1 week Ago
West Essex is certainly no stranger to big games under the tremendous tenure of Chris Benacquista. More often than not, it is West Essex making the plays necessary to come out ahead in tight matchups. Appropriately, it was just that kind of game in which Benacquista was able to make history.
In renewing its rivalry with Hanover Park, West Essex was able to overcome an early 14-0 deficit and made a late goal line stand to force a missed field goal in a 22-21 road win on Friday evening. 10/18 - 7:00 PM Football Final West Essex 22 Hanover Park 21 Benacquista earned his 114th career win, which broke the school record set by his predecessor -- David Drozjock. “I didn’t even think about it until I turned around and saw the poster,” Benacquista said.
“That was a helluva football game. You have to give your hats off to Hanover Park. They’re going to be heard from in Group 2.
It’s the way play football. We battle and battle. We did not panic down 14-0 and knew we had better football in us.
” The game between one of Group 3′s top contenders and one of Group 2′s top contenders lived up to the hype. The loss was Hanover Park’s first of the season. “It means a lot for our team,” senior Anthony Drago said.
“We had a bye week last week, so our coach was able to enlighten us on the history of this rivalry. We know there was a very special man who was involved in both communities. Without him, both schools would not be where they are.
They’re a good team and played hard, but we just made more plays.” The Hornets were driving late with a chance to win the game, but the defense of the Knights stood strong. With Hanover Park having a first-and-goal from the 6, West Essex stopped three consecutive runs by Joey Borello, which forced a 23-yard field goal with 2:08 remaining that was no good.
We’ve had a couple of goal line stands recently,” Benacquista said. “We really dug in. Our defense is really prideful.
Giving up 21 points is kind of unacceptable in the mind of the kids. They don’t like to give up any points, let alone 21 points. We dug in at the end when we needed to.
” An 11-yard run by Nick Sengillo wrapped up the victory. Hanover Park’s offense was on fire early and jumped out to a 14-0 lead, but the veteran West Essex squad was undeterred. On the first play from scrimmage, the Hornets pulled out the tricks as Jack Kovacs took a sweep before passing it to a wide open Darien Iannnacone down the sideline for a 69-yard touchdown.
Following a West Essex punt, Borello hit Iannacone on a slant for a 46-yard touchdown and a 14-0 Hanover Park lead with 2:52 left in the first quarter. West Essex’s offense got jumpstarted on its ensuing possession with Drago breaking a tackle on a curl route and going 36 yards down to the Hanover Park 13. Brady Phillips ended the drive with a one-yard touchdown run to cut the deficit in half.
Vincent Giaquinto got the first West Essex stop on defense before the Knights were able to take the lead. Sengillo broke off an excellent run by making multiple defenders miss out on the edge and scored for a 13-yard touchdown. A Hanover Park offsides penalty gave West Essex a chance to go for two at the one-yard line, and the Knights took advantage with a quarterback sneak by Jake Long.
That two-point conversion to put West Essex up 15-14 ended up being the difference in the game. The Hornets were able to regain the lead before halftime as Borello hit Kovacs on a slant route in man coverage for a 16-yard score as Hanover Park took a 21-15 lead with 58.7 seconds remaining in the second quarter.
The Knights went on a classic West Essex drive to start the third quarter that took nearly half the quarter up. The 10-play drive covered 65 yards and ended with a four-yard score from Phillips to put West Essex up by 22-21, which would hold for the remainder of the game. The West Essex offense is dangerous as always on the ground, but with Long and Drago keeping opponents honest with the threat of big plays in the passing game it has added a whole new element for the Knights.
“Jake is one of my best friends who I hang out with every day,” Drago said. “We’ve developed a lot of chemistry every day at practice. We’ve gotten to know each other more and working on what we like.
” West Essex came into the game ranked second in the North, Group 3 power rankings and will face Morris Knolls in its final game of the regular season. Hanover Park was ranked second in North, Group 2 and will close its regular season with Weequahic. “This is one of the top five games of my life,” Drago said.
“It’s a great atmosphere. I wasn’t too sure when they were driving down on us at the five-yard line, but we all had faith.” RECOMMENDED • nj .
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