Errors undo Bulldogs

FOOTBALL

By: John E. Powers
   For the second straight week, the Hopewell Valley Central High School football team played an opponent that had much more speed and size. Bulldogs head coach Dave Caldwell knew the only way his team could hang close to Hightstown last Friday night at Dave McIntire Field was play an error-free game.
   Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, it didn’t happen.Hopewell Valley (1-3) fell to unbeaten and Colonial Valley Conference Valley Division champion Hightstown (4-0) 33-5 on its homecoming night.
   "We’re not gifted with team speed, team size or team strength," said Caldwell, whose team lost to Trenton the week before 50-14. "We don’t have all that, but we’re trying to build it. We need to play mistake-free. It’s very difficult for us to recover from the most minor of mistakes. A team like Trenton or Hightstown can afford to take a false step and get away with it because they can cover it with the kind of athlete they have."
   The Bulldogs return home at 1 p.m. Saturday for a game against winless Princeton, which fell to 0-4 last week by losing 24-6 to Notre Dame.
   The Bulldogs are hoping for much better results than last week. They were held to 48 yards rushing and 90 yards passing. Hopewell Valley mustered just four first downs and had to punt eight times. Hightstown wasn’t mistake-free either. The Rams had two touchdowns called back due to penalties, those drives ending in punts.
   Hopewell’s biggest play of the first half came when senior quarterback Drew Barnabei connected on a 47-yard pass to junior wide receiver Marc Kilstein that moved the ball to the Ram 34. But penalties on the following plays ruined the drive, pushing the ball back to midfield where the Bulldogs had to punt.
   "It was really a combination of things," Caldwell said. "There were some poor tackling on our side, and good execution by them. We put ourselves in bad field position. It was really a bunch of things."
   Senior Steve Giovacchini kicked a school-record 40-yard field goal four plays into the second period to pull the Bulldogs to within 7-3. The field goal was set up by a fumble recovery. But Hightstown came back with its only long drive of the half, covering 67 yards on 10 plays. The drive culminated by a 5-yard pass from quarterback Joe Medici to Joey Schettini with 3:04 left in the half. Because of a bobbled snap on the extra point, Hightstown led 13-3.
   The Rams scored again before the half ended. They recovered a bobbled punt at the Bulldogs’ 5. Medici and Schettini then immediately hooked up for another 5-yard score on another play-action fake with 1:20 left for a 19-3 lead. The two hooked up for three scoring passes during the game.
   Hopewell did get to within 19-5 early in the third quarter when the ball was snapped over punter Matt Fried’s head and out of the end zone for a safety.
   "We were looking OK," Caldwell said. "But we weren’t moving the ball on offense and we weren’t playing consistent enough on defense."
   "We turned it over a few times," he added. "We weren’t catching passes. We had one tipped that they intercepted and walked into the end zone."
   He referred to Mike Bernazal’s interception and return for 17-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
   There were some Bulldog highlights. Senior Judah Mathaney returned to the lineup and caused a fumble. Sophomore linebacker Kevin Kley had a fumble recovery and senior defensive end Ben Hart had a sack. Mathaney returned after having been out with an injury. Giovacchini, who came into the season as the team’s featured back, will return full-time to the backfield this week after just punting and kicking last week, Caldwell said. Also returning will be sophomore running back/linebacker Chris Womack, who had to sit out the game with Hightstown.
   Princeton will offer a different type of challenge. The Tigers are led by halfback Alexz Henriques, who ran for 121 yards last week, opening the scoring at Notre Dame with a 45-yard touchdown run. Last year, Henriques, the Colonial Valley Conference’s leading rusher, ran for 266 yards and five touchdowns in a 35-7 romp, almost single-handedly ending Hopewell’s run at its first winning streak in over 70 years.
   "Last year, he just ran all over us," Caldwell said. "He’s very, very quick and he can make and break games."
   The Bulldogs had beaten West Windsor-Plainsboro North 28-6 the week before – it was the Valley’s first public-school varsity win since Pennington Central High School beat Bordentown in 1932. The next year, football was eliminated due to a lack of funding, and it did not return until Hopewell Valley Central High School began its current football program in 2002.
   The Bulldogs have added another win since – their 35-0 season-opening victory over first-year program Robbinsville Sept. 9 at home. The Bulldogs haven’t been home since, losing on the road to WW-P North, Trenton and Hightstown.
   Maybe, being at home will spark the Bulldogs to another win.
   "We’re moving in the right direction," Caldwell said. "I feel pretty optimistic. We feel we can win some games and I think we should be highly competitive in every game from here on out."