Ambush at Roosevelt
Emerson gets blindsided by Passaic Tech in Group IV state final
It didn’t take long for Emerson football coach Eddie Marinez to realize that his team was headed for trouble last Saturday in facing Passaic County Tech in the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 1, Group IV championship game at a packed Roosevelt Stadium in Union City.
In fact, Marinez knew before the game that the Bulldogs were in for a tough haul when the team’s inspirational leader, Victor Ayala, would have to miss the game because of back problems.
"Victor is such an integral part of our team," Marinez said. "He’s the heart and soul of the team. I knew it was going to be tough, even if we had Victor. But once we knew he couldn’t play, it took a lot out of us. He is such a key player on every single unit we have."
Plus, PTC was big, strong and fast while Marinez watched game films in preparation. In person, the team became bigger, stronger and extremely faster.
"They were definitely bigger than what I thought they would be," Marinez said of an offensive and defensive line that averaged 260 pounds. "I knew they were quick, but they were even quicker."
And when PCT scored a touchdown in its opening possession of the game, Marinez had a feeling it would be a long afternoon, which is what it turned out to be.
Emerson was never really in last Saturday’s game, dropping a 40-8 decision that was eerily similar to the 1998 finale, when PCT laid the hammer down on Union Hill, 48-6.
It was similar because both Union City schools were making their first appearance in a state championship game against the same school. And much like the Hillers appeared shell shocked in their state title outing, so did the Bulldogs, who weren’t exactly deer in the headlights, but not ferocious beasts of the jungle either.
And the Bulldogs definitely didn’t resemble the team that motored through nine straight victories to get to the state finale.
PCT won the opening kickoff and decided to defer the ball to Emerson. The game was pretty much over at that point.
"That’s what they do," Marinez said. "That’s their thing. They try to catch you in your corner of the field, playing field position football. They kicked the ball off to us and tried to cause havoc."
Which PCT did right away. They sacked Emerson QB Joan "J.Q." Quezada on his first attempt to pass and dropped RB Carlos Castillo for a big loss on his first rushing attempt. Passaic Tech forced the Bulldogs to punt and they got the ball in great field position.
On its third play from scrimmage, talented RB Ernest Green broke through for a touchdown and Emerson was down, 8-0, just three minutes into the game.
It got far worse before it got better. After unleashing their secret weapon, putting superstar receiver Miguel Merrick in the backfield for two carries, the Bulldogs stumbled again, turning the ball over to PCT once more.
This time, it was QB Rayshon Adams’ turn to kick into gear, scoring the first of his three brilliant touchdowns. Incredibly, it was his older brother who beat up Union Hill. It’s safe to say that Union City football fans never want to see the Adams Family again. Lurch, Morticia, Gomez, Fester, Rayshon…not any of them.
Adams first scored on an 11-yard run, then threw the two-point conversion pass to Jason Van Valkenbergh to make the score, 16-0. Adams then had a 35-yard touchdown run that pushed the lead to 22-0 in the early stages of the second quarter.
In reality, you could have turned off the TV sets right there. But Marinez wasn’t convinced his team was done just yet. They had come back before. And when Castillo scored on a 10-yard run and Quezada hit James Porch for the two-point conversion pass, cutting the lead to 22-8, Marinez sensed some life in his team.
"I thought we were still in the game at that point," Marinez said. "I felt that we just needed to make a big play."
However, the Bulldogs made a mistake instead of the big play, turning the ball over to PCT in the closing minutes of the first half. On the final play of the half, on fourth down and goal, Adams scored his third touchdown of the game on a 1-yard keeper, pushing the lead to 28-8. That was it.
"It was a different locker room than I’ve ever experienced at halftime," Marinez said. "We walked in instead of running off the field. In other games, I could sense a different attitude, even when we were losing. In this game, we tried everything to make things better and it wasn’t getting any better.
Marinez added, "We knew we were going to have to play next to perfect if we were going to win. And we were not perfect. We were never down by that much before. It was a different feeling."
And a feeling that only got worse, as PCT scored two more touchdowns after halftime, adding insult to injury.
"I really think on that day, Passaic Tech would have beaten any team in the state," Marinez said. "They were that good. They were that big and that quick."
Still, Marinez didn’t want to harp on the failures of his team in the state title game, only the incredible string of success that the program has enjoyed in the three seasons before that fateful game.
"The seniors leave with 23 victories in their three years," Marinez said. "There are some kids who only have left Emerson with two or three wins. These were great kids, dedicated kids who were willing to work. And they had a great run to get to where they were. We lost our first two games of the season. After the third game, we had two power points. The rest of the bracket had like 30. I figured we weren’t going anywhere. We just wanted to win the next game and we did. Then the next game, and we did.
Basically, we had to play five playoff games in a row, beginning with a must-win against Bayonne, then the playoffs against Teaneck and West Milford, then Union Hill on Thanksgiving to win the county (the HCIAA American Conference championship), then this game. I’ll take what we did over the defeat any day. We overcame a lot of adversity to get to this point."
Marinez didn’t want to dwell on the hard loss.
"They were just a better team on a better day," Marinez said. "It’s already behind us. We’re already thinking about next year. We have some very special kids that we will try to replace, but we’ll be back. We have to hope that the success we had this year carries over to the younger ones."
And if that happens, then Emerson’s loss last Saturday was not in vain. And the words "program" can be attached to the team and to the vibrant coach who turned Emerson football around and in the right direction.