BERNARDSVILLE – The season isn’t over yet – a game at Delaware Valley remains – but the tears afterward were understandable as the Bernards High School football team was done in by a case of Home Run Darby on Saturday in Jersey City.
After all the hard offseason work, after winning the first seven games of the season, after posting, to this point, a 14-5 mark over their past two campaigns, the Bernards High School two-year senior starters who comprised a majority of the 2014 squad are going to exit the school with just one title – last year’s conference championship.
Two huge plays by Lincoln High School – one of 91 yards and the other covering 95 – brought the great promise of a special season crashing down at the Caven Point Sports Complex in the North 2, Group 2 quarterfinals. Leading 21-20 following Tyler Baum’s 22-yard scramble with 2:36 left in the third period, the Mountaineers gave up a 95-yard touchdown return to Frank Darby. A 91-yard touchdown pass – also to Darby -- midway through the fourth quarter sealed it and Bernards fell 36-21, losing its second straight game following a 7-0 start.
“It hurts, because as great as we are, we don’t get a mark on the banner this year, which is weird,” Bernards head coach Jon Simoneau said. “But it is what it is. It’s not complicated; it’s blocking and tackling. For the first time this year we struggled with that and they made us pay.”
Simoneau actually went back to a week earlier to find the seeds of the Mountaineer’s playoff demise on Saturday. Bernards twice led Roselle by 14 points in that one on Nov. 8, and a victory would have not only landed the Mountaineers their fourth straight conference title but would likely have earned them at least a five and possibly a four seed and a home game. But Roselle rallied twice and the Mountaineers settled for a six seed and a trip to 7-1 Lincoln instead.
“Yeah, the mistakes we made last week, we paid for them this week by having to come here and play a very good football team,” Simoneau said. “But you only get one shot at it. We were almost there.”
Bernards didn’t flinch when Darby’s 95-yard kickoff return instantly turned a one-point lead into a 28-21 deficit. Instead, the Mountaineers began a long march for the tying score. Starting at its own 30, Bernards picked up four first downs, including its fourth fourth-down conversion of the afternoon, and reached the Lincoln 10 on Baum’s fourth-down keeper.
But the running game, which could never get untracked, left the Mountaineers with a third and eight. Baum hit J.P. Tantleff to the two, but leading rusher Sebastian Sanchez, held in check all day by the speedy Lincoln defense, was stacked up at the one, and a 14-play came up empty and used up six-and-a-half minutes of precious clock in the process. Sanchez managed only 21 yards on 12 carries.
Still, 7:51 remained and if Bernards had kept Lincoln pinned back near its own goal line, it was right in it. But on the third play from the Bernards nine, Zymiere Gordon slung what appeared to be a harmless swing pass into the left flat for Darby. Darby broke not one, not two, but three tackles along the sideline and didn’t stop running until he had motored 91 yards and given the Lions a 36-21 lead following a two-point run.
“They just had a lot of speed and so many guys who could run the ball,” said linebacker Carter Gilpin. “We just couldn’t wrap up or execute today.”
Despite being limited to 84 yards rushing on 23 carries, Bernards remained in it thanks to the arm of quarterback Tyler Baum and the arms of wideouts J.P. Tantleff and Matt Tantleff. J.P. caught eight passes for 108 yards and Matt four for 57. Baum was 18 of 29 for 220 yards.
It was a game of limited possessionsmand few punts. Lincoln essentially had the ball for two series in the first half, scoring on both. After Bernards’ opening drive stalled on downs at the Lion 37, Lincoln marched 63 yards on 12 plays, scoring on a Tyquan Simmons one-yard run. Farrell Tamke and Matt Tantleff stacked up the two-point conversion but Lincoln led 6-0.
The Mountaineers escaped a third-and-16 situation when J.P. Tantleff came back for an underthrown ball for a 28-yard gain to the Lion five on the final play of the first period. Gilpin went off tackle and untouched from five yards and Ryan DeLeon’s kick put Bernards on top 7-6.
Lincoln needed six plays to go 69 yards and reclaim the lead with a 17-yard touchdown pass with 8:45 left in the half. Matt Tantleff’s sack snuffed out another two-point attempt
Despite not being able to get the running game going, Bernards still managed to control the clock and converted two fourth downs and a long third down during a 15-play, 73-yard, 7-minute, 51-second drive that put the Mountaineers back ahead 14-12 with less than a minute to play. That was the score at halftime.
Lincoln, though, took the opening kickoff of the third period and went on a five-and-a-half minute drive, covering 73 yards on 11 plays and scoring on an 11-yard touchdown pass. A two-point run put Lincoln up 20-14. Bernards kept answering. Baum’s fourth-down conversion run kept the drive alive, and on first down from the 22, Baum scrambled down the left sideline and bulled over a Lion near the left pylon. DeLeon’s kick had Bernards back ahead 21-20. It lasted all of 15 seconds, the time it took Darby to race 95 yards with the kickoff, and the Lions led from 2:21 in the third period.
Bernards got out of a second-and-17 hole when Matt Tantleff caught a slant and gained 29 yards to the Lincoln 23, and Baum snuck for a first down to the 10 on fourth and inches. But on fourth and goal from the two, Sanchez was bottled up at the one, and three plays later, Darby all but put it away with his 91-yard catch and run with 6:09 left in the game. The Mountaineers went three and out.
Baum rushed for 42 yards on 15 carries. Bernards finished with 16 first downs, 305 total yards and eight more minutes of possession time than Lincoln. Gordon finished 5 of 7 for 127 yards. Simmons rushed for 125 yards on 20 carries, and the Lions piled up 320 total yards.
“We weren’t able to move the ball consistently down the field,” J.P. Tantleff said. “It broke our momentum. But we kept our heads up and fought through the whole game. It hurts. It was a hard week of practice and we were in it the whole time.”
Bernards heads to Delaware Valley for the season finale on Nov. 28. Del Val won its opening round Central Group 2 playoff game over Spotswood last Saturday and takes on Roselle in the semifinals on Saturday.
“We played our butts off,” Simoneau said. “I feel bad for these guys because of how hard they worked and they don’t get to walk off with a mark on their banner. But we’re not dead. We still have a chance for win no. 8. A chance to beat Del Val, something we’ve never done before. This hurts, but we can’t pack it in.”
