Lowell defeats Plymouth at Rockpile, 14-6 to win Sectional Quarterfinal

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

10-25-2009

Friday, October 23, 2009,  49 degrees, occasional rain, Class 4A, Sectional 10 Quarterfinal in PLYMOUTH, IN

1st Qtr:  LOWELL (7-0) Brandon Grubbe, 2-yard run (22 nd TD) 47-yard drive, 5 plays. Cole Midgett kick. 10:08 left.
2nd Qtr:  PLYMOUTH (7-6) Leniel Himes, 99-yard pass from Gordy Holloway. 99 yards, 2 plays.  Bad snap on extra point.  3:22 left.
3rd Qtr:  LOWELL (14-6) Brandon Grubbe, 31-yard run (23rd TD) 41-yard drive, 3 plays.  Cole Midgett kick.  0:16 left.
4th Qtr:  No scoring.

RUSHING:
PLYMOUTH (23 carries, 55 yards):  Brock Smith (FB) 2-7 yards; Houston Hodges (HB) 2-15 yards, Spencer Schalliol (HB) 9-37 yards; Trent Keyser (HB) 1-3 yards; Tyler Shook (FB) 3-1 yards; Gordy Holloway (QB) 4 (minus-8 yards).

LOWELL (56 carries, 242 yards, 2 TDs, fumble) Jordan Juarez (FB) 6-25 yards; Ray Skamay (QB) 3-29 yards, fumble; Nate Cleveland (FB) 5-12 yards; Cole Midgett 2 (minus-2 yards); Brandon Grubbe (HB) 39 caries, 178 yards, 2 TDs.

PASSING:
PLYMOUTH: Gordy Holloway (QB) 5-14, 168 yards, TD, one interception; Kevin Garrity (QB) 0-1, 0 yards;
LOWELL:  Ray Skamay (QB) 1-6, 6 yards.

RECEIVING:
PLYMOUTH - Curtis Ivy (WR) 2-48 yards; Brock Smith (FB) 1-10 yards; Leniel Himes (TE) 2-110 yards, TD;
LOWELL - John Hilbrich (WR) 1-10 yards.

TOTAL YARDS:
PLYMOUTH - 223 yards, 6 first downs, one turnover
LOWELL - 248 yards, 13 first downs, one turnover

PLYMOUTH (10-25-2009) As far as it's become necessary to travel for these Lowell playoff games in recent years and as much as it seems to rain every Friday and as tall as few times the odds seem to be against the Devils these days, this never gets old.

This Lowell thing.  Where they upset a team they seemingly had 'no chance' to beat.  Matched up against a foe that was bigger, stronger and more experienced on the road in the rain, Lowell chose not to care.  The seventh-ranked but seemingly overmatched Red Devils made Plymouth look like the team that was not favored to win.  Lowell took an immediate lead, held it through hard times and miserable weather, and dominated with defense to win 14-6 in a premier opening night match up of top 10 teams in the 37th Indiana State high school football tournament late Friday.

Halfback Brandon Grubbe carried the ball 39 times for 178 yards and two Lowell TDs, but it was an overpowering Red Devil defense that shut down one of the state's premier ground games, holding Plymouth's 280-yards-per-game rushing attack to just 55 yards on 23 carries.

In front of 3,000 fans sitting though misty waves of light rain, Lowell gave instant notice that this might not be Plymouth's night.  The Rockies chose to kickoff to Grubbe, who returned the ball 33 yards to the Plymouth 47-yard line.  Five plays later, including a 17-yard run by Grubbe and a 19-yard QB sneak by Ray Skamay, Grubbe, who is now just 128 yards short of 5,000 for his three-year Lowell varsity career, scored on a two yard run with just 1:52 gone in the game.

This was an impact TD.  Plymouth had allowed just nine points in the first period throughout the regular season and the Rockies had not trailed in any game at any time all season.  It did seem to affect them.  Seven points behind in an elimination game, the Rockies, the two-time defending undefeated champions of the Northern Lakes Conference, struggled with ball handling, didn't attack the Lowell defense with confidence and gained just one first down in the entire first half.  They were shaken.

"I think it did have an effect on them," said Skamay.  "It was crucial to have a quick start.  The coaches talked about it all week.  I'm so proud of how we played tonight."

The Devils' defense earned that.  Plymouth had rushed for 2,558 yards in nine games before Lowell held them to 55 yards on 23 carries. The Rockies' offensive line featured junior powerhouses Skylar Evans (6-2, 269) and Damon Howe (6-0, 277) and Leniel Himes (6-0, 255), an all-state tight end.

Lowell, led by defensive end Joe Bell, linebacker Jordan Juarez and a swarming gang-tackling 'special ops' force, stuffed that attack and forced Plymouth, a team that threw the ball seven times a game during the regular season to try 15 passes.  The Devil secondary was far from perfect, allowing a 99-yard TD pass from Rockie senior QB Gordy Holloway to Himes and letting a few other Plymouth receivers slip open.  But forcing the home team to try 'Plan B' worked.  Holloway, hobbled by repeated hits by pass rushing Lowell tacklers, missed enough open receivers to allow Lowell to stay in control.

"I thought they ran harder last year, said Lowell defensive coordinator Brad Stewart.  "They are very quick and very athletic.  But last year they had that big fullback (Brad) Popi.  He was a stud.  I really thought they'd put Himes in at fullback and run him at us.  We'd have had a hard time stopping him."

"If you'd have told me we'd hold them to six points, I'd have never believed it."

"We were up against it tonight," said an understandably proud coach Kirk Kennedy.  "How many times have we talked about 'the fire'?  We were jumping around.  We were excited.  When we play with that fire, this is what we can do."

Even though they gained just two first half first downs, Plymouth was down just 7-6 at the half because Grubbe was gang tackled by the Plymouth defense on a 4th-and-goal at the Rockie 1-yard line late in the first half.  One play later, Holloway fired a long spiral up the home sidelines that Himes, who will be a scholarship player at Indiana University, grabbed behind Lowell's Cole Midgett at the Plymouth 35-yard line.  Himes, built like an inside linebacker, shook off Midgett's tackle attempt and raced to the end zone, completing a 99-yard play which could have devastated Lowell.  But the center snap was bad on the ensuing extra point and Lowell led 7-6 at the half.

In the third quarter, Plymouth got the opening kickoff and there was a feeling they were taking over.  After an exchange of punts, Holloway completed three passes for first down in succession and when Brock Smith gained seven yards on a run inside the tackles, Plymouth had a 1st-and-goal at the 10-yard line and the home crowd was roaring for one of the few times all night.

But halfback Houston Hodges lost seven yards on a sweep on first down and Lowell linebacker Mike Sekuloski rushed Holloway into an in completion on second down.  Red Devil defensive end Joe Bell sacked Holloway on third down and tackle Jay Trappani sacked the QB on fourth down.  After another exchange of punts, Lowell took a short boot into the wind at the Plymouth 41.

Grubbe got the ball three times in a row and the 195-pound senior broke loose on a sweep with :16 left in the third quarter and outran the offense to make it 14-6.  Lowell's defense did not allow a first down the rest of the way and the Devils' running game, mainly Grubbe and the offensive line, collected six fourth quarter first downs to run out the clock on one of Lowell's biggest all-time upsets.

"I put all three of the games with them (Plymouth) up there with any of them," said Grubbe, who seemed to have tons of energy still left after carrying a career-high 39 times.  "That was the best opening drive we've ever had.  We did not come out slow like we did against Munster and Andrean.  We were totally prepared.  We got over a hump."

"We just want to keep grinding them.  Eventually, we'll break one.  There's no doubt in my mind.  We make mistakes on every play.  That's just the game.  You keep going at it."

Grubbe and many others were surprised by the quality condition of the Plymouth Field.  Plymouth has the blessing of Bill Nixon Field, a high-quality baseball park a few blocks north of the high school.  Bill Nixon Field has a tarpaulin that covers the infield.

The Plymouth athletic department carried the tarp from the baseball field and covered most of the football field during Thursday and Fridays' steady rains.

"They tarped the field," Grubbe said.  "Everyone was coming into the locker room saying, 'There's no mud out there.'  I'm saying 'You've got to be kidding'.  But this was the nicest field I've played in a month."

"That quick start we got was pivotal to this game," said Lowell coach Kirk Kennedy. "(Justin) Juarez.  That was a great game for him.  He's a warrior.  But that's the character of our teams.  We've got kids who are battlers.  They really don't want to lose."

"If you consider what we were up against going in.  And I don't know how wrong they were considering how we'd played the last two weeks.  We earned the underdog role."

"The choice was theirs," Kennedy said of his players.  "We (coaches) can say what we want.  They made a choice tonight.  Ultimately, a choice will be made.  By you or by someone else.  We decided we would keep the power of choice.  And that's a powerful thing."

DEVIL NOTES:  Lowell defensive back Cole Midget (5-10, 160) was single covering Plymouth tight end Leniel Himes (6-0, 250) early in the game.

"We've got Cole matched up with that number 88 Leniel Himes out there and that's a bad match up.  We all know that.  But we were in a run defense to get them (Plymouth) to be one dimensional.  They hit the pass and they score."

"But he's resilient.  You've got to love a kid who gets beat, but it doesn't get him down.  He can go right back out there and play."

Both QBs were injured.  Plymouth's Gordy Holloway left the game for a series, but returned when backup Kevin Garrity couldn't execute against the Lowell front eight.

Lowell's Ray Skamay was obviously early on, but he never left the game.

"If Ray hadn't been hobbled," said coach Kirk Kennedy.  "We 'd have run some boots (bootlegs) and some keepers."

"I'm Okay," Ray said later.  "On the first run of the game.  The quarterback sneak, my ankle rolled.  It was probably the worst ankle sprain I've ever had.  But it could have been my last game so there really wasn't any option.  I had to keep playing."

Lowell's Brandon Grubbe is unofficially just 137 yards short of becoming just Northwest Indiana's 3rd 5,000-yard rusher (Whiting's Paul Strabavy and Mike Barsich are the others).

Lowell has won 19 consecutive sectional games (Griffith has won 13 in a row).  A little over 3,000 fans sat through a misty rain to watch the game, Lowell's third sectional win over Plymouth in 3 years.

Two years ago, Lowell had to take consecutive road trips to tradition rich Plymouth, Concord and Griffith to win the regional title.  That 2007 'World Tour' pales in comparison to what Lowell must do this season to reach the state finals.  Lets' project.

Lowell defeated 4A No. 4 Plymouth at Plymouth and won the right to host 4A No. 9 South Bend Washington, a 21-20 winner over South Bend Clay Friday.  If the Devils win, they will likely host 4A No. 13 Concord (7-3), a prohibitive favorite over South Bend Clay (3-7) in the sectional semifinals this Friday.  The Sectional 10 champ will take on the Sectional Nine winner, either Griffith or 4A No. 8 Morton, on November 13.

The regional winner will almost certainly see 4A No. 10 Fort Wayne South, 4A No. 6 Delta or 4A No. 2 Bishop Dwenger.  The Northern Semi state champion could easily face 4A No. 1 Cathedral, which is the state's top-ranked team in any class, in the 4A state championship game on November 28.

In the 37 years of the state tournament, no Northwest Indiana team has ever defeated four ranked teams to reach the state title game.  Hobart's nine state finals' teams always played unranked competition early in the sectional as did Andrean's four state finals teams.

There's no easy way to determine this, but it is very likely that since there are only 10 ranked teams in the state in each class, that no team has ever defeated five Top-10 teams to win any state title.

There's Lowell's 'Mission Impossible'.

Brandon Grubbe's hidden talent is punting.  At least, it is now.  At the start of the year Grubbe reportedly volunteered to fill Lowell's hole at punter (2008 punter Kurt Monix graduated) and it wasn't a total success immediately.  But against Plymouth, Grubbe bounced a 40-yard punt out of bounds at the Rockies' 8-yard-line and boomed a 49-yard punt in the third quarter alone.

"Coach (Kennedy) has been a punter," the Lowell senior explained.  "First punt of the year, I was not hitting it very well.  I'm finally coming on.  But I'm getting the technique down.  Just keep driving through it."

It's obvious to anyone watching that Grubbe, who is Lowell's all-time leading rusher and a varsity baseball pitcher with a very strong arm, is the punter and it's also a fact that Lowell has not attempted a fake punt all season.  The possibilities are endless.

"You'll be surprised on the fake punt situation," Brandon smiled.  "If we every call it.  You'll be very surprised."