December 4, 2009
Prep gets a second chance at Bosco
Don Bosco's Tony Jones had three touchdowns against the Marauders in a 42-9 win.
Click Here for photos from the Marauders' 2009 season.
By Jason Bernstein
Editorial Director
JERSEY CITY – Last month after St. Peter’s Prep suffered a convincing 42-9 defeat at the hands of Don Bosco Prep, all the Marauders were hoping for was another chance.
Four weeks later, St. Peter’s gets that chance on Saturday, this time with a state championship on the line. The Marauders hope the lessons learned from the Nov. 6 drubbing in Ramsey could help provide a blueprint for pulling off the upset this time around.
“Playing them before gives us a good reference,” St. Peter’s Prep coach Rich Hansen said. “But we still go have to go out and perform better on Saturday.
“We didn’t line up well, we didn’t tackle and it hurt us. I think more than anything else we didn’t play with the tempo you need to play with them for four quarters. That needs to change.”
The Marauders know that they’ll have to do a lot of things better than they did in the regular season matchup. The item that’s likely at the top of Hansen’s to-do list is to find a way to stop Don Bosco RB Tony Jones.
Granatell Stadium was Jones’ personal playground as the senior speedster gashed St. Peter’s for 182 yards on just 15 carries. He also returned a kickoff 90 yards for a score, one of three touchdowns he had on the day.
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“He’s definitely the fastest back we’ve played against,” Hansen said. “Not only is he fast, he runs hard.0 He runs with good leverage. He understands their schemes. He’s the total-package back.”
Jones, who has drawn the attention of multiple Division 1 schools, has been nothing short of dominant on the season, rushing for 1,169 yards on 143 carries with 30 touchdowns. Stopping Jones is a task that even Hansen knows might not be possible.
“You can probably not stop a Tony Jones,” Hansen said. “But you can hopefully slow him down and derail him and that’s what we’re going to try to do.”
“We have to fill those seams because we know if he finds a small seam he can go all the way,” cornerback Corey Davis added.
Jones isn’t the only one on the Ironmen offense the Marauders will have to contend with. Don Bosco uses two quarterbacks, each with a very distinctive style.
A pure passer, junior Gary Nova threw for 1,540 yards and 22 touchdowns on the season. Three of those scores came on long passes in the second half against the Marauders. The other quarterback, Mike Yankovich, is a threat with both his arm and legs as he rushed for 412 yards and threw for an additional 355 yards.
“When you have two quarterbacks like that, one coming off the bench with fresh legs, it’s hard to contain them both,” Davis said. “We’re just trying to simulate that now in practice.”
Davis and the rest of the secondary will have the task of stopping the receiving duo of Ryan Cobb (25-436-8) and Jimmy Clark (25-476-9).
As impressive as the Bosco offense is, the real strength of the team lies on the defensive side of the ball. The Ironmen defense has allowed less than 11 points per game.
“They’re probably the fastest defense in the nation,” Hansen said. “The strength of Bosco’s team is that the front seven. They believe in their scheme and play it up well. They’ve got great players doing it that defend well and they play fast.”
“I think their front seven is relentless,” QB Raphael Ortiz said. “They’re all really big kids and they just won’t stop until they get to the quarterback.”
There are four Division 1 recruits on the front seven with defensive ends Bryan Murphy (Pittsburgh) and James Kittredge (Vanderbilt) and linebackers Steele Divitto (Boston College) and Cobb (Virginia).
While Jones ran wild in the first meeting, the Marauders’ star running back Savon Huggins was limited to just 56 yards on 22 carries against the vaunted Don Bosco defense. It marked the only game this season where Huggins failed to reach 100 yards.
Huggins has shown the ability to run against some of the top defenses, rushing for 307 yards against St. Joseph’s of Montvale and 192 yards in the playoffs against Bergen Catholic. St. Peter’s knows it will take another big performance from Huggins to stay in the game this time around.
“We have to be more balanced and we have to find a way to move the football against them on the ground,” Hansen said. “If we can’t, we’ll do what we know we can do, but it’s a challenge either way.”
Ortiz had moments of success throwing the ball, passing for 250 yards. But the Don Bosco offense kept Ortiz and receivers Brendan Dolaghan and Davis out of the end zone. Ortiz completed 20-of-37 attempts, but was sacked four times and was often scrambling to avoid the rush.
“I think we really focused on our line play (this week),” Ortiz said. “We really want to work better on our protection. I think I can make better reads next time and stay better composed this week.”
Murphy led the Ironmen with eight sacks on the season and Divitto had a team-best 70 tackles. Yale-bound cornerback Christopher Brady has five interceptions.
While most would agree that the Marauders are heavy underdogs against the nation’s No. 2 team, they’re far from ready to merely concede the title. Ortiz believes his team is peaking at the right time. Bergen Catholic, a team St. Peter’s Prep has defeated twice, gave Don Bosco a minor scare in an October matchup the Ironmen won 28-20.
Giants Stadium has hosted its fair share of stunning upsets and comebacks, including the “Miracle at the Meadowlands” and the “Monday Night Miracle.” The Marauders believe that if they play their ‘A’ game, there can be one more such upset in the stadium’s final year of existence
“They’re definitely No. 2 in the country for a reason,” Huggins said. “They’re good, but I think if we work and hard and the offensive line gets the good push that we know we can get, like we did against Bergen Catholic, we’ll do well.”
“We think we’ve put a good game plan together,” Hansen said. “We just got to go out and execute it.”