Montclair High School had a quality football team again in
1997 (Derived from newspaper articles) Montclair High School had a quality football team again in ’97 but the early season schedule was awesome. “The first three weeks are incredibly tough,” Coach Ed Lebida told the Montclair Times. “St. Joe’s is loaded, Paterson Eastside is very talented and Bergen Catholic is…well, Bergen Catholic.” Loaded St. Joe’s came to Woodman Field for the season opener. The defending parochial Champions came into the game ranked #1 in the Star-Ledger pre-season poll. The Mounties battled valiantly to the end, scoring 40 points, but St. Joe’s was just too strong. The back and forth game has to go down as one of the wildest in Montclair High School gridiron history. The Green Knights were ahead 35-14 late in the third quarter. The Mounties clawed back to within 42-32 with 5:15 left in the final period when Justin Ashe, Montclair’s sophomore tailback, scored on a 7-yd. burst. Then St. Joe’s Ernie Svolto scored again. Then Montclair High School scored on a 13-yd. Billy Roth to David Tyree pass, then again on a 57-yd. fumble return by Nick Wilson. Then Svolto scored his fourth TD of the day, making the score 49-32 with 4:19 remaining in the contest. Then the Mounties scored on a five-play 83-yd. drive finished by QB’s Roth’s 10-yd. TD pass to Tyree and capped off by a Roth to Tyree pass for the two-point conversion. Thus, the final score Knights 49, Montclair 40. Whew! The following Saturday the Mounties scored a confidence-building rout shutting out a good Paterson Eastside team, 42-0, rushing for 382 yards. An injury riddled Anthony Perna scored two TD’s as did Anthony Nesbit. Ashe scored one and so did Roth. It’s difficult to imagine a team scoring 82 points in only two games and only being at 1 & 1. Headlines read “A questionable call crucial in Montclair High School loss.” It happened with 21.5 seconds left in the third quarter. Bergen Catholic was holding a 10-6 lead at is own 26. The fourth down snap sailed over their punter’s head towards the end zone. The BC player scooped up the ball and instead of taking an intentional safety, he chose to force a punt. Under pressure from the Mountie “D,” the ball sailed out of bounds at his own one-yard line, which appeared to give the Mounties a first and goal from the one. Instead, the ref had thrown a flag against Montclair for too many men on the field (12). Coach Lebida knew we had a LEGAL too few (10) and tried to get the ref to count the players but got no response and play resumed. Montclair High School lost, 17-6. Just as Paterson Eastside suffered at the hands of Montclair after the Mounties loss to St. Joe’s, the other Paterson team, Kennedy, became the unknowing victims this time, in a 52-21 rout. Nesbit scored three TD’s, QB, Roth, threw for 175 yards and two TD’s, one to Tyree and the other to Bober. Promising freshman Rikki Cook scored his first varsity TD on a 33-yard run. One local historian said that he believes Cook’s TD is the first varsity TD ever scored by a Mountie freshman. He went on to mention the fact that Brandy Wells tallied on a two-point conversion in 1980, Brandy’s freshman year. Barringer’s woes continue as they’re crushed by the Blue and White again, 477. Ashe scored twice, Nesbit one, Roth threw for two, one to Nick Wilson and one to Cory Bober. The Blue Bears have now lost 33 games in a row. Judging the progress of the other teams in Montclair’s group and section, it was still possible for the Mounties to gain a playoff berth having a 3 & 2 record to date but Montclair now had to face an always-tough Clifton team. At Woodman Field, 273
in pouring rain, the two teams slipped, slid, and sloshed around until the Mustangs emerged victorious 7-6 and Montclair playoff hopes went down the drain with the rainwater. With so much at stake it’s a shame it all had to come down to a questionable ref’s cal. With 36 seconds left to play, Brian Roth scored on a quarterback sneak bringing the Mounties to within one point. On a two-point conversion attempt for the win, Nesbit appeared to get his head and the ball over the goal line but was denied by the ref’s call. An unjust way to lose such an important game especially since the Mounties won the next two games handily and would surely have been competing in the post season for the fourth year in a row. The complete and utter destruction of Ridgewood came next (keeping in the tradition of taking it out on the next opponent) even the cheerleaders scored in an amazing 61-6 Romp. It was the highest point total a Mountie squad had accumulated in a single game since the Bulldogs crushed Columbia 61-0 way back in 1948. The Montclair offense just kept rolling. This time rolling over Passaic 52-8 at home at Woodman. Senior tailback, Nesbit, led a potent ground attack with three TD runs. Sophomore, Justin Ashe, crossed the goal line twice. QB, Roth, scored once on a run and also threw for two, while sophomore Jason Bailey and Freshman, Rikki Cook, tallied one each. The offensive line continues to create scoring opportunities. Led by All-State senior tackle, George Stanley, Maurice Hargrove, Kenneth Lejieks, Mark O’Neill, and Chad Parish creating the holes. At Foley Field in Bloomfield on Thanksgiving Day, the Mounties steamrolled the Bengals in a 40-0 shutout. Senior QB, Roth, ended his High School career by sneaking for one touchdown and throwing a 24-yarder to senior wide-out and AllState candidate David Tyree. Seniors, Perna, Nesbit, and Williams each scored once. Defensively, senior linebacker Cory Bober, one of the best in the county, led a Montclair unit that limited Bloomfield to just two first downs. This ‘97 squad was probably the best football team in our group and section this year but because of a couple of bad calls in both the Clifton and BC games, no one will ever know for sure. It is truly a game of inches. This we do know. The ‘97 Mounties will go down as one of the most prolific offensive units in Montclair High School history, scoring 349 points in a nine-game season. It is the highest point total since the undefeated State Champion squad of 1952 totaled 360.
CAPTAINS
274
CAPTAINS Con’t.
MHS FOOTBALL 97
275
276
277
278
in pouring rain, the two teams slipped, slid, and sloshed around until the Mustangs emerged victorious 7-6 and Montclair playoff hopes went down the drain with the rainwater. With so much at stake it’s a shame it all had to come down to a questionable ref’s cal. With 36 seconds left to play, Brian Roth scored on a quarterback sneak bringing the Mounties to within one point. On a two-point conversion attempt for the win, Nesbit appeared to get his head and the ball over the goal line but was denied by the ref’s call. An unjust way to lose such an important game especially since the Mounties won the next two games handily and would surely have been competing in the post season for the fourth year in a row. The complete and utter destruction of Ridgewood came next (keeping in the tradition of taking it out on the next opponent) even the cheerleaders scored in an amazing 61-6 Romp. It was the highest point total a Mountie squad had accumulated in a single game since the Bulldogs crushed Columbia 61-0 way back in 1948. The Montclair offense just kept rolling. This time rolling over Passaic 52-8 at home at Woodman. Senior tailback, Nesbit, led a potent ground attack with three TD runs. Sophomore, Justin Ashe, crossed the goal line twice. QB, Roth, scored once on a run and also threw for two, while sophomore Jason Bailey and Freshman, Rikki Cook, tallied one each. The offensive line continues to create scoring opportunities. Led by All-State senior tackle, George Stanley, Maurice Hargrove, Kenneth Lejieks, Mark O’Neill, and Chad Parish creating the holes. At Foley Field in Bloomfield on Thanksgiving Day, the Mounties steamrolled the Bengals in a 40-0 shutout. Senior QB, Roth, ended his High School career by sneaking for one touchdown and throwing a 24-yarder to senior wide-out and AllState candidate David Tyree. Seniors, Perna, Nesbit, and Williams each scored once. Defensively, senior linebacker Cory Bober, one of the best in the county, led a Montclair unit that limited Bloomfield to just two first downs. This ‘97 squad was probably the best football team in our group and section this year but because of a couple of bad calls in both the Clifton and BC games, no one will ever know for sure. It is truly a game of inches. This we do know. The ‘97 Mounties will go down as one of the most prolific offensive units in Montclair High School history, scoring 349 points in a nine-game season. It is the highest point total since the undefeated State Champion squad of 1952 totaled 360.
CAPTAINS
274
CAPTAINS Con’t.
MHS FOOTBALL 97
275
276
277
278
