The Streak

If Butter can blog his high school football, so can I:

And ‘The Streak’ lives on
Monday, September 12, 2005
Steve Tuckerson

The Streak was supposed to end last Friday night.

Under the lights at Father Walter E. Nolan Field, in front of 4,000 fans, with its archrival on the other sideline.

That was the script we had written for Notre Dame.

Because, really, there were no heroes left to save the young Irish from certain doom against Hamilton this time.

Where was E.J. Nemeth, Jay Graber or Joe Giaquinto under center? What about Rich Gunnell, Tiquan Underwood or Dave Nemeth at wide receiver? There wasn’t even a Gary Taylor, Shawn Miller or Andrew Riexinger to take the ball and run the Irish to their 49th-straight win against the rest of the county.

Forget about what the Hornets had returning to their lineup. It was what Notre Dame didn’t seem to have that meant just as much to us.

Where was E.J. Nemeth, Jay Graber or Joe Giaquinto under center? What about Rich Gunnell, Tiquan Underwood or Dave Nemeth at wide receiver? There wasn’t even a Gary Taylor, Shawn Miller or Andrew Riexinger to take the ball and run the Irish to their 49th-straight win against the rest of the county.

OK, so we were wrong. Just like that time in 2001 when Steinert came to town with a vaunted defense and left on the losing end of a 17-0 whitewash.

But that one was easier to figure. The Spartans squandered their best chance to score in the first half, and Taylor’s dynamic 96-yard touchdown run was enough to carry the Irish.

What happened three nights ago, a 21-14 come-from-behind win by head coach Chappy Moore’s squad, still has us shaking our head.

Hamilton head coach Tom Hoglen told us if his team couldn’t run the ball on its first two possessions, it would be a long night for the orange-and-black.

So when they marched to the Irish 9-yard line before missing a field goal, then kept the ball on the ground to go 45 yards for the game’s first touchdown, we thought Notre Dame was in trouble.

(In case you were curious, the Irish didn’t even have a first down until early in the second quarter.)

Then, when Hamilton did something wrong - like a high snap when punter Matt Ristow was standing at the back of his end zone - the visitors caught a break.

Ristow - all 6-foot, 275 pounds of him - leapt and grabbed the ball out of midair with his right arm, then punted it almost to midfield.

Notre Dame tied the score with 2:32 left in the half, showing signs of life on offense for the first time, but Hamilton answered with a three-play, 69-yard drive that ended with Billy Picatagi’s 44-yard touchdown run on an option keeper.

That this-might-be-the-year feeling didn’t last long, though. Senior quarterback Dan Moyer scrambled for 9 yards, hit John McDermott and Marc Bandola with passes, then made his own mad dash into the end zone for a 14-14 tie.

Moyer? McDermott? Bandola? Don’t worry, we also had to look in the program to match the names with the uniform numbers.

The second half was befitting of a heavyweight fight. Both sides made adjustments. Neither could catch the other with a surprising left hook.

Then came third-and-13 early in the fourth quarter and Picatagi launched a pass down the left sideline for Carl Benfante. The running back, after falling to his knees, caught the pass once it deflected off cornerback Shawn Collins.

What in the name of Pierre Odom “stepping out of bounds” was going on?

Another break for Hamilton? At Notre Dame, in the king’s castle, no less?

Five plays later, Hamilton was inside the 10-yard line. This was it, the game-winning touchdown was within reach. The Irish’s dominance over the rest of the Colonial Valley Conference would soon be over, right?

Wrong.

Two Hamilton players went in motion on third down. A pass fell incomplete. A second field goal attempt sailed wide and Notre Dame took over on its own 20.

You can figure out the rest.

Notre Dame puts it all together for one final drive, giving Hamilton another year of heartache and football fans another week to lament “The Streak.”

At least this time the football gods kept us guessing for 48 minutes.

If only the first 48 games of Notre Dame’s dominance were each like that . . .

I was there for the start of the streak my sophomore year, and for, I think, the next 23 games of it

Oh yea, can you tell my local paper has a slight bias against my high school, just slightly worst than the New York Times bias against President Bush.