BricksCenter

IIIIIII'm Dreaming ... of a Whiiiiiiiite Halloween? Didn't see that one coming, but at least it melted in time for Friday's home football game :). Kudos to those who were tough enough to brave the miserable conditions and actually trick-or-treat outside. The Hobart Brickies also showed some bravery this past week with a sectional semi-final in football and another appearance at the IHSAA State Finals in cross country!

Knock knock ... it's time for BricksCenter!

No diggity ... no doubt

On Friday night at The Brickyard, the Hobart Brickies squared off against NCC rival Highland in the IHSAA Sectional 17 semifinals. If you recall, back on October 4th, Hobart was in full control of the regular season match-up of these two teams and won 35-0 in convincing fashion. Beating a team twice in one season is always tough ... especially when so much is at stake - a spot in the sectional championship!

Well ... no need to worry because Coach Osika and his staff had our boys READY TO SHINE! Hobart received the opening kick off and methodically drove down the field by keeping the ball on the ground and letting the offensive line go to work. A heavy dose of senior DJ Lipke out of the backfield did the trick and the Brickies led 7-0 about 5 minutes into the game. After the Hobart D-D-D-DEFENSE held Highland to a punt after 1 first down, junior quarterback Riley Johnston again led a balanced attack down the field and Lipke skated in for his 2nd score of the game to give the Brickies a 14-0 lead near the end of the opening quarter!

With about 3 minutes left in the first half, Hobart led 21-0 after yet another Lipke touchdown and it appeared as if our boys would go into the locker room with a comfortable 3-score lead. Unfortunately for Highland, that's actually when the Brickies put the "nails in the coffin".

First, after running the ball for most of the first half, Johnston rolled out and fired a strike to classmate Zach Vode for 69 yards over the top of the Trojan defense for a TOUCHDOWN!! Then, after another Highland punt, he found senior Matthew Benton for 41 yards and another score on what appeared to be the exact same play!! In a matter of 90 seconds, the score went from 21-0 to 35-0 and this game was ova!! A running clock in the 2nd half enabled everyone to go home a bit early and warm up by the fireplace looking forward to next week!

Speaking of next week ... our boys will be playing for the 'SHIP!! Hobart will host Lowell at The Brickyard in the SECTIONAL FINALS! The Brickies are playing for their first sectional title since 2016 and 21st overall in program history!

Game time is 7 PM. Don't be late or we'll have to start without you :)

#PLAY15

After earning their 9th consecutive W, a few Brickies received some extra attention for their exceptional play! Check it out below ...

The Berey Bros Blue Collar Players of the game for Friday night:

Lafayette Jeff at Merrillville: Khris Walton - Merrillville. Khris set the tempo up front for the Pirate defense and also had a huge scoop and score touchdown to end the first half!

Highland at Hobart: DJ Lipke - Hobart. DJ had a great game, running hard out of the backfield for Hobart and picking up two rushing TDs!

The Blue Collar Player of the Game is brought to you by Berey Bros - they're the blue collar store for the blue collar worker!

The winners of the Crowel Companies Lanternman Super Hero of the Game for Friday night:

Lafayette Jeff at Merrillville: Peter Rodriguez - QB - Merrillville. Rodriguez did a great job guiding the Pirate offense and keeping the Jeff defense off balance!

Highland at Hobart: Riley Johnson - QB - Hobart. Johnston played error free ball for the Brickies, throwing for 156 yards and two scores!

The Lanternman Super Hero of the Game is brought to you by Crowel Agency Inc. - They're the insurance super heroes and are proud to recognize the super heroes on the football field!

#NICEWORKWORKWORK

On Saturday at LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, IN, Brickie junior Bruce Leipart raced in the IHSAA State Finals ... and RACE is EXACTLY what he did!

Bruce definitely took the road less traveled to arrive at the state meet. Last weekend, he finished 21st at the New Prairie Semi-State, which ended up being 1 place (4 seconds) away from the final individual qualifying spot. Talk about a tough pill to swallow. On Monday, however, an error in the results was identified and it gave Bruce new life and sent him on to represent Hobart on the biggest stage of the fall for XC!

At state, Bruce was a WARRIOR ... just like he had been all year long! On the wet and challenging course, Leipart sprinted the first 1000m out of the 45th box at the start line and settled into his race pace as the course wound through the mowed trail among the tall grass fields. So much emotion leading up to this ... so much training ... Bruce gave all he had to give and pushed hard into the finish shoot, landing in 106th place out of a total of 214 competitors! His finishing time of 16:56.3 earns him the 5th FASTEST TIME for a Hobart Brickie at the LaVern Gibson course!! You never can tell what might happen at such a big event - Bruce was nervous, but was able to turn those feelings into determination and focus to perform extremely well against the very best runners in the state!

WHAT A RACE!! WE ARE SO VERY PROUD OF YOU!!!

This fall marks the 8th time in the last 10 years that the Hobart Brickies have had a representative compete in the IHSAA Cross Country State Finals! Bruce joined a very decorated group of accomplished runners by qualifying for state this year ... and what's even better is the fact that he's only a junior! With another year to train, his eyes are already set on making it back down to Terre Haute to do something special in 2020!

CONGRATULATIONS BRUCE on an OUTSTANDING SEASON that finished exactly where we all hope to finish every season - at the state finals! THANK YOU for representing H-town so well on the biggest stage of them all!! CONGRATULATIONS to Coach A and Coach C for all your hard work this year that helped the Brickies accomplish all they did!

... and finally, THANK YOU to the SUPER FANS who traveled south to cheer on Bruce at the race!

#PRIDEANDTRADITION

The 2006 movie Glory Road is based on the true story of Texas Western winning the college basketball national championship over heavily favored Kentucky in 1966. After the final buzzer, the camera zooms in on one of the players on the court saying "I'm a National Champion" in almost disbelief.

The Hobart JROTC Raider team has been on it's own "glory road" over the last 3 weeks ... first winning our own Regional competition ... then heading south to Camp Atterbury to win the Indiana State Championship ... and finally traveling all the way to Georgia to compete in the Division 2 National Championship. They not only went to compete, but these fine Brickies placed in the top 3 in 4 out of 5 team events and came home with some special hardware ... A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!

I can imagine the scene was similar to the movie for most of our cadets at the conclusion of the competition as they said to themselves "I'm a NATIONAL CHAMPION"!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE HOBART JROTC RAIDERS TEAM ON WINNING THE DIVISION 2 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!! YOU ARE AWESOME AND WE ARE SO PROUD OF ALL THE HARD WORK YOU PUT IN TO ARRIVE AT THIS AMAZING MOMENT!!

This was Hobart's first ever trip to compete in the national competition!

Led by LTC Scott Buhmann, the team members include seniors Justice Greenleaf, Nathan Wright, Jay Murphy, Ares Marks and Max Bruner; juniors Brittany Burger, Gabriella Cavazos, Ben Hammond and Darrin Johnson; and sophomores Olivia Garcia, Kierstin Rotz, Ethan Cox and Sam Henson.

As former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson might say, "HOW 'BOUT THEM BRICKIES!!!"

#CHARACTER-DESIRE-COMMITMENT-TEAMWORK

Monday

First day of Wrestling Practice

Tuesday

E-learning for Election Day

Wednesday

Girls Basketball @ Michigan City

Thursday

No Events Scheduled

Friday

Football vs. Lowell (IHSAA Sectional Championship)

Saturday

Girls Basketball @ Boone Grove