11/28/2008 - Back To The Future For Falcons
As you drive up Route 15 north out of Rockaway Township, you are greeted by a sign in the median of the highway that says, “Welcome to Jefferson Township.”
And there used to be another sign right under it with the additional tag line of, “Home of Champions.”
Now I’m not too sure if that second sign still hangs on the highway, but when it did, it listed all the state titles that the Jefferson Falcons had won in football, wrestling, basketball and softball.
I know Ed Levens brought home one of the first sectional titles for the Falcons with his softball teams in the early to mid 1980s, but it was the Falcons football team that had turned the northern Morris County township on its ear in the mid 1980s and served as the first “dynasty” at the school a few years before the wrestling team went on its magical run in the early to mid 1990s.
And it seemed like just a few years after the Falcons won the North 2, Group 2 football crowns in 1986 and 1987 that the sign popped up on Route 15, letting everyone who makes the daily commute from Sussex County that there was something going on in J-town.
Now 21 years later, the Jefferson football team is looking to add to the school’s list of champions as the Falcons (10-1), the No. 3 seed, will take on top-seeded West Essex (11-0) in the North 1, Group 2 final Friday at Rutgers University at 5 p.m.
Jefferson hasn’t won a state title since the Falcons upset undefeated Caldwell back in 1987. The Falcons had a chance in 2002, but lost a heartbreaker to Mount Olive 14-13 in the final on a frigid night in Mount Olive.
The Falcons won their first crown in 1986 with a 26-14 win over Dover behind the efforts of their great running back Mike Bencivenga and quarterback Ted Ciesla. Bencivenga was the first great Jefferson running back and held most of the school records until Mike Marchiano came around in the 1990s.
Ciesla, a superb all-around athlete, played receiver, catching passes from Kevin Erimino before being converted to quarterback for his senior season for the betterment of the team. Ciesla went onto play baseball at Rutgers and played professionally in the Montreal Expos chain.
A great team, that 1986 club was. But, ah, 1987. That was the team that captured the imagination of the town and is still talked about today in reverential terms when you speak to Jefferson fans, and rightfully so, according to then-Jefferson head coach and current Jefferson vice-principal John Cinotti.
“They were just a great bunch of kids,” recalled Cinotti the other day from his office. “They did everything you asked of them and worked extremely hard. They were very unselfish. They had the whole community behind them and the support they got was great. There was just so much school spirit, just like this season.”
So what makes the 1987 team sexier than the champs from the year before? Just ask any Jefferson fan who attended the championship game and you will probably get a better play-by-play description than any newspaper account you could ever dig up.
The 1987 season was unique in several different ways, according to Cinotti. The Falcons did not win the Sussex County Interscholastic League like it had the previous season, losing to Pope John in the regular season.
And coming into the playoffs, the Falcons were certainly not the favorites, even though they were the defending section champs. That distinction was held by Caldwell, which was having a dream season down in Essex County.
The Chiefs were mowing down their opponents by 30 points a game without breaking a sweat with its terrific running attack lead by Spencer Day. It wasn’t a matter of if the Chiefs would win the section, but who they would defeat in order to take home the crown.
Caldwell was ranked in top 10 in the state in many polls and even one poll had the Chiefs No. 1.
The 1987 playoffs in North 2, Group 2 were different in that, according to Cinotti, the teams had to play an extra game because Warren Hills went undefeated and was guaranteed a spot in the bracket, so the section finalists would have to play 12 games.
Back then, only four teams qualified for the playoffs with the bracket expanding to eight in 1998.
Jefferson earned the right to defend its championship by defeating a tough Dover squad again, setting up the date with Caldwell, which will be forever etched in the Jefferson history book.
The game was held at Montclair State University on the turf surface because the field at Caldwell was unplayable, continuing the odd events of 1987 playoff run for the Falcons.
Caldwell took control of the game for the first three quarters and led 17-7, but the Chiefs could never really pull away as Jefferson’s defense did a great job of slowing down the Caldwell attack.
“They had a great team,” said Cinotti of the Chiefs. “They didn’t have a close game all season. I told the kids if we keep it close in the fourth quarter we would have chance. We had played in six really close games that year and won all of them so the kids knew how to win. And when it was 17-7, I knew we had chance.”
Jefferson certainly did. The Falcons cut it to 17-14 and with 46 seconds left Scott Stiansen scored to give the Falcons the game-winner as they posted an improbable 22-17 upset victory to finish the season 11-1.
“It was the most exciting game I was ever involved in,” said Cinotti, who finished his fine career with 87 wins, two SCIL crowns and two state sectional titles before hanging up his whistle in the mid 1990s.
“It was just great for the kids, the coaching staff and the community,” he added. “When I came to Jefferson in 1972, we were a middle of the road team, going 5-4 or 4-5 in the Skyline Conference against those great teams from Butler, Lakeland, DePaul, Sparta, Pequannock and West Milford.”
But a hard-working and talented group of Falcons changed the perception of Jefferson football as a .500 program with two magical seasons. Quarterback John Wunder, who went onto play at the University of South Carolina, along with the Stiansen brothers, Scott and Eric, Dave Busch and Tim Librizzi, who is an assistant at Sparta, will forever be remembered for their thrilling win over Caldwell, which coincidently is playing in the North 2, Group 2 final Friday night at Giants Stadium.
(Just a side note, doesn’t it seem like the Sparta staff is full of former Falcons? Librizzi, Frank Marchiano and Sam Slobodzian are all on coach Pat Shea’s staff and played for Cinotti.)
In fact, a buddy of mine who coaches at Caldwell today told me Busch is an umpire in the men’s softball league in Caldwell and never lets an opportunity pass to remind the former Chiefs who play in the league what the Falcons did some 20-plus years ago.
So what about this year’s edition of the Falcons? Do they have what it takes to win it all? Cinotti thinks so.
“I’ve seen them six or seven times and I like how they play,” said Cinotti. “(Kevin) Murphy is tough and (Gavin) McCarney is a great athlete. They have come a long way the last couple of years and they execute very well.
“They trust each other on the field and they are unselfish,” he added. “They know how to work together and the town is really behind them. It is really nice to see. I think Joe Mattessich and his staff do a great job and have the kids’ best interest at heart.”
Like 1987, this has been a unique year for the Falcons as well. They lost to Pope John like in 1987, but they shared the SCIL crown with PJ and Sparta this season. They are also playing a heavily-favored team from suburban Essex County in West Essex at a local university, but this time, it is at Rutgers.
I think the similarities will continue on Friday night as the Falcons will top the Knights in a barnburner to capture that elusive crown and finish 11-1 just like 21 years ago.
And who knows, maybe Gavin McCarney will eventually get a job umpiring in the Caldwell softball league and he will have the chance to tell his own tale to the folks in Essex County about the 2008 Falcons.
That’s it for now, see you on the sidelines
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