Crown Point outlasts Valpo in DAC slugfest
Crown Point 19, Valparaiso 14
By Paul Honeycutt
CROWN POINT — There are a lot of people out there who just go to football games to get out on a Friday night.
If any of them wanted to see a defensive battle and went to Crown Point, they got all the hard hitting they could handle.
With an early possible claim to the Duneland crown at stake, Indiana Preps No. 8 Crown Point remained undefeated on the year after beating No. 17 Valparaiso 19-14 behind two key third-quarter scores from Bulldogs junior running back Larry Ellison.
The shifty back’s first score came on a 25-yard TD pass from CP junior QB Noah Ehrlich and the second came on a 13-yard rushing score at the 2:27 mark of the third.
“It was good for us to have a game like this,” Crown Point coach Craig Buzea said. “We’ve played a lot of good teams but nothing like this.”
Class 6A No. 5 Crown Point (6-0, 4-0 DAC) had lots of trouble moving the ball in the first half against the defending 5A state champs, as the Bulldogs spent a majority of their time of possession on their side of the field and were shut out over the first 24 minutes.
On the lone scoring drive in the first half, the Class 5A No. 3 Vikings (4-2, 3-1) navigated 50 yards on five plays, with all of yards coming on Travis Davis runs, capped off by a two-yard rushing score.
Unfortunately for the Vikings, Davis left early in the third quarter after ripping off a 29-yard run, as he appeared to suffer a left knee injury.
He was walking around gingerly towards the end of the game, so it doesn’t appear to be too serious as of now.
“I’m not sure what happened because I’m seeing red versus green, but I feel bad if he got hurt because he’s a great running back,” said Buzea.
Davis finished with 132 rushing yards on 19 carries with a touchdown.
Ellison paced Crown Point with 75 rushing yards and two scores, including a three-yarder to put the Bulldogs up 19-7 with 5:52 left. Ellison also caught three passes for 47 yards with the TD catch.
One key adjustment that the Bulldogs made was putting Ellison in the Wildcat formation, which is when he was able to get a majority of his rushing yards.
“We adjusted to the Wildcat to get them unbalanced a little bit,” said Buzea.
Ehrlich set up Ellison’s three-yarder with a 47-yard run of his own and recorded 56 rushing yards over 10 carries on the night while passing for 120 yards with a pick.
Valpo senior QB Justin Clark helped the Vikings respond after they got all the way down to Crown Point 3, he avoided a near tackle and found wide open senior wide receiver Scotty Bradney for a three-yard score with 1:51 left.
Clark ran for 41 yards and passed for 54 yards.
Valpo entered Friday’s game with the 6th-best scoring offense in Class 5A and netted 244 total yards.
“The connection between us on defense goes back a long time with me wrestling on the state championship team and playing with some guys on junior Bulldogs,” said Crown Point senior linebacker Will Clark. “I attribute the performance to our coaching because they put us in a good position.”
Crown Point 19, Valparaiso 14
Valparaiso; 0 7 0 7 – 14
Crown Point; 0 0 12 7 – 19
V – Travis Davis 2 run (Drayden Wilcox kick), 1:09 2nd
CP – Larry Ellison 25 pass from Noah Ehrlich (kick failed), 7:48 3rd
CP – Ellison 13 run (pass failed), 2:27 3rd
CP – Ellison 3 run (Oliver Brewer kick), 5:52 4th
V – Scotty Bradney 3 pass from Justin Clark (Wilcox kick), 1:51 4th
Valparaiso;Crown Point
First Downs;11;11
Total Yards;244;258
Rushes-Yards;38-190;33-158
Passing;54;120
Comp.-Att.-Int.;6-15-0;9-20-1
Penalties-Yards;5-55;6-35
Fumbles-Lost;1-1;1-1
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – VALPARAISO, Travis Davis 19-132, Justin Clark 12-41, Thomas Burda 7-17. CROWN POINT, Larry Ellison 22-75, Noah Ehrlich 10-56, Jacob Jones 1-7.
PASSING – VALPARAISO, Clark 6-15-54-1-0. CROWN POINT, Ehrlich 9-20-120-1-1.
RECEIVING – VALPARAISO, Julian Stokes 1-23, Demari Gordon 3-20, Scotty Bradney 2-11. CROWN POINT, Ellison 3-47, Trevor Gibbs 2-33, Jones 2-25, Cam Sorci 1-8, Landen Delich 1-7.