Pirates' big plays topple Trojans

Merrillville's Denzel Pierce forces his way through traffic against Chesterton.
(Michael Gard/For the Post-Tribune)

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CHESTERTON — While his Merrillville players were hugging, high-fiving, hip-bumping and chest-thumping following their 14-7 victory over Chesterton in the Class 5A Sectional 1 championship, coach Zac Wells was just trying to get his team lined up in some semblance of order for a team photo.

“Come on, relax!” Wells pleaded. “You’ve done it before!” Well, yes, most of these Pirates had indeed won a sectional before. Last year, actually.

But not like this.

Not with a 35-yard fumble return for a touchdown by 5-10, 375-pound defensive lineman Josh Liddell at the end of the first half that tied the game and robbed Chesterton of all its momentum.

Not with a 27-yard option pass for a go-ahead touchdown from wide receiver Robbie Jordan to Keith Thomas on the first play of the fourth quarter.

And not after being left for dead after yielding 527 yards of offense in a lopsided loss to Valparaiso — on Homecoming, no less — and falling to 3-4 five short weeks earlier.

No, this title was a little different in every way. “We just came together as a team,” said Liddell, after receiving congratulations from just about every person on the field — including Trojans coach John Snyder, who told him he was the last person he expected to run that fumble back. “That loss to Valparaiso was our wake-up call. You never want to lose Homecoming, especially like that. That ‘L’ on the board touched us.”

And the turnaround has been remarkable. Suddenly, the defense was everything it was cracked up to be before the season began. Suddenly, the young offense was efficient and opportunistic. Suddenly, Merrillville was living up to expectations.

And suddenly, the Pirates are hosting Penn in the regional championship on Friday.

Wells never really had a doubt. While others were wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth over the early struggles — particularly a humbling 42-0 loss to Warren Central in Week 1 — Wells was looking at the bigger picture.

“Our expectations were different, I think, than a lot of other people’s,” Wells said. “A lot of people are results-driven, but we’re looking at the process. We’re trying to get better and get the team to work harder and improve. It’s a credit to our kids and my staff that those guys got back at it and continued to believe. And fortunately things started to turn around for us, and now we’re standing here.”

On the other side, the Trojans tried to stifle tears after a brilliant — and unexpected — season ended in all-too-familiar fashion, without a sectional championship. The Trojans have never won one, and this was as good a chance as they’ve had.

It was a defensive struggle throughout, and Chesterton controlled play in the first half. While Merrillville couldn’t even get a first down until the last play of the first quarter, Chesterton got on the board with a 62-yard drive that ended in Andy Miller’s 30-yard touchdown strike to Mark Sullivan with 1:27 left in the first quarter.

Once Merrillville’s offense got going, Chesterton’s defense kicked in. Frank Raudry picked off a Dolapo Macarthy pass at the goal line early in the second quarter. And after Miller was promptly intercepted by Keith Dockery, Raudry again picked off Macarthy on the very next play.

“It’s about what I thought was going to happen,” Snyder said. “I knew it’d be a game of turnovers. We had one turnover too many.”

The big one came in the waning seconds of the first half, with the Trojans still up 7-0. After a missed Chesterton field goal and a Merrillville punt, the Trojans appeared ready to run out the clock and go into the locker room with a lead. But on the first play, Miller was drilled by Merrillville’s Dionte Day. The ball shot straight up in the air, and right beneath it stood the massive Liddell, whose eyes got big. How big?

“About 10,000 times their normal size,” he said.

The big man grabbed the ball and raced 35 yards untouched — with a cadre of Pirates flanking him on all sides. Even if a Trojans player could have caught up to him, he wouldn’t have been able to get near him.

“It’s appropriate — he’s had all those guys’ backs all year, and on that play, they had his back,” Wells said.

It was Liddell’s first touchdown since middle school, when he got a William Perry-type touchdown plunge. Liddell, who said he’s never been clocked in the 40-yard dash (“I’d guess 4.2,” he joked), said he saw it coming. The night before, that is.

“I dreamed this,” he said. “Either a fumble or an interception. I dreamed I’d score a touchdown.”

From there, the defenses again took over, with Merrillville’s Day and Chesterton’s John Thanos blasting everyone in sight on seemingly every play.

So after a seven-minute drive ended in another Macarthy interception, the Pirates resorted to some chicanery for the game-winner. When the call for an option pass came down from coach Zach Sliwa between the third and fourth quarters, Wells was a bit skeptical. But the play — Jordan to Thomas — worked to perfection.

“I wasn’t surprised by the call, but I was nervous,” Jordan said. “He was wide open. If he hadn’t been, I would have been running.”

Said Wells: “We were a little stagnant at that time. It was a good risk. Any protests that were made, fortunately we didn’t have to worry about afterward. It worked out.”

Just like everything else has for the Pirates.

Contact Mark Lazerus at 648-3140 or mlazerus@post-trib.com