December
2, 2006
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| Bogota defense held Mountain Lakes without a first down until the final play of the North 1, Group 1 state final in a dominating 28-0 win in Giants Stadium. | |
EAST RUTHERFORD -- The talk before Friday night’s North 1, Group 1 final centered around Bogota’s ability to contain the Wing-T running game of Mountain Lakes. When the weather forecast showed rain and wind for game time, it became even more important to stop the run.
The rain didn’t materialize, but the Buc defense did, and they not only contained the Lakers but the completely stifled them. In the process, they put an exclamation point on an undefeated season and their first state football championship.
With a 28-0 victory in front of a boisterous Bogota crowd, the Bucs did what they hadn’t been able to do in four previous tries – finish what they started.
The journey began when many of the seniors were freshmen playing varsity ball, a team that went to the title game only to fall short. They endured the near-fatal budget cuts that almost forced Bogota to cancel its athletic programs.
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| John Arochena blocked a punt to set up Bogota's first score, caught the conversion pass then scored a TD on this catch and run to put the Bucs up 14-0 with 7:07 left in the first half. |
They overcame all of it, and did so in front of a crowd near 5,000, which included at least half of the town of Bogota’s population.
“This is amazing,” defensive lineman Johnfrey Sanchez exclaimed. “We busted our butts for four years. We came up short as freshman, and one of our goals was to do this. We understood what it was, and we made a promise to each other that we would get back here and win this thing before we graduate. We came in as a family and we’re going out as a family with a state championship.”
Head coach Dan Sabella knows all about what it means to get close, having played in a state final as a quarterback for Bogota and coached the 2003 team. He put his faith in the defense.
“We did a lot more man coverage and we did send people in to try and jam the box,” Sabella said of the game plan. “We knew we had to stuff the run, they stayed with what (had) worked for them, and we tackled and did not give up the big play.”
He was well aware that his defense needed to stand out, and the coaching staff tweaked their unit just a bit to prepare. It put a lot of the onus on Max Katzner, and he certainly didn’t disappoint.
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| Bogota QB Jim Lynch was 10 of 25 passing for 95 yards with the 2 TDs and no interceptions in the windblown Meadowlands. |
“He stepped up tonight,” Sabella said of his inside linebacker. “We went with a 5-3 stack and we put him in the middle, and that’s the guy who’s unblocked most of the time. We told him if we’re going to stuff these guys tonight, you’re going to have to have a ton of tackles. I told him 12 (tackles), he got 13.”
So dominant was the defense, they did not allow the Lakers a first down until a roughing the passer penalty on the game’s final play, and the Mountain Lakes offense mustered all of 22 total yards, just 6 in the first half.
“All year long, our offense has been carrying us,” Sabella commented. “ We’ve gotten into situations where we’ve had to outscore people. After watching this team on film, and knowing they scored 50 rushing touchdowns this year, to shut them down the way we did, I’m speechless about the way our defense played.”
He could very easily be at a loss for words when it comes to special teams, a group that set up the first two Bogota scores.
They took advantage at every turn, beginning with a blocked punt on the Lakers’ first possession. John Arochena beat a block to get his hand on the ball, putting Bogota in business at the ML 16-yard line.
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| Bogota's Pete Lynch picked up 29 yards on 6 carries before leaving with a shoulder injury. |
On third down, QB Jim Lynch ran play-action and got the Mountain Lakes defense leaning left before throwing to Danny Brown on a fade to the right side for a 9-yard touchdown. Lynch then hit Arochena with a two-point conversion pass with just 3:05 gone in the game.
“Whenever we run the play in practice, they always throw it to the deeper guys,” Brown said of the play. “We had everyone coming across, and I just came through and was wide open.”
“We knew a big key to the game was getting up early,” Lynch said. “They’re a team that likes to run the ball, and if we could score first, we’d have a good shot at winning the game.”
Bogota (12-0) got another special teams break when a low snap bounced past the ML punter, forcing him to fall on the ball at the Lakers’ 8-yard line. A penalty and a loss had them at the 15 on third down before Lynch, showing patience in the pocket, hit Arochena on a middle seam pass near the 5. He carried a defender over the goal line with 7:07 to go before halftime.
“The running back ran a bench and took the linebacker (with him), and I just went right up the seam,” Arochena recounted. “I promised my family and my girlfriend I’d score a touchdown, so I wasn’t getting stopped.”
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| Danny Brown and the Bogota ground game chewed up the clock in the second half. |
“That’s sweet for us, because special teams have hurt us in the past in big games,” Sabella noted. “For our kids to make the conscious effort to know it was going to be big and win the special teams battle, that’s why we’re state champs.”
A short punt put the Bucs back on offense at the Lakes 48, and after Lynch found Ray Carrasco with a 15-yard pass, Peter Lynch found room off right tackle to get to the outside and complete a 17-yard TD run with 2:08 before intermission. Jim Lynch ran the option left for the two-point conversion and a 22-0 bulge.
From that point, it was more a matter of whether or not Mountain Lakes (10-2) would pick up a first down, let alone score.
“I knew we were going to have a great effort, but this is unbelievable,” Arochena said of the defensive effort. “We played physical football and everyone did their job.”
With the big lead, Sabella put the game in the hands of his running backs, and they were able to grind out yards while whittling time off the clock. Shane Stanek ran 12 times for 41 yards and the final touchdown, a dive over the line from a yard away with 1:48 remaining in the game.
“I know this might be my only chance to win one, but we had to win it for them,” sophomore running back Danny Brown said of the seniors.
Brown added 47 yards on 13 runs and Pete Lynch 29 on 6 before leaving in the latter stages of the third period with a shoulder injury. Jim Lynch was 10 of 25 passing for 95 yards with the 2 TDs and no interceptions in the windy conditions.
FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS GAME OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.
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