Grag Tartaglia / NorthJersey.com
BUTLER − The Rock and the North Jersey Interscholastic Conference football trophy have a new address this year.
Butler earned the latter with Friday night’s 21-12 victory over Glen Rock at Hempsted Field in the ninth annual NJIC Tournament final.
The Bulldogs joined the conference in 2018, the program’s 100th season. This year, they became the first team from outside of southern Bergen County to win the championship.
Players carried the crystalline football trophy to the school’s traditional victory-celebration spot – a large, blue-painted rock just outside the stadium fence.
Except, that is also something new.
“They’re doing a lot of construction at the school, so they had to move The Rock down here,” Butler senior Mikey Henehan explained.
That means, at least temporarily, that players and coaches no longer make the two-block procession from Hempsted back to the high school accompanied by the marching band.
“It’s an iconic spot over there by the high school, but it’s great that we still have it,” Henehan said.
“It’ll be back, hopefully when the construction is over,” Bulldogs coach Jason Luciani said, although it was pointed out that his team is unbeaten in NJIC Tournament play with The Rock at its new location.
“I hear a lot of people tell me they like the rock better at the other place, so we’ll see what happens,” Luciani added with a smile.
What it means
Butler improved to 8-0 and all but locked up a top seed in one of the two North Group 1 sectional-playoff brackets. Its defense has not allowed more that two touchdowns in a game and held both Becton (semifinals) and Glen Rock (final) to their lowest scoring outputs of the season.
The Panthers (7-1) did move the ball effectively, rushing for 155 yards and dominating time of possession. They remain in contention for a top seed in North Group 2.
Key plays
The Glen Rock defense did not allow a first down until 3:02 remained in the second quarter. Butler capped its fifth possession of the game with a 50-yard PJ Coffey touchdown run, which gave the home team a 7-3 lead.
Coffey also scored from 50 yards out on the Bulldogs’ opening possession of the third quarter, extending the lead to 14-6 on a reception from quarterback David Smith.
“I’ve been at Butler since 1998 [head coach since 2013], and PJ is the best player since I’ve been here,” Luciani said. “He’s just so good on defense, on offense, running the ball – we didn’t really get a chance to let him throw it tonight, but he can throw it, too.”
Mi-key plays
Henehan helped his team keep the lead and put away the game. After the Panthers pulled within two on Nick Atme’s 4-yard TD pass to Tyler Brassil – their second fourth-down conversion of a 15-play drive – the receiver/cornerback broke up the potential tying two-point conversion.
The Bulldogs held that 14-12 lead until the clock ticked under three minutes, and they faced fourth-and-11 at the Glen Rock 28. Smith found Henehan open in the slot for a 23-yard gain to convert.
“I’d like to thank PJ for that, because he saw that they were all keying on him,” Henehan said. “So, we put him on the other side [of the formation], and Max [Reilly] did a great job of clearing out the other corner, so I was able to go down the middle.”
Game balls
► Smith completed 6-of-13 passes for 95 yards and ran 12 times for 65 yards and the icing touchdown… though he had been advised to go down at the 1. “My coach ctold me not to score, but when I see the end zone, I get a little excited,” he admitted.
► Coffey carried eight times for 50 yards and caught three passes for 60. Peyton Kiburz led the Butler defense with 13 tackles and a sack.
► Atme threw for 85 yards and rushed for 96, while Mike Flaccavento made a pair of 37-yard field goals, including one as the first half expired.
They said it
“David, toward the end of the game, I was hoping he would get down… these things happen in championship football. And that is still Glen Rock over there – I don’t know how many state titles, a lot of tradition, tough kids with a lot of pride, coaching staff that has a bunch of experience. So, hats off to them and the type of game that they played, but we knew if we did what we needed to, we’d be fine.” —Luciani
