December
3, 2005
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| St. Peter's Prep QB Will Hill overcame a rough start to lead the Marauders to a 22-15 upset of Don Bosco Prep in the Non-Public Group 4 state final and their first state championshi p since 1994. | |
EAST RUTHERFORD -- Back in 1994, when Andrew Booth was seven years old, he was sitting in Section 108 at Giants Stadium with his father watching St. Peter’s Prep win a state championship. At one point, he turned and told his dad that some day he would win a state championship in Giants Stadium when he got to St. Peter’s.
Boy, did he win it.
The senior stepped in front of a Matt Simms pass and returned the interception 65 yards for a touchdown that completed the Marauders’ comeback from a 15-point deficit and sent them to a 22-15 win and their first state title since that 1994 season.
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| Bosco's Guy Germinario scored from 7 yards out to give the Ironmen a 15-0 lead late in the first half. |
Booth’s play came with 3:30 to go, as he cut in front of Brian Callahan’s crossing pattern and grabbed the interception. He continued angling for the left sideline and completed his untouched jaunt to the end zone with a somersault that drew a celebration penalty, though Nick Lalumia hit the extra point anyway.
“We were in man coverage, and he got a great break on the ball,” SPP head coach Rich Hansen recalled, “and I saw it (develop) right away,” and Booth added that, “coach gave me confidence that I could match up with Callahan. I read it the whole way, I saw Simms’ eyes and I just went for the ball.”
That TD broke a 15-all tie that had been forged primarily by the work of the Marauder defense, which stymied the Ironmen as no other team had been able to do all season. There were nine passes either deflected or knocked down, and until the final DB offensive play, their biggest gainer was 18 yards.
“The last two times we played them, they embarrassed us,” Hansen said, “and I thought we played well with them up front, and that was the difference.”
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| Kyee-Ayre Griffin went 47 yards on a shovel pass that set up St. Peter's first score, which left it trailing 15-7 at the break. |
What the defense did in the first half was minimize the damage that was inflicted on the SPP special teams, particularly the punting game. On four the first five St. Peter’s possessions, they had two punts never come off and one blocked, and after a Bosco punt was downed at the 1, they surrendered a safety.
For all that, the Ironmen only cashed in for 8 points, and the ability of the Marauder defense to force a pair of field goals as well as a turnover on three trips in the red zone became a huge factor.
“It could have been 21-0 early on,” DB head coach Greg Toal lamented. “To force those mistakes and not capitalize on them hurt us. We had momentum going our way, and all of a sudden it started going the other way. I thought we were getting it back, then we lost it again.”
The game opened with SPP going three and out, only to have punter Sean Boysen be unable to get off a punt thanks to a hard rush from Ryan Lindsey and Stephen Pedhoretsky that set up the Dons on the 6-yard line. Three plays netted only a yard, and Brian Hanly came on to kick a 22-yard field goal.
The same thing happened on the next series, as Boysen mishandled the snap and was nailed by Dale Fava at the Peter’s 19. Two plays later, Will Hill stripped Fava on a run, with Frank Saile recovering at the Marauder 8.
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| Jack Daniels caught this pass for 17 yards to set up Bosco's first touchdown. |
A Jack Daniels 56-yard punt was downed at the 1, and on the first play, Hill fumbled while trying to hand off in the end zone. He picked the ball up, but Nick Mistretta caught him at the right sideline for a safety that made it 5-0 with 26 seconds left in the first quarter.
Bosco (11-1) then had its only scoring drive off the kickoff, going 50 yards. Daniels had a 17-yard reception from Simms, one of the few times he had a wide open receiver. Guy Germinario finished it off with the touchdown on a 7-yard run, and Hanly kicked the point after.
Lindsey then blocked a St. Peter’s punt on the next series, setting the Ironmen up at the Marauder 20. Two procedure penalties stalled them, and Hanly came on to hit a 42-yard field goal that just cleared the bar, bouncing off the middle support and going over. It gave him 84 kicking points on the season, setting a new Bergen County record and leaving him one short of the state record of 85 set by Joe Cortese of Jackson.
“Our defense was under duress the entire first half,” Hansen admitted, “but we came up big, giving up only the one touchdown. We dodged a lot of bullets, but it wasn’t because they didn’t function, it was because we played at a really high defensive level.”
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| Brian Boysen led St. Peter's Prep on the touchdown drive that tied the game at 15. |
More importantly, it left SPP within striking distance, and they came back to score with 1:17 left in the half. Two Hill completions of 21 yards to Booth and 47 yards on a shovel pass to Kyee-Aire Griffin set up a Hill QB sneak from 1 yard that, coupled with Lalumia’s PAT, made it a one-score game at 15-7.
“It was a bad 15 points because we gave it to them,” Hansen noted, “but it wasn’t that we were being outplayed. The touchdown right before the half was a great thing, because we went in feeling good about ourselves and thought we had the momentum.”
“We just stuck together at halftime,” Griffin recounted. “We knew there was a lot of football left, anything’s possible.”
The defense continued to play strong, causing five consecutive three-and-outs by Bosco. That allowed them to pull even in the third quarter, thanks to a thread-the-needle pass from Boysen (in at quarterback for two series) to Ravi Pradhanang good for 38 yards and the touchdown. The ball was just out of the reach of the DB defender closing in, and Pradhanang kept his concentration in making the grab.
Hill came back out for the two-point conversion, and he got inside the left pylon on an option to tie the game.
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| Bosco quarterback Matt Simms finished 20 of 37 passing for 165 yards with two interceptions. |
The teams traded three-and-outs until the Booth interception, and after that, Don Bosco moved from its 20 to the St. Peter’s 9, with Lindsey’s 18-yard catch giving them a first down there with about 1:30 on the clock.
An incomplete pass on first down was followed by a throw to Daniels at the right pylon. Griffin was able step in front and make a diving interception, just keeping the ball from hitting the ground by pinning it against the top of his shoulder with 1:19 to go.
“They had run the hitch play three times, and I knew they were going to go to Lindsey,” Griffin said of the pick. “I anticipated it and jumped the ball.”
“We had field position, and the kid made a heckuva a play,” Toal said.
The Marauders were able to run off all but the final five seconds, giving the Ironmen one last shot. Simms went to Brandon Boykin underneath at the 20, and he got to the St. Peter’s 8-yard line before Joe Valenti and Brandon O’Keefe corralled him there, ending the game.
“It’s disappointing, that’s for sure,” Toal understated. “That’s it, what are you going to do.”
The Marauders were not all that productive offensively, with only 216 total yards. Griffin ran 20 times for 52 yards and Hill and Boysen combined to go 9 of 15 passing for 146 yards. It was the defense that had the impressive numbers, as Valenti and O’Keefe each had 7 tackles. They also had three takeaways.
“We wanted to make them uncomfortable,” Hansen explained. “With coverages, blitzes, whatever. We tried to change up and disguise coverages on them,” Hansen said. “We also got some unbelievable play from our underneath guys, too. We disrupted their routes a lot underneath.”
The Ironmen had 233 total yards, with Germinario running 12 times for 61 yards. Simms was 20 of 37 passing for 165 yards with the 2 INTs, and Boykin (4 catches, 49 yards) and Callahan (4-37) were the leading receivers. Ike Garrow had 11 tackles and Ken Mahoney had 9 stops and a forced fumble.
FOR MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GAME OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.
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