Sunday, September 21, 2008

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Paramus Catholic QB Tyler Bellia completed 7 of his 10 second half pass attempts and drove his team 71 yards on its final drive to put up the winning points in the Paladins' 20-15 win over Hudson Catholic on Saturday afternoon.

PARAMUS -- When Gabe Infante accepted the head football coaching position at Paramus Catholic back in January, he knew that he would be trying to rebuild a program from the ground up. After making the state playoffs in 2006, the Paladins slipped to just two-wins last season and as much as changing game plans, Infante knew he was also going to have to change mindsets.

“Since I got hired we started in the weight room and the off-season conditioning and just trying to really develop some physical toughness and some mental toughness,” said Infante, who was defensive coordinator at Bergen Catholic for the last two seasons and had stints at Queen of Peace and Memorial before that. “We knew that we were getting better, but I think today we really came of age in that fourth quarter and that was beautiful to see.”

And that fourth quarter that Infante referred to came on Saturday against Hudson Catholic and it was a doozy. When it was all said and done, Hudson Catholic had scored a touchdown inside the final three minutes and then made the two-point conversion to take a one-point lead. Not to be outdone, Paramus Catholic went 71 yards in just over a minute to take the lead back and locked up its 20-15 win only after Ricky DeJesus intercepted Hudson Catholic’s final pass deep in his own end of the field.

The first half was a bit of a yawner with the team’s combing for five punts and one turnover on downs in the eight total possessions in the first two quarters. The only exception was PC’s 9-play, 57-yard second quarter scoring drive that was set up by a bad Hudson Catholic punt that covered only 13 yards. Paramus Catholic QB Tyler Bellia went the last yard on a sneak for the touchdown and Anthony Greenfield hit the extra point for the only points of the first half.

Jason Hendricks scored with 3:20 left in the game then ran in a two-point conversion to give Hudson Catholic a 15-14 lead.

But when the teams came back out after halftime, the game got a lot more interesting.

After being forced to punt on its first drive of the third quarter, Paramus Catholic’s offense started clicking behind the play of senior quarterback Tyler Bellia. Bellia hit Mike DeVineo, last year’s starting quarterback, for a 33-yard gain three plays before he found DeJesus at the front pylon for a 24-yard scoring strike. Greenfield’s extra point gave the Paladins a 14-0 lead with 5:12 left in the third quarter.

Hudson Catholic, which lost its season opener last week by a 29-7 count to St. Joseph by the Sea of Staten Island, looked all but cooked when Paramus Catholic opened its two touchdown lead. But the Hawks caught a break when Angel Hernandes, back to punt on a fourth-and-8 from the PC 43, was roughed just after getting his kick off/

The automatic first down and three completed passes on the next four plays, two of them from Steven Soto to Hernandes, set Hudson Catholic on the PC 2-yard line from where Jason Hendricks scored to draw the Hawks back to within 14-7 after Hernandes knocked home the extra point with 1:19 left in the third quarter.

Trailing by the same score when took over on its own 27 with 8:02 left to play, Hudson Catholic put together its best drive of the game, a 13-play, 73-yard march that included a key conversion on a fourth-and-1 by Hendricks, a 17-yard catch by Hendricks and his 1-yard touchdown plunge that left the Hawks trailing by a point with 3:26 to play.

Ricky DeJesus catching third quarter touchdown pass for Paramus Catholic.

Not willing to play for the tie on the road with a less-than-automatic kicking game and a disadvantage in overall depth, Hudson Catholic head coach rolled the dice, and Hendricks plowed his way into the endzone that gave Hudson Catholic is first and only lead of the game at 15-14.

With the ball on 29 yard line, the scoreboard clock turned off and the official time being kept by the officials on the field, Paramus Catholic had about two-and-a-half minutes to move down the field to get in position at least for a game-winning field goal attempt for Greenfield.

And after his first pass attempt of the drive was dropped, Bellia completed four straight and moved the Paladins steadily down the field. He connected with DeJesus for six yards, hit Blake Katkowski for five yards and then put one right on Mike DeVineo, who moved the ball 21 yards to the Hudson Catholic 39 with about 1:40 left to play.

“Mike DeVineo has faced a lot of adversity in the last few weeks. He was the starting quarterback here last year and has done a phenomenal job of being a team player and assuming other roles,” said Infante. “We put that play in for him in practice, we told him we were going to pull it out when we needed it and the kid made the play. In practice we told him he as going to score on it, he didn’t but he set us up for the next big play.

Hudson Catholic quarterback Steven Soto got hot in the second half, completing 8 of 14 throws after the intermission.

The next big play came after the Paladins were backed up five yards by an illegal motion penalty and it was a perfect throw from Bellia, who hit Katkowski up the right side line for a 42-yard catch and run that put PC at the two yard line.

“We knew the game wasn’t over. It wasn’t over at halftime, it wasn’t over when we went up 14-0 and it wasn’t over when they took the lead. We just had to believe that we could do it and let good things happen for us,” said Katkowski, a junior wide receiver. “I was just looking at the endzone and I was going to do whatever I could to get there and it kept getting closer and closer. I couldn’t believe it was happening, but I saw [the defensive back], I gave him a little shake and I just kept going.”

He came up two yards short, but on the next play Levi Cohen covered the rest of the distance and Greenfield (3-for-3 PATs) was true on the point after, but the Paladins still had a big play to make to seal the win.

Hudson Catholic regained possession in its own 38 with 1:06 left in the game and two completions from Soto, one to Kadeem Johnson for four yards and the next to Hernandes for 31 yards up the right side put the Hawks on the PC 42 with just over 50 seconds to play. But DeJesus came over from his safety position to pick off the game’s final pass and two kneel-downs later Paramus Catholic had its second straight win to start the season.

Bellia heated up in the second half. After completing just 4 of 15 attempts for 14 yards in the first half, the senior was 7-for-10 for 136 yards after the intermission and led the Paladins through a turnover free game. DeVineo had two catches, both on third down, for 54 yards, DeJesus had the touchdown catch and the game-clinching pick.

Pat Thomas had two sacks and a tackle for loss for PC's defense.

“I am always pretty pumped up, but no doubt this was a great win for our program. Going into today’s game we knew we were up against a tough team. Some kids rose up and made some huge plays for us and got us where we need to be,” said Infante, whose team will look for a 3-0 start when it starts its NNJIL schedule next week at home against Passaic. “I am not really concerned about our next opponent. We know what we are and that is a young program and we need to focus on ourselves. We want to try to treat success and failure the same way and we want be focused and we want to compete every day at everything we do.”

On the other end of the spectrum is Hudson Catholic head coach Rob Stern, whose team will head into its HCIAA opener against Lincoln next Saturday with an 0-2 record.

“We played scared at the end of the game and we deserved to lose. Give them credit, they made some plays, but we had them on their own 30 [yard line] with less then three minutes to go. In that situation we have to play defense and we had to win the game,” said Stern. “It looked like a good high school game, I guess, but they made more plays and that is why they are 2-0 and we are 0-2.

“Somewhere along the line we have to stop the bleeding and hopefully it will be next week. The positives from today are that we showed some signs of life in the second half and tomorrow is Sunday so we have the day off to think about where we are.”

FOR MORE PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.