September
22, 2006
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| Ken Phillips and the Ridgewood offensive line cleared the way for the Maroons to pile up more the 200 yards rushing against Hackensack on Thursday night. | |
HACKENSACK -- As the clock ticked off the final minute plus, Ridgewood head coach Chuck Johnson could be heard to say, “we can play defense, coach.”
To all who witnessed the Maroons on Thursday night against Hackensack, there could be no disputing his statement. Coming in with only four days to prepare, Ridgewood was superb in shutting down Hackensack’s speed and matching their physicality.
The result was a 14-0 shutout that pushes the Maroons to 3-0 as they enter a bye next weekend, and it sets them up as the front runners in the NNJIL Division A race while putting them into a solid position among the Group 4 playoff contenders.
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| Hackensack QB Jevon Harris was forced to scramble often against Ridgewood's defensive pressure. |
Ridgewood’s defense allowed only 102 total yards and all but shut off the Hackensack running game, which netted just 26 yards. They got key contributions early from Nikola Mirkovic (four of his nine tackles on the opening drive) and Tim Eidschun, and later from Dan Lenihan and Andrew Wohler.
“We didn’t have a lot of time to prepare,” Wohler related, “and coach just kept telling us how good a team they were. We knew it was going to be smash mouth football and we had to work hard.”
The Comets found the inside sealed off, and when they looked to get around the outside, the Maroons had good pursuit angles and kept the Hackensack runners from gaining the edge.
“Coach always says pursuit leads to tackling and takeaways,” Lenihan said. “We may not be the fastest team, but we pursue every play and we chase it down and make the plays.”
“We had to run to the football,” Eidschun added. “That’s what the coaches stressed, try to cause turnovers and play like a bunch of madmen.”
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| Ridgewood's Steve Pecora scored his first varsity touchdown for the game's first score. |
Ridgewood also benefited from some fortunate bounces and key Comet mistakes, including a fumble forced by Eidschun and recovered by Doug Christopher to end Hackensack’s first offensive series at the Maroon 13.
Ridgewood returned that favor in the second quarter the Comets pounced on a fumble off a handoff at the Hackensack 19. Indirectly, that would still lead to Ridgewood’s first score as Hackensack went three-and-out and Albert Gelbaum returned the punt 15 yards to the Hackensack 27.
Steve Pecora converted a third-and-3 with a 13-yard run to the 7, and on third down from the 4, he swept the left side and scored his first varsity touchdown with 3:25 to go in the first half. Christopher’s first of two extra point kicks made it 7-0.
It remained that way to the intermission, but Hackensack’s Ken Cooper returned the second half kickoff 65 yards to the Maroon 20, with Peter Breining making a touchdown-saving tackle. Mirkovic sacked Hackensack QB Jevon Harris on third down and teamed with Greg D’Uva to bring down a scrambling Harris on fourth down to keep the Comets off the scoreboard.
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| Hackensack fell to 1-1 on the season heading into next week's game against Clifton. |
The teams traded punts until a bad snap on a punt forced Matt Grath to pull the ball in. He was immediately taken down by Wohler at the Comet 40, and a Gelbaum 15-yard run set up a 26-yard field goal try by Christopher that was blocked by Ausar Walcott, his first FG miss in five varsity tries over the last two seasons.
As luck would have it, the ball was fallen on by a Hackensack player at the 1-yard line, and when they could not get a first down, Gelbaum took a short punt back 27 yards to the Comet 1. Two runs netted zero yards, and on third down, Ridgewood QB Greg Johnson took a keeper around the left side.
He was met just before the goal line by Walcott, who separated the ball from Johnson just before he went out of bounds. The pigskin went just over the goal line near the pylon, where Eidschun fell on it for a touchdown with 7:27 remaining, though he didn’t know it at the time.
“I didn’t even know I scored,” Eidschun admitted. “I thought Greg was in the end zone. I just saw the ball and I jumped on it. Greg and I talked, I said did you get in, and he said he thought he got the pylon. I had no idea until after the game when someone told me. I was just so excited we scored.”
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| Ridgewood's Albert Gelbaum carried the ball 10 times for 50 yards. |
“It went their way tonight,” Comet head coach Gordon Whiting said. “They got the bounces.”
Hackensack, forced to the air, did not threaten the Maroon goal line. Harris was 8 of 23 passing for 76 yards and was hurried into a number of throws. Lenihan was close a few times to sacking the Comet signal caller.
“I told him before the game, this is going to be your kind of game, in the trenches, smashing the tight end, and he goes, your right coach, that’s my kind of game,” said Ridgewood head coach Chuck Johnson, speaking of Lenihan. “He’s a great kid to have.”
Ridgewood’s offense, which had struggled the first two games against Nutley and Paramus Catholic, had its first 200-yard plus rushing effort, paced by David Bonaparte (20 carries, 80 yards), Pecora (11-76) and Gelbaum (10-50). Johnson was 3 of 11 passing for 29 yards.
“We had a day and a half to get ready for them,” Johnson commented. “They throw a lot of things at you defensively, four and five man fronts, and it was an unbelievable job by our kids. They responded, that’s our kids.”
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