Hopatcong to Honor 2001 Championship Football Team Friday

The last time Steve Holick was on 's football field he was in the midst of a mob.

First his teammates sprinted off the sideline. Then the bleachers emptied, and more than a thousand fans swarmed the field, celebrating the biggest moment in Hopatcong football history at that point.

Hopatcong will honor the 2001 North 1, Group 2 championship team that rallied to beat Mahwah, 36-35, for the borough's first state title before its matchup with Boonton on Friday night. And Holick—alongside about 20 other former teammates—will walk back onto the field and stand before the fans.

"It will probably bring back some memories," Holick said.

There were plenty.

Like the 21-point deficit and the halftime regrouping. And the tipped-pass touchdown. And the 68-yard drive.

And the kick.

"It was a storybook ending," Athletic Director Tom Vara said. "It was like something out of a movie."

Its filming started months before.

'He brought the football player out of me'

Todd Van Orden had left Hopatcong to take over as athletic director at Wallkill Valley Regional High School. Enter: head coach Paul Reduzzi, who had led Belvidere High School to a state title.

It didn't take long for Reduzzi to learn he had a special squad. In the summer, the Chiefs finished as runners-up at a prestigious Rutgers University seven-on-seven tournament.

"That gave him an idea of what we were capable of," said quarterback Jerry Venturino, who's now Hopatcong's offensive coordinator.

And soon Reduzzi's players knew what he was about.

Brenton Runne—a senior lineman in 2001—still remembers when Reduzzi "brought the football player out of me." Runne drew a penalty after pinning down an offensive lineman who kept hitting him after the whistle. When he walked back to the sideline, Runne was sure Reduzzi would tear into him. Instead, the head coach told his player: "I like that mean streak. Keep it up."

"I think you need a little bit of that tough streak in you to push you along and help realize that potential," Runne said.

But there were other moments, too. An undermanned Hopatcong squad suffered an early-season loss to High Point as several key players were suspended. Most players expected punishment during the following Monday's practice for their poor performance that game, Venturino said.

Reduzzi instead took them bowling.

"He's a coach you'd stick up for," Dan McNamara said. "He was a friend off the field. He cares about the students, I think. He had our back since Day 1."

Venturino agreed.

"That took guts," he said, "to know when your team is at a fork in the road and it could either go the right away or the wrong way. That loosened us up."

A neutral home game

Hopatcong finished the regular season 7-2 and reached its third straight playoffs on the strength of its passing attack and tough defense. Two more wins brought the Chiefs to their first state title game, which was originally scheduled for a neutral location.

Kickoff was set for 10 a.m. Saturday at Kean University. But the coaches were allowed to agree on a different neutral site, Venturino said.

Mahwah head coach Jeff Remo wanted a more high school-type environment—a night game, under the lights, with a large crowd—and proposed a 7 p.m. Saturday start. Reduzzi, who also led Hopatcong to a 2005 state crown, didn't want his players to sit an extra day. So Remo agreed to travel to Hopatcong for a 1 p.m. Saturday kickoff, since the Chiefs had the higher seed.

'Not how we wanted to go out'

The home-field advantage didn't exist in the first half.

About 5,000 people—easily a Hopatcong attendance record—watched Mahwah race to a 28-7 lead on a pair of touchdown passes, an interception return and Hopatcong's botched fake punt, which set up another score. And though the Chiefs closed the Thunderbirds' advantage to 13 at halftime, Holick said Hopatcong needed a reawakening.

"We went into that locker room to lick our wounds to to say, 'What the heck are we doing?' Holick said. 'This was not how we wanted to go out."

And they didn't.

The spark

Hopatcong responded in the second half with a 76-yard drive as Venturino (22-for-44; 392 yards; three TD; three INTs) hit Steve Howell with a 4-yard touchdown pass after connecting with wide receivers Todd Blohm and Holick. And late in the third, running back Matt Hill's 3-yard run sliced Mahwah's cushion to 28-26 after Howell (nine catches, 184 yards) made a pair of spectacular grabs during a three-play, 59-yard series.

Then it almost slipped away from the Chiefs.

Venturino's second interception led to a 46-yard Mahwah touchdown drive, sending Hopatcond down 11 points. Venturino tossed his final pick just three plays later with 3:51 remaining.

That's about when "the spark hit," Runne said.

And it came in the form of a bad snap to Mahwah's punter, who fell on the ball at his own 8-yard line with 2:50 to go. Blohm hauled in an improbable touchdown pass the next play as Venturino's tipped throw fell into his hands, making it 35-33.

And though the Thunderbirds recovered the onside kick near midfield, they went three-and-out, punting and giving Hopatcong the ball at its own 13 with 59 seconds on the clock.

Four plays—three passes and an incompletion—later, the game hinged on the leg of a 6-foot, 260-pound lineman-slash-kicker.

The kick

McNamara had already missed an extra point and a 27-yard field goal. Worse, he had just spent the drive in a no-huddle offense, racing upfield to protect his quarterback after each long completion.

"I was out of breath the worst I'd ever been in my life," he said.

But with 11.6 seconds left, Reduzzi had a choice: let Venturino throw it into the end zone or give MacNamara a shot at a 35-yard field goal. He went with McNamara.

The kicker wasn't worried about the distance. The Chiefs were on the right hash and he had boomed 50-plus yard field goals in practice that fall, he said. But McNamara needed a minute to clear his head, so he walked away from the huddle.

The rest was Hopatcong history.

Mike Jacobellis' perfect snap. Venturino's perfect hold. McNamara's kick just sneaking over the uprights' crossbar.

MacNamara said he doesn't remember much about the kick.

"I just ran to midfield and sprinted to be away from everything," he said. "All the action was behind me. Everyone was hugging."

But it wasn't over.

Mahwah's kick returner made things interesting, dashing past a layer of coverage before Holick shoved him out of bounds just after time expired.

"And then it felt like a mob scene," McNamara said. "There were people everywhere I turned. People were high-fiving me. I'll never forget it."