Crown Point wins eighth overall sectional title by routing Lake Central
Crown Point 42, Lake Central 7
By Paul Honeycutt
CROWN POINT — The Region has been conquered in Class 6A, now the ‘Dogs are on the hunt for some prey deeper in the Indiana woods.
6A No. 4 Crown Point (11-0) dominated from start to finish on Friday night to win its eighth overall sectional title after dismantling fellow Duneland Athletic Conference team Lake Central 42-7 in the Sectional 1 final.
The Bulldogs will travel to one of The Region’s biggest rivals in No. 8 Penn (10-1) in a prime Northern Indiana matchup in next week’s regional.
“If we’re gonna get to the next level, we have to play them,” Crown Point coach Craig Buzea said. “We obviously don’t know a lot about them on film right now and we’ll get to it, but we have tremendous respect for them because we know what they’ve done and how good they’ve been over the years.”
The Bulldogs started the game with a 12-play, 82-yard drive, capped by a Larry Ellison 13-yard TD run at 5:03 in the first quarter. Ellison ran form 70 yards on the drive.
After a quick three and out from Lake Central (5-6), the ‘Dogs got another TD from Ellison, this time on a 14-yard pass from quarterback Noah Ehrlich.
On the next Indians drive, Crown Point senior defensive lineman Seamus Malaski forced a fumble deep in Lake Central after QB Chase Kwiatkowski had to evade the Bulldogs interior pressure.
“The defense plays really well together because we’re one unit and play for each other,” said Malaski. “We faced the best running back we have all year in Xavier Williams and wanted to make sure we keyed on him.”
Ellison did the rest after scoring on a one-yard score to make it 21-0 to end the first quarter.
On Crown Point’s next drive, Ehrlich connected with WR Nick Soley on a beautiful 67-yard bomb for a score.
Crown Point TE Trevor Gibbs caught his second touchdown pass in as many weeks after Ehrlich hit him on a 10-yarder midway through the second quarter.
Ellison scored his fourth touchdown of the night on a 20-yard TD pass from Ehrlich near the end of the first half.
Ellison totaled 113 rushing yards, 34 receiving yards and four TDs.
Ehrlich finished about as good as a quarterback could have on Friday night, as he passed for 193 yards on 9 of 9 with four touchdowns.
Ehrlich doesn’t feel much pressure going into next week.
“Every week we try to go 1-0, he said. “It doesn’t matter who we play, we just gotta execute our gameplan.”
Williams, an Iowa recruit, ended his stellar career at Lake Central with 29 yards on 15 carries.
The Indians added a 37-yard TD pass late in the third quarter from quarterback Chase Kwiatkowski to Trevor Kubacki.
Crown Point 42, Lake Central 7
Lake Central; 0 0 7 0 – 7
Crown Point; 21 21 0 0 – 42
CP – Larry Ellison 13 run (Oliver Brewer kick), 5:03 1st
CP – Ellison 14 pass from Noah Ehrlich (Brewer kick), 2:29 1st
CP – Ellison 1 run (Brewer kick), 0:29 1st
CP – Nick Soley 67 pass from Ehrlich (Brewer kick), 10:51 2nd
CP – Trevor Gibbs 10 pass from Ehrlich (Brewer kick), 6:49 2nd
CP – Ellison 20 pass from Ehrlich (Brewer kick), 1:00 2nd
LC – Trevor Kubacki 37 pass from Chase Kwiatkowski (Trevor Baldin kick), 0:45 3rd
Lake Central;Crown Point
First Downs;6;10
Total Net Yards;150;314
Rushes-Yards;22-17;23-122
Passing;133;192
Comp.-Att.-Int.;10-14-0;10-13-0
Penalties-Yards;3-35;5-35
Fumbles-Lost;2-2;0-0
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – LAKE CENTRAL, Xavier Williams 15-29, Jeffrey Lucas 1-2, Chase Kwiatkowski 6-(-14). CROWN POINT, Larry Ellison 18-113, Tommy Guadagno 2-6, Noah Ehrlich 1-6, Tanner Rawls 1-0, Brayden Schutt 1-(-3).
PASSING – LAKE CENTRAL, Kwiatkowski 11-15-133-1-0. CROWN POINT, Ehrlich 9-9-193-4-0, Logan Hadt 1-3-(-1)-0-0, Kyle Brainard 0-1-0-0-0.
RECEIVING – LAKE CENTRAL, Amarion Brooks 7-50, Trevor Kubacki 1-37, Williams 2-33, James Graham III 1-13. CROWN POINT, Nick Soley 2-104, Ellison 2-34, Jacob Jones 1-22, Landen Delich 2-20, Trevor Gibbs 2-13, Carson Cavalcante 1-(-1).