October
20, 2006
 |
| Jeremiah Kayal stepped in a QB for Wayne Hills and had a 60-yard TD run. |
OLD TAPPAN -- It certainly hadn’t been the kind of game that Dan DeCicco had envisioned. A fumble in the first half and a bobbled snap in the second half had the junior on the wrong end of Wayne Hills’ head coach Chris Olsen’s wrath.
Not coincidentally, his Patriot teammates were in the throes of another battle royale with Old Tappan. For the first time all season, the Pats were not enjoying a leisurely fourth quarter, and, in fact, they were in danger of seeing the Golden Knights finally climb the upset hill after three tries.
DeCicco had a promise to keep, however, and he cashed it in with a halfback option pass for a touchdown with 4:18 to go that sent Hills to its seventh win of the season, a 21-10 triumph.
“What else is new,” Olsen said afterwards. “We’ve developed a pretty good rivalry [with Old Tappan] the last few years. I just felt that the way we played defense, it shouldn’t have been that close, but give them all the credit.”
 |
| Jamie Rowe recovered an onside kick that led to a field goal as Old Tappan got to within 14-10 midway through the fourth quarter. |
That Patriot defense made up for an offense that turned it over twice and a pair of special teams blunders that had the Knights knocking on the door of a stunning victory.
“We played hard, we just never got untracked,” OT head coach Brian Dunn said. “I’m very proud of them, but it’s very frustrating (to get so close).”
Down 14-0 late in the third period, DeCicco dropped back to punt. The snap came back and he dropped it. He picked it up, only to have his kick blocked by Sam Massaro. The ball bounded directly up to Massaro, who took it 42 yards for a touchdown.
The Knights then executed a perfect middle rush onside kick with Jamie Rowe recovering it at the Hills 49-yard line.
“We had back to back breakdowns on special teams, and that’s my fault,” Olsen said.
Old Tappan (4-2) moved to the Patriot 12-yard line, but there the WH defense stiffened, with Scott Schultz making a tackle for a yard loss and DeCicco dropping OT running back Mo Ghotok for a 7 yard loss on third down.
 |
| Dave Ogden and the Wayne Hills defense held Old Tappan to just 108 total yards. |
Dunn brought on Ki-Chul Shin to try a 37-yard field goal. With a gusting wind to his back, he blasted a 37-yarder straight through to cut the gap to 14-10 with 7:48 left in the game.
“At that point we had to get points on the board,” Dunn explained. “I didn’t want to come away from that with nothing.”
That put the onus on the Wayne Hills offense, which had already suffered a major blow when quarterback Mike Giampapa went down with nine minutes to go in the second quarter with a serious left knee injury.
The Pats moved from their own 19 to the Knight 45, and Olsen called a timeout facing a third and 10. He went into the latter half of the playbook and put his faith in DeCicco.
“Unbelievable,” DeCicco exclaimed. “Coach came in and said we’re running speed sweep pass. We’ve practiced it a couple of times during the week, and I promised him I’d make up for my mistakes.”
 |
| Old Tappan QB Kyle Jansen was 5 of 16 passing for only 26 yards, in the windy conditions. |
“I told him if it wasn’t open to throw it away and we’ll punt it and take our chances,” Olsen said.
He began sweeping to his right, then pulled up and floated one into the wind towards Mike Fullam.
“It was up there a while, and the wind was taking it all over the place,” Fullam remembered. “It finally came down and I made the catch.”
Fullam made the catch awkwardly, and then got a nice block from Geoff Pruzinsky near the 20-yard line that sprung him free to complete the 45-yard touchdown play. Schultz hit his third extra point kick to put a key insurance tally on the board.
“We had the right coverage,” Dunn lamented. “We should have been looking in the backfield and seen it coming.”
Olsen felt his team should have had a more comfortable lead than the 7-0 edge it had at halftime, but two turnovers and the loss of Giampapa left the Patriots a bit ragged on offense.
 |
| Wayne Hills starting QB Mike Giampapa left the game with a knee injury in the second quarter. |
“I told him we’re gonna win this game for you,” DeCicco recalled telling Giampapa just before he was taken to Valley Hospital by ambulance.
That put the reins in the hands of Jeremiah Kayal, and the junior showed some moxey, picking up 95 yards rushing on 8 runs.
“There were some nerves,” Kayal said about his first-ever varsity snaps at quarterback. “I had faith in my line and my backs.”
“The kid came in and made plays,” Dunn noted. “We just got outflanked on a couple of plays.”
One of those plays was Hills’ first one in the second half. Up on the strength of Ray Van Peenen’s 4-yard TD run, they stopped the Knights three and out before taking over at the WH 40-yard line.
Kayal ran an option right, but found no room. He cut back to his left, found a lane to the outside and made the sideline, where he outran the defense for a 60-yard touchdown jaunt.
 |
| Old Tappan's Mo Ghotok carried the ball 15 times for 50 yards. |
“This is a team that had its character tested, and they responded,” Olsen commented. “We lost a good player in Giampapa, a true quarterback who had six games under his belt. Kayal (1 of 3 passing, 18 yards, 1 INT) did a nice job in a tough spot.”
In addition to Kayal, DeCicco ran nine times for 73 yards and Van Peenen, still looking like he is feeling the effects of his knee injury that cost him the first five games of the year, had 17 carries for 59 yards. Tim Waller had 8 tackles and a sack, while Schultz, Pruzinsky and Matt Johnson had seven tackles each.
The Hills defense held the Knights to 108 total yards, with Ghotok (15 carries, 50 yards) and Rowe (12-39) doing the majority of the work. QB Kyle Jansen was 5 of 16 passing for only 26 yards, with Shin catching three balls for 14 yards. Ghotok (9), Rowe (8) and Mike Hurley (7 tackles, 4 for losses) topped the Old Tappan defense.
TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.
|
|
|
| About Us | Contact Us | Home |
Questions?
E-mail the editor editor@northjerseysports.com
All contents © copyright 2003-2006 HSSportsWeb.com, Inc. All rights reserved.
