Week 3 - Football Game of the Week Preview

Crown Point (0-2) at Merrillville (1-1)

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

09-04-2008

When:  Friday, September 5, 2008

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

Tickets:  $5 
TV/Radio/Internet:  WKIF (92.7) FM, WWLO (89.1) FM and www.USA-365.com.

Weather:  65 and a chance of rain.  Our prayers have been answered.  It was 92 degrees late Tuesday and it would have been dangerous to play in that heat.  Things have changed.  The high is scheduled to be in the upper 60s Friday, which means a temperature in the mid-60s at game time.  That's still about 10 degrees too warm for players, but it's perfect for fans.  Some of this is hurricane effect from the Gulf, so we may get hit with significant rain Thursday or Friday.  But it's football season.  It's supposed to be cold and wet.  Only insects like 90-degree weather.

JV Game:  Saturday, Sept. 5 at Merrillville - 10:00 a.m.

Freshmen: Thursday, Sept. 11 at Crown Point - 6:00 p.m.

Numbers: Crown Point - Class 5A, enrollment 2,510;  Merrillville - Class 5A,  enrollment - 2,393.

PARKING:  The exact opposite of last week.  Merrillville has more parking than any high school I have ever seen.  There is a new lot west of the school and it may come into play on this night as Crown Point has replaced 1980s and 1990s superpower Hobart as Merrillville's biggest football rival.  Visitors are directed to the lot east of the stadium near the soccer field and I have never seen the main lot (east of the school and west of the stadium) filled to capacity for any event other than the wrestling semistate.

I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but one small reason the CP-Merrillville games draw such large crowds is that CP people have a short drive and they know parking is available no matter how large the crowd.  I do not expect a total sellout Friday with the cooler, rainy weather and the record of the two teams.  If you go, you'll park relatively near the field and you'll have a place to sit.

The SERIES:  By the school's records, this will be the 64th meeting of Merrillville and Crown Point and the series is tied 31-31-1.  It's very close.  Merrillville has won 3-of-the-last-4 playoff meetings and Merrillville has won 3-of-the-last 4 sectional titles, but Crown Point has won or shared each of the last three Duneland Conference title.  I would not call Merrillville and CPHS sister schools like Lowell and Hanover Central (today's HC school district is on the northern end of the old Lowell school district), but the two are definitely fellow travelers.

Merrillville and Crown Point both left the Calumet Conference (1949-1969) and joined the Lake Suburban Conference in 1970 and then Merrillville left for the newer Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) in 1975.  CP did not follow Merrillville to the DAC until 1993, leaving them as non-conference foes for 19 years.  Merrillville was the first champion of the Calumet Conference in 1949 in just their third year of varsity football.

Both schools installed artificial "Field Turf" this summer as part of building projects which are expanding both schools.  With the two schools still growing (both may eventually have 3,000 students), the best of this rivalry appears to be ahead in the next couple of decades.  Though the two of them understandably don't dwell on the past, the Merrillville-CP football game is always fun to watch because of the head coaches.  Present day head coach Chip Pettit (hired 8 years ago) and Zac Wells (hired three years ago) both played for the school they now coach (Pettit is a 1992 graduate, Wells a 1993 graduate).

I know of no other situation in this state where next door neighbor schools, coached by former players who played against each other, go head-to-head annually as arch rivals, much less league front-runners and sectional co-favorites.

One possible future has CP, Merrillville and Lake Central being the dominant schools in this part of the state.  Crown Point projects to having 3,000 students if there is not another school constructed in South Lake County.  Lake Central has 3,000 students this year.  Merrillville is near 2,500 students and they are adding onto the school so they expect more growth as well.

But while Lake Central is still living in the 80s as far as the campus is concerned, CP and Merrillville are building palaces that rival anything in the Indianapolis area.  If Lowell or Hobart beats CP by a TD and their schools feel their programs are equal to CP, they are kidding themselves.  Football is like war and the country with the best equipment and the most troops usually and eventually wins.  Both CP and Merrillville have 100-man teams, artificial turf and huge fan bases.  Both teams point towards this game as the true start to their season and the winner is undefeated where it counts.  Both teams expect to meet again in the post-season as they have in each of the past four seasons.

With eight meetings (CP leads 5-3) in the last four years, this is obviously the best rivalry in Northwest Indiana high school football and if you are a casual fan who doesn't care about which side wins, the early season CP-Merrillville match in warm weather is a game I'd recommend.

Merrillville Pirates  (2-0)
Coach: Zac Wells, 19-8 (3rd year)
DAC games in CAPs
8-22 (L)  0-42 at  Warren Central (2-0)
8-29 (W)  24-15 at Griffith (1-1)
9-5:  CROWN POINT (1-1)
9-12:  at PORTAGE (2-0)
9-19:  MICHIGAN CITY (2-0)
9-26:  at LaPORTE (2-0)
10-3:  VALPARAISO (2-0)
10-10:  LAKE CENTRAL (2-0)
10-17:  at CHESTERTON (2-0)
10-24 (F) 5A Sectional 1 quarterfinals vs. Lake Central, Valparaiso, Portage, Munster, Chesterton, Michigan City or CROWN POINT
10-31 (F) 5A Sect. semifinals
11-7 (F) 5A Sectional 1 final
11-14 (F) 5A Regional final
11-21 (F) Northern 5A Semistate championship
11-29 (S) Class 5A state final  (7:00 p.m. EST)  Lucas Oil Arena, downtown Indianapolis


Crown Point Bulldogs (2-0)
Coach: Chip Pettit, 49-30 (8th year)
DAC games in CAPs - 2008 record in parenthesis
8-22 (L)  0-7 Lowell (2-0)       
8-29 (L)  7-13 at Hobart (1-1)   
9-5 (F) at MERRILLVILLE (1-1)      
9-12 (F)  LAKE CENTRAL (2-0)
9-19 (F)  PORTAGE (2-0)
9-26 (F) at VALPARAISO (2-0) 
10-3 (F) at LaPORTE (2-0)
10-10 (F) CHESTERTON (2-0)
10-17 (F)  at MICHIGAN CITY (2-0)
10-24 (F) 5A Sectional 1 quarterfinals vs. Lake Central, Valparaiso, Portage, Munster, Chesterton, Michigan City or MERRILLVILLE
10-31 (F) 5A Sectional semifinals
11-7 (F) 5A Sectional 1 final
11-14 (F) 5A Regional final
11-21 (F) Northern 5A Semistate championship
11-29 (S) Class 5A state final  (7:00 p.m. EST)  Lucas Oil Arena, downtown Indianapolis

Bulldogs QB Marcus Shrewsbury barks out signals for his offensive line and backs earlier this season against Lowell, 8-22-2008. (All photos by Mark Smith)

Merrillville head coach Zac Wells talking to his team during the preseason scrimmage.  Wells and CP coach Chip Pettit also faced each other as players in the early 1990s. (All photos by Mark Smith)

KEYS to the GAME:

1. Dolapo Macarthy
Merrillville's tall QB (6-6, 208) is apparently injured and unavailable.  No one at Merrillville has said that, but Macarthy did not play in the Pirates' win at Griffith last week.  I have no inside information, but I have heard that Dolapo will not play against Crown Point.  If that's true, then sophomore Zach Raspopovich (6-0, 144) could start.  Raspopovich completed 6 of 14 for 39 yards last week, but he throws the ball well.  It will be tough for him to operate out of the 'shotgun' formation because he's not a runner.  If Macarthy can't play, Merrillville has to rely on the defense, led by linebacker Dionte Day (5-8, 206) and the kicking game, led by All-America kicker Ryan Stokes to win the game.

2. Tricks are for kids
Especially defensive kids.  Both the CP and Merrillville's offensive lines have new players this year who are trying to develop consistency and continuity.  Both defenses don't want to hear that Friday, so you'll see all kinds of blitzes and trick rushes designed to mess up the rookie blockers.  Many Merrillville-CP games of recent vintage have been low-scoring games with neither side racking up 20 or more points.  The defense should dominate Friday's game.  I'd be amazed if one side or another scored 4 TDs.

3. Spread the field
Merrillville does this all the time with Macarthy and they might make it work without him.  The Pirates can't grind it out on CP.  Merrillville had trouble with Warren Central's spread attack and that's something CP can do, although with lesser athletes.  I'm confident Merrillville will see formations Friday night that Lowell and Hobart did not see.  Without Macarthy, I have few ideas what the will Pirates do other than attempt to run the same 4 wide receiver sets the same way they always do.  We'll know a lot about this game the first series Merrillville has the ball.