By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
Ask John DiBattisto why the Hilton Cadets are able to come up big when it matters most on the football field and he doesn’t hesitate with an answer.
“Just being tough,” the senior two-way starter said. “Hilton tough, no excuses. Being Hilton football is straight toughness. We are the toughest team in Section V, that’s our name.”
Pretty powerful words. But DiBattisto had no difficulty backing them up on Friday night.
Despite playing with what he said is a case of pneumonia, DiBattisto rushed for 120 yards and two touchdowns and made the clinching interception in the final minute as the Cadets edged visiting Rush-Henrietta 21-14 in front of an overflow homecoming crowd at LeBeau Field.
Twice the Royal Comets took the lead. Twice the Cadets tied it. They then mounted the winning drive on their first possession of the second half, marching 55 yards in 10 plays.
The final three yards came on a run by DiBattisto, as he followed the blocks of Braydon Pike and Cooper Streb and powered into the end zone to break the 14-14 tie.
“Head down, get low, run hard,” DiBattisto said.
Hilton’s defense then thwarted two drives in Cadets territory in the fourth quarter – the biggest after R-H had first-and-goal from the 9 – and secured the victory on DiBattisto’s interception.
In winning, the Cadets kept pace with McQuaid in the Class AA standings at 3-0, setting up a classic midseason showdown with the Knights at 7 p.m. on Sept. 27 in Hilton.
“We’re rollin’ hard and we want to keep it going,” DiBattisto said.
For Rush-Henrietta (1-2), the loss was yet another heartbreak against a Section V powerhouse, because they once again played well enough to win.
A week ago, they led 37-34 in the fourth quarter against McQuaid before losing 40-37. On Friday, then they moved into Hilton territory four times in the game’s final 25 minutes but couldn’t score. That included twice having first-and-goal at the 9.
“You look at the scoreboard and the score says we’re right there,” Rush-Henrietta coach John Montesano said. “Our guys are playing really hard and I’m super proud of their effort, but that’s two weeks in a row where at the critical moment we’re making mistakes.”
The Royal Comets couldn’t have started the game any better than they did on Friday. They forced a fourth-down fumble by Hilton on the game’s fourth play from scrimmage and, six plays later, went ahead 7-0 when Justin Medina sprinted 10 yards for a touchdown 4:12 into the game.
The Cadets showed no panic, methodically driving 67 yards on 14 plays – 12 of them rushes by DiBattisto – to tie the score. DiBattisto carried the final two yards on the first play of the second quarter.
R-H went back on top with 5:09 remaining in the half. Medina again did the honors on a two-yard carry up the middle. The big play, however, was a 41-yard catch-and-run from quarterback Brendan Mangone to Jahquin Brown.
The Cadets abandoned the ground-and-pound playbook for a little trickery to tie the score a second time.
On third-and-12 at the R-H 22, quarterback Matthew Kosiorek faked a handoff up the middle, then flipped backwards to flanker Tyler Reger, who found Pike in the right corner of the end zone for the touchdown.
The Royal Comets had a chance to regain the lead before halftime but ran out of time after reaching the Hilton 9. They came right back at the Cadets to start the third quarter, driving from their own 25 to the Hilton 30.
That drive also stalled when Julius Johnson intercepted Mangone at the 14 and returned it 31 yards.
“I kept dropping back and when I saw the ball I just attacked,” Johnson said.
The victory was especially sweet for Johnson. His season ended a year ago in the game against R-H because of a serious leg injury.
Hilton used the momentum swing of the thwarted drive and interception to march the other way for the go-ahead touchdown.
The drive began with a lot of DiBattisto – six carries for 32 yards on the first eight plays – and then was capped by his 3-yard run.
“We just need to keep playing the same way, keep doing the same things,” Johnson said.
While Hilton returns to LeBeau for the battle with McQuaid next Friday, Rush-Henrietta returns home to play UPrep at 6 p.m. that same night.
“We have a saying, ‘We don’t want to waste failures,’ so we’ll keep working to get better,” Montesano said.
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