foxbat

To be fair, the last times that LCC had really good teams in 2A, they had to face Tipton twice, at Tipton, in the same year losing the tourney game by 4 ... and then faced RCHS twice in the same season, at RCHS dropping semi-state by a field goal. And that RCHS team was a once in a generation team.

I'm not sure how much can be read into the New Haven game itself with Luers. They had a 60% completion rate with 9 of 15 for 80 yards, two ints, and 1 TD. Ripped off about 8.9 yards a catch. Not sure they need the passing game given that they peeled off 286 yards on the ground with three TDs and averaging over 10 yards a carry. Toss in two sacks, nine tackles for loss on defense, and a fumble recovery and it seems like passing was the least necessary part of New Haven's night. LCC looked good on the ground in the second half. Alternating Page and Meister seemed quite efficient for the Knights with both averaging over 5 yards a carry. Similar running styles, but just different enough to make a difference in defensive attention. Meister tends to remind me of a bulldozer while Page reminds me of a wrestler. By that, I mean that Meister tends to run straight forward and plow you when he gets there. Page, has a fullback running style to, but when he gets hit, he "feels" the contact and adjusts his roll a bit to get free or more yards. LaVille played a fairly disciplined secondary game and that's what had them holding on early. Once Metzger started running when flushed, they became less disciplined, in my opinion, and made some of the flushes turn into passing gains. It also freed up the screen a bit too. Regarding the LaVille picks, I don't want to make it sound like they were nothing, but the first one Metzger threw the ball right to the LaVille defender. I think the closest LCC person might have been the LCC cameraman in the end zone. The second one was a throw to a lineman or maybe a linebacker on a screen as the defender was falling forward. Look, a pick is a pick, so I'm not discounting them, but these weren't defender-fitting-like-a-jacket picks ... these were ill-advised throw picks that seemed quite uncharacteristic for Metzger. Really need to find a way to bring LaRocca's west end zone to Ft. Wayne.

Since the analysts mentioned New Haven as a team with passing that Luers faced, I did a little back-of-napkin check across 10 games: QB Rating: 113 although it was only around 60 against Luers. Total passing yards: 1921 Comp rate: 60.1% Completions per TD: 5.95 Longest: 87 yards Picks: 5 New Haven averaged about 13 completions a game LCC (through 13 games): QB Rating: 103.9 although was 81.5 vs. LaVille Total passing yards: 2807 Comp rate: 62.7% Completions per TD: 7 Longest: 81 yards Picks: 10 with two against LaVille and three against Guerin LCC averages about 18 completions a game

That and the whistle on 4th down as LCC tried to draw LaVille offsides and, instead of a re-set and restart of the play, the ref just looks over at LCC's head coach with a "what do you want me to do about it" gesture as the play clock continues to wind down. On the LCC side of things, props have to be given to LCC's D who ended up with a chunk of LaVille's series, early in the game, starting in Knights' territory. Turning point where I think the defense had that flicker that they were starting to control LaVille was when they forced that field goal that was racing with itself to see if it was going out of bounds or over the goal line.

2 Point Games Westfield @ Crown Point Center Grove @ Ben Davis Merrillville @ Fort Wayne Snider Bloomington South @ Decatur Central Northwood @ Leo New Palestine @ East Central Knox @ Chatard Gibson Southern @ Heritage Hills Lafayette Central Catholic @ Fort Wayne Luers North Judson @ Adams Central Lutheran @ Sheridan

OK, that was funny!

True, but isn't Luers city speed? Lord, I apologize for that there.

Is that CJB's bike in the back of that picture?

He and his brother were both tall kids ... even in the youth program. Both were a joy to have on a team as players, but also special kids too. I kind of figured he'd follow his brother as a TE ... David was a beast at TE for LCC ... but Albert looks like he shines a lot more on the defensive side of the ball; which is just where I remember him as a youth player.

Schwartz had a heck of a game against LaVille on the defense.

Sounds like a personal stake in those. 🙂

It's about as even as you can get. Calpreps says LCC by 1 on a neutral field. Harrell's gives LCC a slight edge too: Sagarin gives the edge for SOS to Luers:

I think @Donnie Baker's yanking our chains. He realizes that its 1A LCC vs. 2A Luers. Then again, it is just the SAC. I kid, I kid!

BTW, I posted this over in the scores thread game night, but best hit of the night came via LCC punter, Ray Clayton. Looks like someone got it on film. If you head out to MaxPreps and look at LCC videos, https://www.maxpreps.com/in/lafayette/lafayette-central-catholic-knights/football/media/videos/ and select the LCC-LaVille game video, you get to see the hit at the very end of the video around the 4:50 mark or so.

Was discussing this two with some LCC dads at half. Reminded us of when Denhart was LCC's QB. He would never take off past the LOS when he was flushed and, despite his arm and receivers, defenses stayed disciplined and didn't come off the backs when he'd move out of the pocket. Made it easier to have impact on LCC's passing game. After at least a season, they finally got Denhart to takeoff. He didn't gain a lot of yards on the ground, but the fact that teams now had to worry about him doing so meant his passing stats benefited greatly. Hoping Metzger will see the same. Nice seeing the switching, just about every play, between Page and Meister during the second half of the game. Fresh legs and slightly different running style made it harder for LaVille to control for the run.

Heard that happens a bunch in Ft. Wayne ... @Coach Nowlin can confirm.

You can, but it's just like using a buck knife to eat peas ... lot of peas roll off and sometimes you cut your tongue off.

Speaking of throwbacks! I thought you were dead. Missed having you around for the LCC thread discussions.

Should be assault charges filed for what they did to Whiteland last night.

I think lost in the mix of all these close games was that Decatur Central took Whiteland to the woodshed last night and made Whiteland go back to the bush twice to pick out a switch. They are currently given the lowest percentage chance on Harrell's to make it out of semi-state, but they are a dangerous team flying under the radar.

Looks like everyone who was ahead of me or even at the start of the weekend slipped a bit, or more, except for @LC_Bears_04 . Looks like @LC_Bears_04 just slipped in ahead of the pack this weekend. Looks like you and @Fballfan15 are going to even up with @Mod22in the third turn, with @Ballhawk and me coming up right on your tails. About four points between the top six or so folks now whereas last week it was ten points for the top six counting ties I haven't run the exact numbers yet, but I was looking at differentials as quick comparisons. I went 12-4 which looks second to @LC_Bears_04who went 14-2. Everyone else seems to have gone 11-5 or worse on a quick, back-of-the-napkin look.

Looks like we got ourselves a contest brewing here folks!

Agree. You could see, especially in the last 2-3 possessions of the first half, that LCC started to figure out the digits to the combination on the LaVille running game. Was talking with a couple of LCC dads at half and we came to the consensus that it was likely that LCC would have it deciphered by early in the third. You could see that come to fruition as LaVille pretty much abandoned between the tackles and started heading to the air and outsides much more frequenly and fairly quickly into the third.

Don't know if WLFI Friday Night Frenzy was on site for the end of LCC game or if the MaxPreps highlights will have it, but hit of the night in the LCC/LaVille game comes courtesy of LCC punter Ray Clayton. In waning moments of the game, Clayton punts a ball that goes stright up into in the air and maybe 10-15 yards past LOS. Ball hits the ground and rolls back toward LOS eventually getting back to LOS in what appears like it's going to be a net zero punt. LaVille player sees an opportunity to grab the ball and perhaps run it back for a last-minute LaVille score with just the punter between him and the TD. Clayton squares up and absolutely drops the kid with a decleater which resulted in an injury time out. Probably a metaphor for LCC defensive importance tonight.

LCC 22 - LaVille 0. Final. LCC defense is star of the night.