Cougars win first state football playoff game
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
With the goal of reaching the Central Jersey Group IV playoffs achieved, the Montgomery High football now has its sights set on another goal — a spot in the CJ IV championship game.
The Cougars picked up a win in their first-ever playoff game, rallying from a 10-0 deficit to beat South Brunswick, 34-17.
”We just didn’t want to lose,” said defensive end Matt Tholis, who had three sacks Friday night in the Cougars’ CJ IV opening round game. “We worked too hard in the offseason to just lay over in the second half. We have to keep working hard. It’s just another game. The bottom line is the goal to get to Rutgers (for the CJ IV title game). That’s where we want to be.”
For the first 23 minutes of Friday night’s game, it looked like the Cougars might have a tough time getting out of the first round of the playoffs. The offense was having some problems and a couple of mistakes led to a 10-0 South Brunswick lead.
But with less than a minute to go in the second quarter, Eric Karlik came up with a huge interception, South Brunswick helped the Cougars out with a penalty, and a Kevin Watson to Chris Garcia touchdown pass cut the lead to 10-6 at halftime.
”At halftime we felt like 10 points wasn’t going to win it,” said Montgomery coach Zoran Milich, whose team will play at top-seeded Howell Friday night. “Now we’re at a point where if we get a touchdown we get the lead. So that was very big to get that touchdown before halftime. It was perfectly thrown ball, a great catch by Chris and great coverage by the South Brunswick kid.”
In the third quarter, the Cougars used that late momentum and came out and turned the game right around. Three plays into the second half, Watson hit J.T. Tartacoff for a 63-yard touchdown pass. After another Karlik interception, the Cougars struck again with an eight-play, 64-yard drive capped off by Watson’s one-yard touchdown run for a 20-10 lead.
Two plays later, a Josh Hidalgo interception set up a Watson to Devon Saunders touchdown pass to make it 27-10. After holding the Vikings on their next drive, it took Montgomery just two plays for another Watson to Tartacoff touchdown pass, this one for 56 yards and a 34-10 lead.
On the night, Watson threw four touchdown passes and rushed for another score.
”We knew we could do it,” said Watson, who completing 13 of his 17 passes. “We just had to do the little things. The blocking was fine. I just had to get in tune with the receivers. That touchdown at the end of the half was a complete momentum swing. From the pickoff to that touchdown, it changed the game. One-on-one, Chris can get open against just about anybody.
”Our receivers are so explosive. And the offensive line gives us the time, so the big play can happen at any time. It seems like every one of them has to be covered. And Devon, too. The defense has to try to cover every one of them.”
As explosive as the offense has been for Montgomery all season, the defense has been just as effective. South Brunswick scored its first touchdown on a 62-yard punt return, then added a field goal after a Cougar turnover had given the Vikings the ball on the 15-yard line. After that, South Brunswick did not score again until a late touchdown against the second unit.
”Our first defense only let up three points tonight,” said Tholis, whose three sacks gives him 12 for the season. “And we only let up a touchdown at most against other teams, except for Immaculata. We’re always confident that our offense will be able to put points on the board. Our offensive line has been fantastic this year.
”Our defense has done a good job all year. But we couldn’t do it without every single person out there working hard on every play.”
The Cougars’ defense has found a way to get the job done week after week. And Tholis has been able to create havoc and pressure the quarterback each game.
”He’s had a phenomenal year,” Milich said. “He’s done a great job of pressuring the quarterback. The whole defense played phenomenal all night. Our defense keeps us in the games until we get it figured out with the offense. It’s very important that the defense hold them to a manageable point total.”
And with that done, the offense does the rest. And the combination has the Cougars into the second round of the CJ IV playoffs.
”Our defense kept shutting them down and the offense kept feeding off that momentum,” Watson said. “It’s great to get this win in front of our home crowd. The fans have been into it. Just driving around town, there are signs that say ‘Cougar Stadium, Friday night, be there.’ The whole attitude has changed. It’s never been like this in Montgomery before.”
And Montgomery has never had a quarterback and an offense like this one. The four touchdown passes on Friday gave Watson 19 for the season and was the fourth time he’s had at least three in a game.
”The thing about Kevin, he had nice passing numbers in this game, but he does whatever is needed to be done to win,” Milich said. “He’s not a statistics kid. If that means handing the ball off 60 times and he doesn’t throw the ball once, he’s perfectly happy with it. He’s so unselfish. He does whatever we ask of him.”
That’s been the mentality of the whole Cougar team this year. And it has them into the second round of the playoffs.