Sunday, October 18, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Kevin Heaney scored on a 24-yard run to give Pascack Hills the 18-0 halftime lead that the Cowboys turned into a 39-0 win over Park Ridge.

MONTVALE – A football season is a series of up-and-downs and nowhere is that more obvious that at Pascack Hills. Three straight wins to start the season had the Cowboys thinking league title and state playoffs and two straight losses left them thinking of a way to get back track and back in the playoff hunt.

Not that its changing fortunes has changed it approach as Pascack Hills showed no signs of panic on Saturday against Park Ridge. Playing on their home field, the Cowboys had the sure footing of the turf on which to mount their potent running game. Dan Solomon finished off Pascack Hills’ opening drive with a 51-yard touchdown run and the Cowboys used their Wing-T offense to similar effect the rest of the way in a 39-0 win that ups their season record to 4-2 on the season.

“It was a bounce back game and we had to have it. We went through a little bit of a slump, so I was very happy to see us get back to doing what we can do,” said Pascack Hills head coach Brooks Alexander. “We ran the ball effectively, we through the ball when we had to and everything worked well for us today.”

Quarterback Matt Misley was the focus of Pascack Hills' defense.

Their second scoring drive was vintage Cowboys as they ran nine straight running plays to cover the 92 yards between themselves and the end zone. It started with a sweep to the left by quarterback Hugh Kirwan that gained 12 yards and then the Kevin Heaney followed with a 17 –yard sweep around the left side on the next play. Heaney also a 22-yard gain during the march that finished with Ryan Hansen carrying the ball four times in the final fives play of the drive that ended with Hansen’s 6-yard run for a touchdown off the left shoulder of center Chris McWilliams.

That score gave Pascack Hills a 12-0 lead and it upped it to 18-0 at halftime on Heaney’s 24-yard sweep around the right side with 3:38 left in the second quarter.

“We knew they were a Wing-T team and that they were going to run it and we prepared for that,” said Park Ridge head coach Gary Mioli. “They just kept pounding us up front and that was the difference. They were more physical than we were today.”

Hansen scored on a 49 yard run to cap Pascack Hills’s first possession of the second half and, after a Park Ridge fumble, the Cowboys turned to the air for a rare score. Kirwan lofted a pass for Nick Hagemann, who pulled it down in the end zone for a 16-yard TD. Hagemann then kicked the extra point to give his team a 32-0 lead with 3:11 to go in the third quarter.

PH tight end Nick Hagemann took time off from blocking for long enough to catch his first TD pass in four varsity seasons.

“We were saying all week that we were going to stick with the stuff that we do well, but I guess coach saw something he liked and we threw when it was open,” said Kirwan, who also connected with Hagemann for a 44-yard gainer that helped set up the Cowboys’ third score. “We are doing whatever we can to get into the playoffs and if that means throwing when it's open, that is what we will do.”

For Hagemann, the senior tight end more accustomed to run blocking, his TD reception was the first touchdown catch in his four-year varsity career.

“That was my first touchdown as a varsity player in four years, so it was a little surreal,” said Hagemann, also the starting inside linebacker. “It was an Owl Pass. We specially put that in and I just delayed for a second and found the opening.”

Hagemann is also the starting inside linebacker and part of a defense that focused on keeping Park Ridge quarterback Matt Misley in the pocket where they could account for him. With no effective running game to turn to, Misley was forced to scramble without a plan or sit in a collapsing pocket hoping for receivers to come open.

Park RIdge's David Diomede caught first half passes covering 39 and 22 yards.

He had two first half hook-ups with David Diomede that covered 39 and 22 yards, but the Owls couldn’t move the ball consistently enough in the first half to stay close in what was Park Ridge’s Homecoming Game even though it was played on the road. It was originally scheduled to be played in Park Ridge, but the field conditions forced the move to Pascack Hills’ turf.

“Misley is a great player and our D[efensive] ends did a great job of keeping him in the pocket,” said Hagemann. “We had to keep him from beating us and we were able to do that today.”

The win moved Pascack Hills back into eighth place in the North 1, Group 2 state sectional power point rankings with two games left before the state tournament cutoff. The Cowboys have two road games at New Milford and at Cresskill and both are pretty much must-wins.

“We are 4-2 and it we can’t slip up. There are so many different philosophies on sports psychology where some people say one game at a time and never look ahead,” said Alexander. “But I sat our kids down and said that we have three games left coming into today and we had to win them all to get into the state playoffs. We had to get Park Ridge, we have to get New Milford and we have to get Cresskill. We got the first one, now it’s on to the next two.”

Hugh Kirwan and PH improved to 4-2 with two games left before the state tournament cutoff.

The loss dropped Park Ridge to 1-4 on the season and, although not mathematically eliminated, the Owls’ state playoff hopes are hanging by a thread. Park Ridge would have to sweep its next three games against Wallington, Ridgefield and Cresskill and get some help with teams in front of them losing.

“My biggest worry coming into the year was replacing the skill kids and the receivers that we lost. One week we seem to be on the same page, the next week we don’t and it is still a work in progress, but the problem is that we are halfway through the year,” said Mioli. “We have to comeback Monday, get ready for the next opponent and do the job and we have to be a lot more physical than we were today.”

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