Marauders’ manhandling of Hoboken only precursor to what awaits
In 1994, I went to see St. Peter’s Prep play Ferris in the second game of the season. I came away from that game knowing full well that the Marauders were clearly the best high school football team I’d ever seen.
I even made a comment that day to the late Jerome Pederson, who was the Prep’s dutiful equipment manager at the time, that if the Marauders lost a game that year, then long-time head coach Rich Hansen deserved to be fired.
Of course, Hansen kept his job, because the Marauders went on to steamroll everyone in their path, including Bergen Catholic in the NJSIAA Parochial A North state finals in Giants Stadium, when Bergen Catholic was the No. 1-ranked team in the entire country.
Well, last Friday night, I got to see the 2003 version of the Marauders and let me tell you right now that they are just as good – if not better – than the 1994 team that the Star-Ledger calls the greatest team in the history of Hudson County.
The Marauders totally manhandled Hoboken, 41-0, on the night where the Red Wings christened their new playing surface. It was a one-sided blowout that Hoboken is used to administering, not receiving.
A Hoboken team hadn’t been that dismantled since the Red Wings faced Passaic in the 1989 state playoffs. That’s a long time.
"We were certainly outmanned, no question," Hoboken head coach Ed Stinson said. "We tried to do a few things, but we were physically overmatched."
How bad was it? Well, at one point in the game, a shell-shocked Stinson looked down at the manila card that holds all of the Red Wings’ offensive sets, then asked over the headsets to his assistant coaches in the press box, "Do we have anything for third and New England?"
It wasn’t exactly "third and New England," but it was third-down and 28 yards to go for a first down. The Marauders had stifled the Red Wings so much on that drive that it put Stinson in a precarious position, one that called for the Cape Cod reference.
But it was that bad. Or better yet, the Marauders were that good. Yes, THAT good, the kind of good that makes your mouth open in amazement, much like I did in 1994, much like I did last Friday night.
Onlookers were quick to criticize the Red Wings, saying that they were not as good as other Hoboken teams in the past. Baloney. The Red Wings will be very good by the end of the season, but it was more of a case of St. Peter’s being totally superior.
The Marauders have everything – and a lot of it.
Across the line of scrimmage, they have size for days, behemoths that block and tackle and dominate. They shuttle in talented linemen the way that professional teams bring in wide receivers. Two kids, defensive tackle Bill Smith and defensive end/outside linebacker Walter McCloud, were totally dominant forces – and they don’t even play every down.
The Marauder offensive line is immense, totally dwarfing Hoboken (which really is not that hard), but this team’s line also hovers way above the Prep line of 1994, which I thought was the best offensive line I’d ever seen. Kids like Jeff Becton, Luke Schade, Tom Rodger and center Anthony Gaskins are big, solid blockers. All of those aforementioned players have a chance to play college football for free some day, more than likely at some of the best schools in the country.
Quarterback Ryan Boysen has proven he is a very capable replacement for All-State standout Joe Dailey and will only get better, partially because he has the most diverse and talented backfield in recent memory playing behind him.
The Marauders have three running backs who would be the go-to guy on any other team in the county in juniors Mike Brown and Rashawn Jackson and sophomore Kee-Ayre Griffin. All three can add their own excitement.
Brown is the main factor back there, having rushed for 1,400-plus yards and 17 touchdowns last year.
Jackson, all 6-2 and 260 pounds of him, is a bruising load who shocked everyone in attendance Friday night with a spin move that would have made Barry Sanders green with envy. On any other team in the county, Jackson is an offensive tackle. On this team, he’s spinning like the Tasmanian Devil.
And Griffin displayed his breakaway speed on a 44-yard touchdown run where he went through the line faster than a Mariano Rivera cut-fastball.
Oh, add the explosive breakaway speed of receiver Leo Ferrine, whose three-yard strides enabled him to prance down the sidelines for an 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to start the second half.
Put it all together and you have one word: Loaded.
"They clearly have the quality of that other Prep team," Stinson said, when asked for a comparison to the 1994 state championship team. "They have a lot of guys who will play for a Division I college team. It’s their best team since the one in 1994."
However, when Hansen was asked for comparisons, he tended to shy away.
"Honestly, we’re still a work in progress," Hansen said. "We haven’t even scratched the surface of what we could be."
Then that’s a scary thought, considering that the Marauders defeated their top two rivals, North Bergen and then Hoboken, in consecutive weeks, by a combined score of 72-0.
"You have to gauge yourself by yourself, not by what other people think or say," Hansen said. "But we’re not even close to where I think we can be. We do have a load of potential and we’re a pretty good team right now. But when we’re clicking on all cylinders, we can be a very good team."
Hansen might not want to believe it, but the Marauders are a very good team right now. They are so good that they will not lose a game inside Hudson County this year, so good that I don’t think they will surrender a single point inside the HCIAA this season.
And they are so good that they can make plans to lock horns with Don Bosco Prep in the Parochial Group 4 state championship in Giants Stadium during the first weekend of December.
Now, will they win there, against the top team in the state? There’s a lot of time and season in between. But can they? Absolutely.
Is defeating DBP and its high-octane offense out of the question?
Well, it wasn’t out of the question in 1994, when the Marauders beat the No. 1-ranked team in the country. It wouldn’t be out of the question nine years later.
Mark it down. This Marauder team is THAT good. And the scary thought is, they can only get better.
"It’s gratifying for us to see so many new kids come together and perform well," Hansen said.
Just gratifying to lay a lambasting on your two most hated and dreaded opponents? On the outside, Hansen may be doing the politically correct thing and saying all the right things right now, but deep inside, he’s grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
He’s got the goods this year, a team that has all the makings for a state title run once again.
"We have a legitimate chance to be an elite team," Hansen said. "We have a legitimate chance to be special."
Let’s face facts. The Marauders are special already, way special.