Florence football: Title streak ends at 4

By Sean Moylan, Sports Writer
   As the final seconds ticked off the game clock, it was easy to find oneself looking at Highland Park’s backfield, and searching for the next Joe Pisarcik while anticipating the Florence version of the Miracle at the Meadowlands.
   But Pisarcik never materialized and there were no miracle fumbles as Highland Park’s quarterback Mike Hrapsky simply took a knee and waited for the game clock to fade to zero.
   The main players in the Owls’ backfield were three winners named Mike Hrapsky, Bryant Fitzgerald and Nate Smith, who together played the game of their lives to lead Highland Park to a 20-17 victory over the four-time defending Group I Central Jersey championship Florence High football team.
   If you’ve followed the Flashes the past five years then you probably thought there was no way they could lose a playoff game to a Group 1 team. But that’s why they play the games.
   ”Give them credit, they came down here and beat us in our own back yard,” said Florence head varsity football coach Joe Frappolli, the winningest coach in South Jersey history.
   Nothing about this game seemed normal as far as Florence fans were concerned. After a penalty-ridden 0-0 first half, which featured some great defense on both sides, the game began to take really take shape on the Florence’s first possession of the second half on a pair of Marcus Curry power runs up the middle for first downs, followed by three solid runs by Drew Johnson.
   With the ball on the 25-yard line, the Owls put everyone in the box and prepared for a run up the middle. But the Flashes’ fantastic senior running back Quentin Loftin, slowed down by a leg injury which caused him to miss the second half of the Bordentown contest and the Holy Cross game, still had some nifty moves left in his strong 5’ 10” frame. He darted to the right side, made a defender miss with a quick fake and then took it to the house for a score. Matt Belcher added the PAT and the Flashes had a 7-0 lead with 7:48 left in the third quarter.
   After the subsequent kickoff, Fitzgerald bolted to the outside and ran 74 yards for a touchdown. Marcus Rawls just missed catching him. Even so, the Owls missed the extra pointer and Florence still held a one-point lead.
   Florence’s next series ended in a punt, and Highland Park took over on its own 40-yard line. What followed was the quintessential Florence defensive stand. On first down, Tyler Foehr and his buddies rammed their way past the Owls’ linemen and hit Fitzgerald for a 10-yard loss. Then on the next play, Florence tackled him 4 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Fitzgerald got back 3 of those yards on third down, but the Owls were forced to punt.
   Florence junior Mike Staton stormed through the line, blocked the punt and chased the bouncing ball all the way down to the 3-yard line where he fell on it.
   Frappolli called it a great play but he has been impressed with Staton’s unselfish nature the entire season. But the Flashes couldn’t punch it in and had to settle for a 25-yard Belcher field goal with 9.2 seconds remaining in the third quarter. At the start of the final quarter, Florence’s star senior lineman Chris Salaga recorded a huge sack to snuff out a Highland Park drive.
   ”We put a lot of pressure on them,” said Salaga, who played hurt but refused to talk about it or use it as an excuse. He like all of the Flashes had expected to win.
   Then when Fitzgerald was gang-tackled for a loss on the first down of its next possession, the Owls began searching for another option. They found it in Smith, who took a Hrapsky screen pass 83 yards for a touchdown. Suddenly, Highland Park had its first lead of the game (13-10).
   Smith’s older brother L.J. Smith would go on to score a big touchdown for the Philadelphia Eagles in their road win over the Washington Redskins the very next day.
   Going in one of the few Flashes who wasn’t banged up was Johnson, who came out of the locker room in the second half fired up . When the Florence coaches called his number nine after Smith’s score, he was ready and exploded for a 38-yard gain up the middle. Then, following a great 31-yard catch over the middle by Loftin of a Jimmy Martinson delivery, Johnson followed his blockers and punched it into the end zone from 3 yards out. After Belcher’s PAT Florence led 17-13 with 4:22 to go. The large Florence crowd went wild.
   ”Drew Johnson played inspired football,” added Frappolli of Johnson, who rushed for 71 yards and made a 23-yard reception.
   But Fitzgerald answered with a 68-yard touchdown on the Owls first play from scrimmage and that ended up being the difference. After Florence’s subsequent drive stalled, the Flashes looked like they would get the ball back to make one more run, but they were called for encroachment on fourth-and-inches on their own 21 with just over a minute left.
   They say that big games are won by holding onto the ball and having your big players making big plays. Florence had the guy who under normal circumstances could have chased down the Owls’ big guy Fitzgerald in Loftin, but Loftin was not Loftin.
   ”Q was not one-hundred percent and you could tell that he doesn’t have that burst up the field that he usually has,” said Frappolli, who was happy just to have Loftin play at all.
   Frappolli also was quick to point out that Fitzgerald was the best running back his team had seen all year and Smith was pretty good too.
   Even hurt, Loftin still ran for 102 yards. Curry had 22 hard yards on the ground. Martinson punted very well while Belcher’s kickoffs were also excellent and away from Fitzgerald.
   On Florence’s first possession of the game, Loftin had a 12-yard run to take the ball down to the 2-yard line but Florence lost yards on the next play and had to settle for a field goal attempt. The ball, however, was placed on a bad angle and Belcher just missed a try from 30 yards out.
   The Flashes should have scored a touchdown on the possession, but penalties pushed it back twice. Things evened out, however, when the Owls had three scores erased on penalties on their subsequent possession.
   Midway through the second quarter the Flashes put together a nice drive only to fumble the ball. But then Ernest Curry recovered a high bouncing fumble near the sidelines to get the ball back for Florence.
   Although Florence had beaten mighty Holy Cross 19-15 the week before, Frappolli was anything but overconfident playing Highland Park.
   ”We knew it was going to be a tough situation and we told them that the biggest game they would have to get through (to repeat as champions) was this first (playoff) game. We reminded them of the fact that the only thing that last week’s game did was give us a home game. It doesn’t guarantee a win,” said Frappolli. “Sometimes the mind is willing but the body isn’t.”
   Florence played extremely Hard, but it didn’t have its usual fire. Highland Park “needed a win” and no team knows that feeling more than Florence. An Owls’ player even stood at midfield after the game, boasting about getting hit so hard that he may have broken his nose. It’s a war wound he appeared to cherish.
   Herman Edwards, the defender who recovered Pisarik’s fumble and took it to the house in the game’s closing seconds to lift Philadelphia Eagles to an amazing 19-17 over the New York Giants in 1978, has since gone on to become a fine NFL head coach who is well known for the quote, “You play to win the game.”
   Florence played all out to win Saturday’s game. It just didn’t happen. You could see the pain on the kids’ faces in the locker room after the game.
   Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar, “Cowards die many times before their death. The valiant never taste of death but once.”
   The brave and valiant 2007 Flashes went down fighting to the very last second of the game.