Montclair stuns Riverdale, 55-14

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Riverdale was already in the midst of a very long afternoon last Saturday when Avery Hoffman, one of the Falcons vaunted “trio” took a handoff from quarterback Ryan Rosenzweig on the first play of the second half. It was routine play for the workhorse Hoffman who regularly logs a heavy workload each Saturday.

But this time it was different. As he reached the 29-yard line, Hoffman was caught in a precarious situation, in which one Montclair Kimberly Academy defender hit the Riverdale senior running back high on his back while another clipped Hoffman in the knees. Hoffman immediately went down, and when he stayed down, the medical crew at the game was soon running to his side.
“I was worried when it first happened,” said Hoffman, who along with Rosenzweig and wide receiver Ernie Robertson comprises the Riverdale’s “trio,” of team leaders. “One of their guys jumped on my back and another of their guys came out and took out my knee. I was definitely concerned.”

After several minutes on the ground, and with his concerned teammates kneeling several yards away, Hoffman finally managed to make it off the field and to the sidelines, where medical staff examined his knee further. His day was over, but Riverdale dodged a major bullet when his injury was not nearly as serious as it first appeared.

That little nugget of good news represented the best part of the Falcons’ day, as the game itself was all Montclair Kimberley, as the Cougars from New Jersey scored early and often as they cruised to a 55-14 victory over Riverdale at Frank Bertino Memorial Field on the campus of Riverdale Country School.
The loss evened the Falcons record at 1-1, after their season opening victory over neighborhood rival Horace Mann in the season opener.

“That team was really good. They played amazing,” Hoffman said after the game, while sporting a wrap on his injured right knee. “We had the same mindset. Just believe in ourselves and keep pushing, but in the end it wasn’t enough.”

Trouble from the start

It was a struggle right from the start for the Falcons, as Montclair Kimberley crafted a nine-play, 69-yard drive on the game’s opening possession and capped it with a 23-yard touchdown run by quarterback Ben Yanes for a quick 6-0 lead.

It then took just 18 seconds before the Cougars would strike again.
Riverdale had just taken over following the kickoff and were setting up shop on its own 20-yard line. But on the first play from scrimmage Rosenzweig was forced out of the pocket and threw a pass intended for Robertson. But Montclair’s Carter McNeal stepped in and picked off the pass and returned it 20 yards for a touchdown and just like that Riverdale was sitting in a 14-0 hole.
“We got into a hole fast and unfortunately that seems to be our M.O. for the past two weeks,” Riverdale coach Joe Otero said. The Falcons were also on the short end of a 14-0 deficit against Horace Mann and rallied to win that game. But it was a different story against a strong Montclair team that was relentless, especially in the first half.

Montclair increased its lead to 22-0 later in the first quarter, when sophomore running back John Hatfield barreled in from 20 yards out, before Yanes connected on a 34-yard touchdown pass with receiver Dominic Romeo early in the second quarter for a 28-0 lead.

The Cougars looked unstoppable and there might be a reason for that. Because of differing state rules as to when high school football practices can start, with New Jersey allowing schools to begin in July, Montclair Academy had almost a full month more of practice and scrimmage time under its belt than Riverdale had, and it clearly showed.

“They won our league last year and they are a very, very good football team. We knew that coming in,” Otero said. “Their system in New Jersey is a little different than ours. They start at the end of July, almost four weeks before we do, and that definitely plays a part. They’re playing and practicing four weeks before we are. This was our second game of the year and it was their third, and if you do the math with their scrimmages, it’s their sixth game. So, New Jersey football is a little different than New York football. But they are very talented. We have not beaten MKA since I’ve been here, and I’ve been here four years.”

On the board

Riverdale finally got on the board in the second quarter when Hoffman scored on a 14-yard scoring run down the right sideline with 6:06 to go before halftime. But trailing 28-6 at the half, and losing Hoffman on the first play of the second half, it just was not going to be in the cards for the Falcons on this day.

MKA scored three more times in the third quarter with Trey Wilson scoring on a two-yard run, John Sweetwood adding 19-yard touchdown jaunt and Yanes connecting with Romeo on an 81-yard touchdown pass and the scoreboard read: Montclair 49, Riverdale 6.

Ryu Mondesir put the finishing touches on Montclair’s day with a one-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter before Riverdale finally tallied again with a 47-yard run by backup running back Jeffrey Barrett with 3:00 left to play and the long day in Riverdale was just about over.

Aside from the earlier practice schedule for Montclair, the other factor that weighed against Riverdale was the fact the Falcons were coming off an emotional victory over Horace Mann, and because the game was moved from Saturday to Monday due to the excessive heat, it made for a short week of preparation for the game against Montclair. And you see how that turned out.

“Did the short week hurt? I believe so, absolutely,” Otero said. “We had a short week and we were kind of banged up on Tuesday, you know? First game and guys are sore and you don’t really know what to expect. We had to hold some guys out of practice and you know how it is, you practice the way you play and we had guys banged up so, yeah, the short week kind of affected us.”
Despite the lopsided loss – and his knee injury – Hoffman had nothing but praise for Montclair after the game.

“We came out throwing but they were very prepared. Their defensive backfield was on us, their rush was pretty good. They were prepared for sure,” said Hoffman, who hopes to play Saturday in Riverdale’s next game vs. Rye Neck.
Rosenzweig and the rest of the Falcons were happy Hoffman wasn’t more seriously injured than first thought. But the loss stung, nonetheless.

“When Avery went down I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ We were holding our breath,” Rosenzweig said. “But thankfully we have two or three running backs who were able to step in. We know Avery is not always going to be healthy, especially with the amount of carries he has, so we needed a backup plan and they stepped up. Julian [Garcia-Sanabria] did well and Jeffrey did well and scored a touchdown. But we just couldn’t execute. We couldn’t tackle. We were reaching, arm tackling. We weren’t getting there. They were bigger, they were stronger and they executed better than we did.”

Some coaches might choose to skip the film session after a loss like this but Otero sees it as an opportunity to correct some flaws and right the ship in time for this weekend’s game against Rye Neck.

‘Move forward day’

“I watch everything and we use [the game film] to help them to see what they did wrong and move forward,” Otero said. “Monday is a big move forward day. We’ll work out and we’ll look at some film of our upcoming opponent, which is Rye Neck on Saturday. We’re home again so it’s a great opportunity to bounce back.”

Otero said his Falcons are a resilient bunch and that erasing the nasty taste from the Montclair loss won’t take long. It’s a young team, especially on the crucial offensive line, but Otero thinks this week he’ll learn something about his young team.

“We have a young offensive line which has been a concern of ours for a while,” Otero said. “They did play well, not well enough to win, but well. They’re still learning to a certain extent and getting guys prepared for situations, you can’t do it other than games. But you don’t know what your character is until it’s tested. We were tested here [vs. Montclair Kimberley] and we’ll see what our character is like on Saturday.”

Rosenzweig does not think there will be any problem turning the page on this loss and setting the Falcons’ sights squarely on Rye Neck.

“We can definitely turn the page. This past week we had a short week and now this week we’ll have an actual full week of practice,” Rosenzweig said.

“Everyone’s got a chip on their shoulders. It’s going to be a good game but we’re definitely taking it this week. We’re all going all out this week.”

High School football, Horace Mann, Riverdale Falcons, Sean Brennan

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