Saturday, November 24, 2007

By Jim McConville
NJS.com Staff Writer

OAKLAND -- If you hadn’t seen Ramapo’s football team this year, you might be wondering how the Raiders season went. If you watched Friday night’s season finale against Indian Hills, it was the epitome of their campaign, the Ramapo season in 48 minutes.

Fall behind, not playing well, then rebound and finish strong.

Overcoming a two-touchdown deficit, the Raiders completed their most improbable finish with a 24-21 win on Ross Krautman’s school-record ninth field goal of the season, a 29-yarder with two seconds to go.

That allowed the Raiders to end their year on a six-game winning streak after an 0-4 start, while Indian Hills slipped to 5-5

The winning kick was in sharp contrast to the first time he tried to win a game in the waning moments. His FG try was blocked against Fair Lawn, resulting in a 19-18 loss and the 0-4 record.

“That’s the worst way to end a game,” Krautman said of the blocked kick, “but we kept our heads up after that game.’

Flash forward to Friday and a chance for redemption, set up by an interception by Jack Bandazian that he returned 19 yards to the Hills 19-yard line with 19 seconds to go.

“I was so nervous,” Bandazian remembered. “I bobbled it a bit, but then I just took it and kept running.”

Andrew Imperatore picked up seven yards on two runs to set the ball straight away for a 29-yard attempt.

“I’ve been dreaming about this the whole season,” Krautman acknowledged, “the chance to hit a game-winning field goal. They put me in this situation, and it’s the most wonderful experience I’ve ever had.”

Ramapo used its final time out with 8 seconds to go, and Indian Hills called two more time outs to try and ice Krautman.

“It didn’t bother me, I just kept my emotions tight,” Krautman continued. “I just stayed loose and went through my motions again. I kept my head down and drove through the ball. I knew it when I hit it.”

The Raiders then executed an onside kick to run out the clock and send the Braves to their most disappointing loss of the year, especially considering they had controlled the game in the first half.

“Missed tackles, missed opportunities,” IH head coach Marc Aramburu lamented. “We needed to get first downs and we didn’t do it.”

IH was efficient with its first two possessions, going 12 plays and 87 yards over 6:03 with Robert Morman scoring on a 9-yard run and converting a Brian Sees interception on consecutive passes of 34 and 4 yards from Mike Marscovetra to Matt Iannucci, the last a touchdown. Kevin Heinowitz added both extra points, the latter with 35 seconds on the first quarter clock.

Ramapo got one back with 7:25 left in the first half. Quarterback Andrew Weiss eluded a sack and scrambled right before hitting Zack Moore for a 39-yard score.

“I ran a wheel and they were playing man,” Moore recalled, “and one of their guys got caught up. I caught it and went to the pylon.”

Iannucci then ran the kickoff back 56 yards and a roughing the passer penalty had the Braves knocking on the door at the Ramapo 17. Morman needed two runs to put in the end zone, the touchdown coming from 8 yards away, ending IH to a 21-7 intermission lead.

“I told them we have to block and tackle better and play harder,” Gibbs said of the halftime speech. “Indian Hills brought more emotion and intensity and played harder in the first half, and I told them this is our season. We came back from 0-4, we can come back and get two touchdowns.”

Imperatore started finding running room, lugging the ball 20 times for 107 yards after halftime to finish the game with 153 yards on 33 carries, and Moore came on to run some option, picking up 37 yards on 4 runs while adding 7 catches for 69 yards.

Ramapo got within eight at 21-13 on an Imperatore 15-yard TD run, but Krautman’s PAT was blocked by Iannucci, his first extra point failure of the season. After a Hills punt, they tied it up with 8:13 to go on an Imperatore 1-yard run. They added the two-point conversion on a pass from Weiss to Mike Golz.

Morvan had 110 rushing yards on 17 carries, while Marscovetra was 9 of 13 for 98 yards passing, with Iannucci (4-57) and Tyler Del Corpo (4-37) the main targets. Dominic Mulieri (13 tackles), Tom Hilberts (11 tackles, 5 for loss, sack) and Iannucci (10 tackles) led the Braves defense.

Weiss finished 5 of 10 for 102 yards with two interceptions, and Golz had seven tackles to pace the defense.

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