Thursday, December 10, 2009
BY JERRY PERVINICH
EAST RUTHERFORD — Ramsey, led by Zach Donnarumma’s dazzling performance, overwhelmed River Dell, 36-10, to claim the Group 2, Section 1 state championship at Giants Stadium last Thursday night.
The senior running back made his last high school football game a memorable one, rushing for 269 yards on 25 carries and scoring four touchdowns.
“He is a great running back and made plays all night,” said River Dell head coach D.J. Nimphius. “We got beat by the better team. They outplayed us in all three phases of the game.”
“Zach makes it look easy,” said Ramsey head coach Vic Tribuzio. “He’s quick, finds creases, and when he breaks, he’s usually gone. He’s been doing it all year.”
The 5-foot-9, 175-pound Donnarumma credited his teammates for his exceptional performance.
“My line and fullback just opened huge holes, and without them, none of this would have been possible,” he said.
Both teams closed their season with a 10-2 record, with Ramsey winning its first state title since 2002.
As they have done most of the season, the Golden Hawks jumped out to a quick early lead, getting a score on quarterback Garrett Avitabile’s 54-yard touchdown run just 45 seconds into the game. Tom May’s extra-point kick made it 7-0.
After a second-quarter Ramsey drive stalled at the eight-yard line, Dennis Wilson kicked a 25-yard field goal that narrowed the score to 7-3.
It took Donnarumma, who missed all of last season due to a broken ankle which has been surgically repaired, a little while to get started. And once he did, there was no stopping him. He got his first touchdown early in the second quarter on a 14-yard run that gave Ramsey a 10-7 advantage. The score was set up by Brian Bohmert’s fumble recovery on the kickoff following Wilson’s field goal.
River Dell responded promptly, getting a field goal of its own on Dylan Smith’s 30-yarder that knotted the score at 10-10 with 4:08 left in the first half.
Donnarumma ran the ensuing kickoff back 38 yards, and quarterback Kevin Kuruc then directed the Rams on a 61-yard scoring drive in eight plays, capped by Donnarumma’s two-yard touchdown run with 26 seconds remaining, increasing the score to 16-10.
What was expected to be a ball-toting dual between River Dell’s Avitabile, one of North Jersey’s best rushing quarterbacks, and Donnarumma, one of the area’s top running backs, turned out to be no contest.
While the Golden Hawks’ defense got worn out chasing Donnarumma, the Rams’ staunch defense effectively shut down Avitabile and the high powered River Dell offense, which, for the season, averaged 35 points a game.
“We knew if we could lock them down, we’d have a good shot at winning the game, and we did,” said Ramsey senior linebacker Nanni Sakiri, who led the Rams with 18 total tackles.
The usually elusive Avitabile was unable to use his quickness and scrambling ability and was hurried and rushed on his pass attempts. He was limited to just 82 yards rushing and got sacked twice by Ramsey defensive lineman Cory Connell.
“Garrett did not have his best game because of what Ramsey did; they are an outstanding football team,” Nimphius said.
“We just did not execute the way we had to execute to beat these guys,” said the disappointed Avitabile, who was 8-for-21 passing for 34 yards. “We thought we could play better, but it did not go the way we wanted it to go.”
The key to the game, said Ramsey head coach Vic Tribuzio, was stopping Avitabile.
“He’s a phenomenal player,” said Tribuzio. “He can make you miss and make you pay the price, like he did on that first play. But our defense was able to contain him after that.”
River Dell was shut out in the second half and experienced difficulty in converting third-down plays. Meanwhile, Donnarumma kept chugging along, scoring a pair of second-half touchdowns on runs of 46 and 61 yards to put the game out of reach.
Midway through the third quarter, Rams’ wide receiver John Capuano caught a pass from Kuruc and raced 54 yards for a touchdown that made the score 22-10.
River Dell senior linebacker and fullback Tim Trochanowski was disappointed and saddened by the outcome, saying, “We worked hard all year, and then to have it come down to this. They were just better than us.”