Ridgewood Loses To Defending National Champion Don Bosco

After destroying Bergen Tech 42-0 in their season opener, the Ridgewood football team was left in serious need of some competition. Well for their second game, they got all that and more; they spent a stormy night in Ramsey taking on last year's consensus national champion, Don Bosco Prep.

The Iron Men finished last season ranked No. 1 by USA Today, MaxPreps, ESPN Rise, Rivals.com and the National Prep Football Poll and came in to the night on a 24 game winning streak.

Make that 25.

Don Bosco (2-0) easily defeated Ridgewood (1-1) 35-14 thanks in part to senior tailback Paul Canevari, who rushed for 153 yards and two touchdowns on only 11 carries.

"Every game we play our goal is to dominate the line of scrimmage on both sides of the field," said the 6'0 220 lbs. Canevari.

"My offensive line did a great job opening holes and I just made sure to keep running downhill."

Don Bosco dominated the first quarter of play by outgaining Ridgewood 99 yards to 1. The lopsided output led to a 14-0 advantage for the Iron Men, with two plays doing most of the damage.

First it was Pittsburg-bound quarterback Gary Nova throwing a 50-yard scoring strike to Pat Donadio. Canevari then made his presence felt with a bruising 39-yard rumble into the end zone.

"Don Bosco is a very talented team," said head coach Chuck Johnson. "They came out and physically beat us at the point of attack and it took awhile for us to really get anything positive going."

Ridgewood eventually got things going in the 3^rd quarter, where they scored on two lengthy touchdown runs.

First it was Jason Canella finding pay dirt from 16 yards out, and then one possession later Blake Feagles cut the Don Bosco lead to 28-14 with the play of the game.

The Maroon's were facing a 4^th and 18 on their own 40 yard line when Feagles came out to punt, or at least that's what everyone thought he was going to do. Instead, the junior took off with the ball eluding a number of would-be tacklers before blazing to the end zone for a 60-yard touchdown run.

Unfortunately for the Maroons, that would be as close as they would get. Don Bosco's coach Greg Toal reinserted his starters, including Canevari, who wasted no time reestablishing his dominance.

In just two plays Canevari ran a total of 61 yards to ice the game for Don Bosco, moving the digits on the scoreboard to 35-14.

Things won't get much easier for the Maroons as they travel to Ramapo next week to take on their Big North rival, who also happens to be the defending North 1 Group 3 state champions.