Sports Wrap: Aviators Fail to Reach State Playoffs

The Hasbrouck Heights football team could not take care of business and fell just short of making the state tournament.

In the state cross country sectional meets last weekend, the Aviators girls team took a fifth in the team standings while the Heights boys cross country team came in sixth place in the team standings as both meets were moved from Garret Mountain in Woodland Park to Thompson Park in Jamesburg.

Football

The Hasbrouck Heights (5-4) football team could not generate any offense against Pompton Lakes on Saturday on the road while the defense could not stop running back Nieko Torres and quarterback Robbie Meyers.

The result was a 35-0 loss to the Cardinals that knocked the Aviators out of the state playoffs. It was the first time in 2011 that Heights had been shut out.

"We just could not get anything going offensively," said Hasbrouck Heights head coach Nick Delcalzo. "They (Pompton Lakes) have a very good team."

For the Aviators they needed to defeat Pompton Lakes along with St. Mary beat Queen of Peace and Emerson defeat Manchester last weekend to grab a state playoff spot in Group 1 North 1 state sectional, one of the more competitive in the state.

As it turned out, the last two scenarios worked out as the Gaels defeated Queen of Peace, 21-13, and Emerson defeated Manchester, 49-6.

Heights will host Emerson, another team looking on the outside in for the state playoffs, on Friday night at Depken Field, 7 p.m. in the last game of the season.

Unfortunately for the Aviators the best chance to score in the game came in the first quarter when Chris Abramo recovered a Cardinals fumble.

Two plays later and Heights quarterback Darren Iurato was intercepted.

After that Pompton Lakes took over with a ground-control game with Torres and some key third down plays from passes from Meyers.

The Aviators offense led by Iurato and running backs Anthony Seidel and Mike Pikowski was kept in check for most of the game as Heights could not muster enough first downs.

Despite the lopsided score, Heights was still in the game as they were only down 14-0 at halftime.

Girls Cross Country

Hasbrouck Heights girls pretty much had déjà vu with this season's Group 1 North 1 state meet that was moved down south to Thompson Park.

Despite that move the Lady Aviators had pretty much a duplicated performance compared to 2010. Hasbrouck Heights finished this season in fifth place, the same as in 2010, but the Lady Aviators were closer to fourth this season.

Hasbrouck Heights finished just six points from fourth place finisher, Bogota, 151 to 157. Mountain Lakes nipped Kinnelon, 49-53, to win the team title in Group 1 North 1.

Lady Aviators senior Rebecca Fortoul had the best finish with a 10th place and a time of 20:21.

The next Heights runners though were down the list in juniors Kelly Moran and Ali Robitaille, who finished 35^th and 36^th place respectively with times of 22:25 and 22:27. Sophomore Daniella Macera was 45^th at 23:07. A pair of juniors for the Aviators was next, Jess Guerra, 49^th at 23:26, and Jesse Coffey, 53^rd at 23:44.

Boys Cross Country

The Hasbrouck Heights boys team made great strides this season. With the sixth place team finish, it was a jump of six spots compared to last year's team standings in Group 1 North 1.

For this season the Aviators had a score of 164, 10 points ahead of Leonia, but 24 behind Bogota for fifth place.

Aviators senior Rolando Mendoza had the best time for a Heights runner at 17:09 good for ninth place, six seconds behind eighth place finisher Pompton Lakes Ramon Fantuazzi.

Two other Heights runners finished in the top 25 with a par of sophomores in Marc Mastropietro and Stephen Hodulik in 24th and 25th respectively. Mastropietro ran a time of 18:26 while Hodulik was two seconds behind at 18:28.

Junior Connor Gillespie was 49th with a run of 19:17 and sophomore Keefe Doheny was 71st and a time of 20:11.