Late Bulldog score not enough to stop Hobart; Brickies beat CP 13-7

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

8-30-2008

Friday, Aug. 29, 2008,  76 degrees & humid at Brickie Bowl in HOBART, IN

1st Qtr:  HOBART (3-0)  Mike Josifovski, 34-yard field goal.  62 yards, 19 plays on 7:02 min. drive.  4:58 left.
2nd Qtr:  HOBART (10-0) Richard Oglesby, 83-yard TD run.  80 yards, 3 plays on :40-sec. drive.  Josifovski kick.  3:25 left.
3rd Qtr:  HOBART (13-0)  Mike Josifovski, 35-yard field goal.  51 yards, 8 plays on 4:07 min. drive.  6:33 left
CROWN POINT (13-7) Nate Haverstock, 2-yard fumble recovery.  Mike Lipton kick.  0:28 left.
4th Qtr:  No Scoring.

Rushing:
CROWN POINT (22 carries, 49 yards, fumble)
Nick Bruno (RB) 10 carries, 26 yards, fumble; Nate Haverstock (WR) 2-15 yards; Mason Popovich (HB) 1 carry, 2 yards;
Marcus Shrewsbury (QB) 9 carries, 6 yards (2 sacks minus-17 yards)

HOBART  (35 carries, 194 yards, TD)
Richard Oglesby (HB) 20 carries, 146 yards, TD;  Nick Taddei (FB) 4 carries, 10 yards; Matt Barras (QB) 11 carries, 38 yards

Passing:
Matt Barras (QB) 5 of 12, 72 yards
Marcus Shrewsbury (CP) 7-of-20, 77 yards.

Receiving:
HOBART (5) Bobby James (TE) 2-16 yards;  Nick Taddei (HB) 1-5 yards; Roger Cardwell (WR) 1-15 yards; Joey Aleman (WR) 1-36 yards.
CROWN POINT (7) Nate Haverstock (WR) 1-2 yards; Danny Osojnicki (WR) 2-38 yards; Mike Kozlwoski (FB) 4-37 yards.

Total Yards:
HOBART -  266 yards, 10 first downs, 2 fumbles
CROWN POINT - 126 yards, 6 first downs, one fumble

CROWN POINT (8-29-2008) - I find myself saying this a lot these days.  If you could graduate five members of your offensive line and your starting quarterback and immediately be just as good as you were the year before on offense, then every high school football team would have a winning season every year.  New-look Crown Point, which had defeated Hobart three years in a row, ran into a fired-up Brickie squad in the final home opener at the 69-year-old Brickie Bowl, failing to record an offensive touchdown for the second week in a row and losing 13-7.

"Give Hobart credit," said CP coach Chip Petit, who saw his team drop to 0-2 for the first time since 2004.  "They outplayed us tonight and they deserved to win."

There was no doubt about that.  Hobart could run the football when they needed to and Crown Point could not.  Had it not been for a defensive touchdown, a fumble recovery two yards from the end zone by CP senior defensive back Nate Haverstock, this game would have been a second consecutive shutout loss for the Bulldogs.  Crown Point has not looked good in the first two weeks.  It was expected that the largely new offense would struggle in the first half of the 2008 season but it's hard to watch.

"I thought we were slow defensively in the first half, "Pettit said.  "We stepped up and played well in the second half.  Offensively, we are having trouble finding our way right now.  We are most definitely a work in progress.  We'll keep plugging away, but all credit to Hobart tonight.  They played well."

This game should not have been as close as it was.  Hobart ran 23 plays in the first quarter while Crown Point ran seven.  A 19-play first quarter drive led to Michael Josifovski's 34-yard field goal and a 3-0 Hobart lead before Crown Point even touched the ball.

Hobart halfback Richard Oglesby broke loose down the visitor's sideline and ran away from the CP defense for an 83-yard TD and a 10-0 lead 3:25 before halftime.  It could have been 14-0, but Joey Aleman couldn't hold a long pass from Hobart QB Matt Barras on the first field goal drive.

It was 13-0 before CP scored.  A QB sneak deep in Brickie territory by Barras saw some heavy contact and the ball slipped out.  Haverstock picked it up and dived into the end zone to cut the Hobart lead to 13-7 with 28 seconds left in the third quarter.

CP's defense played much better after halftime, but two fourth quarter possessions saw just one CP first down on a 16-yard Marcus Shrewsbury to Mike Kozlowski swing pass.  The Bulldogs are having problems executing basic plays.  Some of that has been two quality opponents in the first two weeks, but the Bulldogs have not been able to avoid fumbles and penalties, especially early in games.

Two examples:  A holding penalty nullified a TD run by halfback Nick Bruno in the second quarter and CP ended up not scoring at all, as Michael Lipton missed a 42-yard field goal after a sack of Shrewsbury (by Oglesby) on the next play.  Also, CP drew a delay of game penalty on the Bulldogs' first offensive play of the first quarter.  The Bulldogs 'script' the first few plays.  They know what those first few offensive plays are going to be from the end of practice Friday.

Oglesby, a junior who will play his senior year in Hobart's new 86-million dollar high school at the south end of Hobart, says it's a big deal for him to be playing the final year in the oldest football stadium in Northwest Indiana, the home of four Hobart state champions.

"That's real big," confirmed.  "That's what we think about at every practice.  Making the people who came (played here) before us feel proud.  It's good to be among the last people to play on this field.  It's an honor."

The Bulldogs gained 126 total yards for the game with 27 of those coming on a first quarter pass from senior QB Marcus Shrewsbury to Danny Osojnicki.

"No touchdowns in eight quarters now, right?" said Pettit.  "There wasn't a whole lot that was good out there," said Pettit of his offense.  "Anytime you come out to compete, you win some and you lose some.  But I want us to win the right way and lose the right way.  I wasn't happy with us at halftime.  We were a step slow.  They deserved to win.  They earned it."

Hobart led Crown Point in the August meeting in each of the last two seasons before they lost.  It was a big deal to beat the Bulldogs.

"I'm sure at some point," said McCormack, whose team led CP 20-19 in the final minute before losing 22-20 in 2007, "our kids are saying, 'Oh, no. Here we go again'.  Not just CP.  The Griffith game last year.  The Lowell game.  Our defense improved 850,000% from last week.  I'm proud of our kids and our coaches.  We did a good job."

"As dumb as this sounds, I think we did wear them down.  We dropped two passes that should have been touchdowns.  They missed one, too (a wide open Nate Haverstock was overthrown by Shrewsbury in the 4th quarter).  It happens."

Ace Hobart receiver Bobby James (6-3, 220) caught just two passes all night, but McCormack cited James as a factor in Ogleby's 83-yard TD in the second quarter.

"They were rolling up the coverage (sliding defenders at the last minute) on Bobby," McCormack explained.  "We put rips (3 men) into the boundary so they were a guy short on the back side and he (Oglesby) made a play.  Ricky only had six carries (for 101 yards and two TDs) last week."

Oglesby carried eight consecutive times in the fourth quarter with the Brickies leading by six points.

"I knew he wouldn't fumble," said  McCormack.  "You can never go in thinking a kid's going to fumble.  They do if they do and they don't if they don't."

While CP is obviously not smiling about their 0-2 start, they have lost to two undefeated teams by a touchdown.  The Bulldogs are close to victory.  This group just hasn't done enough to get anything done yet.  The Hobart coach said something the Bulldogs might want to hear.

"That's a pretty good team," McCormack said of CP.  "They're just two plays a way from being 2-0.  It doesn't matter what we do now.  We will be judged by how we play in weeks 11, 12 and 13.  That's why we have them (CP) on the schedule.  Because playing them gets us ready for the teams we'll face in our league."

The scary thought is what the first two games mean for the teams Crown Point now faces in their league.

DOG NOTES:  Merrillville (1-1), CP's next opponent defeated Griffith (1-1), Hobart's next opponent, by a  24-15 score despite the absence of all-area quarterback Dolapo Macarthy, who reportedly has some type of neck injury.

Macarthy (6-6, 208) did not play at Griffith and is not expected to play in the home opener on Sept. 5 against Crown Point.  Zach Raspopovich (6-2, 145) is Merrillville's backup QB and he completed just four passes.  But sophomore halfback Denzell Pierce gained 114 yards on 12 carries.

Lowell, which defeated CP 7-0 on Aug. 22, smoked out Morton 57-20 last Friday (Aug. 29) with 500 total yards and 22 first downs.

Chesterton, Michigan City and LaPorte were all losers in the Duneland Conference while Portage, Lake Central and Valparaiso improved to 2-0.

Hobart coach Wally McCormack says it's hard for him to relate to the 'countdown' to the final days of the Brickie Bowl.

"When you're getting ready to play the game," he says.  "You don't have time to think about this being the last year.  We're here every day.  It's not something I think about until somebody else says it.  I didn't know that today was the final opening game until somebody told me this was the final first game.  It's not something I think about yet."

Senior Bulldog defensive tackle Kyle Land returned to the lineup after missing a game with injury, but he couldn't play full time.

"He played about a quarter," said Pettit.  "He's still a little stiff out there but he's getting better."

Pettit confirmed that senior linebacker Kyle Qualizza (5-10, 180), a projected starter is 'out indefinitely' according to the head coach.  He has a large cast on his elbow.  Senior running back/linebacker Evan Nikrin is still on crutches with a foot injury, but he hopes to be able to return to practice in two weeks.