Football: Uncharted territory for Crown Point

Updated: November 10, 2011 8:08PM

CROWN POINT — Twenty years ago this Monday, Crown Point lost to Mishawaka in the regional championship.

The Bulldogs have played 212 games since then. Not one has been against a team from outside the region.

So Friday’s Class 5A regional at undefeated Penn has a special feel for Crown Point.

“There’s a little bit of the unknown, because you’re playing an opponent you’ve never played before,” Bulldogs coach Chip Pettit said. “That’s a new one for us. Even when we went to the regional in 2006, we played LaPorte.”

That idea of the unknown plays a big role in this game. Besides the lack of familiarity between the programs — the only link is Valparaiso, which Crown Point lost to in the regular season and beat in the sectional semifinals, and which Penn beat in Week 1 — the Bulldogs still don’t know exactly what they have in sophomore quarterback Jake Jatis, who took over under center for the postseason when senior Joe Hopman broke his collarbone.

So, naturally, neither does Penn.

“The coolest thing about playing Penn in the regional is it’s a new team, somebody we haven’t played before,” said senior Tyler Kral. “It gives us a really good matchup, because while we don’t know what to expect, they don’t, either. So we can just go out there with our guns in our holsters, ready to go.”

One thing is known for sure — Penn is the heavy favorite. After failing to win a sectional for the second straight season last year — the first time the Kingsmen had gone consecutive years without a title since the mid-1990s — Penn served notice that it was back with an impressive 21-10 win at highly touted Valparaiso in Week 1. In that game, the Kingsmen held the ball for the entire fourth quarter, grinding out 12 minutes on the ground.

Since then, the Kingsmen haven’t really been challenged, winning by an average of 34-11. Six of their last eight opponents have been held to eight points or less.

So Crown Point is the underdog.

What else is new?

“I guess that’s what everyone’s saying, but personally, I love being the underdog,” Kral said. “The victory’s a lot sweeter, a lot more enjoyable.”

When Hopman was hurt — just a few weeks after starting tailback Jake Lindeman was lost to an ankle injury — Crown Point largely fell out of the discussion when it came to sectional contenders. The talk was centered on Lake Central and Merrillville, with defending champion Valparaiso as a sleeper. But the Bulldogs won at Munster, squeaked past Valparaiso and stunned Merrillville at Demaree Stadium in last Friday’s sectional championship, 42-21, in a thoroughly dominating defensive performance.

Jatis played well in the win over Valparaiso, but struggled against Merrillville. So nobody — not Penn, not even Crown Point — knows quite what the Bulldogs are capable of. But this will be the Crown Point offense’s biggest test yet. Penn has given up only 16 offensive touchdowns in 12 games. Dylan Heyvaert has six sacks and 18 tackles for loss, while Michael Mason has broken up 16 passes. Offensively, Penn’s no slouch, either — running backs Jamil Davis and Zach Oakley have combined for 1,736 yards and 23 touchdowns, and QB Chad Gindelberger has run for nine scores and thrown for nine more without a single interception.

Of course, the Bulldogs have been doubted before, and they’re still standing.

Much to everyone’s surprise — including, to some extent, their own.

“Because this has been such an unexpected run — not that I didn’t feel like we could play good football, but just in how you have to regroup when you lose your quarterback — it’s just a different feeling,” Pettit said. “In 2006, we knew we had the best team in the sectional and therefore we were expected to win. This year, I’m not sure how many people in (our) locker room expected to win. We knew were going to play hard and play our game, but in the back of your mind, you know what you’re up aaginst. That we’ve been able to overcome that and continue to play better is a testament to how hard these kids work. We’ve been on quite a little roll here lately, so we’ll just try to keep it going for another week.”

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