Mounties Welcome New Coach With Hail Mary Touchdown Win

It was a quite a way to welcome the new head football coach of Montclair — although he probably wished it could have happened a couple of minutes before.

Montclair's backup quarterback Nate Crutchfield hit Khalif Herbin on a 58-yard Hail Mary touchdown pass with no time left on the clock as the Mounties won its season opener, 27-22, over Union City at Woodman Field.

Crutchfield's pass seemed to be a dying quail as it floated in the air but Herbin, who is the team's starting quarterback, came back to catch it and avoided the tackles while diving in for the touchdown.

"It was a left Hail Mary and I just wanted to throw it as far as I could," said Crutchfield. "I was hit in the ribs just as I was throwing it."

For Crutchfield, he said that they just had practiced the Hail Mary the other day and head coach John Fiore said that they should practice it every Thursday and Friday along with other special circumstances.

"This is just a fantastic feel and it's such a great football community," said Fiore in his first game as Montclair head coach after taking over for Ed Lebida.

With a minute and 15 seconds remaining in the game, Herbin hit Aamad Bush for the pair's second touchdown of the game, this time from 11 yards out. Sophomore kicker Taylor Ullrich kicked the point for a 21-14 Mounties lead.

But Union City running back Dominick Montanez burned the Montclair defense again, this time catching a pass from quarterback Edguardo Ayala for a 42-yard pass that brought the Eagles to the Montclair eight.

Union City running back Steve Lee would go up the middle for an eight-yard touchdown with 10 seconds remaining in the game to trim the Mounties lead to 21-20.

Union City head coach Wilbur Valdez opted to go for the supposed win instead of the tie and Ayala would scamper in for the two-point conversion and put Montclair on its heels — down by one with 10 second left. "We were not lined up right," said Fiore who took the blame for it.

On the following kickoff, Montclair was able to get the ball to their own 42 before heroics sent the ball from the arm of Crutchfield to Herbin.

Despite the last minute touchdown that was given up by the Montclair defense, the Mounties defensive line led by Lateef Pendelton, Sam Parker, Julian Odrick-Pinnx, and Chase Starks limited the Soaring Eagles offense of Ayala and Montanez for the most part in the second half to allow Montclair to come back in the game after being down at halftime, 14-7.

Despite the heroics in the last seconds the Mounties offense for the most part was plagued with penalties and fumbles. "We need to get back to working on all facets of the game," admitted Fiore.

Offensively, it was a balanced game throughout the lineup with Aubrey Lewis III carrying nine times for 48 yards, and Stephaun Marshall carrying the ball 12 times for 57 yards and a two-yard touchdown. For Herbin, he was doing it all over the field. Including the 58-yard touchdown reception, he threw 4-for-5 for 55 yards, two touchdown passes to Bush, and nine carries for 56 yards.

In addition Montclair did lose starting junior running back Aubrey Lewis III to a knee injury in the third quarter. "We are hoping to get him back in the next couple of weeks," said Fiore about Lewis, who was involved in several different aspects of the game like tailback and holder on kicks. "It hurts because he is like four or five combined."

With Lewis out of the game junior Marshall came in and gave Montclair a big boost that helped put the Mounties in position to take their first lead at 21-14. He ran for nine yards to get the ball down to the Union City 11 before Herbin hit Bush for their second touchdown together.

With the victory Montclair takes on another Hudson County school in North Bergen on the road on Saturday night, September 18 at 7 p.m. in an attempt at reaching 2-0 on the season.