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 (Photo by Bill Allen/NJSportAction) caption: |
Quarterback Mitko Shakes Off Early Dizziness To Help PHS Football Stun Notre Dame 20-0
By Bill Alden
Midway through the second quarter last Saturday, Princeton High quarterback John Mitko's head was spinning, forcing him out of the action as the Little Tigers battled visiting Notre Dame.
With PHS deadlocked 0-0 with the powerful Irish, Mitko reluctantly sat on the bench as the training staff tried to figure out what was wrong with him.
Mitko watched as senior star receiver Ben Guervil plucked a floating ball from back-up quarterback Anthony Brown and raced 54 yards to put PHS up by 6-0 at the half.
Fortified by a loaf of bread, some glucose pills, and Gatorade after trainers determined that Mitko's dizziness was caused by a light breakfast, the 5'7 junior quarterback returned to the field with a vengeance in the second half.
Showing that his arm was fine, Mitko hit Guervil with a 66-yard scoring strike down the sideline as PHS stretched its lead to 14-0. Minutes later, junior tailback Alex Henriques broke free for a 74-yard touchdown gallop that put the game out of reach.
By the end of the afternoon, the heads of the Notre Dame players were spinning as they trudged off the field among PHS fans revelling in their team's stunning 20-0 whipping of the Irish.
It was PHS' first win over Notre Dame since November 1980 and it was just the Irish's second loss in CVC play since October 1999.
As he grabbed a bag of crackers from PHS trainer Shannon Koch, Mitko basked in the glow of the win. "It's huge," said a smiling Mitko, reflecting on an afternoon which saw PHS outgain the Irish 336 yards to 191 as it won its third straight game to improve to 3-2.
"We had a bye week last week and we were anxious to play, everybody was ready to go. "The extra week gave us time to plan and to make sure that everybody was ready. We're still bonding with each other. We put a lot of emphasis on this game; we stood up today."
Mitko has certainly stood tall in assuming the unenviable role of replacing star quarterback Vinny Giacalone, now playing on the college level at Carnegie Mellon.
"People doubt me but I just try to go out and do my best," said Mitko, who hit on 5-of-7 passes for 78 yards in the win over the Irish. "Vinny is a good friend of mine; we're really close. He helps me out a lot; he calls me before every game."
While Mitko has developed a rhythm having now thrown for 768 yards this season, he admitted that it took him some time to develop a comfort level.
"In the Ewing game, things were moving fast; I couldn't get comfortable and settle down," recalled Mitko, referring to PHS' season opener. "In the Lawrence game, I was able to drop back. In the Steinert game, we came from behind and the O-line played the best it had all year until today. I was able to sit, wait, and pick who I wanted to throw to. After that, everything felt really comfortable."
An ecstatic PHS head coach Steve Everette was more than comfortable with his team's performance last Saturday. "We've got the No. 1 offense in the county and we showed why we are No. 1," asserted Everette, who ran over to the PHS bleachers at one point late in the game to whip the crowd into a frenzy.
"Our big play capability sure helped us out today. But you know what, I think our defense played an outstanding game. We forced some bad throws, we got some turnovers; we were just very, very physical today."
The talents of Mitko, Guervil, and Henriques added the spice to go with the big hitting.
"We have some dynamic skills players," said Everette, who got three catches for 122 yards from Guervil and 153 yards rushing from Henriques.
"John is a 5'7 quarterback and he's dynamic. Ben is a dynamic receiver. He made some super-huge plays and we just fed off of that. Alex is a dynamic running back. We had another game where we had over 300 yards of total offense; that's something for high school football."
PHS has shown a quick learning curve as it has bounced back from an 0-2 start. "Early in the year, we were really young," said Everette, whose team has now posted two straight shutouts with the win Saturday and its 41-0 romp over Allentown on October 7.
"We had a first-year starter at quarterback and we had other first-year starters on the offensive line. We would make a lot of mistakes. This week, we didn't make those mistakes. We were able to capitalize on their mistakes. When we got in trouble on offense, we held on to the ball and punted and then went and played defense. The quarterback understands that he's not going to make every play."
As Everette soaked up the raucous celebration swirling around him, he noted that PHS needs to make a lot more big plays if it is to have a successful season. "We still have a whole lot of work to do," said Everette, whose team hosts 1-5 Hopewell Valley this Saturday.
"We're just one game over .500 so we have work to do to reach our ultimate goal which is to make the playoffs. This is just one more step. We have a tough road to hoe."
Mitko, for one, was not about to get carried away by the sweet win over the Irish. "For today, we can enjoy this," said Mitko. "After that, we need to get it out of our heads and stop talking about it. We have to get past this game and make sure that we don't come out against Hopewell thinking that we have already beat them. The whole team needs to stay focused."
With a cool-headed leader like Mitko at quarterback, there is every reason to expect that PHS will keep taking care of business.
