Led by Dailey, Prep wins unofficial and official county title
There wasn’t a trophy to hand out last Saturday at Caven Point’s Cochrane Stadium. No gold cup or silver plate to be won. In fact, the
There wasn’t a trophy to hand out last Saturday at Caven Point’s Cochrane Stadium. No gold cup or silver plate to be won. In fact, the game between St. Peter’s Prep and Hoboken – the contest that officially ended the local high school football season – didn’t have an official significance at all.
On paper, it was just two teams, both of whom were eliminated from their respective state playoff sectionals a week earlier, playing out the string.
Guess again.
In reality, it was HCIAA American Conference champion Hoboken, Hudson County’s king of the hill for the last six seasons, the team that had not lost a single game within the confines of the county since October of 1994, facing St. Peter’s Prep, the HCIAA National Conference titleholders and the last Hudson County team to knock off the mighty Red Wings.
Mythical county championship?
"Nothing mythical about it," Hoboken Head Coach Ed Stinson said. "This is the real county championship. It’s the American Conference winner against the National. This is it."
"It is a very unique setting," St. Peter’s Prep Head Coach Rich Hansen said. "You have both conference winners playing each other at the end of the season. It doesn’t happen that way a lot."
What made it even more unique was that the game was originally scheduled for the second week of the season, but was postponed until last weekend, when St. Peter’s was able to secure a game against Gulliver Prep of Miami during that week in September. So the rescheduling of the contest enabled it to become the unofficial, yet official county championship game.
The Hoboken-Prep clash is a rivalry that has evolved and expanded over the years, considering the past successes of each program. Hoboken’s incredible reign of terror on the high school football scene has been well documented, with five NJSIAA North Jersey Section 1, Group III state titles in the last six years, with an ungodly 68 wins in 71 games entering the showdown with Prep.
St. Peter’s has always been a formidable foe, winning two state championships in the past 11 years, as well as qualifying for the state playoffs on nine occasions, winning or sharing the National Conference title eight times.
So it wasn’t necessary to have a gold football statuette or a chalice to play for last weekend. The rivalry was good enough. The chance to be considered the true county champion was enough motivation. And it definitely could be seen in the intensity of the players’ faces and the ferocity in their eyes.
In September, St. Peter’s unveiled their sophomore quarterback to the world, a talented youngster by the name of Joe Dailey. Back then, Dailey was simply a sophomore, a player with one full game of varsity experience. He had a world of potential but a load of question marks.
"We expected a lot from him, but after all, he was only a sophomore," Hansen said. "We had to keep reminding ourselves of that. He was going to make mistakes. We knew that coming into the season. We had to remain patient with him, because we knew of the up side. We knew he was going to get better each week and make plays for us."
The Marauders started off the 2000 campaign with losses to Emerson, then the visitors from Florida. A 0-2 hole was not the way Dailey wanted to start his career and Hansen did not want his prize pupil to begin his ascent.
"We started off 0-2 and there were a lot of people who didn’t believe we had it," Hansen said. "Maybe some people wrote us off. But we always believed from day one."
Dailey didn’t want to doubt himself but the doubts were natural.
"Early in the season, I was looking to everyone else to make the plays," Dailey said. "I didn’t want to believe in that sophomore young stuff, but I think it all just came down to settling down and being more comfortable. My teammates told me to stay confident, especially (senior running back/linebacker) Bhima Gaddy, who said he was in the same position as a sophomore two years ago.
Added Dailey, "Bhima told me that I had to go out there and just do it, go out there and make plays. I figured that’s what I had to do."
Dailey helped to guide the Marauders to seven straight wins, before their first round NJSIAA Parochial Group 4 contest against Notre Dame of Trenton, a game the Marauders lost.
But Dailey’s true coming-out party, sort of like the quarterback’s debutante ball, came last weekend against Hoboken, against the team with 54 straight Hudson County wins, against the team that earned all the pride and the glory that the Prep sings about in its fight song.
Last Saturday, Dailey shed the tag of young sophomore forever. He made big play after big play, running and throwing like a 15-year veteran, leading the Marauders to a thrilling 20-17 overtime victory, sending the Red Wings back home with a loss to a Hudson County foe for the first time since Oct. 7, 1994.
"He definitely made plays," Hansen said. "Big-time players make big-time plays. I’ve told him that before. It’s what we expect of him now, because he’s a big-time player."
Dailey was solid throughout the game, but his importance to the Marauders really shined during the final 6:30 of regulation, then the overtime. It’s perhaps a 30-minute videotape that should be sent to all the major colleges right now.
After Hoboken’s Tyquan Foster tied the game at 14-14 with a 22-yard touchdown run with 6:37 remaining, Dailey and his Prep teammates took the field, with the ball on their own 16-yard line. It was an emotional time for the Marauders, considering that they held the lead throughout the game, only to relinquish it in the final period. Time for panic? Just look into the mind of the poised leader.
"With six minutes left, I was actually kind of happy," Dailey said. "We had plenty of time to make something happen."
Sure enough, Dailey made a lot of things happen on Prep’s final drive. He made four big runs, including a gigantic three-yard run on fourth down at their own 25-yard line, plus a magnificent 26-yard run on a bootleg. He also made it a brilliant fake, giving the appearance that he was about to run again, then stopped on a dime and threw an 18-yard pass to Javier Persad.
Dailey did everything right in that drive, marching 14 plays and 86 yards, taking the time off the clock, getting the Marauders in position to kick the game-winning field goal with just one second left. But Billy Rabbitt’s 19-yard kick sailed wide left and the game remained tied.
"All it meant was that we were going to have to get it done a different way," Hansen said. "I was concerned about it (missing the kick), but the seniors on this team have so much character."
So does the former sophomore.
"I would have hated the game to end that way (with the field goal)," Dailey said. "I wanted to do something more."
In the overtime, Hoboken had first possession and after failing to get a first down, Alvaro Hasani flat out nailed a 35-yard field goal, giving the Red Wings their first and only lead of the game at 17-14. It was to be very short lived.
Because of Prep’s first play in the overtime, Dailey took it upon himself to end the game. He made it look like he was taking off to the perimeter with a keeper, but then stopped again precisely, avoided an outside rush from Hoboken’s Richie Bates, and threw a perfect pass to a wide open Persad in the end zone for the game-winner.
"Earlier in the game, I was getting them with ball fakes," Dailey explained. "On that last play, they didn’t come as hard as they expected, so instead of sprinting all the way out, I just stepped up and threw. I didn’t expect him (Persad) to be that open. I guess they bit on the fake again."
"He caught us overplaying the play, made the throw and made a heck of a play," Stinson said of Dailey’s pass.
After Persad caught the ball, Prep had the victory and Hoboken was sent back to the bus with a very unfamiliar loss.
"It was a great high school football game," Stinson said. "We had a chance to win the game and it was a game that you practice for all year, with the situations like overtime. It was a great game and someone had to win it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t us. It’s going to hit us later on that we lost, but we have nothing to be ashamed of."
Hansen said that there was no mention made before the game that the game was for a county championship or that Hoboken had defeated them five straight times.
"We focused on the game being a redemption after losing in the playoffs," Hansen said. "We wanted to do things right for the seniors. There was no talk of us being the last team to beat them. It’s been so long ago that no one remembers it, certainly not these kids. I do, but not the kids. It was a very emotional day for our seniors and we hope that it’s a start of a run for the program."
It should be, as long as the kid calling the signals continues to get the ball in his hands. Because as Joe Dailey came of age last Saturday, he reminded a lot of people of another sophomore quarterback who came of age and went on to become a brilliant all-around performer.
That quarterback’s name was Rashard Casey. Now, the young kid coming of age wears a different uniform.