Lowell's late pass stuns Griffith

Lowell's Cody Midgett blocks an extra point attempt by Griffith's Jeff Melton.
(Scott R. Brandush/Post-Tribune)

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

LOWELL — This is not how Lowell wins football games. A desperation pass into double coverage for a game-winning touchdown in the final seconds isn’t the type of Red Devils lore the region has come to know.

It’s always been run, run and run some more. And that’s the way it was for most of Friday’s Class 4A regional matchup between Lowell and Griffith at a muddy but raucous Inferno.

But with overtime looming, the Red Devils avoided the extra session when Jacob Belt caught a 36-yard heave from quarterback Kurt Monix and fell into the end zone for the game-winning touchdown with 28.8 seconds left in a stunning 19-13 Lowell victory.

The Red Devils (13-0) will play at Fort Wayne Dwenger (13-0) next Saturday in the Class 4A semistate. A time has yet to be determined.

Belt beat two Griffith defenders on the winning play, splitting them to come up with the catch.

“It was double coverage near the end zone, and I just went in between them and took the ball out of the cornerback’s hands,” Belt said. “That play was there all day. We finally got a chance to run it, and it worked.”

It was sweet redemption for Monix, who threw three interceptions on the night. The conditions, though, were far from ideal for passing, and Monix’s hands were coated in mud.

“It’s no excuse,” Monix said. “As a quarterback, you can’t make those mistakes. Fortunately, we had a chance at the end.”

The play was set up by Lowell defensive back Cody Midgett, who intercepted a Greg Joyce pass and returned it to the Griffith 42-yard line with 1:35 to go.

“That was our biggest mistake,” Panthers coach Russ Radtke said. “I told him, ‘Do not throw it where No. 6 (Midgett) is.’ But (Joyce) was trying to make something happen. They should have never gotten the ball back.”

It was a grind on both sides of the ball the entire night. Lowell star running back Brandon Grubbe was limited to 50 yards on 17 carries, while Griffith running back Ed Johnson had just 49 yards on 13 carries. Neither player found the end zone.

Instead, it was Griffith’s Joyce who got things started when he busted off a 58-yard touchdown run to put the Panthers up 7-0 early in the first quarter. Three minutes later Lowell’s Monix sprinted 40 yards for a touchdown, but the extra point failed.

Lowell went ahead 13-7 when Monix hit Midgett on a 44-yard touchdown pass midway through the second quarter. But with 1:37 to play before halftime, Griffith knotted it at 13-13 when Austin Guzior bulled in from 15 yards out.

Midgett, though, blocked the extra point to keep the game tied.

“In games like this, certain things separate you from your opponent,” Red Devils coach Kirk Kennedy said. “We were slugging it out there for a while, but the difference in the game wound up being big plays. And I guess we made one more than they did.”