River Dell wows in overtime win by Darren Cooper of The Record
EAST RUTHERFORD – For David Estevez he wanted to stop the ball carrier, and made a little history.
“Before this I lost seven times…seven times in the championship, this was my eighth time and I finally won,” said Estevez, a River Dell junior quarterback, of his time dating back to youth football.
Even though he’s much better known for his talents on offense, Estevez stepped up in overtime to halt a Northern Valley/Old Tappan running play on fourth down to clinch the Hawks’ 26-20 win in the North 1, Group 3 final at MetLife Stadium on Saturday night.
“David Estevez is the best football player I have ever coached,” said River Dell coach D.J. Nimphius. “And I have coached some really good players. He’s the best. Because he is ultra-competitive and he just takes the whole game to another level. He wants to win.”
There were multiple story lines coming into the game, which turned into an instant classic on a chilly fall night. Nimphius is close friends with Golden Knights defensive coordinator Joe Clause. “We said next year we have to do something so we’re not in the same classification,” said Nimphius.
River Dell was also looking to win its first title since 2007. Nimphius is one of the most respected coaches in North Jersey for his creative offense and ability to get the most out of the talent he has, yet his team had come up short in the playoffs recently.
But instead of forgetting this past, Nimphius – a proud history teacher – embraced it. He told his team about other programs that had struggled to win a title. That message resonated.
“I mean, we just worked hard, our coach comes in every day and would say every year we get here and we just have to finish, he would remind us about the losses every day,” said River Dell senior running back Alec Lanza. “We knew we had to be perfect to beat them.”
The teams traded touchdowns in the first half, then it became a defensive battle in the second. The Golden Knights took a 20-13 lead on a 42-yard punt return by Sal DeBendetto. River Dell answered with a touchdown run by Lanza late in the third quarter.
The game went to overtime. We only needed one extra frame. River Dell got the ball first, and Lanza scored on a three-yard run.
“I told [David], he had been tired and I knew they had been coming at him, so I told him, just give me the ball and I’ll get in there, and I’m not stopping my feet until I get that touchdown,” said Lanza. “It was a dive up the middle, our line blocked it perfectly. I didn’t even get touched.”
“We had gotten a similar look earlier in the game and Dave had gone in for a touchdown,” said Nimphius. “Alec had given me the signal and said, ‘Let’s run this play’ and I said ‘All right’ and Dave gave it to him and he walked in.”
River Dell missed the extra point, however.
Now it was the Golden Knights’ turn. They would finish with 287 yards on the ground, most by quick junior Marquez Antinori.
On fourth-and-two from the Hawks’ 17, it looked like a basic power play. It had worked most of the night, but not this time. Estevez went low and made the play.
“I saw the downs sticks and I saw the line that he had to cross and our whole defense knew and we looked at each other and we said, ‘This is the last play, for some of them, of their lives,’ ” said Estevez. “We stopped him at the line and that was the game.”
“Unbelievable,” said Nimphius. “For a team that ran the ball up and down the field on us, that was a big stop in a big moment, we only needed to make one, and we did.”
Nimphius remembered that the Hawks began their season with an overtime victory in a 7-on-7 competition at West Point. They beat Iona Prep. That was quite an omen. He was positively glowing after the game, relishing the excitement. History is a great thing, and River Dell made some Saturday night.
“You know we have been in the semis or the finals every year for the last 10 years and I think sometimes we don’t get the credit for being the kind of program we are because we don’t have the impressive looking kids, but I am so proud to coach them,” said Nimphius. “The whole community has just been waiting for this. We graduated 19 starters last year, and…wow. Wow.”