Lowell senior Blake Jansky, a two-year starter at defensive end, couldn’t believe he got into the end zone.
“I thought I was going to get caught at the 20-yard line,” he said. “I surprised myself.”
Jansky had a 65-yard touchdown reception Friday night, by far the biggest play during Lowell’s scrimmage at home against Merrillville.
After playing exclusively on defense for the last two seasons, Jansky debuted on offense as a tight end during the scrimmage.
In the past, Lowell coach Keith Kilmer said the wealth of weapons on offense meant the Red Devils didn’t need Jansky to play on both sides of the ball.
But it’s a different story this season, and Kilmer said Jansky has the tools to handle that new role.
“He’s got great hands,” Kilmer said of Jansky.
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Of course, Jansky lined up at defensive end, too, after leading the Devils with nine sacks in 2017. And he made a similar impact with back-to-back sacks during Merrillville’s opening series.
But he smiled just as widely when talking about that long TD catch.
“I really do enjoy it,” he said. “Anywhere they put me, I’ll play. Just as along as I’m on the field and helping my team out.”
Jansky’s long catch was Lowell’s only score during the first series of plays. After Lowell went without a score in its red zone series, Tyler Wildman scored on a 6-yard run, the final TD scored by young, inexperienced Lowell.
“It’s the first time they’ve been in that huddle for about 80 percent of them,” Kilmer said. “We’re going to be fine. We’ll just have to compete.”
For Merrillville, junior quarterback Aahric Whitehead provided a spark in the team’s first series on offense, unleashing a 32-yard run and hitting junior wide receiver Jeremiah Howard for a 16-yard gain.
The Pirates did not score in that session, but found the end zone three times in the red zone, twice on TD passes from Whitehead to junior wide receive Xzavier Shell.
Fellow junior Peter Rodriguez also saw time behind center and completed a 10-yard pass to Howard for Merrillville’s third score in the red zone.
Merrillville coach Brad Seiss declined to name a starting quarterback for the team’s opener next Friday at Andrean, but said he was pleased with his team’s attention to detail.
“There weren’t a lot of little mistakes, like illegal procedure penalties or bad snaps,” Seiss said. “And both QBs played well.
“I would’ve liked to see us drive down the field and finish with a score — the TDs that we had were in the red zone setting. But we’re striving for consistency. There’s a lot there. We’ll be ready to go.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.