NVOT football wins NJSIAA Group 3 State Championship
OLD TAPPAN, N.J. — It may take years, even decades, to fully comprehend and appreciate the first state football title achieved by Northern Valley Old Tappan High School.
Championships of any kind are always special to the sports experience.聽But some聽crowns carry a bold-face, ALL-CAP relevance that goes far beyond final score or聽post-match coronation. There will always be only one Super Bowl I when the聽NFL鈥檚 Green Bay Packers destroyed the AFL鈥檚 Kansas City Chiefs in 1967. So it is聽with the 1972 undefeated Miami Dolphins or the 1980 U.S. Olympic men鈥檚 hockey聽team and 鈥淭he Miracle on Ice.鈥�
Then there is Argentina’s amazing World Cup soccer final victory over France last December that went beyond regulation and overtime before being dramatically resolved in penalty kicks.
And so it will be when one revisits the 2022 first statewide public Group 3 New聽Jersey high-school football playoffs and cherishes what makes Northern Valley聽Old Tappan鈥檚 championship run so memorable.
They won because of who they were and became鈥攁 complete team that not only聽believed in themselves but, week in and week out, delivered decisively. Not聽through luck or fate or false pretenses.
This was a team that had a losing record in the preceding two seasons and then聽burst onto the scene with six consecutive victories that included three shutouts in聽a row.
鈥淲e took it pretty personal that we had two losing records,鈥� Jack Diggins, a senior聽linebacker and running back, recalled. 鈥淲e really wanted to get our team back on聽track.鈥�
In the state semifinal, they handled a West Morris team, 21-6, that had not lost all聽season. In the championship game, they beat another undefeated team (Delsea)聽that had swept 28 of their previous 29 games. And they won from every aspect of聽the game–on the ground and through the air offensively, an unrelenting defense,聽and even special teams en route to a final 12-1 record.
To lose your starting quarterback at halftime of a championship game with a聽painful ankle injury could have been a deflating game changer especially given聽Tommy Caracciolo鈥檚 season-long dominance at the position for the Golden聽Knights. But enter an unheralded sophomore, Alex Orecchio, whose brother had聽played at OT and who found enough confidence and big plays in his passing arm聽(despite earlier injuries during the season) to turn a 14-14 deadlock into a winning聽24-14 margin.
But heroes came in all forms. Consider OT鈥檚 placekicking specialist, Nico聽Ottomanelli. A junior, Nico was a soccer player growing up in Harrington Park聽until he began kicking footballs in a field with his father, Gary, who had been a聽soccer player himself at OT in the 1980s.
Nico鈥檚 route to football gathered steam when he and an older brother carted old聽H-style goalposts from NVOT to their parents鈥� backyard in Old Tappan. Goalpost聽practices over the years paid off in the title game when Nico converted a career-best 46-yard field goal that broke a 14-14 fourth-quarter standoff.
The lead extended when Orecchio found junior wide receiver Ethan Brooks with a聽fourth down, 30-yard TD pass on a pattern that had not worked earlier in the聽game but was worth another down-and-distance long shot.
That teammates trusted Orecchio under such pressure was another indication of聽the relationships forged on the team from the time many players were first聽graders involved with Northern Valley age-group teams like the Eagles and聽Raiders.
鈥淲e have some sort of bond that other schools don鈥檛 have,鈥� Diggins said, of the聽players鈥� faith in Orecchio and each other. 鈥淗e has a tremendous arm and he鈥檚聽accurate. And just having that bond, we all trusted him.鈥�
Brian Dunn has seen various shades of that bond in his 23 years as NVOT鈥檚 head聽coach. Personal comfort zones 鈥渁llow each of them to be themselves,鈥� he says.聽鈥淥nce you鈥檙e able to embrace that, you coordinate that into the team.鈥�
Dunn saw that bond emerge after the team lost its only game, 30-22, to Ramapo聽because, he said, 鈥渨e got full of ourselves that week and it taught us a lesson.鈥�
The lesson, of 鈥渘ot letting each other down,鈥� became a mission for the remainder聽of the season, especially among the 12 seniors on the 42-person roster who had聽endured what Dunn described as 鈥渂attle scars鈥� during their varsity careers. It聽should also be noted that OT鈥檚 roster included one determined female, Sophi聽Espina, a junior wide receiver/defensive back, who will also write a piece of聽gender history as a championship team member.
But the authority, wisdom and instincts that have become Dunn鈥檚 requisites for聽survival and success sometimes may require further inspiration, never more so聽than in an all-or-nothing championship game.
And so it was as Dunn watched Ottomanelli鈥檚 long fourth-quarter field-goal attempt that would break the tense 14-14 deadlock. Initially, the ball seemed to be carrying comfortably on target before Dunn sensed that it was 鈥渂eing squeezed鈥� and could fall short of clearing the goalposts.
At that moment, as he now fondly recalls, he felt as 鈥渁s if something was working聽on our side.鈥� The instinctive feeling, he said, somehow involved Tom Kaechele, as聽if Kaechele was 鈥渂lowing that ball over the goalposts.鈥�
Kaechele had been the active athletic director and supervisor of the physical聽education department at NVOT for nearly 25 years before passing away the聽preceding April at the age of 64.
鈥淲ildest dreams,鈥� Orecchio told Darren Cooper of North Jersey Record after the聽game. 鈥淚t feels like a movie.鈥�
Or divine intervention? The memory will linger long with Dunn and others. A title for the ages.
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