Despite leading the game for three quarters, Park Ridge suffered a 43-26 loss to Hasbrouck Heights on Saturday, Oct. 11. Pictured above, Matt Moreno pulls in a fumble.
The Park Ridge defense tackles Hasbrouck Heights John Cambridge.
Preparing for one of their biggest games of the year, the Park Ridge Owls knew they were going to have to play near flawless football to defeat the Hasbrouck Heights Aviators, who went into the game on Saturday with 16 straight wins and a state championship title. But despite leading the game for three quarters, the Owls were outscored 22 to 0 in the fourth quarter and walked off the field with a disappointing 43-26 loss.
In the first quarter, it was the Owls who put themselves on the scoreboard first with a 5-yard pass from Matt Misley to Kevin Hwang for a touchdown. With a kick by Luis Cardoso for the extra point, Park Ridge took a 7-0 lead. A second touchdown came just minutes later when Hasbrouck Heights fumbled the ball, with Park Ridge recovering deep in Heights territory. Park Ridge turned the Aviator’s miscue into points when Misley completed a 20-yard touchdown pass to Chris Entrup. With about four minutes left in the first quarter, however, the Aviators responded with a 76-yard touchdown pass from Bobby Kistner to Nick Brunetti, and an extra point kicked by Kevin Condal.
The Owls led 14-7 going into the second quarter and increased their lead by six with 10 minutes to go in the half when Matt Moreno scored on a 39-yard pass from Misley. With a little over seven minutes left in the second, Mike Kehrli broke up a touchdown pass by the Aviators to keep them from scoring. But Hasbrouck Heights continued to threaten and Kistner completed a 35-yard touchdown pass to Brunetti to close the lead to 20-14 at the half.
Park Ridge came back after the half determined to score and put the game away and increased their lead to 26-14 with Hwang’s eight-yard pass from Misley.
But a 70-yard kickoff return by the Aviators started to turn the tables. Heights offense took over on a short field and drove to score on a 1-yard run by Shawn Zahn and extra point by Condal. With the lead narrowed to 26-21, Park Ridge’s offense took the field, hoping to steal some momentum away from the Aviators.
Park Ridge wasn’t able to add to their lead, however, and in the fourth quarter, a 94-yard pass from Aviators’ Kistner to Brunetti gave Hasbrouck Heights a 29-26 lead with the successful two-point conversion. Despite Moreno being close on the heals of Kistner as he crossed into the end zone for the touchdown, he was just short of pulling him down. “He [Matt Moreno] wanted to win so badly, like the whole team there,” said Gary Mioli, Park Ridge head coach. “Matt almost got his feet at the 5-yard line. He could easily have given up, but he didn’t.”
Unfortunately for the Owls, their opponents were not done scoring yet. With about eight minutes left in the fourth, Park Ridge was down by three. The Aviators were looking at a third and long play in their own territory with the Owls hoping for a stop to get the ball back with a chance to reclaim the lead. But an unbelievable play by Kistner, who flipped the ball off to a running back as he was being sacked, set up a forth and inches play near midfield. The Aviators went for it and scored on a 58-yard run for a 35-26 lead.
After Hasbrouck Heights intercepted the ball with four minutes left in the game, they scored again with a 14-yard run by Kevin Delcazo and extra point by Condal for the 43-26 final score.
Despite the loss, Mioli commended his team’s effort and the play of Misley, who led the team to several scoring opportunities. “I am very happy with him. I think that he’s done a great job,” said Mioli. “He may have 10 or 11 touchdown passes this season, so from that aspect he’s doing well. He’s thrown for almost 700 yards, and has a completion ratio of 51 percent, which is really good for a quarterback.”
Misley was 13 out of 34 against the Aviators, but he was not alone with his persistence for scoring. “I’ll be honest with you, I was proud of the way the kids played. I feel they played whistle to whistle. Playing a state championship team the way we did, I feel really good with how we played.”
The Owls are preparing now to play Bogota at home on Saturday, Oct. 18 at 1:30 p.m. “You can’t sit and think about it, because you’ve got to regroup and regroup fast to get on with your season goals,” said Mioli.
