Saturday, December 5, 2015

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Staff Writer

Quarterback James Ciliento ran for three scores for Mahwah, which won its first state title since 1981 with a 38-13 win over Glen Rock in the North 1, Group 2 state final at MetLife Stadium.

EAST RUTHERFORD – It had been 15 years since Mahwah had last played for a football state title and since 1981 since it last won one. So, needless to say, emotions were running pretty high when both of those droughts were quenched on Friday night at MetLife Stadium.

“This is one of the greatest days of my life,” said Mahwah head coach Jeff Remo. “I have been on planet earth for 53 years and I can’t explain how happy I feel right now.”

“This is one of the best days of my life, too,” said senior quarterback James Ciliento, echoing his coach. “It’s amazing. The whole community, the school, my family…everyone came in and supported this team.”

Roger Pelletier, Mahwah’s athletic director, said, “This is the goal that the kids and the coaches set when they start their workouts in June. This is the culmination and right now it means the world.”

“Surreal,” was the best way senior running back Zayjay Colon-Carrero could describe it.

Some in the Mahwah contingent were teary-eyed, some were smiling ear to ear and all of them were pretty pumped after a dominating performance, a 35-13 win over Glen Rock under the bright lights of a stadium that two different NFL teams call home.

Glen Rock QB Matt Schlett threw for a score and ran for another.

“Win the day. That is our motto. Have a better day than Glen Rock or whoever you are going to play or whatever you are going to do that day,” said Mahwah’s Mike Peltekian, who lived every lineman’s dream when he ran in a pick 6 in the second quarter. “Whether it is lifting, whether it is watching film, whether it is running or practicing, have a better day than them and you are going to win the game. Today, we won the day.”

And the Thunderbirds won it early. Taking advantage of a short field courtesy of a bad snap on a Glen Rock punt attempt, Mahwah needed to travel only 25 yards for its first score. Colon-Carrera covered the final six feet with two-yard plunge off left tackle to give his team the lead for good. Patrick Cowan, who was perfect on all six of his kicks (5 of 5 PATs, 1 of 1 FGs) despite the narrower uprights on the pro field, made it 7-0 Mahwah with 4:21 left in the first quarter.

A sack by Jack Hope put Glen Rock behind the sticks on the ensuing possession and, after another Panthers punt, Mahwah covered 51 yards in 10 plays to double its advantage. Ciliento hit Jack Wood for 18 yards on a fourth-and-six to keep the drive alive before Ciliento went in from six yards out.

Ciliento, who never comes off the field, set up Mahwah’s next score, a 22-yard Cowan field goal, with a 37-yard punt return. On the next play from scrimmage, Peltekian picked off a screen pass thrown under duress by Glen Rock quarterback Matt Schlett and returned it 19 yards to give the T-Birds the 24-0 lead they took into halftime.

Seniro running back Zayjay Colon-Carrera scoring the first quarter TD that put Mahwah ahead for good.

“We ran a blitz and I was let in easily. You don’t usually get let in easily unless something is up, especially in a state championship football game. I stopped and the next thing I knew the ball was in my left hand and I thought ‘I am taking this in,” said Peltekian. “I was just hoping that I wouldn’t get caught from behind. If I would have, I would have never heard the end of it from my teammates, my friends or my family, so I had to score.”

Not only did Mahwah (11-1) have a healthy lead when it headed to the locker room, but it also received the ball to start the second half. It took just two plays, both keepers by Ciliento, to pad the lead even further. He went for seven yards on the first play and 44 on the second, a jaunt down the right side that made it 31-0 just 55 seconds after halftime.

Mahwah’s lone turnover of the game, a fumble recovered by Mike O’Hagan, finally gave Glen Rock (8-3) some life and it cashed in when Schlett hit Tommy Pulzello for an 18-yard score. Robert Ray added the extra point as the Panthers got on the board.

Schlett scored Glen Rock’s other touchdown a two-yard keeper over the top with 4:00 left in the game, but Mahwah recovered the obligatory on-sides kick and punched in a late score of its own, a three-yard keeper by Ciliento that put the icing on the T-Birds first state championship in 34 years.

“We had a plan starting in January. We had T-shirts made that said ‘Win at MetLife’ and the kids wore them all year and they got it done today,” said Remo, who was a player on Mahwah’s 1979 state championship team and has been the head coach for 19 years. “We have some tough kids at Mahwah and we pride ourselves on that. They sure played tough today.”

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