The high school football season all comes down to one weekend, one special three-day Hudson County smorgasbord of pigskin pride for three local teams.
It has a chance to be a weekend to remember, a weekend for local gridiron history.
In 1994, three Hudson County teams earned championships in their respective NJSIAA classifications, namely Hoboken in North Jersey Section 1, Group III, St. Peter’s Prep in Non-Public Group 4 and Marist in Non-Public Group 3.
Well, turn the clock ahead two decades and we have a shot for similar glory, as St. Peter’s Prep faces recent nemesis Paramus Catholic in the Non-Public Group 4 title game Friday night at MetLife Stadium, St. Anthony, making its first-ever appearance in a football state title game, takes on St. Joseph of Hammonton at Kean University on Saturday afternoon and Lincoln plays defending champ Mountain Lakes in the North Jersey Section 2, Group II title game Sunday morning at MetLife Stadium.
That’s excellent local representation for the final week of the football season. Most of the rest of the state has put the football equipment in storage until next August, but three local teams are still at it, striving for the shot to capture the ever-so-elusive state title.
For St. Anthony, a school that has experienced too many state championship basketball games to count over the years, there’s a newness that comes with going to a football championship game for the first time.
“It’s a good feeling,” said St. Anthony head coach Ed Stinson, certainly no stranger to big games and state championships, having won a total of six titles during his storied tenure at Hoboken. Yes, the aforementioned state title in 1994 was indeed under Stinson’s watch.
“Every morning, the entire congregation of the school meets in the auditorium,” said Stinson, only in his second year as the head football coach at St. Anthony. “We do things to further the concept of being one group. I can’t know how everyone feels, but clearly, there is a buzz, an excitement. We’re getting a solid reception, with everyone behind us. It’s clearly not all basketball here.”
Stinson and his top assistant Doug Peterson have done a masterful job in making the Friar program viable and a state title contender.
“It has been a very difficult and arduous journey,” Stinson said. “We have limited resources. We didn’t have a locker room. The kids were changing in a bathroom. We have to share a field for practice. We’re playing at all different times. It’s a bare bones operation. We do things in a survival-like mode.”
Two trailers were converted into a locker room by Stinson and Peterson. A bus was purchased to go to and from practices.
“We’re using all of our resources,” Stinson said.
But the Friars have endured, winning six straight games, thanks to the efforts of people like the Terry brothers, Eli and Devin, and do-everything quarterback/defensive back/punter/kicker Alex Vidal and speedy running back Torrence Williams.
The Friars have a gigantic mountain to climb this weekend, facing a St. Joseph of Hammonton team that has merely won a record 23 NJSIAA state titles.
“Huge doesn’t even come close to measuring this challenge,” Stinson said. “It’s like facing Don Bosco Prep or Bergen Catholic. They’re an excellent football team. It’s a major challenge, but we have to play the game.”
Stranger things have certainly happened.
At Lincoln, it’s been 33 years since the Lions last won a state football title, going back to 1981.
The Lions came close four years ago, losing to New Providence in the North 2, Group I title game at MetLife Stadium. Head coach Robert Hampton knows the feeling, but his players were all in seventh and eighth grade the last time the Lions roared in the Meadowlands.
“I look at this as the culmination of all that we’ve been through over the last four years,” Hampton said.
This is a group that survived two major storms, not to mention a firestorm when Hampton was suspended from coaching until an incident involving a former player and a female player was settled in a courtroom.
“They could have gone elsewhere, but they decided to stay here,” Hampton said. “They decided to stay together and the result is another state championship appearance.”
The Lions face the same Mountain Lakes team that demoralized them a year ago in the state sectional semifinals, laying a 45-12 beating on the Lions that wasn’t even that close.
“We lost to a very good Mountain Lakes team last year, but if we play together, I like our chances,” Hampton said. “We used that loss as a motivational tool, but we’re not even thinking about that shellacking. We’re not coming into this game just happy to be there. We’re not just representing Lincoln High School. We’re representing all of the Jersey City public schools. We have to send a message that we’re for real.”
Hampton and players like Diasjon Robinson, Trevor Mayo, Terrence Barfield, Devell Jones and the brilliant Frank Darby have been working hard daily for four years for this shot.
“The only thing left now is to get the ring,” Hampton said. “That’s all we’ve been working for.”
Finally, there’s the granddaddy of the local teams, St. Peter’s Prep, which enters the fray this weekend as the No. 1-ranked team in the entire state, a position they held in the preseason, then relinquished it and now has a chance to lay claim at holding the distinction into the postseason.
Like the Lions, the Marauders get a chance to gain redemption, facing the same Paramus Catholic squad that ended the Marauders’ season in defeat the last two years, including last year’s state title game, 13-6.
“Whenever you lose to the same team and ended our season, there’s a little different motivation,” veteran St. Peter’s head coach Rich Hansen said. “I guess it’s in the back of our minds that it was them. The goal never changed. It was always to get to this point. But having it be them sweetens the pot a little bit.”
The Marauders are looking for their first state title since 2005. They also won state crowns in 1989 and 1994.
“We’ve knocked on the door a few times since 2005, but didn’t get it,” Hansen said. “We feel now that the pieces have all been put into place. The entire offseason was built toward this one night. The kids know. We’ve had a great week of practice getting ready.”
Senior quarterback Brandon Wimbush is certainly ready. A year ago, Wimbush suffered a concussion during the Paramus Catholic game and his loss was too big to overcome. Wimbush has been on a personal mission to get back to the title game again and now can fulfill that dream.
The Marauders also have stellar do-everything back/receiver/returner Minkah Fitzpatrick, giving St. Peter’s the two best players on the field Friday night on the same team.
“If that’s the case, then it gives us more bullets in the chamber than they have,” Hansen said. “I feel really good about this one. We have the chemistry. We have the maturity and the focus. Usually, in a season, there are highs and lows, but this team never experienced that. They’ve been very level headed throughout, even after the loss [to IMG Academy in Florida Sept. 26]. They had a good mindset right away after the loss and handled it very well.
Added Hansen, “This one just feels so totally different, because the kids are so focused. It feels different and for the better.”
With that, it’s time for the Great Hagueini to make his final appearance of 2014. In the sectional semifinal round, the picks were not as outstanding as in previous weeks, as Hagueini went 2-3 overall to drop his record this season to 8-4.
So here are the final three prognostications and don’t forget that these picks cannot be used for any wagering, other than for a Union City Cuban sandwich and a Malta with your Uncle Looie.
St. Joseph 28, St. Anthony 7.
Mountain Lakes 35, Lincoln 28.
St. Peter’s Prep 28, Paramus Catholic 14.
Hagueini hopes he’s way wrong and that the area is celebrating three state champions come Monday morning. – Jim Hague
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.