A championship effort not enough for Rockets

Raritan's Brian Kalarjian gets sandwiched by a pair of Weequahic defenders during Sunday's Central JerseyGroup II final at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway. Below, Raritan's Carmen Dente tries to make a tough catch in traffic.

On paper, Raritan didn't match up well with Weequahic.The Indians were the more athletic squad, with a slew of Division I-caliber players on both sides of the ball, while the Rockets were more of a collection of players big on heart rather than stature and athleticism.

Raritan head coach Bob Generelli knew his team would need a near-perfect defensive effort to beat Weequahic on Sunday in the Central Jersey Group II final at Rutgers Stadium, and he very nearly got one, as the Rockets dropped a hard-fought 6-0 contest.

The Indians scored late in the first quarter, when Phillip Smalls, a senior left tackle, pounced on a Adonis Thomas fumble in the end zone, capping an eight-play, 70-yard drive. And while that was all the scoring Weequahic would manage against a Raritan defense putting forth its best performance of the year, it was also all the scoring they would need. The Indian defense was equally impressive, holding the Rockets to just 93 total yards of offense in a game played primarily between the 40-yard lines.

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Before the game, Generelli said his team was simply hoping to get to the fourth quarter close, with a chance to pull off the upset. That's exactly what they did. Unfortunately, they simply weren't able to break the big play they needed down the stretch.

However, as the eighth seed in the bracket, Raritan was a long shot to even get to the finals, despite the fact that they've shown a penchant for playing their best football in the postseason under Generelli

And while losing such a close game was heartbreaking for a team that fully expected to come home champions, the Rockets' coaching staff felt nothing but pride as they led their team to the locker room on Sunday following the game.

This was a team that wasn't expected to get back to the state final by many, but simply refused to lose once the postseason began.

On Sunday, that effort just wasn't quite enough.