THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED – told by someone without a clue!

By Mike Dywan – Sports Director

Article 4/4: The Recollection, 20 Years Later

Although the 2004 Sectional Championship game was another rendition in a long line of memorable contests between the two schools separated by just under seven miles, it was considered by many to be the end of the rivalry. But why? After all, the two teams would still see each other in the regular season and sometimes in playoff settings for the next few years. Both teams had over eight wins in 2005 – so the talent was certainly still in place.

While the ‘04 game is a tough act to follow, this was an instance where the players on the field became a big part of the rivalry, meaning that any game without them would simply not have the effect it once did.

Both programs, as talented as they were at the time (and continued to be), lost some big names to graduation. Taking things back to the start of it all, the 2002 “trample” game, ending on a play that featured two sophomores in Rich Lehmann and Tommy Finn, those two would face off under center in the ‘04 meeting. They walked the  graduation stage that next summer.

Griffith would retain more of its stars than Andrean. Not only Tommy Finn was gone, so too was Jake Kocal, the hero for the Niners. Other 59er playmakers like Ty Harangody and Juaquin Rodriguez were now out of the program. These were tough people to replace – as those pieces, as great as they were, spent their entire high school career despising the other program, which just added so much to this rivalry.

And although a few of those Griffith-Andrean meetings after 2004 were close affairs as usual, it just was not the same. Things were different. Too different.

“I knew it was over when that group graduated,” said Chris Ramirez. “I remember thinking that we’d never see anything like this again. The bad blood didn’t really exist the next year.

These were two local teams. Two groups of kids that knew each other. Groups of adults that knew each other. The entire Region was interested. These five games had it all. Once the fifth game was over, to me the rivalry was too.”

So that said, although the short lived rivalry ended in 2004, what was it in that Sectional Championship game that made it so great? Was it the best 48 minutes of high school football in the Region?

From my perspective, it differs from what you may hear from someone who attended. Heck, I was only three years old at the time of the ‘04 tournament meeting. My opinion on the matter has been slightly formulated just from listening to the perspective of those that were a part of it, along with watching the game footage for the first time.

So to call it the best 48 minutes of football? Although I may not be the most qualified judge, it certainly has some competition. In just my first season at RSN in 2023, I witnessed two tournament thrillers in back-to-back weeks with West Lafayette’s double digit fourth quarter comeback against Hanover Central, then a one-point victory for Crown Point at Penn, which was CP’s first Regional title since 1988.

There are certainly some games throughout history that can compete, but this 2004 Andrean-Griffith matchup was so much more than what was between the first and final whistle.

“This game was three years long,” said Ramirez. “The Sectional Championship was merely the overtime – the fifth quarter. It ended the only way it could – the two point conversion was like sudden death.”

As we progress through this year’s state tournament, it is only a matter of time until another great four quarters is played between two teams. However, in this case, Andrean and Griffith were two teams in the same conference, each riddled with talent, and each with a three-season-long feeling of animosity towards the other.

Yes, you can get a solid 48 minutes with a team from Lake or Porter County against a team downstate, but what about everything before? The buildup for games like that are the week of, which was certainly not the case here. Although players will claim they do not look ahead, it was a matchup where that was nearly impossible. The media alone, as you see, was chomping at the bit for the next rendition of the two teams meeting.

And what better way to cap off the series than that?

Twenty years later, it still holds up.

“There are a lot of games out there,” said Tommy Finn, who still keeps up with the Region football scene. “The one that makes us stand out is the implications and the backstory with it. Then obviously the culmination at the end. There definitely was the media buildup, which certainly helps. I was just so happy to be a part of it and it was just such a great experience for everybody.”

“The fact that we were kind of a wounded team that had to recover from this 35-point throttling, we had to overcome some mental stuff,” said Brett St. Germain, who certainly sees a fair share of NWI football as the current Athletic Director at Portage. “The irony is that this team wanted to embarrass us, which they did, by running a trick special teams play. A month later, their season ended on what? A trick special teams play. You couldn’t have written a better script.”

“Everyone knew what we were in for, and the game lived up to it,” said Ramirez, who is now in his 25th year as owner of Region Sports Network. “This was a high profile game that had it all; bad blood, drama, excitement, start power, heroes and villains – and it was a do-or-die scenario. There was only one goal for each team – and it was the same goal. They had to go through the other to get what they wanted,” he continued. “It was a football version of Hagler and Hearns and I’m glad to have witnessed it up close.

Twenty years have gone by now without another game surpassing it. But if one ever does, I just hope I’m there for it.”