By Scott Stump � Senior Editor
HOLMDEL � One week after allowing Manasquan to rally to tie the game twice before winning in overtime, Barnegat was now staring at an uncomfortably familiar situation against a St. John Vianney team looking to pull out a miraculous win with a furious comeback in the final minutes on Friday night.
After scoring to get within five points following a turnover that gave them the ball at Barnegat�s 12-yard line, the Lancers recovered the ensuing onsides kick and drove it down to the Bengals� 29-yard line with just over a minute left in the game.
�Oh my God, all I could think was that we don�t deserve to have this happen again after last week,�� said Barnegat senior quarterback Brandon Clarke.
The Bengals took the lessons of last week and slammed the door this time, forcing three straight incompletions and then wrapping up a thrilling 31-26 win in the National Division when senior linebacker Mike Riley recorded an interception in the final seconds. With the Lancers looking to turn their first game on their gleaming new artificial turf into an instant classic, Barnegat learned a lot about itself in those final minutes.
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�That last drive as a defense defines our season,�� said senior Erik Smithman, who scored three touchdowns in the first half and had a key pass break-up on defense during that final sequence.
�Last year our defense was a weak point. We might�ve given up the score there (last year), but this year we stopped them and got a crucial turnover to win the game.��
That was a key point emphasized by Bengals head coach Rob Davis following the game � that Barnegat won the game more than St. John Vianney lost it.
�We won, and we deserved to win after last week,�� Davis said. �This is the biggest win in the short history of our program.��
The Bengals� offense could not be stopped all night, rolling up 353 yards of offense as senior running back Bob Fitzpatrick ran for 136 yards and two touchdowns, senior quarterback Brandon Clarke went 10-for-14 for 171 yards and Smithman had a pair of touchdowns receiving and one rushing. |
Barnegat's Erik Smithman (#23) goes high to break up a pass in the final seconds of the Bengals' 31-26 win over St. John Vianney.
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| Fitzpatrick left the game with a right knee injury after he lost a fumble with 2:08 left in the game. He said that he will be undergoing X-rays on Saturday, and had to watch helplessly as St. John Vianney nearly pulled off a shocker.
�It was really scary because you can�t do much from the sidelines,�� said Fitzpatrick, who has 388 yards rushing and six touchdowns in three games. �You�re hoping for your team.��
Smithman gave the Bengals (2-1, 2-1) the lead for good when he snatched a five-yard touchdown pass from Clarke with only a few seconds remaining in the first half for a 19-14 advantage. The scoreboard at St. John Vianney had malfunctioned, so after some confusion over whether there was any time left in the first half, the Bengals were allowed to run two plays from inside the 10-yard line with under 10 seconds left in the half and punched it in.
�Our offense is always our strong point,�� Smithman said. �Most teams we play cannot stop our offense because we fire on all cylinders. Our offense is so dynamic that you can�t stop us.��
�You go into the half with momentum, and everything seems to fall into place,�� Fitzpatrick said.
The Lancers (1-2, 1-2) had come out flying behind freshman quarterback Charles Davis, who ran for 130 of St. John Vianney�s 297 yards on the ground in the game. On the opening drive of the night, Davis started things off with a long kickoff return and then ran for 33 yards on three plays as part of a 10-play, 51-yard drive that culminated with Anthony Corona�s two-yard touchdown run.
�It�s amazing that kid (Davis) is only a freshman,�� Smithman said. �I can�t imagine what he�s going to be like when he�s a senior. We just had to gang tackle him.��
Before the Lancers� crowd could really get into it, Barnegat immediately responded with an effortless five-play, 61-yard scoring drive to tie the game at seven. Fitzpatrick ripped off a 25-yard run on the Bengals� first play from scrimmage and then Clarke found dangerous wideout Dan Cintron for a 32-yard gain to put the Lancers on their heels. Clarke finished the drive by hitting Smithman for a six-yard touchdown pass.
�If they were to get up with the momentum and them playing for the (new) field, they definitely could�ve put it on us,�� Fitzpatrick said about the importance of responding to that first touchdown.
The Bengals, who only punted once all night, grabbed a 13-7 lead by scoring on their second possession with an impressive 11-play, 94-yard drive. Clarke was picking on St. John Vianney�s cornerbacks with fades down the sidelines to his speedy wideouts, Cintron and Ricky Ferguson, loosening up the line of scrimmage for Fitzpatrick and Smithman to go to work. Cintron hauled in a 22-yard pass on the drive and Ferguson had a 24-yard catch that set up Smithman�s one-yard touchdown run with 8:23 left in the first half.
St. John Vianney punched back by engineering its own 11-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a five-yard touchdown run by fullback Richard Esdaile and gave the Lancers a 14-13 advantage with 3:15 left in the half. Once again, Barnegat responded, mounting a 10-play, 85-yard drive, highlighted by a 29-yard reception by Smithman, who caught the go-ahead touchdown pass only seconds before halftime. Smithman finished with five catches for 78 yards in the game.
Barnegat did a good job of removing the crowd early in the second half when Fitzpatrick bolted off the right side on the first play from scrimmage for a 67-yard touchdown run to give the Bengals a 25-14 lead.
�Brandon (Clarke) called it,�� Fitzpatrick said. �He�s like, �I�m giving you the ball and you�re going for a touchdown.� He called it right off the bat from the sideline.��
Senior linebacker Jon Rogers recovered a fumble to thwart St. John Vianney�s ensuing drive before the Lancers later took advantage of a miscue on a punt to hit punter Chris Stanton for a 21-yard loss that gave them the ball at Barnegat�s 38-yard line.
Seven plays later, junior running back Chris Mayo plowed in from three yards out for the first of his two touchdown runs on the night to cut Barnegat�s lead to 25-20 early in the fourth quarter. Yet again, the Bengals� offense came roaring right back, as Smithman took a quick pass from Clarke, reversed fields and ran 32 yards to power a three-play, 70-yard drive that concluded with Fitzpatrick�s 13-yard touchdown run.
Things got a little bit hairy for the visitors from there, as they appeared to be in control after senior cornerback Andrew Villez recovered a Lancers fumble at Barnegat�s 9-yard line with just under four minutes left in the game. However, a fumble by Fitzpatrick gave St. John Vianney new life and the ball at Barnegat�s 12-yard line, leading to a three-yard touchdown run by Mayo that sliced the lead to five points with 1:28 left in the game.
St. John Vianney senior Mike Reese then had the home crowd in a frenzy when he recovered the ensuing onsides kick at Barnegat�s 41-yard line. After a pair of runs by Davis pushed the ball down to the Bengals� 29-yard line, the Lancers inserted quarterback Joe Carlucci, who is more of a throwing quarterback then Davis. Carlucci threw three incompletions before Riley finally let the Bengals exhale when he stepped in front of a pass along the Lancers� sideline to wrap up the victory.
The win helped ease the sting of a 27-21 overtime loss to Manasquan last week in which the Bengals led 14-0 and 21-14 before letting it get away. Now they are still right in the thick of the National Division race.
�(The win) says we have character,�� Smithman said. �This week we came back and used all the hurt from last week and put it on the field. This helped me feel a lot better. Last week I was really hurting after that loss. I think this gets us back up on our feet ready to win the rest of our season.��
E-mail: stump@digitalsports.com
Box score
Barnegat 31, St. John Vianney 26
B S
First downs 19 20
Rushes-yards 33-182 53-297
Passing 10-14-0 1-7-1
Passing yards 171 7
Penalties 4-20 10-100
Fumbles-lost 1-1 2-2
Barnegat (2-1, 2-1) 7 12 6 6 � 31
St. John Vianney (1-2, 1-2) 7 7 0 12 � 26
Scoring summary
S: Corona 2-yd run (Grimaldi kick).
B: Smithman 6-yd pass from Clarke (Smithman kick).
B: Smithman 1-yd run (kick failed).
S: Esdaile 5-yd run (Grimaldi kick).
B: Smithman 5-yd pass from Clarke (pass failed).
B: Fitzpatrick 67-yd run (run failed).
S: Mayo 3-yd run (pass failed).
B: Fitzpatrick 13-yd run (kick failed).
S: Mayo 3-yd run (pass failed).
Individual statistics
Rushing � S: Davis 18-130, Corona 8-31, Mayo 15-72, Esdaile 12-64. B: Smithman 11-43, Fitzpatrick 16-136, Clarke 4-17, Frustieri 1-1, Stanton 1-(-21).
Passing � S: Davis 1-2-0 7, Colucci 0-5-1 0. B: Clarke 10-14-0 171.
Receiving � S: Esdaile 1-7. B: Smithman 5-78, Cintron 2-55, Ferguson 2-29, Frustieri 1-9.
Interceptions � B: Riley 1-10. |
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