Saturday,
October 20, 2007
By
Jim McConville
NJS.com Staff Writer
RAMSEY -- With the
heart of their season beginning next week, Don Bosco could be
excused for looking ahead to the defining part of their season.
Problem is, teams, now matter how good, can never take any game
for granted.
It didn’t come
back to haunt them, but the Ironmen had to work a lot harder than
the 28-0 final score would indicate, thanks to a sloppy first
half that saw Bosco commit three turnovers and own only a 7-0
lead despite taking possession three times inside the Ridgewood
38-yard line and get only one score.
“We weren’t
happy with the execution, no question about it,” DB head
coach Greg Toal related. “They’re high school kids
and they’re not going to be on top of their game, and have
to continue to get better.”
The fact that Ridgewood
could not get its offense untracked allowed Don Bosco (6-0) to
be able to negate the giveaways and the abundance of penalties
(7 for 53 yards in the first half, 10 for 88 in the game).
The first two Ironmen
drives ended with interceptions, by Bob Barthold on an overthrow
and Nick Rispoli off a ball tipped by teammate Sam Combs. The
third series saw Tony Jones get rocked at the 1-yard line by Doug
Christopher, forcing a fumble that went out of the back of the
end zone for a touchback.
“You come into
a game like this, you hope they’re a little distracted,”
Maroon head coach Chuck Johnson said. “You hope you can
make something happen. Our kids always play hard, but you’ve
got to have a little offense.”
The Maroons could not
dent the Bosco defense, though, with three straight three-and-outs.
The Ironmen special teams gave Ridgewood fits, as they tipped
the first punt, forced a shank on the second and partially blocked
the third, with the trio traveling a combined 44 yards.
After the third kick,
they were finally able to crack the end zone, as Guy Germinario
went the final six yards off left guard to complete a 33-yard
drive. Brian Hanly added the first of his four extra points with
9:53 to go in the second quarter.
“We came out
hard, we just made too many mistakes,” running back Dillon
Romaine admitted. “I just don’t know what happened,”
and tight end Alex DeSanzo added, “we shot ourselves in
the foot. Not to take anything away from Ridgewood, but we didn’t
execute.”
“You play a team
like this, and you hope to have a chance, and we had a chance
to win,” Johnson said. “You want to get to the second
half with a chance to win, and we did that.”
That they did, but
that chance was short-lived, thanks to a Don Bosco touchdown on
their first series. A 19-yard Brett Knief to Matt Sciancalepore
and a 14-yard Tony Jones run got them close, but a holding penalty
left with a third and 10 on the Maroon 9. Knief went to DeSanzo
on a wide receiver screen, and he broke a tackle on the way to
the end zone.
“We drove down
the field and we executed perfectly,” DeSanzo noted. “Once
everybody realized it wasn’t so hard, it was no problem.”
“No doubt, that’s
what we had to do,” Toal commented. “We had to get
points, a field goal or a touchdown, we definitely needed to get
something going.”
Considering the way
the Ridgewood offense was going, a two-score lead seemed huge.
Every second half series ended in a punt save for the last one,
which ended the game.
“Our motto is
don’t give up the big play, and we’ll be fine,”
DeSanzo said. “There aren’t too many teams that can
go 80 yards on us.”
Romaine got the final
two touchdowns, a six-yard run on the last play of the third quarter
and a 62-yard zig-zag run with 1:36 left in the game.
“I was proud
of the way we came back in the second half,” Toal remarked.
“We had opportunities in the first half and we didn’t
take advantage, but that’s part of the game.”
Ridgewood (4-2) managed
only 80 total yards, with QB Greg Johnson going 7 of 14 passing
for 40 yards and topping the team with 16 rushing yards. Rispoli
had eight tackles for the Maroons, who recorded three sacks.
Knief was 10 of 14
passing for 166 yards, with DeSanzo grabbing five balls for 67
yards. Romaine (5 carries, 82 yards), Jones (13-70), Knief (6-54)
and Germinario (5-35) shared the rushing yards, and Germinario
had eight tackles Steve Pedhoretsky had four tackles for losses.
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