Sunday, November 23, 2008

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Chuck Stewart taking off on the 45-yard scramble that stood up as the winning score in Glen Rock's 34-27 win over Has. Heights in the North 1, Group 1 sectional semifinals.

GLEN ROCK -- In the first half of Saturday's North 1, Group 1 state sectional semifinal, both Glen Rock and Hasbrouck Heights did a good job of stopping themselves. The two teams combined for six turnovers and there were plenty of missed opportunities both ways. But in the second half both teams made all kinds of big plays all over the field and the result was one of the best high school football games played this season.

It didn’t end until the very last play of the game when Remi Ashkar got a hand on Heights’ final pass into the end zone on a play that started with less than one second left in regulation. When that final pass fell to the frozen turf, it locked up a 34-27 win for Glen Rock and its first trip to the state sectional finals since 2002.

“What an exciting game. As a fan you could not have come to a better one,” said Glen Rock head coach Alan Deaett, who his program through a run of five straight state sectional championships from 1998-2002. “It’s very rewarding. It’s a great group of kids, we don’t have any jerks on this team. They all stick together and they are a team that deserves to win.”

Bobby Kistner led Hasbrouck Heights to the four yard line in the waining seconds before his final pass was knocked down.

The last 2:19 of the game was wild starting when Heights’ Shawn Zaun bounced off the pile and scored from two yards out and Kevin Condal’s extra point tied the scored at 27. Two plays later and after he hit Mike Escalante for an 18-yard gain in the middle of the field, Glen Rock quarterback Chuck Stewart, who scored all three of his team’s second half touchdowns, scrambled his way in from 43 yards out and Sean Miller’s extra point gave the Panthers a 34-27 lead but also left 1:21 on the clock, enough time for Heights to get off 11 nerve-wracking plays.

The Aviators used a combination of completions to the sideline, incompletions and their full complement of time outs to make its final push down the field. Three straight completions from Bobby Kistner to Nick Brunetti and a middle screen for 13 yards to Michael Messeri got Heights to the Glen Rock 20-yard line. Kistner then scrambled for a 16-yard gain to put Heights on the Glen Rock 4 with 16 seconds left, but a false start moved the Aviators back before the game ended with an incomplete pass, a sack by Glen Rock’s Matt Howard and Ashkar’s breakup of the game’s final pass.

Heights, the defending North 1, Group 1 state sectional champion who was a perfect 9-0 going into Saturday, trailed by 13-6 at halftime and by scores of 19-13, 27-20, and 34-27 in the second half. The Aviators’ only leads of the game came at 6-3 early in the second quarter and at 20-19 with 2:38 to go in the third when Kistner hit Kevin DeCalzo with a five-yard scoring pass.

Mike Escalante scored a first half touchdown and had a key reception on Glen Rock's final drive.

“You have to give credit to both sides. We were down the whole game and we came back every time,” said Heights head coach Nick DeCalzo. “They really hurt us with that long run [by Stewart] that gave them the lead back, but we had a chance their on our last possession, we just couldn’t punch it in.”

Stewart’s three second half touchdowns came on a five-yard run that put Glen Rock up 19-13 with 8:20 to go in the third quarter, a 33-yard reception from Brendan Miller with Stewart lined up as a receiver and on the 45-yard scramble with 1:21 to go, but there was still so much time left.

“When Chuckie scored that last touchdown I thought that it might have been a little fast for the Hasbrouck Heights offense,” said Mike Escalante, who caught a first half touchdown from Stewart and had an 18-yard catch right before Stewart broke free for the game-winning score. “That whole team is a great team, but we just took it one play at a time and we fought so hard. We knew neither team was going to quit in the second half and it was going to come right down to the end. It did, it came down to the final play.”

Kevin DeCalzo catching the TD pass that gave Heights a 20-19 lead.

And when it was over Stewart was tired and cold, but also happy.

“This is the best thing in the world. Every single person contributed, I can’t say enough about our linemen and we just stuck it out until the end,” said Stewart. “They came back every single time we scored, but we just stuck with them punch for punch and we were able to pull it out at the end.”

The Panthers (11-0), the top seed, will take on No. 2 Mountain Lakes in the final at a time and place yet to be determined.

“We have two weeks to recuperate and we will be so ready for that game. It’s what we have been working for all season,” said Stewart. “Everybody has worked so hard to get this far and we have one more to go.”

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