Fox Lane holds on to win a thriller at John Jay

Gavin Mammola hauls in what proved to be the winning touchdown for Fox Lane. JIM MACLEAN PHOTOS

By JIM MACLEAN 

big game between big rivals with big plays and a big finish adds up to one exciting night under the lights as John Jay football hosted Fox Lane on Friday, Oct. 9.

By the time of the final whistle, it was Fox Lane celebrating as the Foxes held on for a 20-19 victory over the Wolves, rallying from a 14-0 deficit to pull out the victory and improve to 6-0 on the season. John Jay fell to 3-3 overall, but it wasn’t decided until the final play as the two rivals battled to the end.

For Fox Lane, it came down to three big plays on offense for three big touchdown catches, the final one coming in the fourth quarter as Gavin Mammola leaped high in the end zone to come down with a 19-yard touchdown catch on a pass from quarterback Andrew Rudolph with 8:46 left to play. That gave the Foxes the lead and would prove to be the winning score as Fox Lane closed out the one-point victory.

“I knew I was open, went up and got it and came down with it for the score,” Mammola said of the catch. “We battled back, started a little slow, but we came together and kept fighting and came out on top.”

At the start it was all John Jay. Fox Lane took the opening kickoff and the John Jay defense held the Foxes to a three-and-out forcing a punt. The Wolves took over at the Fox Lane 32-yard line, and on the first play from scrimmage James Tesi took off for a 32-yard touchdown carry and a 7-0 John Jay lead after the PAT from a kick by Jeremy Walerys.

Both teams were forced to punt, but two possessions later John Jay was back in business as quarterback Jonluke Arefieg completed a screen pass to Austin Schneider and he carried it down to the Fox Lane 22-yard line. Ryan Ramirez then carried it in from there for a 14-0 John Jay lead.

However, Fox Lane answered right back. A pair of quick passes from Rudolph to Chase Stonecipher moved the chains for a pair of first downs, and after a pass interference penalty, the Foxes struck with a big play as Rudolph hit Victor Golz for a touchdown pass at the 8:11 mark of the second quarter to make it 14-7 after Owen Heilman converted the PAT kick.

John Jay’s Steven Almstead breaks up a pass intended for Fox Lane’s Emmett Bendish.

Fox Lane then recovered a fumble on the ensuing kick off and the Foxes wasted no time capitalizing on the turnover. Taking over at the John Jay 33-yard line, Rudolph connected with Golz again on third down for a 28-yard touchdown on a leaping catch by Golz to tie the score at 14-14 heading into halftime.

“We were getting a lot of pressure from their blitzes and just hit some soft passes to open it up to hit Victor over the top,” explained Rudolph. “All the credit to Victor — two incredible catches, and Gavin called it, told me he would be open and he was — and made another great catch. A huge win, coming into our rivals’ place, hanging on, came down to the wire and I’m so proud of our guys.”

John Jay took the second half kickoff, but turned it over as Luke Grasso came up with an interception for Fox Lane. However, the John Jay defense stood tall to stop the Foxes as the Wolves took over at their own 30-yard line. Tesi ran for a first down and completed passes to Steven Almstead and Colby Crystal for two more down to the Fox Lane 16-yard line, and the Wolves would take the lead on a 29-yard field goal by Walerys to make it 17-14 with 3:32 left in the third quarter.

That set the stage for the fourth quarter and it was another play on defense that set the stage for Fox Lane as Emmett Bendish came up with an interception and three plays later Rudolph hit Mammola for the 19-yard TD and a 20-17 lead.

John Jay had one last drive down to the Fox Lane eight-yard line, but instead of trying a game-tying field goal the Wolves went for the win with a fake field goal attempt and the Foxes stopped it and took over at the four-yard line. The Wolves defense came up with the safety with 1:13 left to make it 20-19 with a chance to drive for the win, but the Fox Lane defense closed out the victory.

James Tesi carries for a touchdown on John Jay’s first play from scrimmage.

Both teams were banged up, losing players to injury during the game. Fox Lane came in with just 23 players dressed for the game and lost a couple more, but hung on for the win.

“It was a good game and we came out with the win and I’m proud of them,” Fox Lane coach Drew Giuliano said of his Foxes. “Victor is special and Gavin is just a player and they made big plays. John Jay played tough, that No. 5 (Tesi) is really good, and they did a nice job in the box stopping our run and their coaches did a great job blitzing and getting to our quarterback. Beyond the rivalry, our guys haven’t been in a meaningful game that was on the line, so we were a little tight and started slow, but they kept working and found a way to get it done.”

It was the third tough loss for John Jay, two of them by just one point, and the Wolves will have to cut down on the turnovers and penalties in the final three weeks of the season with the two teams set to meet again at Fox Lane on Oct. 30.

“Credit to Fox Lane, they came out with a good plan and took it to us, they made great plays and won that game,” said John Jay coach Brendan Connolly. “It was a competitive game and the kids fought really hard, but we made a lot of undisciplined mistakes that good teams will force you to make and take advantage of. It was a game where you see how the little details matter and we still have a lot of growth to do and we have to keep building.”