For the last five football games, the Millville High School football team has trailed at the half.
For the fifth straight time, the 13th-ranked Thunderbolts rallied for a victory, none more important than Saturday night’s when they defeated No. 8 Northern Highlands, 18-14, for an NJSIAA/Rothman Orthopaedics Group 4 state championship - the first ever awarded by the state.
“That’s OBG (Orange-and-Blue-Gang) football,” said Millville coach Humberto Ayala. “Millville, we’re resilient. We fight to the end, no matter what. I think I said it before, they believe. They’re so confident, and that makes them dangerous.
“Millville’s a football community. It means a lot to be in this situation and make history.”
Millville won its last two playoff games against Hammonton and Mainland on late drives - it was one play away from defeat in the sectional final against Hammonton - but on Saturday it was the defense that saved the day. Those scores were almost identical - 18-16 against Hammonton and 18-14 over Mainland.
Trailing 14-12 at the half, Millville stopped Northern Highlands on eight possessions in the second half, continuing a trend which saw it not allow a point in the fourth quarter this postseason. The Thunderbolts even needed a last-ditch stop after fumbling the ball back to Northern Highlands on its own 25-yard line with 1:38 to play.
“I was confident (in the defense),” said Ayala. “It wasn’t ideal, though.”
Added linebacker Bricere Hunter, who finished with a team-high seven tackles: “I told everybody we’re going to win this game. Everybody do their part and we’re going to emerge victorious. We all picked our heads up and played as a team and came out with the ‘W.’ We’ve done this for years now, we’re going to come out in the second half and we’re going to pull through.”
Freshman Jayden Jones sacked Northern Highlands QB JR Walley - who relieved starter Nate Johnson early in the game - on fourth down from the 8-yard-line to effectively end the contest. Jones laid flat on his back for a moment, looking up at the Piscataway sky, and let out a sigh of relief.
“A whole bunch of excitement coming out of my body to come out here and do this as a freshman,” said Jones. “I was just in shock. I thought this is crazy, I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life. We just had to go out there and do what we do, all year we’ve been making stops before the end zone. We just had to go out play OBG football, make a stop and go home.”
Saturday’s championship was often ugly and confounding, but beauty was in the eyes of the beholder and that was a Millville team that overcome many issues of its own making.
Millville committed four turnovers in the second half, yet also got a clutch touchdown pass from Jacob Zamot in the third quarter and a blocked field goal attempt in that period by Lotzeir Brooks to take and keep the lead.
Millville (12-2) made history by earning the state’s first crown in that group one year after winning the South/Central Regional Championship in Group 4 and did so in Ayala’s first season as head coach. Northern Highlands (9-4) - which also had a first-year coach in Dave Cord - reached that game in North Jersey last season, but lost to Irvington.
“We struggled early on [this season] because we hadn’t spent a lot of time together,” said Cord. “After the Ridgewood game which was our second loss, we knew we could play with anyone. It has been great to see the group grow. When you have kids who work as hard as ours do, it makes your job really easy.”
Zamot passed for 264 yards and two touchdowns, one each to Brooks and Freddie Lavan III, to finish with a state-leading 3,158 yards for the season, while Brooks hauled in 11 passes for 113 yards to scale 1,000 receiving yards on the year. Brooks also had three tackles out of the secondary to go along with his blocked kick.
Millville moved in front for good, 18-14, when Zamot threw a 2-yard pass to Lavan III with 4:41 remaining in the third quarter to complete a 29-yard drive that began after a punt from the end zone.
The block - in the third quarter - came on a play where he was the only Thunderbolt rushing and kept the Bolts up four, preventing Northern Highlands from trying a game-winning field goal at the end.
“Coach told me to block, I was feeling the block too and that gave us big momentum,” said Brooks.
Millville’s first drive of the half was a promising one thwarted by Matt Boydell’s interception at the 3-yard-line. It seemed then like the Thunderbolts’ rotten luck of the first half had followed them out of the locker room after intermission.
They had one strong drive early in the second quarter compromised by three penalties for 30 yards. That ended at the Northern Highlands 25, though seemed like they’d covered far more ground.
Millville’s final series of the first half was even more painful, a seven-play move that went all the way down to the Northern Highlands’ 1-yard line but suffered because of clock-management issues. But on fourth-and-goal, Zamot suffered a four-yard loss as the half ended.
Zamot passed for 217 yards in the first half by completing a tidy 19-of-24, but Northern Highlands was able to forge a 14-12 lead thanks to the timely passing of Walley and the kicking of junior Daniel Moor. His two placements following Walley TD passes were the difference in those first 24 minutes.
Millville looked like it might be an unstoppable force initially, as it forced a punt on Northern Highlands’ first drive and then zipped downfield 80 yards in 12 plays behind the crisp, accurate passing of Zamot.
He was eight for eight on that first possession for 78 yards, the final 16 to top receiver Lotzeir Brooks for a 6-0 lead. Brooks caught six passes for 50 yards on the drive and finished with 11 catches for 113 yards.
“Coach said at the beginning of the ballgame we had to get the ball in my hands to open up the field,” said Brooks.
The Thunderbolts missed that extra-point attempt, and would again fall short on a pass attempt after closing to within 14-12 on an 8-yard run by senior Tahjeer Brown with 2:32 left in the half. Zamot set that up with a 68-yard connection to Lavan.
That touchdown was a quick response to Walley’s 7-yard scoring pass to senior Luke Saturn for a 14-6 lead with 3:09 to go. The play capped an eight-play, 73-yard drive following a fourth-down stop by Northern Highlands on a fourth-and-three.
Northern Highlands moved in front, 7-6, with a six-play, 60-yard march finished by Walley with a 10-yard pass to junior Danny Smiechowski, who made a fabulous catch behind a defender in the end zone with 10:35 to go in the second quarter.
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Bill Evans covers the West Jersey Football League. He can be reached at bevans@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BEvansSports.
Mike Kinney covers the Big Central Conference and Super Football Conference. He can be reached at mkinney@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikeKinneyHS.
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