Thrilling Football, Terrific Season!

 

By Bill Sweeney (New Haven, CT) -- Hurricane Sandy approached from the South. Meanwhile, the Hopkins School’s maroon and white football team arrived from the North. Our Hackley Hornets, in black and gray, prepared to defend the home turf and an undefeated record. Fans saw the sky-filled with slowly moving charcoal clouds, increasing winds, and swaying autumnal leaves behind Pickert Field.

This was the final home game for our seniors, and before the game we held a quick ceremony recognizing the senior players and their parents; a Hackley tradition, the young men gave their mothers roses. Also, photos of parents with their senior sons were taken by Sandi O’Keefe (no relation to the hurricane.) Jean (my wife) and I were senior parents in the ceremony, and this was our last home football game as parents of an active player. The announcer for the ceremony and the game was Michael Lucente, the voice of Hackley Football. (See the next article for interview with Michael.)

We had many opportunities to win in the fourth quarter. We kept coming back and knocking on the door. The margin of difference was not even reflected in the final score, as we lost by a fine hair at 29-28.

In the first quarter, Omar Momani had a wake-up call of an open-field tackle on the opening kickoff. The defense began the game as follows: Brad Seem lined up at left side defensive end, Captain Ben Jurcic lined up at left side defensive tackle, Zach Reeber was right side defensive tackle, and Jake Israel was right defensive end. Left outside linebacker was Captain Luke Sweeney, left inside linebacker was Ilan Gressel, right inside linebacker was Captain Jack Ellis, and right outside linebacker was Ian Parnell. Mustafaa Dais was free safety. Left cornerback was Dylan Garvey, and right cornerback was Elijah Ngbokili. Jurcic and Mustafaa Dais had stops in the first series that led to a punt.

Joey McDermott and Ian Parnell had two good runs each. A third Hopkins penalty of the game placed the ball on the Hopkins 15-yard line. Captain Luke Sweeney and Joey McDermott had good runs. Finally, Ian Parnell scored on a run from the 3-yard line. The extra-point kick (PAT) was wide left.

Our kickoff went out of bounds at the 10-yard line, which is a penalty that placed the ball at their 35. Ilan Gressell had a tackle for no gain. Brad Seem and Sweeney had tackles that led to another Hopkins punt.

A first down pass to Sweeney was all Hackley could manage before we punted.

Jack Ellis had a nice stop. Hopkins began to march downfield despite tackles by Jack Ellis, Dais, Sweeney, Gressel, and Dylan Garvey. We were called for a flag that moved the ball to mid-field. At the end of the first quarter, we were up 6-0.

In the second quarter, Sweeney and Seem had tackles that forced Hopkins to punt.

Our offense started at our 14-yard line, but sputtered. So, we punted.

Hopkin’s sophomore running back Sam Glazer ran the ball into the end zone from the 20-yard line. They scored the PAT kick and went up by 7-6.

Dais received the kickoff and ran seventeen yards with the ball to the 25-yard line. Hopkins showed good defensive coverage downfield, and our offensive line showed good protection of our quarterback, but we punted on fourth down to the 32-yard line of Hopkins.

On the second play of the drive, their running back Jacob Fiedler ran the ball downfield to our 1-yard line; Jack Ellis’ hustle downfield for 70 yards and saved the touchdown. But, with 5:02 left in the second quarter, their big junior fullback Jim Martino crashed into the end zone for a touchdown. Their PAT was good and we trailed by 14-6.

Their kickoff went out of bounds which brought the ball to our 35-yard line. Our offense stalled again and we punted to the Hopkins 32-yard line.

Our defense, held tough. We had a gang tackle, Parnell and Sweeney had solo tackles, and Zach Reeber stopped a runner for no gain. They threw a bomb deep downfield, and Dais intercepted it with 58 seconds remaining in the half.

Deep passes from McDermott to Sweeney, Parnell, and Dais brought the ball to their 4-yard line with 12 seconds remaining. McDermott threw to Parnell for the touchdown. Sam Alabaster kicked the PAT as time ran out in the half. At half-time, we were down 14-13.

In the third quarter, Elijah Ngbokoli received the kickoff and ran 45 yards to the Hopkins 38-yard line. Five runs by Parnell and a 20-yard pass to Sweeney brought the ball to 1-foot line. A penalty pushed the ball back to the 16-yard line, and we settled for a field goal by Alabaster with 8:39 left in the third quarter.

Alabaster kicked off deep, sped down field, and even made the tackle at the Hopkins 26-yard line. Ellis, Sweeney, Reeber, Momani, and Parnell had tackles. Hopkins had another penalty, so they punted to our 43-yard line.

Their passing defense looked awfully good on this set of downs including a sack of Joey for a big loss. We had to punt that went to the Hopkins 17-yard line.

Our defense slowed the Hopkins offense at this point by allowing just 34-yards before they had to again punt; Sweeney, Gressel, and Parnell, had multiple tackles on the drives that included solo tackles by Jurcic, Ngbokoli, Ellis, Seem, and Jake Israel. They punted, but we fumbled the punt to our 17-yard line with 12 seconds remaining in the third quarter. At the end of the third quarter, we were up 16-14.

The fourth quarter was the wildest quarter I have ever seen. A Hackley penalty brought the ball to our 11-yard line. Their big fullback Martino scored on a 2-yard touchdown drive, but he limped off the field. Kevin Shannon scored the two-point conversion pass from quarterback Tim Taruchini. Hopkins led 22-16 with 11:37 remaining. Henry Molner caught the on-side kick at the Hackley 34-yard line. Their defense applied mega-pressure to confuse our passing game. James O’Keefe, our offensive lineman went down in pain. (There’s something special about American football glory, and James O’Keefe could give an Ivy League college seminar on the grit of it because he pulled himself together, jumped up, and we all knew he would be back to finish the game.) Nevertheless, we tried a punt. The snap was off and we fumbled the punt. Hopkin’s Kahdeen Cohens picked up the ball at our 15-yard line and raced into the end zone for a touchdown. Possick hit the PAT and we were down 29-16.

Miraculously, Dylan Garvey returned the on-side kickoff from our 22-yard line to the Hopkins 25-yard line! Two passes to Dais and we scored. The PAT was no good, but we were down only by 29-22 with 9:56 remaining.

Alabaster kicked the pigskin deep to the 12-yard line, but they returned it to their 30. Sweeney smashed their runner on the first play for a loss of 3. They had a big run brought back due to a Hopkins penalty. Seem tackled them for a loss of five causing them to punt. On the punt, Momani and Dylan came ferociously at the punter from both ends and just missed blocking the punt. On the first down, we fumbled at the Hopkins 41-yard line with 6:43 remaining. They continued to run the ball with their ground-and-pound running game. They were running primarily to their left side by now (away from Sweeney.) To their dismay, Gressel had a big play tackle on a second down. Seem had a big tackle on third and 5 for a loss of 4. Then, Seem recovered a fumble at the Hackley 22-yard line with 4:03 left.

McDermott ran 13-yards. We had another penalty that set us back. McDermott ran big, and then passed bigger to Parnell that brought us to their 25-yard line. You could smell the blood! A pass went incomplete with a hard defensive rush. McDermott ran 19 yards to the 4-yard line. Off-sides by Hopkins gave us half the distance to the goal. Parnell scooted in for a 2-yard touchdown making it 29-28 Hopkins, with a chance to tie with a PAT. The PAT was no good with 2:29 remaining in our undefeated season.

We kicked off on-sides and they recovered at the Hackley 49-yard line. It had been touched by a Hackley player before it went ten yards. They ran to our 39-yard line on two plays Hopkins had a flag for holding that brought it back to mid-field. Dais recovered a fumble and ran to the Hopkins 41-yard line. With a ferocious defensive rush, McDermott threw the ball out of bounds and was called for an intentional grounding penalty for a loss of 10 yards. A pass to Dais brought the ball to the 35-yard line with 45 seconds remaining. McDermott threw a pass to Dais which he caught at the 4-yard line. But, he was knocked over in the air, and landed very awkwardly. Mustafaa Dais was hurt. Many prayers were said for Mustafaa at the stadium. Mustafaa walked off the field with the Doug Sawyer, our athletic trainer who was holding Mustafaa’s hand and fingers. The referee called a ‘no-catch’ because the ball squibbled away when Mustafaa came down to earth. The ball was placed back at the 26-yard line.

McDermott ran for four yards. That left 9.1 seconds. People were thinking ‘field goal.’ But, Coach Treglia nixed that idea; a 45-yard kick was too far. The last play was incomplete to Parnell… The final three seconds ticked off the clock…Time ran out on Hackley’s undefeated season. The final score was 29-28 in favor of Hopkins. So close!

Quarterback Joey McDermott was Overall Player of the Game. Joey was 18 for 29 for 182 yards passing. He threw two touchdown passes. He also ran for 91 yards on 12 carries. Honorable mention for Overall Player goes to Mustafaa Dais who caught 8 passes for 89 yards and caught one touchdown. On defense, he recorded 4 tackles, an interception, and two fumble recoveries. Get well soon, Mustafaa!

Ian Parnell was Offensive Player of the Game. Ian scored three touchdowns including two running for 3-yards and 2-yards, and one receiving for 3-yards. He rushed for 52 yards on 12 carries, and caught 5 passes for 33 yards. Ian, congratulations for representing Hackley School with the Con Ed Award last week.

Captain Luke Sweeney was Defensive Player of the Game. Luke recorded 13 tackles including one for a loss of three yards. Thirteen tackles is an individual career high number of tackles, and an individual team member high number of tackles in a game this season. Luke said, “They stopped running to our side because we kept stuffing them.”