Mazzagatti leads team to semifinals at East Brunswick
By: Rudy Brandl
The horrible weather conditions were just right for the hard-nosed, physical bunch of football players from Hillsborough High in Friday night’s Central Jersey Group 4 playoffs. The Raiders played with tenacity on defense and solid execution on offense to post a comfortable 20-6 victory over Lawrence.
Third-seeded Hillsborough (8-1) will travel to second-ranked East Brunswick (8-1) for the CJ 4 semifinals Friday night. Top-ranked Jackson hosts No. 5 Sayreville in the other sectional semifinal.
"I’m proud of them," a rain-soaked HHS head coach Rick Mantz said afterward. "The kids played their tails off considering the conditions. We were solid defensively. It was a tough night. Tonight was about not beating ourselves."
The Raiders busted the game open with two big plays that resulted in touchdowns in the first quarter and clamped down with their stingy defense the rest of the way. Senior back Dominic Mazzagatti found his way back to the end zone for the first time since the fourth week of the season and Chris Jordan broke free for a long scoring run to put the home team ahead by 14 points.
Mazzagatti got things going on the second HHS drive of the night. The Raiders and Cardinals had exchanged three-and-outs and punts and it looked like the game was going to be a defensive struggle. Then, on the fourth play of the drive, Mazzagatti broke a few early tackles near the line of scrimmage and bolted 54 yards for a touchdown.
"Everybody flowed left and I saw a cutback lane," Mazzagatti said. "The guy hit me but he didn’t wrap. I spun off him and it was all daylight after that."
"Dominic’s a great athlete," Mantz added. "We got a couple key blocks up front and we knew we wanted to get him out there with a head of steam."
Lawrence collected a first down on the next drive but a hard hit by Matt Donahue, good pass defense from Ryan Schofield and pressure on the quarterback by Mike Kelderman forced another punt.
Jordan turned a simple sweep play to the left into a 79-yard scoring run that put the Raiders up by two scores. Jordan finished the night with a game-high 108 yards on 11 carries.
The Raiders continued to play tough defense and limited Lawrence to three first downs in the first half. Linebacker Paul Mychalczuk had another big night for the Raiders with a game-high 13 tackles. Matt Hawzen made his share of plays and finished with 11 tackles.
"We knew what they were running," Mychalczuk said. "We filled our holes and most of the time it worked out."
The Cardinals had a little more success moving the ball in the third quarter and cut the deficit to 14-6 when quarterback Brett Brackett connected with Jim Gorski on a 15-yard pass play in the middle of the end zone with 4:39 to go.
Hillsborough put the game away with two long drives. The first one resulted in a touchdown that answered the Lawrence score and the second milked 7:30 off the clock in the fourth quarter. Although the Raiders fumbled deep in Lawrence territory, the drive served its purpose.
Mazzagatti scored his team-leading 10th touchdown of the year on the first play of the fourth period. The senior back sprinted in for a five-yard score to cap a 10-play, 68-yard drive that took 4:46.
"I’m feeling good again," said Mazzagatti, who scored in the team’s first four games but spent most of the last few weeks hobbled with an ankle injury. "I was wearing turf shoes. I didn’t have a problem with the conditions at all."
Lawrence went to the air trying to get back in the game but Donahue intercepted a pass at the Raider 43-yard line with 10:23 remaining. That’s when the Raiders ran the ball on 13 consecutive plays and used up most of the fourth quarter clock to seal the victory.
"We’re a confident defense," Mychalczuk said. "As soon as the offense puts points on the board, we’re hard to stop."
If the Raiders can beat East Brunswick, they’ll return to Rutgers Stadium for the first time since 2000 when they defeated Sayreville for the CJ 4 title. HHS will host Montgomery in the annual Thanksgiving Day game and hopes to have a much more important game to play Dec. 4.
"We’re starting to click," Mazzagatti said. "We came out better tonight than we have all season. I think we have a really good shot at getting back to Rutgers Stadium."