The Game Day Football from 2000 which was the last year Steinert won at home.
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
Nov. 25: Very rarely can you point to a punt as igniting a comeback.
But Jordan Goodarz is a rare player who can change a game in a lot of ways, which he helped do on Thursday in Steinert’s 14-13 win over Hamilton.
With the Spartans trailing 7-0 and spinning their wheels on offense, Goodarz was punting from his 48-yard line with just over 4 minutes left in the first half. The punt traveled 47 yards, 2 feet and 8 inches, as Hamilton took over at the 4-inch line.
“It was a rugby punt,” Goodarz said. “We just started doing that in practice and we finally got a directional punt that ended up good.”
The Hornets fumbled the snap and although Ryan Hogan recovered, he was fallen on in the endzone for a Steinert safety. The Spartans did not score after receiving the free kick, but went into the lockerroom feeling a little better about themselves.
“Before we got the safety we had no momentum, we didn’t know what to do,” said Jordan Morrison, who was pressed into service at quarterback when Kyle Gankiewicz was injured. “We were really quiet, and once we got that safety it brought us momentum and gave us a spark.”
“I told the kids we need a spark to get us going,” coach Dan Caruso said. “That punt by Jordan Goodarz was the spark.”
Goodarz was outstanding all day, delivering four punts – all over 40 yards – for a 44.3-yard average.
“Obviously Goodarz can kick like crazy,” Caruso said. “He punted the ball very well today.”
His only downer came on a 52-yard field goal attempt, when his plant foot slipped on the wet turf and the kick went into the line. Earlier this year Goodarz hit the crossbar on a 51-yarder, so that was within his range.
“I would have liked to see what happened on the 52-yarder. His foot ended up slipping so it was a Charlie Brown-type situation,” Caruso said, referring to Lucy pulling the ball away from Charlie Brown, sending Charlie on his butt once a year.
REIDGEE LEAVES HIS MARK
Reidgee Dimanche leaps over a Steinert tackler and takes off down the sidelines. Photo by Michael A. Sabo
While Morrison, Steinert’s game MVP, is back for one more year, Hamilton’s MVP Reidgee Dimanche played his final game for the Hornets. That’s sad for Hamilton and sad for high school football fans in general who enjoyed watching Dimanche wreak havoc on both sides of the ball.
“He’s been awesome,” coach Tom Hoglen said. “He’s going to go down as one of the best players of all time in Hamilton West History. We’re losing a lot of good players.”
One of them is Mark Bethea, who missed most of his senior year with an injury, but caught his first touchdown pass of the season against Steinert to give him something nice to look back on during his final football season.
Another is Zach Harding, who lived in the shadow of Dimanche and Dakota Shelton, but was as solid as they come at linebacker and defensive end for three years.
GIVE THANKS FOR J-MO
No one wanted to see Kyle Gankiewicz miss the final three quarters of his career due to a neck injury, but when it happened, the Spartans had faith in his back-up.
Jordan Morrison pushes his way to the end-zone for a touchdown in the 58th Annual Thanksgiving Day Game against Hamilton West. Photo by Michael A. Sabo
Morrison turned in another outstanding Thanksgiving Day performance, rushing for 70 yards and two touchdowns, and making the play of the day when he appeared sacked but continued running on the urging of Caruso to turn a big loss into a first down run on the game-winning drive.
“We have faith in him and the kids have faith in him too,” Caruso said. “There were a couple wide eyes on the sideline, they were worried about Gank and the kids took a little while to get back in the rhythm of the game. But they pulled each other through it, came together and rallied around each other, which I’m proud of them for.”
Morrison’s two touchdowns gave him a Steinert record 21 this season. He scored an amazing 12 TDs in the Spartans season-ending three-game winning streak. The previous record was 19 held by Scott “The Building With Feet” Dickson, who played in the late 1980s.
J-Mo scored 13 TDs on the ground, six on receptions, one on a punt return and one on a kickoff return.
“He’s an athlete,” Goodarz said. “He’s going places.”
NO LOSERS THIS YEAR
Steinert’s win allowed the Spartans to finish at .500 with a 5-5 record. That insured that no Hamilton Township team had a losing record for the first time since 2012.
Nottingham, Hamilton and Steinert finished with a combined mark of 18-13, including a playoff victory. The Spartans had to win their final three to make it happen.
And of course, it gave Steinert its first home Thanksgiving win since 2000 (before Caruso joined the staff) and its first back-to-back wins since 2000-2001.
“It’s crazy,” Goodarz said. “We wanted to end the season .500. We were inspired. We wanted to break the streak. We went out with a bang.”
“Throughout these past few weeks, we talked about it, Morrison said. “We wanted to end the streak, and we did.”
“When we were 2-5, we told the kids that we have to approach it like the last three games are our playoffs,” Caruso said. “They took it to heart, took it seriously and played great football the last three weeks.”
HERE AND THERE
Hamilton now leads the series, 34-23-1 . . . This was just the second time the Thanksgiving game was decided by one point. The first was in 1977 when Steinert rallied from 20-0 deficit to win 21-20 . . . Steinert leads the series in the 2010s, 4-3. Hamilton has won every other decade except for the 50s, when the Spartans won the only game played . . .The Hornets have won 15 of the last 22 meetings, but Steinert has won three of the last four.
