Things couldn’t have started better for the Marauders of St. Peter’s Prep in last Saturday’s NJSIAA Parochial Group 4 semifinals against Bergen Catholic at Cochrane Stadium. The Marauders won the coin toss, took the opening kickoff and proceeded to march 80 yards on 16 plays, with John Solan going the final four yards, giving the Marauders a 7-0 lead with 5:02 remaining in the first quarter.
It was the emotional uplift that the Marauders needed, facing the No. 4-ranked team in the state.
“We talked about that all week, that we needed to put ourselves in a position to win the game right away,” St. Peter’s head coach Rich Hansen said. “We wanted to get the lead coming out of the box and we did just that.”
“No question, I was concerned,” said Bergen Catholic head coach Fred Stengel. “It was the first time that any team had done that to us all year, taking the opening kickoff and moving right down on us to score. I was looking at myself and saying, ‘We’re in for a barnburner.’ No one takes it right down the field on us.”
However, just minutes after executing a near-perfect drive that culminated in the game’s first score, the Marauders began to self-destruct in an unprecedented fashion. They missed tackles and missed plays galore. They fumbled and threw interceptions. They had key penalties in the worst possible situations. Needless to say, the wheels fell off of the wagon in a hurry – and in an uncharacteristic way for a Rich Hansen-coached football team.
Bergen Catholic didn’t get rattled by the impressive opening drive and came right back to score on their own first possession, moving right down the field as well, only in much less time. That’s because the Crusaders’ brilliant tailback Joe Sandberg took over, making the rest of the game a nightmare to forget for the Marauders.
Sandberg scored on a 5-yard run that tied the game at 7-7 with 1:16 remaining in the first quarter. Chris Hanly gave the Crusaders the lead for good with a 32-yard field goal with just 5:24 left in the first half.
What transpires next is almost too unbelievable for words. The Marauders gave up two touchdowns in the final 32 seconds before halftime that really broke their collective backs, en route to a one-sided 38-9 loss.
First, after the Marauders failed to gain a first down on their next-to-last possession of the first half, the Crusaders capitalized and used the fleet feet of Sandberg to get into position for the first score. Sandberg motored for 29 yards on a double-reverse, then went the final 11 yards on his next carry for the touchdown that pushed the lead to 17-7 with 32 seconds left before halftime.
Instead of running out the clock and using the intermission to recover, the Marauders made a big mistake, with QB Joe Dailey throwing an interception to Sandberg at the Prep 35-yard line with just four seconds left. The Crusaders seized their golden opportunity by throwing a screen pass to tight end Sam Johnson, who was wide open for 25 yards, then bowled his way over two tacklers the final 10 yards for the back-breaking touchdown that made the score 24-7.
While the play was unfolding, Hansen was heard screaming, “Tight end out of the shoot, tight end out of the shoot,” but it was to no avail. The two touchdowns totally sucked the life out of the Marauders.
“It was a big difference in the game,” Hansen said. “We just fell apart. That was the most distressing factor to me. Give credit to Bergen Catholic, but you can’t have your team self destruct like that. You don’t expect them to come apart that way.”
In the second half, Sandberg returned his second interception of the game 77 yards for a touchdown and Jeff Sticco, who played his Pop Warner football in North Bergen, on the same team with Marauders Solan and Adam San Miguel, put the finishing touches on the game with a 3-yard TD run late in the game.
“It was definitely a personal thing for me,” said Sticco, whose grandfather, Jay, works in the township’s recreation department. “We wanted to show that we have superiority and prove who’s best. I’m glad I got the chance to score. We were talking a lot to each other during the game, so it was nice for me to be able to put the icing on the cake.”
And send the Marauders packing in an unconventional way.
“We had our chances,” Hansen said. “We had plenty of opportunities, but we didn’t step up and take advantage. A loss is a loss, but this is a little harder to take because of the way we lost.”
And the way the Marauders totally unraveled, after starting out so strong.