn't stopped much of anybody, allowing 123 points (20.5 per game), a huge total for a winning team. The Slicers traditionally gamble defensively, blitzing from all angles. But they have allowed 1,085 yards rushing and that's just too many.

In the past three games, LaPorte has also given up 559 yards passing, another alarming stat. Crown Point has had the opposite problem. The scary number for the Bulldogs is 12. That's the total of touchdowns scored by the CP offense in six games. 12 touchdowns and 11 field goals. It's hard to win with that little production from the offense but CP has done it with a defense that's allowed only six points a game, the lowest total among Class 5A schools in Indiana.

Senior QB Matt Jansen #7 was back in uniform, but on the sidelines for CP's 13-10 win last week over Valparaiso. Jansen may connect with soph TE Zach Cecich #89 for some passing yardage in this week's homecoming game against LaPorte.

CP's senior-dominated '35' defense features linebackers Chris Schillo #17, Vince Lewis #11, Nick Ciochina #35, Chris Wilson #25 and linemen Chris Rutherford #3, among others.

To be honest, it's a prep sports miracle they've done that well. The Bulldogs lost all-NW Indiana quarterback Matt Jansen plus all-NW Indiana WR-DB Matt Ernest to injuries in the scrimmage and the season opener. Ernest has been missed most on defense where he was a very effective corner back. But Jansen was the key to the offense. No other QB had taken a snap in a varsity game in 2004. When the 2005 season is over, the unsung hero will be sophomore Blake Mascarello, who went from an expected role as 'clipboard boy' to field general for an undefeated Top-10 big school team. But Mascarello will finish the season 6-0 as a starter because Jansen was cleared to play Tuesday and he immediately goes back into the lineup. Why? Jansen completed 133 of 242 passes for 1,976 yards in 2004 with 15 TDs and he has faced everyone on the CP schedule. Jansen is the player that CP's offense went all summer assuming would play the quarterback position and they have become very conservative without him.

Expect to see Crown Point throw the ball down the field early in the game Friday to back the defense off and set up the running attack. Crown Point will also now be more effective near the goal line as they have an experienced QB who has put the ball in the end zone consistently. Still, without Ernest, CP will not be throwing 20-30 times. HB Jon Sertich set a school record last year with 273 yards rushing against LaPorte and he'll be looking for open spaces Friday. The question is, can CP's offensive line with three sophomores handle the LaPorte blitzes?

And can LaPorte's offensive line do anything with the Bulldogs' five-linebacker set-up? LaPorte's Airrence Shark ran for 198 yards on 23 carries against Crown Point last year and he will keep the CP linebackers honest and create one-on-one shots for Juergensen and his tall ends against the small CP defenders. So with some apparent mismatches here, what will happen? Well, frankly, touchdowns will happen.

I would think that CP will key on Shark and give up one-on-one opportunities on the perimeter, counting on their pass rush to get to the quarterback. That might lead to a couple of TD passes and a 14-0 or 14-3 LaPorte lead in the first half. A play CP has not done much of this year is the wide receiver screen which brings a receiver across the middle as the line allows the rushers in. I'd bet cash money that Ryan Forney takes that one for a TD in this game. The Bulldogs will prove physically strong enough to take on the LaPorte line and win short yardage plays, allowing Donny Keiser and Jon Sertich to control the ball and neutralize LaPorte's quick strike ability.

Crown Point will rally to within 17-14 or 21-14 at the half. One key to the second half will be for CP to show different defensive fronts and get a couple of turnovers preferably in the second half. But the Bulldog defense, as good as it's been, is not equipped on a dry, clear night, to handle this caliber of offense. The other key will be CP's surprising offensive line, led by senior guards Brian Gertsch (6-3, 240) and Marcus Robinson (6-3, 280) to keep the Bulldogs offense on the field 60% of the time. Quick hitting trap plays where the line uses the defenders blitzing rush against him figure to bust wide open occasionally on LaPorte. If CP can get LaPorte to be more conservative defensively they can grind out five yards a pop and control this game. That's what I think ultimately happens here. The Bulldogs will tie the game late in the third quarter and go ahead on a Jansen pass to TE Zach Cecich. Look for LaPorte to score more than anyone else has against Crown Point this season. But the Slicers are unlucky in that they did not get to face Crown Point without Jansen. They will call different plays with a senior quarterback than they would with a sophomore. The Bulldogs score on LaPorte as almost everyone else has and the home crowd is a factor as CP holds off a late LaPorte possession to go 7-0.

5A No. 6 LaPorte (6-0) at

5A No. 3 Crown Point (6-0)

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

Copyright © 2004 USA-365.com and Meyer Multimedia Services, a division of Meyer Broadcasting Corp. All rights reserved.
Revised: September 29, 2005 .

5A No. 6 LaPorte (6-0) at

5A No. 3 Crown Point (6-0)

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

Copyright © 2004 USA-365.com and Meyer Multimedia Services, a division of Meyer Broadcasting Corp. All rights reserved. Revised: September 29, 2005 .

Copyright © 2004 USA-365.com and Meyer Multimedia Services, a division of Meyer Broadcasting Corp. All rights reserved.
Revised: September 29, 2005 .