Sophomore signal-caller Kyle Mercorelli guided Hudson Catholic to a 14-12 win at Hoboken on Saturday afternoon.
HOBOKEN – In 2023, between injuries and low numbers on its roster, Hudson Catholic was forced to forfeit the remainder of its season after just two games. The Hawks needed a knight, or maybe a McKnight in this case, to save their program. First-year head coach Lamar McKnight, the former Lincoln standout, not only brought a youthful energy to the program, but also expectations on a young group to quickly turn the Hawks back into a winning group.
On Saturday they would face their mirror image, Hoboken; another program looking for a return to glory under new head coach Joe Borkowski. Something had to give in this war of attrition where plenty of trash was talked and both teams stood their ground.
McKnight (a quarterback himself in his playing days) but his faith in sophomore signal-caller Kyle Mercorelli and he delivered. Mercorelli threw a tying TD pass to Lamont Williams and then a two-point conversion to Jamie Castano, which proved to be the margin of victory as Hudson Catholic improved to 2-0 on the season with a 14-12 victory on Saturday afternoon at Louis J. Taglieri Jr. Stadium in Hoboken.
“Every play was important, we played it like it was the last play of the game,” said Castano. “We appreciate every play that we get to be on the field and we stick together no matter what.”
Nysir Golden took the opening kickoff 85 yards inside the Hoboken five-yard line. However, it was called back on a penalty for a block in the back. It was a fitting start to a game in which both teams shot themselves in the foot all game with costly penalties. Both teams had upwards of 15 penalties apiece. Because of that, along with turnovers, neither team was able to establish a rhythm in the first half. It was scoreless well into the second quarter until Hoboken’s Jae’on Walker turned in a highlight play to open the scoring.
Hoboken's Jae’on Walker scored the game's first TD.
Hoboken quarterback Isaiah Blanks escaped pressure and threw a jump ball up the left sideline. Walker not only outleaped a defender to come down with the catch, but then made a trio of zig-zag cuts to turn the defender completely around on his way to the end zone for a 6-0 lead.
The Hawks were unfazed and answered right back before the end of the half. Mercorelli led Williams perfectly on a post pattern with Williams breaking a tackle and going 55 yards to the house to tie the game at 6.
On the first drive of the third quarter, the Red Wings focused on running the ball and did so effectively behind hard-nosed tailback Devin McMillan. The sophomore got the tough yards on the drive before Walker punched it in on a misdirection play, outracing a trio of Hawks to the pilon to make it 12-6. It was at this juncture of the game where Mercorelli showed his maturation process.
With the Red Wings putting pressure on him from the edges when he dropped back, Mercorelli began to step up in the pocket to escape the pressure and provide wide-open passing windows. He found success once again over the middle, hitting Castano over the middle. The senior, who battled through calf cramps the entire second half, ran it down to the Hoboken 11. Two plays later, Castano number was called again on a run off tackle for a five-yard touchdown that tied the game. With Mercorelli on a hit streak the Hawks elected to go for the two-point conversion. Once again, Mercorelli came up clutch by stepping into the pocket and hitting a tightly-covered Amori McNeil in the end zone for the go-ahead conversion, 14-12, late in the third quarter.
“They were putting some pressure on me and I had to step up to give myself more lanes to throw to the receivers,” said Mercorelli. “I was confident that those guys would get open, I just had to get them the ball.”
Jamie Castano scored the 2-point conversion that gave Hudson Catholic the win.
Hoboken (1-1) had a pair of quality chances to take the lead in the fourth quarter, but penalties and a pair of key stops from McNeil, including a big one on fourth-down in Hawks’ territory with less than three minutes to play, helped them maintain the lead. Borkowski used all of his timeouts to try and get his team one more shot, but it was to no avail. Freshman Michael Cox bulled his way to an eight-yard run up the middle for a first down that sealed the win for the Hawks.
“Some football players take running as punishment but not on this team,” added Castano. “All of that conditioning is for a reason and you saw it come in handy today. We want to be just as fresh in the fourth quarter as we are in the first quarter.”
Hudson Catholic will have another tough challenge ahead in a home tilt against Newark Central (3-0). A big matchup with potential playoff implications involved, a place this team never thought they would be in just a year ago. With a mix of hungry seniors, talented young players, and McKnight’s exuberance on the sidelines, the Hawks feel that the best it yet to come.
“We wanted to see how they handled adversity and we came through,” said McKnight. “Everyone from the players to the coaches to the scout team were amazing this week in getting us prepared. They were a little bigger than us, but we felt our up-tempo offense on a hot day like today would give us an advantage down the stretch.”
“We’re young both in age and game experience. It would have been great to play a more clean game, but that’s the nature of the game. Some games just aren’t like that, To be able to keep the faith, accept the coaching, and stay together when we got down in the second half and pull together to get the win says a lot about our character. We have to enjoy this today and build on it for the future.”
FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS EVENT PLEASE CLICK HERE. TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS STORY PLEASE VISIT 4-FeetGrafix.com.
