HERE’S SOME STUFFING
HAMILTON >> The Steinert football team practices the scoop and score almost everyday, so Xavier Roman wasn’t going to miss a chance to get in the end zone.
Roman picked up a wayward lateral and took it 26 yards for a touchdown for one of his three scores and the Spartans beat township rival Hamilton West, 26-0, for a fourth straight Thanksgiving victory.
Steinert (5-5) won its fourth straight game overall and finished with victories in five of its last six games after a rough start to the season.
“We wanted to finish the season at .500 after a bad start,” Spartans coach Dan Caruso said. “The four straight wins (over Hamilton) is nice, but we wanted to take care of business for this season and not worry about the past.”
Caruso’s team did that with a swarming defense. Steinert forced six turnovers (fiver interceptions, one fumble) and limited the Hornets to five first downs and 144 total yards.
“The key was just to do your job,” said Roman, who had one of the five interceptions. “It was a great feeling to get six turnovers.”
Joe Swindasz had two interceptions, while Miles Smith and Thomas McGovern had one each.
“We’ve played great defense all year and we knew if we could get them in a situation where they had to throw the ball, we could maybe get some turnovers,” Caruso said. “You never bank on getting six turnovers, but we’ll certainly take it. We did a great job of taking away the run and making them throw the ball. When the ball is in the air, it’s just as much ours as it is theirs.”
The biggest play was Roman’s scoop and score with 2:24 left in the second quarter that pushed the Steinert lead to 19-0.
“We always practice that because when they throw that it’s going to be live,” the senior Roman said. “My friend (Thomas McGovern) over there made a great hit on (Kevin) Boswell and I was just able to scoop and score it.”
Hamilton coach Tom Hoglen saw the play from a slightly different view.
“We didn’t think it was (a backward pass), but the refs made the call and we got to live with it,” Hoglen said. “We got to put the ball in the end zone. Hats off to the Steinert defense who did a good job today. We got to get better.”
The Hornets (6-4) improved by three wins, but missed the playoffs under the NJSIAA’s controversial playoff format.
Kevin Boswell ran for 97 yards on 18 carries, but a chunk of those came on a 38-yard dash in the second quarter and the two quarterbacks completed as many passes to Steinert as they did their own team (five each).
“We couldn’t get anything going,” Hoglen said. “When you put 10 guys in the box, you got to be able to throw the ball a little bit and we didn’t do it. We know what we have to work on in the offseason. We had a young team this year and we’ll get better.”
Steinert struck on the game’s opening possession when Miles Smith (11 carries, 107 yards) scored from 36 yards out.
Smith the set up the Spartans’ second touchdown when he wasn’t fooled by Hamilton’s attempt at a flea-flicker and intercepted the pass down the field. Roman, who started getting carries as a two-way player near the end of the season, powered in from a yard out to make it 13-0.
Roman iced the game when he took a screen pass from Nick Wright and went 25 yards for a score with 5:51 remaining in the fourth Steinert’s Miles Smith reacts after scoring a touchdown against Hamilton during the first quarter of Thursday’s Thanksgiving game. quarter.
Roman finished with 65 total yards on 16 touches and was given the Richard Fornaro Trophy as Steinert’s Most Valuable Player.
“It’s a great feeling,” Roman said. “I’m happy to win it, but it’s not just me. It was my entire team that really helped me out today.”
Notes: This was the 60th meeting on Thanksgiving between the two schools. Hamilton still leads the alltime series 34-25-1 . ... Senior lineman Dan Ornosky was presented the Bill McEvoy Trophy as Hamilton’s game MVP.
Hamilton (6-4) 0 0 0 0 — 0 Steinert (5-5) 7 12 0 7 — 26
S — Smith 36 run (Riordan kick)
S- Roman 1 run (kick no good)
S- Roman 26 fumble recovery (pass failed)
S- Roman 25 pass from Wright (Riordan kick)