9-24-2020

The CP student section was red, white and blue Friday night as the Bulldogs hosted Lake Central. (All photos by Mark Smith)

Lake Central's Ahmad Abdulla puts pressure on CP quarterback Will Pettit (7) early in last Friday's game.

CP defensive back Dominic Bader (25) tries to read the play as LC quarterback Luke Beidy (3) completes a quick pass to junior Diego Garcia (11).

CP junior Niko Paic (52) puts a stop on any plans that Lake Central junior Max Creasbaum (38) had on this play. Crown Point held LC to negative yards rushing.

CP's Felix Meeks (83) likes the way things are going as the Bulldogs stop LC deep in the Indian's territory late in the game.

CP defensive end Adrian Barrera (31) gets into Lake Central backfield to slow down another rushing attempt. Only Merrillville scored a rushing TD on CP in the first four games of the season.

'Spies like us' checked out the Crown Point-Lake Central game. Were they from Valparaiso? Chesterton? The video evidence is in the wind.

Crown Point's JJ Johnson (10) steps out for an 11-yard gain. Johnson played part time quarterback, part time wide receiver against LC.

LC's Diego Garcia (11) takes the 'high road' as CP defensive back Brandon Bruce (2) takes out the low road early in Friday's game.

CP senior Tanner Hekkel (12) has his eyes on this punt by Lake Central junior Luke Neidy (3) in the annual LC-CP game.

Crown Point quarterback Will Pettit (7) fired his first TD pass of the season in the second quarter against Lake Central. Pettit's pass to JJ Johnson was the difference as the Bulldogs defeated LC for the seventh time in a row.

The sidelines were a happy place for Crown Point as the Bulldogs won at home for the first time in the 2020 season, a 16-7 victory over Lake Central. (All photos by Mark Smith)

Copyright © 2020 USA-365.com and Meyer Multimedia Services, a division of Meyer Broadcasting Corp.  All rights reserved. Revised: September 24, 2020 .

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Lake Central (1-3, 0-2)	0	7	0	0	7
CROWN POINT (2-2, 1-1)	0	13	0	3	16

Friday, September 11, 2020 -  68 degrees (at kickoff), Duneland Athletic Conference at CROWN POINT, Ind.

1st Qtr: No scoring.
2nd Qtr: CP (6-0) Matthew Walters, 34-yard run. 64-yard drive, 5 plays. Kick blocked. 11:50 left.
LAKE CENTRAL (7-6) Aisen Henry, 36-yard passs from Luke Niedy. 36-yard drive, one play. Derek Baldin kick. 4:08 left.
CP (13-7) JJ Johnson, 15-yard pass from Will Pettit. 80-yard drive, 10 plays. Sammy Brewer kick. 1:19 left.
3rd Qtr: No scoring.
4th Qtr: CROWN POINT (16-7) Sammy Brewer, 18-yard field goal. 1:16 left.

RUSHING:
LAKE CENTRAL (20 carries, -5 yards): Max Creasbaum (HB) 11 carries, 10 yards; Tony Bartolomeo (HB) 1-5 yards; Ben Basco (HB) 1-1 yards; Luke Neidy (QB) 4 (minus-22 yards).

CROWN POINT (37 carries, 174 yards, one TD): Matthew Walters (HB) 23 carries, 133 yards, TD; Will Pettit (QB) 6 carries, 13 yards; JJ Johnson (WR) 8-22 yards.

PASSING:
LAKE CENTRAL: Luke Niedy (QB) 14 of 24, 146 yards.
CROWN POINT: Will Pettit (QB) 10 of 19, 98 yards, one TD.

RECEIVING:
LAKE CENTRAL : Diego Garcia (WR) 6 catches, 34 yards; Also Henry (WR) 4-68 yards; Mykle Davis (HB) 1-14.
CROWN POINT: JJ Johnson (WR) 4 catches, 27 yards, TD; Treston Logan (WR) 1-15 yards; Matthew Walters (HB) 3-11 yards, Chris Walsh (WR) 2-45.

TOTAL YARDS:
LAKE CENTRAL: 136 total yards, 7 first downs, no turnovers;
CROWN POINT: 278 total yards, 16 first downs, no turnovers.

CROWN POINT (9-11-2020) When you have one win and two losses after three weeks, to say that your team needs a win in week four is something that, well, you don’t really need to say.

So it doesn’t matter that last Friday’s 16-7 Crown Point win over Lake Central wasn’t the best played game of the 2020 season.

The Bulldogs (2-2) held their neighbor school to just 136 total yards, topping LC for the seventh consecutive meeting. It could be argued that Crown Point should have scored one or two more times in this game, but you only need to win by one.

“It all starts up front,” said CP coach Kevin Enright. “If we can't block, we can’t do anything. Every team has injuries, but we lost a guy on the first play of the first game. We’ve been trying to get some momentum up front so we can get some things done.”

CP scored first on a 24-yard run by Matt Walters and, with the home team trailing 7-6, Walters broke a 26-yard run to the Lake Central 43-yard line. CP senior quarterback Will Pettit then hit sophomore JJ Johnson for pass completions of 10 and 15 yards to put CP ahead 13-7.

The second half was somewhat forgettable until Sammy Brewer’s field goal with 1:17 to play iced the victory.

Defense ruled. Both teams punted seven times and, even though neither side fumbled or threw an interception, neither side spent a lot of the evening near the other teams’ end zone.

The game wasn’t as critical for CP as the outcome was. It didn’t matter how well they played in winning. It mattered that they ended up winning. CP linebacker Riley Granger stated the obvious.

“Last four years we’ve lost to Lowell,” he began. “Beat Highland. Lost to Merrillville and then beat LC. We’ve won sectional three of those four years. We’re on the same page. Merrillville’s good. But we are not 42-7 bad like we were against them. We’re not that bad. We did not play to our potential. We’ve got a ways to go, but we want to be ready if we can get to play them again.”

DOG NOTES: Being dumb is forever. But being ignorant can be temporary. Until this season I was ignorant of the fact that CP’s leading tackler, linebacker Riley Granger, is the son of CP defensive coordinator Sean Granger. I know. I know.

Granger, who had two sacks of Lake Central quarterback Luke Neidy in Friday’s game, was happy to talk about how his dad is his ‘football boss.’

“I get that all the time,” he said with a big smile. “I get that on and off the field. At home. Absolutely. But I love it. It’s a good bond. I know what he’s thinking and he knows what I'm thinking. We compliment each other a lot.”

Riley obviously knew that if the Covid-19 virus 2020 pandemic cancelled football, it would be more of a loss for him and his father than it would be even for his teammates.

“Absolutely,” he agreed. “Coach (head coach Kevin Enright) says I was born in the locker room, but I have been around the program my whole life. It would have been very bad not to have my final year playing sports with my dad. The sport I love with all my dudes. It would have been bad, but it didn’t happen.”

CP senior Matthew Walters carried 23 carries for 133 yards against Lake Central to give him 510 yards on 80 carries in the first four games of the season.

In three seasons, Walters (who carried 18 times as a sophomore) has 1,353 yards and 15 touchdowns on 239 carries.
Senior quarterback Will Pettit has passed 3,000 yards in passing for his career. Pettit has completed 31 of 65 for 229 yards this fall and his career totals are 275 of 598 for 3,214 yards and 23 touchdowns.

CP sophomore JJ Johnson caught his first career TD pass in the second quarter.

“I didn’t think I was going to get the ball,” JJ said. “We had ‘trips’ (3 wide receivers) on the other side to get our big guy open. I just ran to the corner of the end zone. Our line gave him time. He (QB Will Pettit) threw a great ball. The defensive back was playing me inside so I just waited until the last second and peeled off into the corner. He put the ball right there.”

Johnson also insists that the Bulldogs are better than they showed against Merrillville.

“We just have to dig deeper. We have something to prove if we don’t want to be known as the team that gets destroyed by our rival. We just wanted to show we’re better than that.”