Sunday, October 7, 2007

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Hawthorne QB Jim Zenock turned a fourth-and-1 on his team's first drive into a 71-yard TD that gave the Bears the lead for good on the way to a 35-17 win over Saddle Brook and a 5-0 start.

SADDLE BROOK – For all of the ground that the Hawthorne football team has gained in the standings with its 4-0 start to the season, just as important is the confidence that has come with it. And the Bears’ players and coaches wasted no time in putting that confidence on display in search of win No. 5 on Saturday at Saddle Brook.

Hawthorne was faced with a fourth-and-1 from its own 29 yard line on its opening drive and it brought up a pivotal moment in the game even though only 1:42 had run off the first quarter clock. Hawthorne went for it and quarterback Jim Zenock took the snap and was stood up near or just past the line of scrimmage.

Had the run stopped there, it would have taken a measurement to chart Zenock’s progress toward the first down. But Zenock left no doubt, bouncing off the pile and to his right where he turned the corner and raced up the sideline for a 71-yard touchdown. That put Saddle Brook in catchup mode from the get-go and put the Bears in front for good on the way to a 35-17 win and a perfect 5-0 start.

Senior Steven Beauharnais had 141 yards rushing on 16 carries for Saddle Brook.

“We were just going to go for it. I thought we could get a push based on the formation we were out there in,” said Hawthorne head coach John Passero. “Jimmy Zenock just made a great play.”

He did, and here is how Zenock remembered it.

“It was a designed trap and Coach said if I saw anything up the middle, if it was wide open, to just take a seam by yourself,” said Zenock. “The [defensive] tackle dove in, I bounced off him, went to the outside and then it was just a sprint from there.”

Hawthorne extended its lead the next time it had the ball. After holding Saddle Brook to a three-and-out on its first possession, the Bears got the ball back at their own 27 and put together a quick five-play drive that got off to an interesting start.

On first down Zenock hit Steve Howe for a gain of just about 10 yards. When the chains were brought, they showed that Hawthorne was, literally, less than one inch from a first down. On the next play, Zenock was going to throw, but was flushed from the pocket and scrambled a good 10 yards backwards before running left. After all that running, he picked up the first down by less than a foot, meaning that he ran about 30 yards in three different directions to pick up a first down with a gain that could not even be counted as a full yards in the statistics.

Hawthorne's Steven Hein carried the ball 14 times for 134 yards and three touchdowns.

Things got simpler after that as Steve Hein went for 33 yards off tackle, Zenock ran a keeper that covered 7 yards and then threw a 23-yard strike to John Savoie for the touchdown. John Hulme added the second of his five PATs and Hawthorne built a 14-0 lead with 6:34 to go in the first quarter.

Saddle Brook cut the lead in half with it best drive the game, an 8-play, 66-yard march that was highlighted by Adam DiPasquale’s 29 yard run and fished by his own 15-yard run on which he broke a tackle and got into the end zone with 1:45 to play in the first.

Hawthorne’s Steve Hein, who scored three times and picked up 134 yards on 14 carries, got his first touchdown in impressive fashion when he bulldozed his way through a tiring defense for a 17 yard score to make it 21-7.

“I knew I had to make a big play for my team. At that point we really needed it,” said Hein. “I just kept my legs going and kept pushing until I wound up in the end zone.”

Saddle Brook's Adam DiPasquale had 8 for 46 yards and a touchdown.

Saddle Brook got a 40-yard field from Tim White on the final play of the first half to claw back to 21-10 and had a chance to get even closer when Hawthorne pooched the second half kickoff and Michael Attanasio covered it to give the Falcons the ball at midfield.

Saddle Brook got as far as the Hawthorne 35, but a fumble and a recovery by Luke Cotugno gave the Bears the ball back and they grinded it out from there.

Hein scored from 6 yards out to close the third quarter scoring with Hawthorne leading 28-10 and the senior running back put the Bears up 35-10 with a 4-yard rumble with 2:10 to go in the game.

Saddle Brook, which got 141 yards rushing on 16 carries by Steven Beauharnais, but completed only 2 passes for 10 yards on 11 attempts, got its final score inside the final minute on a 40yard run by Kalven Arriaga.

The Falcons, after a disappointing loss to Pascack Hills last week, fell to 3-2 on the season and, with Paterson Catholic next up, is facing an uphill climb to the state playoffs.

Hawthorne's John Savoie hauling in a first quarter touchdown pass.

“We played very tough, we played very aggressive, we commit too many mistakes. And when we have the opportunity to make a big play such as the first series, we did not make a tackle,” said Saddle Brook head coach Lou Giele. “Today we came to play a good game and we did it at times, we just didn’t play four quarters of good football.”

Good football is what Hawthorne has played, and the Bears have the kind of confidence that would have left them disappointed with anything less than the 5-0 start that they are currently enjoying.

“I think [it would have been a disappointment] because it would have meant that we had lost to Glen Rock again for the um-teenth year or that we would have had another tough loss against Lodi,” said Passero. “We knew that after we beat Lodi last week that [Saddle Brook] had a couple of great athletes over here, the new coach is doing a very good job with them and we knew it was going to be a tough game. It was until that second half when we were able to grind it out a little bit.”

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