Noah Ehrlich still hasn’t fully overcome the disappointment of Crown Point’s loss at semistate a month ago.
The senior quarterback had been all in as the Bulldogs attempted to win the Class 6A state title after their history-making appearance in the championship game last year, and anything less than the ultimate prize was going to ring hollow.
But a broader perspective has somewhat softened Ehrlich’s stance.
“Talking about finishing the job and making the state run and end up winning it, you look at it through a close lens, and you’re like, ‘Dang, we didn’t really get what we wanted,’” he said. “We worked really hard for it, and it hurt for a while, having that void.
“But you take a step back and look at everything Crown Point football has done the last couple years, the records we broke and the history we made, and it’s like, ‘Wow, we really did something here. We really did something special.’ It does suck losing, getting so close and losing. But it gives you a good feeling, looking over it all and seeing what we did was special.”
Ehrlich, the 2024 Post-Tribune Football Player of the Year, has been at the heart of much of that special stretch after transferring from Hobart following his sophomore season. As a senior, the Miami of Ohio recruit completed 157 passes for 2,415 yards and 29 touchdowns, eclipsing his program record of 27 from last season. He set program records for completions and yards last season and narrowly missed surpassing them while barely playing in the second half of games.
Ehrlich was the Gatorade Indiana player of the year, a Class 6A senior all-state selection and the Duneland Athletic Conference’s offensive MVP for the second straight season.
“Individually, I’m happy with everything that has happened — me being able to go play at the next level, being blessed with the situation I was put in at Crown Point, coming in and the guys accepting me, being given the keys to the offense and being able to produce,” he said. “But football’s the ultimate team sport, so no one guy can do it all.
“All of the awards and the stats are amazing. But it’s really impossible without 11 guys on offense and 11 guys on defense and special teams all working together toward one common goal. So I have to give praise to my teammates and my coaches because without them there’s no way I would be able to do what I’ve been doing.”
Crown Point coach Craig Buzea was equally enthusiastic in his praise for Ehrlich, describing him as “arguably the best quarterback ever to come out of the Region — I cannot even think who could have been better.” Buzea noted Ehrlich’s role helming the first and only Region team to make a 6A final, this season’s semistate trip and back-to-back undefeated regular seasons.
“You’d have to go back a long time to find a quarterback who’s done what he’s been able to do,” Buzea said. “His stats are one thing — and they’re staggering — and again his stats are pretty skewed from the standpoint that eight of those games, he never threw a pass in the second half. If it was just stats, it would be one thing.
“But the fact that what he does for our program as far as leadership goes and all the qualities that you want from a top athlete in your program, he does it as well as anybody I’ve ever had.”
Buzea also highlighted Ehrlich’s humility.
“There were times he would come off the field and I would tell him, ‘Hey, hang in there, stay with it. We’re running the ball. We’re being successful. We’re going to get some shots downfield,’” Buzea said. “Just to sort of let him know we are going to throw the ball at some point.
“Just to show his maturity and him just wanting to win, he would say, ‘Coach, they can’t stop our run. There’s no reason to throw the ball. Let’s just keep pounding it.’ I’d look at him, like, ‘Are you sure?’ Most quarterbacks, if they can throw the ball, that’s what they want to do. So when I tell him we’re trying to set something up and he looks at me and says, ‘Coach, we’re good,’ that’s just an unbelievable sign of maturity. … For him to just say, ‘It’s not about me, it’s about our team, we’re doing well, don’t worry about me,’ it just speaks volumes about him.”
Ehrlich also has influenced a younger generation of Crown Point players.
“He’s done incredible things on and off the field,” Buzea said. “He helps his community out. He goes down to help our feeder system, Junior Bulldogs, and cleans the equipment. He never passes a kid up who wants his autograph or wants to talk to him or take a picture. I’ve never seen him walk past any kid who wanted to do that. He’s just an outstanding human being, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to coach him for two years.”
Ehrlich threw just three interceptions this season after having nine last year. Two of the picks this season came during the Bulldogs’ 30-7 semistate loss to Westfield, which they had defeated 38-31 in double overtime in the teams’ semistate game last year.
Ehrlich was philosophical about the result of the rematch.
“I’m disappointed that we lost, but I’m not that disappointed because I have no regrets of what we could’ve done or what we could’ve done more,” he said. “I know we wanted that game, and I wanted that game. We fought as hard as we could, and I fought as hard as I could. I made a couple mistakes that cost the team.
“But in reality, football is football and stuff’s going to happen, and you have to move on from it. This game was marked on their schedule for an entire year. That was the one they wanted really badly and the one they were really looking forward to. So they just flat-out manhandled us. I have no regrets, though. I know I gave everything I could that game — we all did — and it just didn’t work.”
Since that loss, Ehrich has been balancing his individual football training and workouts with Crown Point’s baseball team in preparation for the spring. He is planning to attend Miami’s Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl game against Colorado State on Dec. 28, along with his parents, with a trip to the Grand Canyon likely part of the itinerary.
“Football season itself goes by so fast,” Ehrlich said. “It’s really a grind, every day going to practice and trying to hold to the expectations of winning. But being around the team we had and the group of coaches, it made it easy. It made you look forward to going to practice.
“That’s what I’ll miss the most — being able to walk in the facility every day with that group of guys and be able to play a sport I love so much, and knowing that I’m going to get coached hard, and we’ve been really successful. When I look back, the feeling that I have is just being thankful for it all. My time at Crown Point with football came to an end, but I’m very thankful for what happened and how it happened and the people I was able to do it with.”
