Mustangs lose another close one

Controversial calls hurt

by Shawn Tyrrell, Sports Writer
   If things weren’t bad enough last week when the Manville High School football team went down in defeat at the hands of visiting Newark Central, they got a whole lot worse this past Saturday when the Mustangs were upset by the Bulldgos of Dayton 22-20.
   The loss dropped Manville to 0-2 on the year and marked the second straight week in which the opposing team stopped a 21-game losing streak. Saturday afternoon’s victory was Dayton’s first since Thanksgiving Day of 1999, and it will no doubt put confidence back into a program that is only in its second season back playing a varsity football schedule.
   A defeat such as this can have great ramifications on a young MHS team that was hoping for a much stronger start to the 2007 campaign. Central and Dayton were schools Manville handled easily in 2006, and the upcoming contests are going to only get tougher.
   If the first two games are any indication the Mustangs are going to be in dogfights every time they step on the field. It was a game the team could have and should have won but just didn’t do enough things in the end to gain the victory.
   There were numerous big plays in the contest, but it seemed the Mustangs just ran out of time even though they ran 68 offensive plays in the game.
   ”This is a tough loss to take,” Manville head coach Brett Stibitz said. “We beat them in just about every phase of the game that we could. The only thing that hurt us was the two fumbles we had. Otherwise we played sound football on both sides of the ball.”
   Stibitz also indicated that there were some issues with the officiating and the lack of a game clock. The first half seemed to be in question as there was no real scoreboard for the teams to use, which complicated knowing how much time was left, the down and yards to go.
   The MHS head coach has always felt that officials can’t decide the outcome of a game. This time, however, his belief was tested when with just under a minute to go the officials took away a huge first down that would have given the team the ball at the Dayton eight-yard line. They called an illegal pick play, which was very controversial.
   ”We completed the pass play to Rock that would have given us the ball at the eight yard line. But the officials made a terrible call on us,” Stibitz said. “That one call really did cost us.”
   Before the game even came to that point there were several big plays that each team was able to make.
   Dayton got on the board first when quarterback Rob Yannazzone hit receiver Aaron Weinbaum with a 49-yard scoring pass. Stibitz called the play by the Mustangs “inexcusable and a broken coverage that never should have happened.”
   Manville came back capping of a drive when quarterback Anthony Palovick scored his second touchdown of the season taking it in from a yard out The kick after by Brian Rock gave MHS an early 7-6 lead.
   The Bulldogs answered as Ross Bergen recovered a fumble in the end zone by Yannazzone that was also questionable. Stibitz thought his team had recovered it when the ball popped out, but the officials again ruled in favor of Dayton and the Bulldogs had a 13-7 lead.
   It stayed that way till Brian Rock, who continues to have a monster start to his season, took the kickoff and went 89 yards for the equalizing touchdown. He carried immediately after the long run and just missed getting into the end zone for the two-point conversion. Rock may have been a bit tired from the long scoring jaunt.
   The Mustangs weren’t done and neither was Rock as he added a 17- yard touchdown midway through the third to give Manville the lead. The final scoring of the game was done by Dayton when Yannazzone ran it in from seven yards out, and the two point conversion was good for the winning points.
   The fourth quarter was a defensive affair, and the Manville defense held the Bulldogs five consecutive times. The Mustangs got the ball back with 1:10 to go and seemed to do everything right and drove down the field hoping to make the wining score.
   ”We kept shutting them down,” Stibitz said. “We got the ball back and drove right down the field like we had for most of the game.
   ”It was a heartbreaking loss, where we didn’t capitalize on opportunities,” Stibitz said. “We have to take them one game at a time. We are probably one of the better 0-2 teams in the area.”
   Prediction: The Mustangs take on St Joe’s of the Palisades at a rescheduled game time of 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. This is another game that could go either way, as the schools are very evenly matched. St. Joe’s lost 66-6 to North Warren earlier this season. The Mustangs should get into the win column, 28-21.