BricksCenter
DaDaDa DaDaDa
November 17, 2019
21 Sports ... 1 Team ... WE ARE HOBART!
Right now, it's a GREAT time to check out this week's edition of BricksCenter!
Football
One of the songs in the Brickies pregame playlist is THUNDERSTRUCK by Australian hard rock band AC/DC. After Friday night's IHSAA Class 4A Regional 9 Championship game, the New Prairie Cougars were "shakin' at the knees" from the WHOOPIN' Hobart put on them! HOLY COW!! A ridiculous week of winter weather tried to throw a wrench into the whole thing and made practice more of an adventure than usual, but when the sun went down and the moon came up, OUR BOYS DID SHINE!!
The crowd inside The Brickyard on Friday was ELECTRIC! WHAT AN ATMOSPHERE!
Hobart received the opening kickoff and started the first drive of the contest on the 39 yard line. On 2nd down, junior quarterback Riley Johnston found a seam and sprinted 61 yards for a TOUCHDOWN to send the home crowd into an early frenzy!! Senior Matt Hylek booted the extra point and the Brickies took a 7-0 lead less than 2 minutes into the game! The run-heavy Cougars answered with a touchdown of their own on a 34-yard pass to tie the score at 7-7 with 5 minutes left in the first quarter. On Hobart's 2nd possession of the game, Johnston again broke a long run to give the Brickies a 1st-and-10 in Cougar territory and then found senior back Tyler Schultz for a 35-yard score on the very next play!! Hylek was good on the point after and Hobart was back on top 14-7 to end the first quarter!
After trading punts, junior Bobby Babcock stripped the ball near the goal line from the New Prairie quarterback and senior Matthew Benton scooped it up and skated into the endzone for a TOUCHDOWN to give Hobart a commanding 21-7 lead early in the 2nd quarter! Another New Prairie punt gave the Brickies the ball back and a long run by senior DJ "workhorse" Lipke set up a 35-yard Hylek field goal to increase the Hobart lead to 24-7!!
With New Prairie driving the ball down the field looking to regain some momentum before halftime, the Brickie D-D-D-DEFENSE shut 'em down. Babcock ... once again wreaking havoc in the backfield ... deflected a pass attempt and senior Mark Mummey corralled the interception and rambled into Brickie territory!! The Brickies ran out the clock and went into the locker room up 17 points!
The 2nd half was more of a CORONATION than a contest as Hobart continued to DOMINATE the Cougars on both sides of the ball. Lipke bolted for a long score, the Defense recorded a SAFETY, and Hylek nailed another field goal to give the Brickies a 36-7 lead! As the clock wound down, once again the hometown fans could be heard chanting WE ARE HOBART with PRIDE as the Brickies DELIVERED the 16th REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP in SCHOOL HISTORY and 1st since Coach Osika and the boys did it in 1996!!
Our boys were simply AMAZING in this match-up of Class 4A heavyweights! Lipke finished with 203 yards rushing and a touchdown ... Johnston ran the offense to perfection ... the O-line controlled the trenches and gave the H-town ground game over 300 yards ... Benton had two interceptions to go with his scoop-and-score ... Babcock, Turley, Smith, Mummey, Vode and the ENTIRE DEFENSE held New Prairie, a team that came in averaging over 40 points per game, to a single 1st quarter score and COMPLETELY LOCKED DOWN their normally potent running attack! It was the most impressive performance these eyes have seen in a long time!!
With the REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP, Hobart ... winners of 11 IN A ROW ... advances to next week's SEMI-STATE to face undefeated East Noble in a clash of titans with a shot at the STATE FINALS on the line!!
DON'T STOP NOW BOYS!!
#PLAY15
Check out more pics from NWILife.com!
Check out links to the NWI Times and Post-Tribune to read all about Friday night's WIN!
Swimming
Girls
On Thursday night, the girls swimming & diving season officially opened with a home dual meet against Wheeler ... and you could say our Lady Brickies dove right in!In the first event, Hobart stormed off the blocks and CRUISED to 1st & 2nd place finishes in the 200-yd Medley Relay, which set the tone for the rest of the night. The Lady Brickies placed 1st in EVERY SINGLE EVENT and took 2nd in all but 1! WOW ... talk about making a SPLASH! :) In all, Hobart completely overwhelmed the Lady Bearcats and won easily by the score of 141-33!!
Some highlights include Hobart sweeping the diving portion with zero failed attempts ... particularly impressive with 2 new divers in the rotation ... and defending state champion Emma Wright picking up where she left off last winter with a runaway victory in the 100-yd Freestyle!
Here are some other results from Thursday's meet:
200 Medley Relay - 1st = junior Emma Wright, junior Ana Tepavcevich, senior Becky Lozano & junior Delaney O'Brien
200 Free - 1st = Tepavcevich, 2nd = sophomore Paige Solivais
200 IM - 1st = Wright, 2nd = sophomore Chelsea Chavez
50 Free - 1st = O'Brien, 2nd = Solivais
Diving - 1st = junior Alivia Ahner, 2nd = sophomore Sydney Arias
100 Fly - 1st = Lozano, 2nd = Chavez
100 Free - 1st = Wright
500 Free - 1st = Lozano, 2nd = junior Julie Hunt
200 Free Relay - 1st = Solivais, Hunt, Chavez and junior Addison Kasch
100 Back - 1st = O'Brien, 2nd = Ahner
100 Breast - 1st = Tepavcevich, 2nd sophomore Bridget Chavez
400 Free Relay - 1st = Wright, Lozano, Tepavcevich & O'Brien
Great job ladies!
#JUSTKEEPSWIMMING
Basketball
Hobart jumped ahead early with some timely shooting and tenacious D-D-D-DEFENSE, but the Fillies clawed back and led 12-11 after 8 minutes of play. In the 2nd quarter, the Lady Brickies got into some foul trouble and struggled to find much rhythm offensively. Those two factors gave Kouts a chance to extend their lead and at halftime, Hobart faced an uphill climb down 31-19. Unfortunately, the 3rd quarter was more of the same with Kouts able to keep the Lady Brickies off balance on both ends, which led to more fouls and a lot of trips to the charity stripe. In fact, Kouts shot 52 FT's to Hobart's 12 and outscored the Lady Brickies 31-6 at the line.
Now ... based on those free throw statistics, you would think that Kouts ran away from our girls and won easy, but that was NOT the case on Wednesday night. The Lady Brickies BATTLED and SCRAPPED and DUG IN ... fighting their way back into the game and NEVER LET UP until the final buzzer sounded. At one point in the 4th quarter, Hobart had cut a 25-point lead for Kouts down to 8 points and looked like 1 more stop would give us a chance to win! Kouts made just enough FTs down the stretch and hung on to win a tough one 56-46.
Freshman Asia Donald once again led the Lady Brickies in scoring with a career high 16 points. Senior Grace Nestich was the only other Hobart player in double figures with 11.
Early in the season, there is still a lot of learning going on ... not just about offense and defense, but also about what kind of collective determination, perseverance and grit our girls have when the going gets tough. Based on Wednesday night, they've got plenty and even though the final score wasn't what we hoped for, the EFFORT down the stretch WAS what we hoped for ... and that should help us realize what we're capable of as we continue improving our execution on both ends of the floor.
Hobart is 2-1 on the season so far with two more contests this week ... a Tuesday night home tilt with Griffith and a Saturday afternoon battle at neighborhood rival River Forest.
LET'S GO BRICKS!!
#BALLISLIFE
Indiana Elite North-South All Stars
In Lebanon, senior Addison "The Hammer" Metts earned MVP of the Class 4A junior/senior game and teammates Paige Cooper, Sasha Thomas and Haley Pint all joined her competing against upperclassmen from around the state in the Indiana Elite Class 4A North-South All Star volleyball game! Sophomore Hannah Mathis represented H-town on the underclassmen team.
Coach Yanez even got in on the action serving as coach for both of the Class 3A teams (frosh/soph & jun/sen)!
In Danville, senior Grace Nestich played in the Indiana Elite Class 4A North-South All Star soccer game and scored a goal! This is the 2nd consecutive year that Grace has competed in the Indiana Elite competition.
CONGRATULATIONS LADIES on such well deserved recognition for all your hard work this past fall! THANK YOU for serving as GREAT ambassadors of Brickie athletics!!
#21sports1team
Sports Schedule This Week
Gymnastics 1st Day of Practice
Tuesday
Girls Basketball vs. Griffith
Wednesday
No Events Scheduled
Thursday
Girls Swimming vs. Portage
Friday
Football @ East Noble (IHSAA SEMISTATE - 6:30 pm CST kick off)
Saturday
Girls Basketball @ River Forest (1 PM JV, 2:30 PM Varsity)