By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
Over and over this season, the Hillsborough High School football team had overcome almost every hurdle on their way to earning the No. 2 seed in Central Jersey Group V.
”Our guys,” marveled Raiders head coach Kevin Carty, “were tough.”
They had overcome injuries, adversity, history and tradition on its way to nine wins in its first 10 games, but six turnovers proved too much for them against third-seeded Manalapan, a 28-6 winner Friday in Hillsborough.
”Going in, it was something I worried about a bit,” Carty said. “We hadn’t been great at it this year. This was bad. You’re not going to win many games turning it over six times.”
The Raiders had grown accustomed to finding ways to win games, whether with its high-scoring, balanced offense or its physical defense. Hillsborough had used a variety of seasoned veterans and a mix of promising younger talent to build on their pre-season dreams.
”I definitely hoped we’d be this good,” Carty said. “Since we hadn’t and it’s hard to say we were really close before that, I wasn’t sure it would happen just because of past experience. I thought we could because our kids are talented and physically tough, and also so mentally strong. We were able to win a lot of games because of the way we handled adversity and we were able to keep playing so hard.”
Those traits showed up throughout their final game. The defense kept Hillsborough in it despite three first-half turnovers, but after the fourth, Manalapan got on the scoreboard, then added to its lead after stopping the Raiders’ offense on a fourth down, and added another score early in the fourth quarter after another Hillsborough turnover. Time was ticking away, and it felt as though the Raiders had had little chance to change it after their third-quarter turnovers helped Manalapan take the lead.
”We had a first down, but then didn’t make a fourth down and they scored,” Carty said. “Then we threw a pick on the first play. We had six plays and it was 21-0.”
True to its character, Hillsborough did not stop playing hard until the final horn. Raiders senior quarterback Eddie Trimpert found junior wide receiver Dillon Zimmerman for a touchdown that cut the deficit to 21-6 with 8:14 still to go in the fourth quarter. Even then, Manalapan made a play to block Zach Eilbacher’s extra point attempt. Hillsborough couldn’t get the onsides kick attempt and Manalapan sealed the Raiders’ fate with another touchdown.
”They were so physical,” Carty said. “Eventually we couldn’t hold them off.”
The Raiders just handed Manalapan too many opportunities. Manalapan is an established program that has found a way to do a lot of winning over the last four years. They are 42-5 in that span. They will be returning to their fourth straight sectional final after an impressive win over Hillsborough.
”We fumbled a couple times because they were hitting us hard,” Carty said. “Eddie had a couple picks, but he was hit while he was throwing. We did try to force a thing or two, but we made some big plays like that throughout the year. There were a couple that were costly. There were a couple that were like punts.”
The punt-like turnovers did little more than switch field position, but the Raiders lost a golden opportunity to grab momentum at the end of the second quarter.
”The start of the third quarter, it was 0-0 and we had three turnovers,” Carty said. “There was one sequence where we threw an interception, and they fumbled it right back to us, then we fumbled it right back.”
When Manalapan had the chance in the second half, they weren’t as charitable to give it back.
”We withstood them for a while,” Carty said. “But then they wore us down.
”We’re able to handle it. Our guys played tough throughout. The score got away a bit, but our guys were fighting the way they did all year.”
The Raiders have much more to focus on than one rough game. They had won nine other games in their 9-2 season and established themselves as the best team in the Mid-State 38 and among the top teams in CJ V.
”It’s the best team we’ve had in a long time,” Carty said. “They did so many different things, so many big wins, it’s going to be tough for other teams to do more. By winning the league, by winning a playoff game, those are things that are going to be tough without going all the way.”
It’s a standard that the Raiders would like to keep going forward. That job will be tougher without the 20 seniors that led Hillsborough.
”At the very least, they showed these kids how to do it,” Carty said. “They weren’t just using talent, they acted just the way you’d want them to act. They had leadership. They worked hard. It was a bunch of different leaders. We had guys that yelled at people and guy that were quiet. All together, it was exactly the way you’d want to lead a team. And the fact they were able to have success after working hard for four years, hopefully our guys see that and continue to do that.”
The younger Raiders could also see the fruits of their labor in the sizable crowds that came to support their run. They helped to energize the players.
”We had awesome crowds,” Carty said. “I think the kids appreciate it. After the game, they wanted to go further, and they wanted to go on, but they were happy with what they accomplished this year.”
Hillsborough will try to sustain it next year with some new faces mixed in with some returning ones. It should be the right recipe for success.
”What we have and hopefully we can continue it, is have a model with a bunch of guys that can play football,” Carty said. “Hopefully we can run it and throw it, and hopefully you don’t have to rely on one superstar. And you have to have a good quarterback. I think we have some young guys that can be good. Eddie was good and so smart. That allowed us to do a lot of things.
”I think our kids think we should maintain this,” he added. “There is a really good attitude. We had some good young players do some good things. We are losing some good players that had good production, but we also have some young guys that played well. They don’t want to go back to not being this good. As enjoyable as it was, I think our guys are ready to go to war.”
The Raiders didn’t get good overnight. It took them a couple of seasons to build under Carty’s direction, but the end result was one of the best seasons in Hillsborough High School football history, a year that ended a step short of a sectional final.
Said Carty: “To do what we did this year, I’d be lying if I thought it would be easy to duplicate.”
