Saturday, September 19, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Gregory Moore had 145 yards rushing on 22 carries and scored a TD as Paterson Catholic scored the final 33 points of the game in a 33-6 win over Glen Rock on Friday afternoon.

GLEN ROCK -- It's the game of the year every season in the B-PSL and not just because Paterson Catholic and Glen Rock are the two undisputed top teams in the league. The fun part of the rivalry is the contrasting styles employed by the offenses as Glen Rock and its spread formations wouldn't mind if the game were played in the Grand Canyon whereas Paterson Catholic and its imposing offensive line would be content if it took place in a phone booth.

When Glen Rock capitalized on a turnover as quarterback Brendan Miller snuck over from the 1-yard line on a fourth down midway through the first quarter and still trailing with under two minutes to play in the first half, Paterson Catholic had to fight the urge to change its approach and stay patient enough for its size advantage to take effect.

“It took me 15 years as a head coach to learn to be patient. One of the games I watched [on film] was 2006 [against Glen Rock] when we were down 14-0 in the first half and people were screaming and hollering to throw the ball,” said PC head coach Benjie Wimberly. “But our game plan is to run and we have to stick with it. We believe in our big guys up front and that is how it was here.”

Brendan Miller scored a a fourth down QB sneak to give Glen Rock the early lead.

When the game plan didn’t work Paterson Catholic was content to punt and play field position and when it finally started to click the Cougars zoomed right by. They got an 18-yard touchdown on a broken play scramble by quarterback Jaqueiss Gerald to grab a 7-6 lead just before halftime and set about wearing down the Panthers in the second half on the way to a 33-6 win.

Using a no-huddle offense more to keep Glen Rock from catching its breath than to force the ball down the field, Paterson Catholic forced the Panthers to sell out against the run. It’s why Jacquise Bacote was so wide open in the left corner of the end zone where he caught the lone score of the third quarter, a 20-yard grab that gave PC a 14-6 lead and some breathing room.

“Our hurry up offense was really getting to them and coach [Wimberly] wanted to keep attacking with it and see what would happen,” said Gerald. “Finally we broke through on them in the third quarter. They were starting to blitz and I went up top to [Bacote] for that touchdown and everything just rolled from there.”

Bacote was also a force on defense where he finished with nine tackles and two interceptions that ended Glen Rock’s first two possessions of the second half.

PC's Jacquise Bacote hauling in his second interception of the game.

“We were well prepared. We went through all of the plays that they run in a game and what they did was what we practiced against,” said Bacote, a senior. “The coaches did a great job putting us in position to make plays and I just had to do my job when the ball came my way.”

It was Glen Rock that ended Paterson Catholic’s 50-game B-PSL winning streak last season with a 35-34 win (#8 in our Top 25 games of 2008-09), but this time around it was too much to ask for the Panthers to hang with this year’s Cougars who lost just three players to graduation from last year’s squad that went on to win the Non-Public Group 1 state title.

“We tried our best and we hung with them for a while, but then they just wore us out. Give the credit to them,” said Jim Kurz, who is in his first season as Glen Rock’s head coach. “They are a legitimate team and that is not to take away from our guys because we played as hard as we could. They just took over the game.”

Tevin Ankle caught this pass to help set up Glen Rock's TD.

It was still a one possession game lat in the third quarter until a fumble after a completed pass turned into Glen Rock’s third turnover of the second half and the most damaging. Paterson Catholic cashed when Gerald’s play-action fake froze the defense long enough for Larry Artis slip unnoticed into the end zone. Artis was all alone at the goal line when he hauled in Gerald’s floater as PC broke the game open, 21-6, 1:13 into the final quarter.

When Glen Rock (1-1) lost a fumble on its next offensive play, the Cougars needed just two plays before Gregory Moore (22 carries, 145 yards) went over from six yards out. The extra point sailed wide left, but the damage had already been done as Paterson Catholic scored 20 points in the span of just 2:43. Elijah Shumate closed the scoring with a 24-yard TD run with 6:01 to play.

Although there was a measure of payback in the PC win, there was no accompanying war of words.

“The 33-6 looks good, but Glen Rock is a tough opponent. We look forward to this game every year, and every year we have it marked down on our calendar,” said Bacote. “Last year they beat us 35-34, so we had to come out and redeem ourselves, it wasn’t easy. Those guys are good.”

Jaqueiss Gerald threw two TD passes for Paterson Catholic, which improved to 2-0 on the season.

Paterson Catholic (2-0) has now outscored its two opponents by a combined score of 60-6 and will have a chance to pile up that advantage next week against Manchester before a tough road game on October 3 at Lodi.

“This was our rivalry game. Glen Rock is our Eastside/Kennedy, our Bergen/[St.] Joe’s, no ifs, ands or buts about it. We respect those guys more than anybody around and we have to bring our best game to beat them any year,” said Wimberly. “But now we have to put it behind and focus on Manchester.”

And with Paterson Catholic now out of the way, Glen Rock can turn its attention toward making it back to the state playoffs starting with next week’s game against Garfield and Kurz, who took over for the now legendary head coach Alan Daett, can but his first big game behind him and continue the transition.

“Playing Paterson Catholic in my second game was not an easy task. They are well-coached and they brought it every play,” said Kurz. “But I was happy with the way our kids fought and we can forget about this. It’s all about Garfield starting now.”

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