Week 3 -  Football Game of the Week Preview

4A Lowell (2-0) at 4A Kankakee Valley (2-0)

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

09-04-2015
 

When:  Friday, Sept. 4, 2015.

Where:  Kankakee Valley high school, 3923 State Road 10, in Wheatfield, Ind (west of DeMotte). Here’s another school that isn’t that hard to find. Remember KV isn’t in DeMotte. Take 10 East out of DeMotte and you cant miss it.

Tickets:  $6.

Kickoff:   7 p.m.
TV/Radio/Internet: WTMK (88.5) FM live coverage, live updates of all local scores all night on WLPR (89.1) FM.
 

The undefeated Kankakee Valley Kougars will 'welcome' Lowell down to Jasper County Friday night to open the Northwest Crossroads Conference season. Lowell and KV have both won their first two games. (Photo by Mark Smith)

Enrollment: LOWELL - 1,204; Kankakee Valley - 1,153.

WEATHER: A rough weather night. Its been a rough week. 90 degrees. Very humid. I’ve always thought that weather like this affects the game and the future. If Lowell and KV plan to play 13 or 14 weeks this season (and they do), long periods of very hot weather would seem to me to sap strength long term. A lot of coaches say that hot weather is overrated. 18 year olds are resilient and the weather doesn’t bother them. I’m not sure of that. For fans: There is a very slight chance of rain and that’s the only reason to carry a jacket. It’s been 80 degrees at 10 p.m. all this week. It won't get chilly after dark.

PARKING: Kankakee Valley isn't that big a school and they don’t have that much parking. But KV should draw a big crowd and Lowell folks aren't traveling that far. The lot should be full by game time. You can park across Route 10 in the strip mall parking lot, but it’s a long walk to the field from there. Get there a little early and watch the boys "warm up." The visitors' stands at KV are not very large. You probably won't be able to roll up 10 minutes before the game and just stroll on in to the stands.

WHAT's AT STAKE: One third of the early lead in the Northwest Crossroads Conference and a spot in the state Top-10.
And the Milk Can. Yes, a real milk can. I don't know if many farms that aren’t Amish even use them anymore. It’s a large metal container with handles that, at one time, took raw milk straight from the cow when you milked him. City folk like me have never actually used one. The aging piece of dairy equipment is the farm-flavored traveling trophy that is awarded to the winner of this Lowell-KV matchup. Since the milk can was not given out until the 1990s, KV didn’t get their hands on it when they topped Lowell in 1985 and 1986. The only two times the Kougars won the big metal bottle was in 2012 when the Kougars stopped Lowell 17-7 and last season when KV won 17-12. Watch at the end of the game as the winning team goes to the center of the field and gets the "can." It’s a moo-ving sight.

HISTORY: I didn’t grow up in Indiana, so when I moved here in the 1980s, I saw Kankakee Valley and Rensselaer as lonely schools in the big wonderful cornfield known as Jasper County. As someone who enjoys the history of places, I was tickled to find out that there used to be lots of little high schools in Jasper and next door neighbor and ‘twin county’ Newton County.

I don’t know exactly what happened in the 1960s, but at the start of the decade there were eight high schools in those two counties and at the end of the decade, there were four. Five if you count relatively new Covenant Christian high in DeMotte. Wheatfield is a "township," one of 13 townships in Jasper County. There’s never been an official population of over 1,000 people there. DeMotte, in Keener Township, has a population of almost 4,000. William Jasper and John Newton were friends as soldiers and scouts in the Revolutionary war. Wheatfield is what it is. Northern Indiana is considered part of the "Wheat Belt" areas of level land and fertile soil prime for growing wheat. Jasper County is also in the Corn Belt. So the town where KV sits could just as easily be called "Cornfield."
 
I've always thought that the northern Lake County area (Lowell’s school district) and the southern Jasper County area (KV’s district) were projected to grow much more than they have. For three decades I’ve heard how the vast population of the Gary-Hammond-East Chicago area would migrate eventually to the "country," the wide open spaces of Jasper County. It's my understanding that’s why KV exists, to some extent. It was the new modern school built to welcome growth to the very rural area. It didn’t happen. Those folks moving south stalled out and settled down in places like Schererville and Crown Point. That’s why Lake Central, Merrillville and CP high schools have a combined 8,000 students. An incredible number.

With about 1,200 teens, KV remains almost the perfect not-too-big, not-too-small high school sitting in a quiet, timelessly idyllic landscape. And in my 30 years traveling through Jasper County for ball games, I’ve never found anyone who minds the fact that the flow of folks from the upper portions of the "region" never quite got to the KV school district.

1970 Kankakee Valley (6-4, 4-1) Coach Dale Hamacher
-----------------------------------------------
Sep 04 (L) 7-14 *at South Newton........
Sep 11 (W) 15-6 *FRONTIER..............
Sep 18 (W) 28-24 *at North Newton.......
Sep 25 (L) 0-29 at(West Lafayette) Harrison..
Oct 02 (W) 37-0 *NORTH WHITE...........
Oct 09 (L) 0-14 EAST GARY..............

Oct 16 (L) 6-41 at North Judson........
Oct 20 (W) 14-0 at South Central.......
Oct 30 (W) 27-12 *WEST CENTRAL........
Nov 06 (W) 20-12 RENSSELAER..........

*Midwest Conference games

DeMotte and Wheatfied played from 1965 to 1969. There was actually a Kankakee Valley Conference in the 1960s. Before that, both the DeMotte ‘Indians’ and the Wheatfield ‘Red Devils’ reportedly played 8-man football, something small schools played in many states going back to World War I. I have tried and failed to find much about 8-man football in Indiana. But Kentland played it as early as 1915 and played night games under lights as early as 1930.
 

Where are they all now? East Gary began being referred to as Lake Station in 1977. Tiny high schools: Brook, Goodland and Kentland consolidated into South Newton in 1966. Morocco, Lake Village and Mt Ayr high schools consolidated into North Newton in 1969. DeMotte and Wheatfield consolidated into what is now Kankakee Valley in 1970. (all info from www.NorthernIndianafootball.com)

1965 Kankakee Valley Conference (KVC)
League Overall
W L T W L T Points
Kentland............ 4 0 0 7 2 0 234-57
Morocco............. 2 1 0 6 2 1 159-99
DeMotte............. 2 2 0 5 3 0 148-112
Wheatfield.......... 1 3 0 2 4 0 71-129
Mt. Ayr............. 0 3 0 0 4 0 19-117

The Kankakee Valley Conference was a 8-team football league prior to 1965.

KANKAKEE VALLEY Update:

DeMOTTE – The Kougars pulled away late in wins over Rensselaer and Morton and they certainly are very much looking forward to hosting Lowell. But the Kougars have only defeated Lowell four times in the 45-year history of the school. Traditionally, KV and Rensselaer is the big county rivalry, but KV, especially since former Lowell defensive coordinator Brad Stewart moved there four years ago, judges their status next to that of Lowell, their northern neighbor.

With 423 yards on 88 carries (4.8 per carry) Kankakee Valley makes no secret that they want to run down and outrun the running Red Devils. KV and Lowell aren’t mirror images. They run different offenses. But they want to do exactly the same thing. Walk the ball down the field and dare the other side to stop it. A standing room only crowd should show up Friday to see who can do what to whom.

QB – Darrick Webster (6-2, 170) Sr.
Webster is beginning his third year as KV’s varsity quarterback and it's going much better than the first two. Webster ran 16 times for 76 yards in KV’s 29-8 victory at arch-rival Rensselaer on Aug. 23. Darrick then ran for touchdowns of 3, 8, 13 and 44 yards in the Kougars' 42-19 win over Morton last week. In 2014, Webster was 27 of 74 passing for 539 yards and eight TDs and he ran 776 times for 486 yards. So far this year he’s carried 34 times for 218 yards. KV runs a true wishbone (3 backs behind the QB in the backfield) and Webster is the field general. He’s a quick runner with breakaway speed and a decent play-action passer. But unlike a lot of wishbone QBs, Webster is probably a better runner than the boys he’s handing the ball off or pitching out to. You have to grab hold of him on every play.

OT – Tyler Hein (6-9, 289) Jr.
Hein, Declan Isaily (6-0, 238) and Joe Steinke (6-0, 256) lead a big offensive line that protects Darrick Webster and the KV running backs. The Kougars need to establish that they can run in between the tackles against Lowell’s strong defense so they can later run outside the ends. Hein will be a ‘person of interest’ for observers. Can he and his smaller friends move Lowell’s interior defenders and allow Webster to run the offense? We’ll know a little after 7 p.m. Friday.

LINEBACKER - Randy Sneed (5-11, 190) Soph.
I had never heard this name before looking into KV this week, but Sneed has been in on 23 tackles in two games including an eye-opening 16 solo tackles. You’ve got to be pretty good to make 16 solo tackles in two games against anyone much less two good offensive teams like Rensselaer and Morton. So even on a defense where Aaron Ceglarek (6-2, 265) is an accomplished heavyweight wrestler and senior Riley Fisher (5-10, 192) is coming off a season where he had 12 QB sacks, Randy Sneed might be making the biggest impact.

LOWELL Update:

LOWELL – For three quarters last week, Lowell looked about as good as they could have hoped to, building a 42-7 lead. I write off the last three Portage TDs last week in the 42-28 win as Lowell’s 2nd and 3rd string defenses were in the game for the first time. After two games, Lowell has 513 yards on 94 carries, an average of 5.5 yards per carry. Defensively, the Devils have allowed 3.7 yards per carry in two games. That number will be put to the test Friday at Kankakee Valley. QB Darion Hornickel has completed six passes in two games, but threee of them have gone for touchdowns to three different receivers. The Devils' play calling has been outstanding through two games and it's Hornickel who is sparking the plays. Going back to last season, the Red Devils have won 10 of their last 12 games, their best 12-game record since the 2009 season when Lowell went 13-2.

Punter-Place-kicker ROBBIE SMETANA (5-10, 190) Sr.
The Devils probably would choose to kick off to start every game because Robbie Smetana is likely to put the ball into the end zone. Smetana has kicked eight of 11 kickoffs into the end zone for a touchback in two games. That means that Lowell opponents have been starting from the 20-yard line. That is a major weapon, especially in road games. Smetana has also averaged 38.2 yards on five punts and is 9-for-9 in extra point attempts. Robbie is 0-for-1 on field goal attempts, but we won't talk about that. The big weapon is to kick the ball into the end zone on the kickoff, guaranteeing that nobody's going to run the kickoff back for a touchdown.

Linebacker Chris Han (5-7, 194) Sr.
Chris Han has been in on 14 tackles, including seven solo tackles this fall so far. Last year, Chris took part in 84 tackles including 42 solo stops. Han and Lowell’s other linebackers like JT Thomas (5-11, 199), Austin Giordano (5-9, 207) and Mitch Wildman (6-1, 175) will be the key against KV’s wishbone running game. For the ‘bone’ to work, somebody on defense has to miss an assignment or a tackle. But Han hasn’t missed many tackles the last two years. It’s a good matchup.

Defensive back/kick returner Jaeger Gill (6-1, 165) Soph.
Gill was the tailback on Lowell’s JV team last year and eventually may be the varsity tailback in future years. But on this night he will team with Jordan Jusevitch to run back kicks and Ike James on kickoffs. Opposing teams are going to take one look at No. 6 (Jusevitch) and No. 32 and kick to the other guy. Eventually, they will pay for that. If it’s a defensive struggle Friday, there will be plenty of punts. If the game is high-scoring, there will be lots of kickoffs. ‘Eventually’ may be this Friday.

LOWELL - This spread may have to do with the fact that Lowell has defeated two Class 6A schools, while KV has topped 4A Morton and 3A Rensselaer, but this is a close game. Five points is not much, but Lowell has only scored 46 points in the last three games against Kankakee Valley combined.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN:

DeMOTTE (09-04-2015) This should be a low-scoring game where Lowell handles the KV wishbone and the Kougar defense keeps the Devils attack between the 20-yard lines. Ike James opens the scoring with a short run, but KV QB Darrick Webster leads a long scoring drive to tie the game in the second quarter. A Kougar fumble sets up Robbie Smetana for his first field goal of the season and a 10-7 Devil lead.

Lowell opens the second half with a second Smetana field goal, but Webster leads another all-run scoring drive and the Kougars take a 14-13 third quarter lead. Sophomore Jaeger Gill runs the kickoff back deep into Kougar territory and Darion Hornickel tosses a go-ahead TD to Ryan Bottos in the fourth period.

The Kougars fall short on 4th down in their own territory and a third Smetana field goal ends the scoring. This game will always be close going forward because KV coach Brad Stewart and his staff know Lowell so well. But Lowell has a lot of playmakers. They’ll be hauling that old ‘Milk Can' back to Lake County late Friday.

LOWELL 23, Kankakee Valley 14