While the Marauders of St. Peter’s Prep celebrated a victory in their NJSIAA state title game, Hudson County’s other two state football finalists, namely Lincoln and St. Anthony, were not as fortunate.
The Lions gave it their all, but came up short against Mountain Lakes in the North Jersey Section 2, Group II championship game, falling 36-28 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford.
The Friars had a real tough afternoon last Saturday at Kean University, losing to St. Joseph of Hammonton, 55-0, in the Non-Public Group 1 championship game.
The Lions saw their chances unravel in the second quarter of their game, facing a team that hadn’t lost in two years, winning 23 straight, including a 45-12 win over Lincoln last year in the sectional semifinals.
Lincoln led twice, taking an 8-0 lead on the third play of the game on a 77-yard swing pass from Zymire Gordon to Devell Jones, then regained the lead with 1:52 left in the first quarter on a 1-yard run from Jones, leading 14-8.
But things went totally south from that point, as the Herd scored the game’s next 28 points, putting the game far out of reach.
Mountain Lakes recovered a fumble on a kickoff, then scored one play later. The crushing blow came when the Herd scored a touchdown with just one second before halftime, pushing the lead to 29-14 at the break.
After Mountain Lakes scored on its first possession of the second half, the game was over.
Gordon had a fine game in defeat, passing for 244 yards. Jones had 80 yards on the ground, becoming Lincoln’s all-time leading rusher in the process.
“I’m not upset,” Lincoln head coach Robert Hampton said. “We’ll be back next year. We have a lot of people coming back. They’re the Herd, man. They’re an outstanding team. They can play. We played hard for four quarters and didn’t quit. We will never quit. If I had my way, we’d play them again next week. That’s how good I felt about our chances. I like playing against them. We got our butts kicked and the kids were nice to us. But we fought really hard.”
Hampton knew that the fumbled kickoff would come back to haunt the Lions.
“That was sickening,” Hampton said. “We went over that play in practice all week and it happened. We thought we had the play defended and they caught us off guard. I think the kids all felt that if they had a little more time, they could have come back and stole this one. Once we started to play, it was too late.”
But it wasn’t meant to be – and the Lions will have to fight next year for their first state title since 1981.
“We did a lot of good things this year,” said Hampton, whose team finished the season with a 10-2 record. “We played three classy teams in the state playoffs in Bernards, Madison and Mountain Lakes and beat two of them. We clearly cut the deficit between last year and this year with Mountain Lakes. We will be back.”
As for the Friars, there isn’t much that can be said about a 55-point loss.
But veteran head coach Ed Stinson knows that his young program was facing an uphill climb, taking on a program that has now won a state-record 24 NJSIAA state titles. The Friars were playing in their very first state title game.
“That program is about as good as they come,” Stinson said. “I’ve traveled to Las Vegas with Bergen Catholic. I faced Don Bosco Prep and St. Peter’s Prep as a coach. With this team we faced, I couldn’t tell the difference between the others. At halftime, we knew that we weren’t going to win the game, so I told the kids that we want to finish with class and dignity. That’s what we did.”
Stinson said that he will be forever grateful to seniors like Devin and Eli Terry, to Alex Vidal, to Devonte McLaurin, kids that have helped to put the St. Anthony football program on the state map. Because of those kids, St. Anthony isn’t just all about basketball any longer.
“These are some very good kids, both athletically and academically,” Stinson said. “They are wonderful kids. We won six games in a row. We beat some good teams like Hoboken, Hudson Catholic, St. Mary’s [of Rutherford] and St. Luke’s of Connecticut.”
Stinson said that the Friars will also be back.
“We’re still an 11-month a year program,” Stinson said. “Nothing has changed.”
So Stinson and his team will be in the weight room next month, getting ready for the 2015 season, much like Hampton. Not every team can end a season with a state championship victory. The others have to work hard to get back to get another crack at it. – Jim Hague
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.