Friday, December 4, 2009

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Zach Donnarumma ended his high school career in style with 269 yards rushing and four touchdowns as Ramsey won its second-ever state title with a 36-10 win over River Dell in the North 1, Group 2 state final.

EAST RUTHERFORD – Ramsey’s defense was well aware how dangerous Garrett Avitabile, River Dell’s versatile quarterback, could be. But it wasn’t until the second play from scrimmage when they learned it first hand. He juked three defenders on his way to a 54-yard touchdown run to put River Dell ahead less than a minute into Thursday night’s North 1, Group 2 final. It heightened the awareness of Ramsey’s defense, especially Zach Donnarumma, who doubles as the team’s starting tailback. In the last game of his high school career, Donnarumma simply played the game of his life.

Donnarumma rushed for a career-high 269 yards and four touchdowns as Ramsey quickly erased that deficit and pulled away in the second half for a 36-10 triumph in front of over 8,000 fans at Giants Stadium. It is only the second state title in the program’s history.

“This is everything I could have imagined and better,” said Donnarumma. “We worked together to get to this point. It means a lot to all of us, but especially us seniors to go out and play the way we did in our last game in a Ramsey uniform. I don’t even know what to say but, it feels great to be state champs.”

Garrett Avitabile gave River Dell a lead on just its second play from scrimmage with a 65-yard TD run.

River Dell came into the came confident and with an experienced squad, led by Avitabile. Just two plays into the game, the Hawks grabbed the lead. Avitabile got through a hole, and then turned a short gain into a long touchdown run. He cut back two separate times to leave defenders in his wake and raced up the left sideline for a 54-yard score and Tom May added the extra-point for a 7-0 lead just 45 seconds onto the game.

“Not that we weren’t already awake, but that really woke us up,” said Ramsey defensive tackle Cory Connell. “We call ourselves ‘the brotherhood’ on this team. We weren’t going to let one play get us down; there was a whole game still left. We knew if the defense did its job, (Zach) would get going and we would put up some points.”

May picked off a pass in the end zone to stall Ramsey’s first drive, but the Rams continued to put pressure on the River Dell defense. Dennis Wilson got Ramsey on the board with a 25-yard field goal and Donnarumma scored from two yards out to put Ramsey ahead 10-7.

River Dell answered with a 30-yard field goal from Dylan Smith that would have been good from 50, to knot the score at 10. But that was the last bright sport for River Dell as Ramsey controlled the game in every facet from that point on.

Ramsey's Jon Capuano going up for the 55 yard TD catch and run that all but put the game away.

The Rams put the clamps on Avitabile and chewed up yardage in chunks on the ground, most of them coming from Donnarumma. The signature play of the game was when the senior tailback ran through a huge hole create by Connell and fullback Zach Klein. He trucked a River Dell defender, then carried two more into the end zone for a 14-yard touchdown and a 16-10 halftime lead.

“My line and (Klein) were doing a great job, I just had to run through the holes,” said Donnarumma. “I felt on the last drive of the first half that we were starting to wear them down. I just had to hit the holes hard and keep my legs churning. I knew if we scored early in the second half that we could break them.”

That is exactly what Ramsey did. But the surprise was that the big play was through the air, not on the ground where it had done their damage all game. Quarterback Kevin Kuruc stood in the pocket and heaved a long pass up the right side for flanker John Capuano, who out-leaped a defender to haul in the pass, but had the presence of mind to stay on his feet. Two River Dell players had a crack at tackling him when he came down, but Capuano shook them off and ran it in for a backbreaking 55-yard touchdown and a 22-10 lead.

Michael Weber and River Dell ended the season with a 10-2 record.

Ramsey’s defense was equally as dominant. After allowing Avitabile to rush for 67 yards on his first three attempts, he rushed for just two more yards on his final 10 attempts. Largely because of Connell and Mike Carnesale, who were causing havoc in the River Dell backfield all night.

Donnarumma closed out the game and a career-best performance with two long touchdown runs. The first was up the gut where he split the defense for a 46-yard touchdown run. The last of his four touchdowns was him showing off his speed by sweeping around the left end and outracing the Hawks’ defense for a 61-yard score. With that, there was only the countdown of the final minutes and the celebration was on.

“Ramsey deserves every bit of being able to say they are state champs,” said River Dell head coach D.J. Nimphius. “We hung in there for most of the first half, but they just kept coming at us and they won the battle at the line of scrimmage for most of the night, which is something we haven’t been used to. I thought we fought hard the whole game, we just were up against a better team tonight who executed a lot better than we did. Give them all the credit, they beat us in every phase of the game and they deserve to be state champs.”

FOR MORE PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.