Week 9 - Football Game of the Week Preview

Crown Point (3-5, 3-3 DAC)
 at Michigan City (3-5, 2-4 DAC)

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

10-16-2008

 

When:  Friday, October 17, 2008

Where:  Ames Field, 1 Wolf Trail, US 421, 3 miles north of I-94

Tickets:  $5

 

Kick-off:   7:00 p.m.  (CDT)

 

TV/Radio/Internet: WWLO (89.1) FM, www.USA-365.com
 

Weather:  Daytime temperatures Friday will sit in the mid to upper 50s, but the games do not start until well after dark now.  Let's leave no doubt.  It will be cold.  The boys who are running around playing will be fine, but sitting in the stands for 2 hours will be chilly.  There may be a lot of fans standing on this night, not because the plays are so spectacular (we know they will be), but because it'll be too cold to sit.  Blankets, coats, gloves.  Bring them all.  Don't peek outside at one p.m. and say "Oh, wow.  It's not so cold!"  By 8 p.m., it will be cold.
    
JV Game:  Saturday, Oct. 18 at Crown Point - 10:00 a.m.
Freshmen:  Thursday, Oct. 23 at Michigan City - 6:00 p.m.
Numbers:  CP - Class 5A, enrollment 2,442;  Michigan City - Class 5A,  enrollment - 2010

PARKING:  It's about 45 minutes from I-65 in Crown Point to Ames Field.  I-65 is closed heading into Gary, but you can turn east off I-65 just before the barricade.  There isn't a lot of parking at Michigan City, but there isn't going to be a huge crowd in this game.  There is more parking east across US 421 and there will be room for everyone's car. Michigan City.  There is parking south of the field where you can walk to your car at halftime and warm up.  I believe that you can hear WWLO (89.1) FM, which will be carrying this game in Michigan City.
The Crown Point High School Homecoming Parade featured girls wearing fine dresses... ...and there were guys in tuxedos.  These were the highlights of the week in downtown Crown Point on Friday, Oct. 10, 2008. (All photos by Mark Smith)
The Crown Point Royal Regiment Marching Band was in fine formation. The 'Bulldog' joined in the parade as the official mascot for the Crown Point High School Football, which lost its Homecoming game to Chesterton, 20-7.

 

Last Year, 10-12-2007 in CP 1 2 3 4 F
Michigan City (2-7, 0-7 DAC) 7 7 0 7 21
CROWN POINT (7-2, 6-1 DAC) 7 14 14 0 35

CROWN POINT (10-12-2007)  Russell Chick ran for four TDs, carrying 26 times for 18 yards as CP clinched a share of the DAC title with a 35-21 win over Michigan City.
Nate Scully was 9-of-18 for 115 yards and three Michigan City TDs.  Crown Point gained 370 yards and 18 first downs.

THE SERIES:  Since the consolidation of now-defunct Michigan City schools Elston and Rogers in 1995, CP is 8-5 against Michigan City including wins 35-21 last year, 45-13 in 2007 and 47-7 in 2006.

Michigan City, a town of 32,000, born from an 1800s pathway around Lake Michigan towards Chicago, 50 miles away, is one of the great basketball towns in northern Indiana.  Elston, the original Michigan City high school, dates back almost 100 years.  There is a record of Crown Point beating Michigan City high 14-10 in basketball in January of 1910.  The building which housed Elston, named after Issac Elston, who bought the land on which Michigan City was founded in 1830, still exists as a 'downtown' middle school.  The original Michigan City high split into Elston and Rogers in 1971 and Rogers, which sits in what loosely could be called suburban Michigan City co-opted some of Elston's athletic success with great basketball squads in the 1970s and 80s.

These schools were never consistently good in football.  That's just the way it is.  Michigan City's Rogers Raiders never won more than six football games in any one season in the entire 24-year (1971-1994) existence of the school.  Elston was 10-2 in 1984 but that's the best record ever in over 95 years of all of the Michigan City high schools.  And that 1984 season was Elston's final winning season.  In the nine years from 1971 to 1979, Elston was 8-79 in football.  It was reportedly very ugly.  Elston was 0-9 in 1900 and 0-9 in 1991 inside a 21-game losing streak.

The consolidation, which moved Elston students to the Rogers building, came in 1995 and, even with enrollment of 2000 kids, the Wolves never won more than seven games (7-4 in 2000) and have never won a sectional championship in 13 years.  That's why the task of winning titles at Michigan City, even for someone with the track record of second year coach Craig Buzea, is hugely formidable.

Buzea, who was 107-35 in 14 years at Portage, took over at Michigan City in 2007 and the Wolves lost 12 of their first 15 over two seasons.  But there may have been a turnaround three weeks ago when MC beat Lake Central 10-7, breaking a three-year Michigan City losing streak in the DAC.  The Wolves lost a tough 20-14 overtime game to Portage one week later, but they turned back arch-rival LaPorte 34-28 last week.

They did not get a good draw, facing Chesterton (7-1), a team that beat them 33-21 in September.  But there is a feeling Michigan City has a chance in the upcoming sectional quarterfinal.

Michigan City Wolves (3-5)
Coach  Craig Buzea  (5-13, 2nd year)
DAC games in CAPS
8-22 (W) 60-8 Gary Roosevelt (0-6)
8-29 (L) 20-21 at (South Bend) Washington (6-2)
9-5 (L) 21-33 at CHESTERTON (7-1)
9-12 (L) 14-32 VALPARASIO (7-1)
9-19 (L) 14-17 at MERRILLVILLE (4-4)
9-26 (W) LAKE CENTRAL (3-5)
10-3 (L) 14-20 (OT) at PORTAGE (5-3)
10-10 (W) 34-28 LaPORTE (2-6)
10-17 (Fri) CROWN POINT (3-5)

Class 5A Sectional One (1) Quarterfinals
Oct. 24 (F) Chesterton (7-1)  7 p.m.
Oct 31 (F) Sectional one semifinals vs. Portage (5-3) or Valparaiso (7-1)
Nov. 7 (F) Sectional one finals
Nov. 14 (F) 5A Regional
Nov. 21 (F) Northern 5A Semistate  championship
Nov. 29 (S) 2008 Class 5A title game - Lucas Oil Arena (7 p.m. EST) in Indianapolis

Crown Point  Bulldogs (3-5)
 Chip Pettit (52-34)  8th year
DAC games in CAPs
 8-22 (L) 0-7 Lowell (8-0)        
8-29 (L) 7-13 at Hobart (7-1)    
9- 5 (W) 10-7 at MERRILLVILLE (4-4)         
9-12 (L) 5-10 LAKE CENTRAL (3-5)
9-19 (W) 21-6 PORTAGE (5-3)
9-26 (L) 17-38 at VALPARAISO (7-1)
10-3 (W) 35-28 at LaPORTE (2-6)
10-10 (L) 7-20 CHESTERTON (7-1)
10-17 (F) at MICHIGAN CITY (3-5)

5A Sectional (1) One Quarterfinals
Oct 24 (F) at MERRILLVILLE (4-4)
Oct 31 (F) Sectional 1 semifinals vs. LC (3-5) or Munster (5-3)
Nov. 7 (F) Sectional one finals
Nov. 14 (F) 5A Regional final
Nov. 21 (F) 5A Semistate
Nov. 29 (S) Class 5A state final - Lucas Oil Arena  (7:00 p.m. EST)  downtown Indianapolis

Class 5A Michigan City (3-5)
 Coach: Craig Buzea - 5-13, 2nd season)
Enrollment: 2,030
2007 record: 2-8
Sectional titles: (0)
Regional titles: (0)
Semistate titles: (0)
State titles: (0)

MICHIGAN CITY (10-17-2008) High school boys almost never throw for 300 yards, but Michigan City QB Nate Scully (80 of 147, 1,504 yards, 11 TDs) was 11 of 13 for 321 yards last week in a 34-28 win over LaPorte.  Scully had a string season in 2007 but he hadn't put up large numbers until last week.  Scully tossed two TD passes Adam Harmon (12 TDs), a hard-running halfback (110 carries, 597 yards, 9 TDs) but the key MC receiver is DaQuay Sherrod, who has 362 yards on 25 catches.  Ryan Sosinski (6-2, 225) gets loose down the middle clearly as his yards (245 yards and 3 TDs on 12 catches) per catch.  Harmon (5-9, 190) is a key player. He has to do something for MC to win games. 

Michigan City has lost three games by a total of 10 points.  Tyree Wright (6-2, 225) is a hard-hitting linebacker with 80 tackles.  The Wolves have lost three games by a combined total of 10 points.  They led Portage in the fourth quarter and lost. MC also led Merrillville in the fourth quarter before losing 17-14.

There's a tendency to look at a team that's on the verge of winning each week and see them finally doing it. But that's a fantasy. Most losing teams can point out a couple of games they should have won.  Michigan City has something to prove Friday night.

Crown Point (3-5)
Enrollment: 2,442
2007 record: 8-3
Sectional titles: (3) 1981, 1988, 2006
Regional titles: (1) 1988
Semistate titles: (0)
State titles: (0)

CROWN POINT -  Crown Point gained 436 yards in week seven at LaPorte, but they gained just 155 yards in week eight against Chesterton.  The Trojans are better defensively, but I'd guess that it's not quite by that margin.  CP went through the entire first half without a first down against the Trojans, trailing 20-0 at the half.  The Bulldogs lost two fumbles and had a punt blocked.  It was about as exciting as another McCain-Obama debate.

Senior QB Marcus Shrewsbury (64 of 124, 757 yards) carried nine times for 32 yards including a third quarter TD.  He was 6-of-13 for 67 yards including four passes to Danny Osojnicki (34 catches, 456 yards, 4 TDs), but you just can't win averaging 124 yards and 12 points a game.

Linebacker Lance LaMere led the Bulldogs with 13 tackles and junior lineman Chris Shimley had a career-high 10 tackles.  CP's defense held Chesterton to 232 total yards and 46 second half yards in a revival after giving up 400 yards at Valparaiso and 300 yards at LaPorte.

CP always feels that they have a 50-50 chance against Merrillville, the team they will meet in the 5A Sectional 1 quarterfinals.  So this final regular season road game has little meaning to them.  There's not a lot of difference between 4-5 and 3-6.

But there's a plus side to that.  The CP coaching staff may give some underclassmen playing time on this night because that's a way to simultaneously keep players healthy for the sectional and get a head start on 2009.  One of the problems this season was that Marcus Shrewsbury had very little playing time during CP's DAC title run in 2007.  I would not be shocked to see freshman Joe Hopman (5-10, 160) or sophomore Joel Johnson (6-0, 155) play a series or two here because one of those two boys may be asked to take the first snap at Lowell in August of 2009.

CROWN POINT (3-5) at Michigan City (3-5)
Sagarin Computer rankings:  Crown Point by 3

MICHIGAN CITY (10-17-2008) The Michigan City boys who are seniors have never seen their school beat Crown Point in varsity football and they'll be motivated, but the spread refers to a tougher non-conference schedule played by CP, which faced 4A No. 3 Lowell (8-0) and 4A No. 10 Hobart (7-1).

Michigan City will take an early lead on a run by Adam Harmon, but CP ties it up on an interception TD by Danny Osojnicki.  There's no reason to believe that Nate Scully won't throw the ball 20-30 times on this night, because that's the way they'd beat Chesterton in the post-season.  Scully will connect for two TD passes in a game I can't see CP winning unless they get three or four turnovers.

But that could happen.  I think CP plays loose here in a game that has no meaning for them and that's going to help them make some plays and pick up some first downs.

When they came to LaPorte County to play LaPorte two weeks ago, the Bulldogs got into a shootout game with lots of possessions and plenty of points.  I think that happens again here.  If the Bulldogs can run for 150 yards, they win here and I think it can happen.

Michigan City could win this one but they will fail late on a two-point conversion, sending CP home with a fourth win.

CROWN POINT 28, Michigan City 26


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Revised: October 16, 2008 .