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Lowell over-powers SB Clay Colonials 49-20 to win 6th straight Sectional Championship |
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Lowell over-powers SB Clay Colonials 49-20 to win 6th straight Sectional Championship |
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A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
11-09-2008
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F |
| South Bend Clay (6-6) | 14 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 20 |
| LOWELL (12-0) | 14 | 14 | 14 | 7 | 49 |
Friday, November 7, 2008, 41 degrees, dry, Class 4A, Sectional 10 Championship in LOWELL, IN
1st
Qtr:
CLAY (7-0) Danny Smith, 10-yard pass from Justin Laureys. 77-yard
drive, 6 plays (after the opening kickoff). Parker Durham kick. 9:45
left.
LOWELL (7-7) Bryan DeSomer, 40-yard run. 64-yard drive, 4 plays.
8:04 left.
CLAY (14-7) Danny
Smith, 61-yard pass from Justin Laureys. 61-yard drive, 2 plays.
Parker Durham kick. 7:07 left.
LOWELL (14-14) Brandon Grubbe, 30-yard run. 88-yard drive, 5 plays.
0:00.
2nd Qtr:
LOWELL (21-14) Brandon Grubbe, 8-yard run. 65 yard drive, 6 plays. 8:24
left.
LOWELL (28-14) Joe Bell, 68-yard pass from Kurt Monix. 74-yard
drive, 4 plays. 1:15 left.
3rd
Qtr:
LOWELL (35-14) Cody Midgett, 6-yard run. 28-yard drive, 5 plays.
7:17 left.
LOWELL (42-14) Bryan DeSomer, 3-yard run. 70-yard drive, 8 plays.
3:53 left.
4th Qtr:
LOWELL (49-14) Kurt Monix, 10-yard run. 55-yard drive, 10 plays. 10:09
left.
CLAY (49-20) Matt Timm, 15-yard pass from Justin Laureys. Kick
blocked by Cody Midgett. 6:42 left.
RUSHING:
CLAY (27 carries, 102 yards) Andrew Adeniyi (HB) 13 carries, 82
yards; Austin Erby (FB) 9-24 yards;
Charles Hart (FB) 1-3 yards; Justin Laureys (QB) 4 (minus-7) 2 sacks minus-9.
LOWELL (42 carries, 293 yards, 6 TDs) Brandon Grubbe (HB) 17-109 yards, 2
TDs; Bryan DeSomer (FB) 12 carries, 102 yards, 2 TDs; Cody Midgett (HB) 3-40
yards;
Kurt Monix (QB) 4-18 yards; Deron Johnson (HB) 3-15 yards; Steve Van Baber (FB)
2-5 yards; Ray Skamay (WR) 1-4 yards.
PASSING:
CLAY - Justin Laureys (QB) 11-of-31, 247 yards. 3 TDs, 2 interceptions;
LOWELL - Kurt Monix (QB) 5-of-7, 108 yards, TD.
RECEIVING:
CLAY - Danny Smith (WR) 6 catches, 199 yards, 2 TDs; Squire Bovo (WR)
2-15 yards; Matt Timm (WR) 2-19 yards, TD; Jalen Williams (TE) 1-5 yards.
LOWELL - Joe Bell (TE) 1-68 yards, TD; Bryan DeSomer (FB) 2-17 yards; Cody
Midget (WR) 1-9 yards; Jordan Muscari (WR) 1-14 yards.
TOTAL YARDS:
Clay - 349 yards, 17 first downs, 3 turnovers;
LOWELL 401 yards, 18 first downs, 0 turnovers.
LOWELL
(11-07-2008) - During a
successful state tournament run, there's a tendency to go on and on about what
the home team has done. Most of it is cheerleading and overstatement.
But then there's Lowell. The Red Devils overcame a slow start defensively
to wear down and roll over Clay 49-20 in 40-degree cold Friday night to win
Lowell's 18th consecutive sectional playoff game and the schools' record sixth
consecutive sectional championship.
Six sectional championships. The third longest streak in the state of Indiana. The Devils' feat of preparing six different teams with four different quarterbacks to win 18 consecutive games in two different sectionals (Lowell moved from Sectional 9 to Sectional 10 in 2007) might be second only to Hobart's four state titles in seven years as an achievement by a Northwest Indiana football program in the state tournament era.
"Winning state is still more important," said senior Bryan DeSomer, who ran for 100 yards for the first time in his career. "Sectionals is great, but there's more to do. There's further to go."
"We've been here 18 years," said Lowell coach Kirk Kennedy. "And what's happening now is a culmination of a lot of hard work by a lot of players and coaches over that time. And you get to the point where the tradition of the program creates peer pressure that requires players to do what they have to do to keep it going. Once you get it going like this it's a great thing."
What was needed to keep it going Friday night was the survival of another assault from the land of the unknown. Lowell (12-0), facing Clay for the first time in school history, was also facing junior Danny Smith for the first time. Smith, a 6-foot-4, 200-pound wide receiver, dominated the game in the first quarter, catching five passes from freshman QB Justin Laureys, breaking tackles and jumping over smaller defenders to score two touchdowns, giving the visitors a 14-7 lead.
So here was Lowell, facing a team they did not know, being hurt badly by a Division I caliber star (Smith has been a starter at Clay since the first game of his freshman season) with whom they were not familiar.
"We knew we had to make some adjustments," said DeSomer. "Scary? We saw him on film. We knew he could do that. We knew what was going to happen. It shouldn't have happened. But I wasn't scared. Coach (Lowell defensive coordinator Brad) Stewart is a mastermind on defense. I knew he'd have some adjustments for us. We just made some simple changes, really, going to a 4-3 with two safeties in the back (Lowell usually is in a 4-4-3 with four linebackers). We just adjusted."
DeSomer (6-0, 197), normally a linebacker, simply dropped back into a safety slot on Smith's side creating what appeared to be zone-style double coverage. Smith caught just one pass after the first quarter and the Clay attack went scoreless until the final minutes of the game.
"We started slow," Kennedy told his team on the cold, dark north end zone afterwards. "They've got good athletes. They were making some plays on us. But you didn't quit. RDP (Red Devil Pride, Lowell's longtime team motto) took over. And you did what you had to do to win. I'm really proud of you."
Lowell, which is 12-0 for the first time in school history, wore down Clay by running the football consistently. Trailing 14-7, Lowell went 88 yards on five running plays to tie the game with Cody Midgett running a wide receiver reverse 32 yards to the Clay 30-yard-line, one play before Brandon Grubbe broke loose for a 30-yard TD run on the final play of the first quarter.
Lowell quickly forced the Colonials to punt and Midgett ran back the boot 54 yards to The Clay 35-yard line. Five running plays later, Grubbe, who passed the 1,600-yard mark for the second consecutive year, scored from eight yards out to make it 21-14 with 8:24 left in the half.
Clay mounted a drive late in the half, but Laureys was intercepted by senior linebacker David Eastling at the Lowell 26. Three plays later, QB Kurt Monix rolled out to his right and found his tight end Joe Bell wide open behind the Clay defense. Bell ran away to the end zone for a 68-yard TD to make it 28-14 with 1:15 left in the highest scoring first half of the Lowell season.
In the third quarter, Clay forced a Lowell punt, but Smith fumbled it at the Clay 28-yard line. Four plays later. Midgett scored on another reverse from six yards out to up the lead to 35-14 midway with 7:17 left in the third. DeSomer's 3-yard run boosted the lead to 42-14 with 3:53 left in the third period. Lowell actually had a little fun after that, pulling out Grubbe, who had an unofficial 17 carries for 109 yards, and trying to get the landmark for their senior fullback.
"We just took advantage of the O-line," said DeSomer. "They got it done up front. Yeah, we call that the 'Silver package' when Nate (fullback Nate Cleveland) comes in to block for me. Two big guys. The coaches came into the huddle and said 'We've got a fullback whose got 91 yards. We need to get him 100. That's the first time I've ever run for 100 yards."
As the clock ran down on a long, cold night, the Lowell boys began to celebrate on the sidelines in a manner that was not evident after big wins over Griffith and Crown Point. The six year sectional streak is a big deal. The boys flashed hand signs with three fingers outstretched on each hand to signify the six titles.
When you walk from the field to your car after these games, the noise fades and you process what you've seen and this 'Lowell thing' is hard to believe. Eighteen consecutive sectional wins over six years? Eighteen winner-take-all games. 18-0. Griffith has never done that. Merrillville and Valparaiso have never done that. Carmel and Warren Central have never done that. Schools with far more history of football success have never won six consecutive sectional championships.
"These never get old," said Kennedy to his sectional championship players after the game Friday. "Whether it's one or 100, they never will. They are all different. Because you are all different."
The folks at Lowell might want to get all six of those sectional trophies together on a table sitting all in a row. Have the Lowell coaching staff sit down and take a picture of that and hang it on the wall. One state title means you had a great year. Six consecutive sectional titles mean you have a great program.
36th Indiana State Football Tournament
SECTIONAL NOTES: Rumor is that South Bend native Danny Smith, who will start on Clay's basketball team as well this winter, is being recruited as a wide receiver by Charlie Weis and Notre Dame.
Clay only had about 100 fans follow them to Lowell from South Bend.
Junior Lowell defensive end Nate Cleveland had a QB sack in the second quarter, giving him six sacks in Lowell's last five games.
When you watch Lowell play, Cleveland and Bryan DeSomer are easily the most animated players on the field, jumping up and down and shouting encouragement to teammates. DeSomer defers to Cleveland.
"I'm crazy but he's really crazy," Bryan said after last week's game. "He's got so much energy. After 2-a-days (pre-season practice) he runs home. He lives miles from here. He's in better shape than any of us."
The win over Clay was Lowell's first turnover-free game of the playoffs, but the 352 yards for Clay was the most against Lowell in any game this season.
In his last seven games Lowell kicker Matt Berkos is 34-of-34 on extra points.
Senior Jordan Muscari, a mid-season transfer, got in as a reserve in the fourth quarter and caught a 14-yard pass from QB Kurt Monix. Muscari didn't really arrive in time to be a major contributor this season, but he is also a varsity caliber basketball player.
Senior halfback Deron Johnson got significant playing time as a pass rush specialist. His rush arguably forced Clay QB Justin Laureys to throw an interception to David Eastling in the second quarter.
The last Northwest Indiana
team to go 12-0 was the 2006 Crown Point Bulldogs, who lost the regional title
game at LaPorte. No Northwest Indiana team has ever gone 15-0.
Class 3A superpower Bishop Chatard won its eighth consecutive sectional Friday
with a 42-7 win over Rushville. Downstate powerhouse Heritage Hills,
Chatard's arch-rival among public schools, also won an eight consecutive
sectional last week. Penn won 11 consecutive Class 5A sectional championships
from 1995 to 2005 before losing to LaPorte in 2006.
Only one Lake County team has ever won more than six sectionals in a row. Hobart, under Hall-of-Fame coach Don Howell, won 18 consecutive sectional championships from 1979 to 1997, a record that probably will never be broken because of the changing nature of sectional play. During that span, Hobart was in a sectional with some of the Gary and South Bend city schools, none of which are consistent football powerhouses.
Next season, there may be
only two Gary schools remaining playing football. In the 1980s, there were
five Gary schools that have excelled much more at basketball than football in
the past 25 years.
Hobart and Concord were in the same sectional for many years, but Concord, a
tough sectional rival for Lowell now, was not a football power in the 80s and
90s. Plymouth, a 4A school that has battled Lowell on even terms the past two
seasons, was not a 4A school in the 1980s.
Lowell also benefited from playing some of the Gary schools early in this
present six-year sectional championship streak, but they got no such breaks in
Sectional 10.
If Griffith drops to Class 3A as expected in the next IHSAA realignment in 2009, there is a chance that Lowell could return to Sectional Nine.
But where a school falls in the 320-school five class IHSAA playoff outline seems to depend greatly on other schools. There is also a possibility that 4A Morton jumps up to the 5A level due to increased enrollment. But there is a certainty that 3A Wirt will close and a possibility that 3A Roosevelt may no longer offer football.
Those four situations could balance each other and leave Lowell in Sectional 10. But Clay was the largest 4A school in the state when the last rankings were taken two years ago. That may also change. And there is the overriding fact that there are 318 IHSAA football playing schools state wide and the present five class, six week format can only work for 320 schools. With the birth of charter schools like Bowman Academy as an alternative to public schools state wide, there will eventually be over 320 schools playing football. A Class 6A has already been discussed by some in the coaches association and you may hear an announcement on that as early as next spring.
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