Phil Anastasia: Playoffs diminish long rivalry's luster

Take two teams that are always in the Top 10.

Make them represent schools that are a mile apart, in a town that loves its high school football.

Add a twist in that the coach of one school is a graduate of the other.

Now let them stew, simmer, and square off 50 years in a row on Thanksgiving weekend.

The result should be one of the best rivalries in South Jersey football.

In one sense, that's exactly the case when it comes to Hammonton and St. Joseph, perennial powers who will meet for the 50th time Saturday, on the Wildcats' little field off Wood Avenue in the heart of the Atlantic County town.

But this series is a lot more complicated than that.

When Hammonton coach Pete Lancetta, who played for St. Joseph in the late 1970s, says "this game really doesn't mean anything," he's not being contrary or controversial or contentious.

He's looking at the big picture.

And when St. Joseph coach Paul Sacco says the best thing about the rivalry is that it has "calmed down," in recent years, he's not downplaying the importance of emotion and intensity in the sport.

Things just aren't that simple when it comes to the clash between Hammonton, a Group 3 public school, and St. Joseph, a tiny Catholic school that competes in the Non-Public 1 classification.

"It's taken me a lot of years, maybe 26 or 27 years, to just let things go in one ear and out the other and just concern myself with the game," said Sacco, who has been St. Joseph's coach for 30 seasons.

Sacco says there's a "lot less animosity," associated with the game these days, thanks to a "mutual respect" between the coaching staffs and players.

Lancetta doesn't disagree. He thinks St. Joseph is an "extremely well-coached team" with lots of "quality" players.

St. Joseph is 8-0 and No. 1 in The Inquirer Top 10. Hammonton is 9-1 and No. 7.

Given those records and rankings, this looks like a classic game, a clash of great teams with great fan bases - with the added attractions of history and proximity.

But this isn't a typical crosstown rivalry. St. Joseph might be situated on the corner of Third and Vine Streets in Hammonton, but the school's population is almost entirely comprised of students who live in other towns. It's a Hammonton school by zip code only.

"Less than 7 percent of our students are from Hammonton," said Sacco, who teaches at his alma mater.

The football team reflects that. Almost all of the Wildcats are from towns such as Mays Landing and Galloway, Winslow and Williamstown - so it's not as if these games feature a bunch of Hammonton kids who grew up together and went to different high schools.

Geography aside, these teams operate in different worlds. They used to play in the same division of the Cape-Atlantic League, but that's not the case anymore. And like so many top programs, these teams are geared toward the playoffs, not the Thanksgiving weekend game against the big rival.

"It was much more of a rivalry in the past," Lancetta said. "In my opinion, it really doesn't mean anything. There are no conference ramifications. It has nothing to do with the playoffs. It's just a traditional game - not that that doesn't mean something to a lot of people."

Lancetta said there are "Hammonton diehards," who probably care more about beating St. Joseph than winning the South Jersey Group 3 title. But the coach, his assistants, and his players don't feel that way.

That's the dilemma that the coach is facing on Saturday. His team plays powerful Timber Creek (11-0), the No. 2 team in the rankings, in the South Jersey Group 3 title game on Dec. 3 at Rowan.

Ideally, Lancetta would like to rest a few of his players for that game. At the very least, he'd like to make sure nobody gets hurt, a week before the sectional final, playing in a game that the coach says, "in the grand scheme, doesn't mean anything."

How does he manage that? The coach, his assistants, and his players are fiery competitors. How does he balance the challenge and opportunity represented by this game with his bedrock belief that next week's game is far more important?

St. Joseph is in an odd spot, too. The Wildcats will play Dec. 3 in the Non-Public 1 title game against a St. Mary's of Rutherford team that they beat by 40-0 in last season's state championship game. That game might be 40-0 at halftime this season.

So this game against Hammonton represents perhaps St. Joseph's last chance to flex its muscles against a quality opponent. The Wildcats want to play four full quarters. They haven't done much of that during a season in which they have outscored opponents by 391-16.

St. Joseph wants Hammonton's best shot. But ironically, the better the Wildcats play, the less likely they are to get it.

"Look at what we have coming up and what they have coming up," Lancetta said of the chasm between Timber Creek and St. Mary.

It's a tricky, sticky situation.

And that's typical of a series that's not nearly as simple and old-school as it seems.

Saturday's noon game is the 50th in the rivalry.

The series: Hammonton leads, 26-22-1

The records: Hammonton, 9-1; St. Joseph, 8-0.

The rankings: Hammonton, No. 7 in The Inquirer Top 10; St. Joseph, No. 1.

The parity: Since 1991, each team has won 10 times.

First game: Hammonton won, 27-0, in 1962.

Last year: St. Joseph won, 28-8.

- Phil AnastasiaEndText