Punishing ground game, defense rocks Middletown North
By: Rudy Brandl
When Hillsborough High met Middletown North in the Central Jersey Group 4 championship game at Giants Stadium in 1996, it was the Lions who did most of the pounding. Middletown North dominated the game up front and posted a 33-8 victory to capture the sectional title.
The Raiders avenged that loss in a big way last Saturday afternoon at Noonan Field.
Hillsborough (8-2) controlled the game for 48 minutes, scoring early and often with quick drives in the first half and eating almost the entire second half clock to notch a surprisingly easy 38-0 shutout.
The sixth-seeded Raiders will need to be every bit as impressive in the CJ 4 championship game at Rutgers Stadium, where unbeaten top seed Sayreville (11-0) will be waiting. The kickoff for the Dec. 2 title game is set for 11 a.m.
"I’m proud of our kids," HHS head coach Rick Mantz said afterward. "When we’re playing right, that’s what it should look like. We’re big up front and they probably haven’t seen a big team like us this year. We expected them to be better, but today wasn’t their best day."
Middletown North head coach John Oxley certainly was impressed.
"Holy cow, it looked like a college line out there," Oxley said. "But we had a bad day against a great team. It shouldn’t have been that lopsided, but we spotted them 14 early and you can’t do that against a great team like that."
The Raiders struck quickly, scoring two touchdowns before most of the fans had a chance to warm their seats. Hillsborough took the opening kickoff and marched 70 yards in five plays, with Steve Hess breaking a big play for a touchdown. It was third-and-two from the Lion 47, but Hess decided to go the distance for a 53-yard scoring jaunt.
"It was a huge hole," said Hess, who finished with a career day that included 104 yards and three touchdowns. "The offensive line made a huge hole and Danny (Phillips) made a great block. Usually, I’m primarily a lead blocker for Dan, but they gave me the ball more to throw them off. Danny and the offensive line were great all day."
The Raiders then took advantage of two bad snaps on attempted punts to score their next two touchdowns. Steve Olson was caught in no man’s land twice when snaps sailed over his head deep in Middletown North territory.
Special teams ace Matt Campbell was in on both tackles for losses, receiving help from Caliph Santiago the first time and Nick Boyle on the second big stop.
Hillsborough needed a cumulative total of 19 seconds to add two touchdowns and take a 21-0 lead before the end of the quarter. Phillips busted off right tackle for a 10-yard scoring run and Hess reached the end zone on a seven-yard burst up the middle with 3:05 remaining in the opening period.
"I knew we’d come out with a bang, but I didn’t know anything like this," said Boyle, one of the big men in the trenches. "There’s nothing like the playoffs. A shutout in the playoffs is unbelievable. We knew they would try to power it on us, but we weren’t going to take it at home."
While the Middletown North offense continued to sputter, the Raiders just kept rolling. Phillips hit paydirt again early in the second period, scoring his team-leading 19th touchdown of the year on a 27-yard sweep down the right sideline.
Middletown North stormed out of the locker room looking to make a dent in the 28-0 deficit. Bill Lyons, who rushed 28 times for 110 yards in a losing cause, collected two first downs for the visitors but the drive stalled at the Raider 15 with 9:58 remaining in the third period.
After that, Hillsborough put a major exclamation point on the lopsided victory. The Raiders controlled the ball for 20:30 of the final 22:58, holding the Lions to five yards and no first downs. The Raiders added a field goal and touchdown on their only two drives of the second half to end the game in dominant fashion. The field goal drive took 9:29 and used 18 plays, while the touchdown march devoured 11:19 and needed 19 plays.
"You don’t have to play defense if you have the ball," Mantz said. "That’s been our motto. Just grind people up. Our offensive line was outstanding today."
Sophomore quarterback Colin Bruno made plays when he needed to, completing two passes to wide receiver Scott Robinson to erase third down situations and keep the chains moving. Bruno also rushed 11 times for 64 yards.
"The sophomore is really stepping in," Boyle said. "He’s playing like a four-year starter."
Kicker Kristian Molloy continued his outstanding season by kicking a 25-yard field goal in the third quarter and adding his fifth extra point of the day in the final period after Hess scored his third touchdown.
Hess has really come of age in the post-season, rushing for more yards than in the entire eight-game regular season combined. He’s also scored half of his eight touchdowns in the playoffs.
"Hess is a big-time player," Mantz said. "We have some weapons with him, Danny and (Santiago). We wanted to try to do some things to take the pressure off Danny. We spread it around to some other people and Steve took it right out of the box."
Hess gave the Raiders the early edge and there was nothing Middletown North could do to mount a comeback on this day. The Raiders took advantage of every mistake and were simply too overpowering up front on both sides of the ball.
The Lions managed only 102 rushing yards and 120 yards of total offense on 50 plays for an average of 2.4 per play. The Raiders nearly tripled those numbers with 333 total yards and a six-yard average. The HHS run game netted 314 yards and an impressive 6.0 average.
The Raiders will be tough to beat if they execute like this. On Dec. 2, they’ll return to the site of last year’s heart-breaking playoff loss to two-time defending CJ 4 champion Hunterdon Central.
"Last year, we felt we were one game away," Mantz said. "There’s no Somerville on Thanksgiving this year, so we’ll be chomping at the bit in two weeks."