In a thriller, the Waldwick/Midland Park Warriors stunned the Garfield Boilermakers, winning the North Jersey Interscholastic Conference (NJIC) Championship 35-34 in overtime.
Two of the top teams faced off in the 11th conference championship in history Friday night at Garfield High School. Winning this game was no piece of cake for Waldwick/Midland Park as they survived a tough Garfield team that was pressuring them all game. Despite Junior running back Jorheny Rodriguez rushing for nearly 200 yards and four touchdowns, the Warriors finally stopped him in the final play of the game on a two point attempt that would’ve won it for the Boilermakers.
“This is the first one for the program for us,” head coach Dan DiStasi said postgame. The win marks the first NJIC championship for Waldwick/Midland Park. “I’m speechless, I’m amazed, I’m happy, all those adjectives.”
While the 7-1 Warriors have been competitive in recent years, this has been the best season in decades for the 7-1 Boilermakers. As neither team has ever won the NJIC, a first time champion was going to be crowned by default.
Garfield got things started and they got all the way into the red zone thanks to a 32 yard reception caught by Filip Sadowski. Forced into a fourth down deficit, they’d attempt a field goal and miss.
In return, Waldwick/Midland marched down field and scored on a three yard touchdown run from Luciano Mayer. While the Boilermakers could’ve gotten on the board first with at least three points, a mistake led to a 7-0 Warriors lead.
After missing a field goal in their first possession, the Boilermakers redeemed themselves nicely, tying up the score the next time they had the ball. They took up over half the second quarter on the drive and ended it with Jorheny Rodriguez scoring at the goal-line.
Through two quarters it was shaping to be a very balanced matchup. Both teams were playing at an equal pace with neither getting an edge on the other. They’d head into the intermission tied at seven.
What was a fairly quiet first half ended up being the complete opposite of what was to come. It started when Garfield went up multiple scores after a pair of touchdowns were the result of back to back forced three and outs. A 49 run from Rodriguez and a 46 yard reception caught by Yankely Sanchez made it 21-7 half way through the third quarter.
The Warriors looked like a shell of themselves. They came out of the locker room unable to generate anything on offense and their defense was starting to slip. Now down two possessions they found themselves in a pickle.
Despite the slow second half start, they were able to get back within a touchdown, but they couldn’t have done it without some help from the Boilermakers defense. Two roughing the passer penalties gave Waldwick/Midland Park 30 yards of free ground which led to a 15 yard run by quarterback Will Dell’Aglio. While it’ll be forever unknown whether they could’ve scored cleanly, the avoidable mistakes committed by Garfield essentially set up the score for Waldwick/Midland Park.
Following the touchdown the Warriors held the Boilermakers to their first punt of the second half. Once they got the ball back, they went coast to coast, starting from their own three yard line and finishing with a touchdown. With just five and a half minutes left, Aidan Maher took it himself from under center and ran it 18 yards for the score.
Things got dicey during the extra point when the kick by Thomas Del Rey went outside of the uprights. It was the most costly moment thus far as what could’ve been a tie became instead a 21-20 ball game.
A once 14 point lead had shrunk all the way to one and the pressure was on for Garfield. The control they had at the start of the half was fully erased and it was pretty much back to even. Scoring a touchdown was mandatory if they wanted to contain their opponents and try to seal it.
With just three minutes to go, they’d do just that as they looked to their running back Rodriguez, who got loose and broke free from Warrior defenders for a 20 yard score. Rodriguez now had a hat trick and the Boilermakers were up by eight.
Pressure was on for Midland Park/Waldwick who not only needed a touchdown, but a two point conversion in order to tie. They’d start on their own 25 yard line but get pushed back eight yards after Dell’Aglio was sacked. Losing that much yardage put them inside their own 20 with time continuing to tick.
Desperately trying to progress down field, Dell’Aglio threw it to his tight end EJ Cozzupoli who’d get an opening from defenders and take it 42 yards into Garfield Territory. After getting a huge gain they’d continue to make ground all the way to the finish and with five seconds remaining in the game, it was Mayer, who ran it three yards into the endzone. They’d even get the two point conversion when Dell’Aglio, on a play action, took it himself. The comeback was complete. The Warriors were able to overcome a 14 point deficit and the NJIC Championship was headed to overtime, even at 28.
Per NJSIAA regulations, each team starts overtime at the opponents 25 yard line. Waldwick/Midland Park got the ball first and scored. Mayer put up a hat trick of his own on a 1 yard run. They elected to kick the extra point and the Warriors had their first lead since the second quarter.
Garfield responded with points of their own when it was Rodriguez, scoring on the goal-line for a monstrous fourth touchdown. He now had 21 touchdowns on the season and his 192 rushing yards in the game surpassed him over 1300 overall.
Instead of going for the extra point to potentially send it to overtime, the Boilermakers had other plans in mind: to win. This was it, the final play of the game. Garfield was going for two, looking to take the championship. They looked to Rodriguez one final time to finish the job as he had ran all over the defense all night.
But in the end, the Warriors finally stopped him. In the most important play of the season, the defense stood tall, stuffing the running back they had no answers for all night. They prevented the extra two points and went on to win the NJIC, 35-34.
“We jumped that guard pull, I got back there, stopped his feet a little bit, didn’t finish it, but my boys are always there to help me out, swarm them up and finish it right there,” defensive lineman Logan Feehan said. The senior is a key member on the defensive front and was the first to get his hands on Rodriguez before a sea of Warriors followed. “That’s just called fight right down in the goal line. That’s all that it is.”
This game was an ultimate thriller. Two 7-1 teams came into it hungrier than ever and it was the Warriors who came out on top. For Waldwick, this is their first football championship since winning the NJSIAA Group I sectional title in 1988. As for Midland Park, this is their first in the school’s near 70 year existence.
While Garfield’s running back Jorheny Rodriguez dominated with 192 rushing yards and four touchdowns, the Warriors had a running back of their own who put up near equal numbers and did just as much damage. Luciano Mayer was the hero on offense, running for 181 and three scores. The Junior now has nearly 1600 rushing yards and 23 touchdowns on the year.
“I’m just in disbelief,” Mayer said. “I mean, they were a good team. They fought hard. And we went down two touchdowns but this team doesn’t give up and we kept fighting.”
It may have been a heart-breaking loss for the Boilermakers, but their performance can’t go unnoticed. They went head-to-head with arguably the top team in the conference and had them on their toes until the very end. Had they not gotten at least one of the two roughing the passers calls on them in Waldwick/Midland Park’s second touchdown drive, this game could’ve had a very different outcome.
Though Friday night was the NJIC Championship, it didn’t mark the end of the season. In coming weeks the NJSIAA playoffs will begin and both teams will surely be involved. While the future is unknown, it’s certain the two programs will be competitive no matter who they face.
