Crown Point senior Ethan Ziolkowski has earned the confidence and belief of coaches and teammates alike.
Ziolkowski, a 6-foot-3, 175-pound wide receiver, showed why during the season opener against visiting Lowell on Friday.
“He’s a first-year varsity player, basically,” Crown Point coach Craig Buzea said. “We’ve just been waiting for him. We thought we had something with him, and it turns out that he did a great job.”
Indeed, Ziolkowski finished with four catches for 95 yards and a touchdown as the Bulldogs pulled away for a 42-7 nonconference victory.
Senior running back Brayden Schutt ran for 174 yards and two TDs for Crown Point, which extended its winning streak in the Old Leather Helmet game, the state’s longest-running rivalry, to six, coinciding with Buzea’s tenure.
Schutt praised Ziolkowski too.
“Great game from him,” Schutt said. “He really came to play today. He showed out, and when the lights got bright, he delivered.”
Ziolkowski delivered one catch for 7 yards last season. He eclipsed those numbers in the first quarter alone against the Red Devils with two catches for 47 yards.
“It starts with the weight room,” he said. “Coach (Mark) Garrett, he’s a beast. He helps in so many ways, and it’s just about just committing to what you know matters to you. All of our coaches work really hard, and they always put it together.”
Ziolkowski’s second catch was a 39-yard TD on a screen pass from senior quarterback Tyce Custy, a Lindenwood recruit, with 4:50 left in the first quarter.
“It felt great,” Ziolkowski said. “The first touchdown of the season, all my teammates coming to celebrate with me, I just loved it. Awesome.”
Ziolkowski is part of an athletic family that includes his older sister Ava, who was the 2023-24 Post-Tribune Girls Basketball Player of the Year.
Ziolkowski is a standout lacrosse player in addition to a football player.
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“I love both,” he said. “It’s either-or.”
Lowell scored first when senior cornerback Gage Wimberly returned a fumble 46 yards for a TD with 8:28 left in the first quarter. But Crown Point managed to lead 15-7 at halftime.
“That first half was about as lousy as I’ve seen one of our teams play in a long time,” Buzea said. “Anything that could go wrong went wrong. … But I told our guys at halftime, ‘We can’t play any worse than what we just played,’ and we were still up.
“We righted the ship. Our defense was excellent, and they have an excellent running game, and we stood up pretty well. The defense basically threw a shutout.”
Custy threw for 157 yards and added a 20-yard TD run, and senior wide receiver Kingston Connelly had four catches for 42 yards.
“I feel really good about our wideouts,” Buzea said. “Tyce did a really nice job of spreading it around. He probably hit six or seven different receivers. I like that.”
Ziolkowski liked the way the Bulldogs responded after falling behind in a relatively slow first half.
“All I care about is that we won,” he said. “We battled hard. We came back, battled hard. That’s what I love about our team.
“It just feels great to win. Our team works really hard in the offseason, in the summer. We have a plan. We have a calendar. We were excited, and it was just a great win.”
This story will be updated.