Make or Break Game

Well, it comes down to this. St. Joe's comes into today's game with a 3-4 record. They will be taking on Montclair-Kimberley Academy--probably the best team they have played so far. Montclair-Kimberley has had a great season thus far, only losing by 8 at Cedar Grove. Their record is 6-1 and are on track to be one of the higher seeds in Non-Public Group II. They have been able to play stellar defense throughout much of the season giving up more than 12 points just twice. I think going into the game, it is a tall task to ask that St. Joe's comes out of this game with a victory.

There was some confusion coming into this game understandably about what St. Joe's had to do to make the state tournament in football. Some people said if St. Joe's won, they would draw Bergen Catholic (the #2 seed), but if they lost, they would need help to play Don Bosco in the #1 vs. #8 matchup. Now here is where I get on the NJSIAA. As I later found out, only .500 teams or better or able to qualify for the state tournament which is absolutely ridiculous considering the fact that in all their other sports now, teams can now file a waiver to get in with a sub .500 record. A couple years ago for basketball, Henry Hudson qualified as a 16 seed with a 3-18 record or so. If you are going to allow the bracket to be filled up to 16 teams for other sports, you have to let football be filled up to 8 teams. It is a joke and totally unbelievable to me that in Cranford's bracket, North II Group III, just five teams qualified...FIVE! Out of 19 teams! Surely in a couple of these brackets there could be upsets. That really needs to change in the future. It is very odd to me that they would let all these god awful well under .500 teams in for basketball and not let teams who are 3-5 in for football--if the bracket does not have an ample amount of 4-4 or higher teams. If they're going to allow sub .500 teams to get in to fill a bracket out, they have to do it for all sports. It really would've been an honor to play a great team like Don Bosco or Bergen Catholic even if it would've been pretty lopsided.

St. Joe's wound up playing one of their worst games of the season and although it was close in the first half, only trailing 6-3 at halftime, they turned it over four times in the 2nd half which doomed them. To start the second-half, Montclair Kimberley took the kickoff and drove 74 yards to score with Mike Sasso going in from 38 yards after a 24-yard pass from senior quarterback Gabe DiMasi to Power Lawrence who had five catches, 115 yards and 47 rushing yards on 12 carries. DiMasi, woundup finishing his career at Monclair Kimberley with more than 4,000 yards and has had a great season overall, already throwing 23 touchdown passes by the time this game concluded. You really have to tip your cap to Montclair Kimberley as well who is having a great turnaround this year. This is their first winning season since 2001. Again, after a game like this , you really have to wonder how much St. Joe's real starting quarterback Chris Blades would have mattered this season. While a couple of the St. Joe's quarterbacks have looked alright this season, at others they have looked downright awful and you have to figure Blades at starter would have at least given Joe's enough to qualify for states.

When the state tournament brackets were released, it was revealed that St. Joe's had missed the state tournament and would be going to a consolation game against St. John Vianney. What I don't understand though, is that 6 teams made the state tournament. St. Augustine was 7th, St. Joe's was 8th and Paul VI was 9th. So I was very well expecting the Falcons to play down in Richland against the Hermits. But for some reason, St. Joe's drew Vianney, who was not even in our state group which I found odd considering St. Joes was back to back in the standings with St. Augustine. The only reason I could think of why St. Joe's drew St. John Vianney and St. Augustine drew Paul VI is the same reason bowl games are regionalized sometimes and that is because it is only a consolation game, is there a point in driving 2 hours down to Richland for a game that doesn't mean anything which is why I could see that. That is why you often have small bowl games being played in Texas or Florida, often with teams from either within the state of those 2 or in some nearby state like a Mississippi or Louisiana. St. John Vianney will be a tough test for St. Joe's so we'll see if they can end their season on a high note. Vianney is much better than their 3-5 record shows. Besides their 37-0 loss against Rumson, they have been very competitive, losing by 6 at Raritan, 8 at home to Monsignor Donovan, 1 at home to Toms River South and 13 at Red Bank Regional High School. St. Joe's and them also have a common opponent in Marlboro which St. John Vianney won at by 18. That game is taking place in two weeks. It has been a rough end to the season for St. Joe's who I think did not meet expectations this year for their first year of varsity football but at the same time you have to take a step back, look at the big picture and realize that they did not have the 2 quarterbacks they planned on using to start the season. That immediately made them take a big step back in my opinion and cost them at least a win or two. At times, they have played great defense. At others, not so much. It is going to be interesting to see which team shows up come the St. John Vianney game.