Gloucester Catholic (8-3) vs Holy Cross (9-2) @ State Final
Piscataway, NJ – (Written by Louis Rossi for NJSI.net/Photos by Alex Cena)
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Holy Cross would look to its defense to completely shut down Gloucester Catholic at the
NJSIAA/Gatorade Non-Public, Group 2 championship, at Rutgers Stadium on December 1st.
The numbers tell the story of this game, but none so dramatically as the amount of yardage Gloucester Catholic was held to during the first half; nine – not even double digits. They would walk away from the game with a subservient 58 yards more which they would accumulate after halftime.
If that wasn’t enough, there’s more single digit statistics that draw even the most inobservant eye – plenty more. Like seven, the number of times Gloucester quarterback Mike Calzonetti found himself on the ground with the ball still in hand. Or four, relating to the number of times the ball left his hand, and ended up in the other teams.
Holy Cross was routed by the injury of its quarterback from the previous week, Tommy Reilly; only moving 40 yards forward during the first half.
Prior to his injury, Reilly, a senior, had passed for 1,853 yards and was currently making his way to a South Jersey 64 Career TD passes. He suffered a high ankle sprain in the team’s loss to Moorestown the day after Thanksgiving, however.
“We came in here knowing we didn’t have our quarterback and knowing there were things we had to do to compensate for that,” Holy Cross coach Charlie Pirrello said. “Holy Cross has been known for its offense but we needed a strong defense to get the program to the next level. We built this team for a day like today and it paid off.”
The only score during the first half was Kevin Huelster’s 26 yard field goal with just a hair under ten minutes remaining.
Dan Dash, a junior at Holy Cross, rallied the team during the second half picking up 56 of his 86 total yards on 24 carries after halftime.
Dash was also involved in the team’s first touchdown, albeit through a bit of confusion and excellent play calling. Austin Stein, in for the injured Tommy Reilly, faked a handoff to Dash and hit fullback Aaron Fant, who would break a tackle and run 35 yards with 9:53 left in the third.
Fant would be heard from again just as the fourth quarter got underway. Setting himself up for a three yard run into the end zone after charging 31 yards on the previous play, the game was all but over with the defense in place.
All Holy Cross had to do at that point was keep the defense on cue, which they excelled at for the entire duration of the game.
