It wasn’t the way the best high school football player to ever grace Hudson County was supposed to end his career.
But here was Will Hill, the St. Peter’s Prep superstar, sitting on the bench on the Prep sidelines at Giants Stadium last Saturday, receiving treatment for a high ankle sprain, forced to be nothing more than a mere spectator.
Throughout the first half of the NJSIAA Non-Public Group 4 state championship game against Don Bosco Prep, Hill was nothing short of his usual spectacular self, proving to everyone in attendance that he deserved the recognition and attention as New Jersey’s premier player.
As a quarterback from the shotgun formation, Hill took on an increased role in running the football, collecting 106 yards on 12 carries. He ran with speed and grace, then strength and power. In one run, he was flying past defenders; the next, he was bulldozing his way over them. It looked as if he had collectively picked the Marauders up onto his shoulders and was poised to carry them all to the state crown.
After surviving two costly fumbles that stopped drives inside DBP territory (one of which was coughed up by Hill himself), the Marauders seemed to right the ship and marched toward the go-ahead touchdown right before halftime.
The Marauders stormed 72 yards on 11 plays, taking almost seven minutes off the clock. The plays were highlighted by a sensational 28-yard run by Hill and capped when Hill took the ball at the 9-yard line, moved forward two steps, got hit by two would-be Don Bosco Prep tacklers, bounced off them, got hit again, spun away from them, and then sprinted in a totally different direction, diving into the end zone for the touchdown.
In a career of highlight film material, this Hill score ranks right up there, as the Marauders finally took a 7-0 lead with just two minutes remaining before halftime.
It seemed to give the Marauders the much needed momentum.
However, it was not known that it was the last time Hill would run with the ball in his brilliant high school career. Apparently, Hill severely sprained his ankle on the play and hobbled back to the sidelines. It wasn’t readily spotted, with all the euphoria of the touchdown.
Back at ’em
Don Bosco, the defending champ who laid a 41-0 whipping on the Marauders in the state title game a year ago, then came right back. Like a true champion, the Ironmen were not going to relinquish their crown without a fight.
The Ironmen came right back to tie the game, also marching 72 yards, but doing it much quicker than the Marauders, completing the drive in less than two minutes. With just eight seconds left before halftime, it looked as if the Ironmen were going to settle for a field goal attempt, as DBP coach Greg Toal first sent kicker Patrick Murray out to try a 37-yard field goal.
But St. Peter’s head coach Rich Hansen saw something that he didn’t like, especially since they were trying the field goal on third down and especially since DBP running back Tony Jones went out as a flanker right before the ball was going to be snapped.
“I thought that there was a fake involved and I thought they might go for it,” Hansen said.
So Hansen called time out and then Toal decided to go back to his regular offense. On the next snap, DBP quarterback Brett Knief hit Steve Proscia with a 20-yard touchdown pass with just eight ticks left on the clock before intermission.
“We just didn’t cover right on that play,” Hansen said. It was an emotional killer for the Marauders. They controlled the ball and the clock for most of the first half, collecting 162 yards on the ground and holding the ball for more than 15 of the 24 minutes in the half. But they had no advantage to show for it, going into halftime with a 7-7 tie.
What happened in the locker room at halftime was probably even more deflating.
It wasn’t initially apparent that Hill was hobbled before halftime, but he spent most of the intermission getting treatment for the ankle to see if he could return to action.
When Hill wasn’t on the field as a safety when the Ironmen gained possession to start the second half, the concerns grew. Don Bosco then managed to march 65 yards with the first possession of the third quarter, and scored a touchdown when lineman Logan Siska recovered a Jones fumble in the end zone. Six plays and 2:30 into the second half, any advantage the Marauders had in the first half was gone for good.
Prospects drew worse with the Marauders’ first possession of the second half. Although Hill was at quarterback to start the half, he took the ball from under center Ed Rodger instead of shotgun formation. And Hill handed the ball off three straight plays to Nyshier Oliver, including a straight handoff on third-and-four, a play that usually enables Hill to take the ball to the perimeter.
That was the sign that Hill was seriously injured. When the Marauders just plowed the ball into the line instead of taking it to the outside, it simply meant that Hill couldn’t do it.
From there, the game went spiraling. Jones, who had 138 yards rushing on 14 carries, took a fake punt 41 yards for a touchdown that made it 21-7 in favor of Don Bosco. Hill was not on the field for the play. He would have normally been in punt formation to receive the kick and would have been the last player that Jones would have had to beat.
The Marauders had some hope and showed some life when on the very first play after the Jones touchdown, Hill hit Oliver with a perfect pass, threading the needle as Oliver lined up at wide receiver. Oliver caught the pass in stride and pranced untouched for an 80-yard touchdown, cutting the lead to 21-14 and making Marauder Nation feel like there was a chance, even with their best player and leader hopping around on one leg.
“I told Will that if we couldn’t win with his feet, then we were going to win with his arm,” Hansen said. “The pass was great.”
It might have been Hill’s best throw all season – and it came on one leg.
The ending
But prospects didn’t get better for the Marauders. On third-and-14 from the DBP 31-yard line, Knief hit Jimmy Clark for a 56-yard pass that was perhaps the biggest play of the game.
“If we got a stop there, maybe things would have been different,” Hansen said.
Jones would soon score on a 19-yard run for his second TD of the game, pushing the lead to 28-14 with 2:06 remaining in the third quarter.
On the third play after Jones’ score, Hill attempted a corner pass that fluttered a bit in the stiff wind. It was intercepted by Proscia, who returned the ball 30 yards for a touchdown that pushed the lead to 35-14 and ended all Marauder hope.
Especially since Hill limped to the sideline, went right to the bench and never got up again.
His final play in high school was the pass that was returned for the interception that sealed the deal. This was not a storybook ending for the greatest of all Marauders.
He remained on the bench as the game wound down, receiving medical attention from Dr. Kevin Julian and a warm embrace from his father, Will Sr., who hopped over the wall at Giants Stadium to see how his son was doing.
However disappointing the final game was for Hill and his Marauder teammates, Hill has a bright future ahead of him, on to the University of Florida, and barring injury, a career in professional football. Count on it.
Still, it was disheartening to see Hill sitting on the bench, staring down, not wanting to lift his head to see the disaster before him. Once Hill got hurt, it was almost like watching an unfair fight in the schoolyard, with the big, bad bully picking on the 98-pound weakling and tearing him to bits in the process – and no one stepping in to stop the carnage.
And it was definitely not the final image anyone wanted of Will Hill.
Don Bosco scored one more time in the fourth quarter, when Dillon Romain scored with about nine minutes left, increasing the lead to 42-14.
The Ironmen could have tried to score again, something that would have thrown a mound of salt into the Marauders’ collective open and gaping wounds, but Toal did the right thing, instructing his players to genuflect with the ball and celebrate their fourth state title in the last six years.
Good sports
After the game, there were glad handshakes between the two teams. Perhaps the Ironmen learned from their hideous mistake of a year ago, when former quarterback Matt Simms taunted the Prep faithful. Nothing like that this time. The Ironmen were all good sports in victory, gracious champions who did nothing to humiliate the Marauders.
Even coach Toal, who doesn’t own a reputation of being the nicest soul on the planet, was remarkably humble in victory.
“My hats are off to them,” Toal said after the game. “They played a heck of a football game and they’re a heck of a good football team. Richie [Hansen] did a great job of controlling the ball and the clock in the first half. But Will got hurt and things kind of broke away a little. They’re a class act and a class team. I have only superlatives to say about St. Peter’s Prep.”
When the smoke cleared, there were some glaring reasons why DBP won convincingly for a second straight year. Last year, the Marauders knew they had to stop the run to win the game and didn’t do so, surrendering 248 yards on the ground. This year, it was even worse, as the Ironmen had 314 yards rushing, with Jones and Romain (13 carries, 110 yards) both going over 100 yards apiece.
“It doesn’t help when our main lane filler on the run is standing next to me on the sidelines,” Hansen said, referring to Hill. “It’s not an excuse, but if you don’t have the best player in the country playing, you’re not going to win. You don’t have to be a genius to see that if the kid can’t run, he can’t play. It stinks. I felt good about what we were doing in the first half. We executed our game plan and did it well. He gets hurt and everything changes. He battled through it. He gave it a shot to play. It didn’t work. He tried to play, but the injury got worse.”
Knief had 64 yards rushing and 88 yards passing, proving that he was indeed a major weapon to be reckoned with.
More importantly, other than the 80-yard TD pass from Hill to Oliver, the Marauders managed just 17 total yards of offense in the second half. Championships are not won that way.
Hansen was asked if this loss hurt more than a year ago, because essentially, it really wasn’t a fair fight. With Hill, the Marauders were right there. Without him, they were severely overmatched.
“It all hurts the same,” Hansen said. “The second half was totally different than the first half. I won’t say they wore us down. We just didn’t play well in the second half. We hoped to play better.”
The bad news for the Marauders about the loss is that the major players for the Ironmen, namely Knief, Jones, and Romain, all return.
The other bad news? Hill’s career with the Marauders is over.
“I feel terrible for him,” Hansen said. “I know he wanted this more than anything. But he has a big career ahead of him. He’ll do well on the next level. That’s just the way it goes.”
In this case, it went – right out the window, once the greatest player this area has ever known became lame.