By, Joe Hofmann
How much satisfaction can a football team feel with a single victory? If you’re Hopatcong coach Mark Certo and the Chiefs, there is an easy answer: Plenty!
Hopatcong beat Elmwood Park to begin the 2025 season last week, 10-7.
“That was much needed after last year,” Hopatcong’s Ethan Strack said.
Ah, last year … remember?
The Chiefs had gone the entire 2024 season without winning a single game.
So what does that mean, exactly?
Consider: They practiced every day last year, under the hot, summer sun and through the fall … and were never rewarded with a victory. Not one time. They looked over film. Coaches scouted. They had team meetings. They lifted. They sweated. They game-planned. They prepared.
Countless hours dedicated to football and nothing to show for it.
But this is 2025 and Hopatcong already has a W.
Certo was speechless after the Elmwood Park game, and who could blame him?
His team wasn’t just 0-8 last year, they were ugh-and-8. The Chiefs were blown out repeatedly.
Winless seasons seem to drag on at all levels and in all sports, and that was the case last year at Hopatcong. The Chiefs spent 2024 getting their heads bashed in. Many times, the body language revealed a bruised and battered team with a here-we-go-again look.
But that all changed during a great offseason and preseason.
“We lifted and watched a lot of film,” Strack said. “The hunger to win drove us. We are more focused and driven than last year.”
When Elmwood Park rose up, Hopatcong fought back – a characteristic sorely lacking last year.
There was a lot of ups and downs that went into Hopatcong’s first victory. When you’re used to coming up short all the time, you’re waiting for that other shoe to drop.
But the Chiefs were able to weather everything that came their way.
The first sign that they are better than 2024: They went into halftime still in the game, trailing by only a touchdown. Elmwood Park’s touchdown came on a broken play, so it wasn’t as though the visitors pushed Hopatcong around and all over the field in the first half.
Last year? The Chiefs were often pummeled and done by halftime, if not sooner.
But they were very much in the fight this time. Something was different this year – and they knew it.
“I told them, ‘We have a whole half to play and our identity as a team is not even established yet,’” Certo told his team. “Let’s be a second half team.”
And that is what they did.
Hopatcong kept Elmwood Park off the scoreboard and then went right to work.
In the third quarter, Chief kicker John Dos Reis booted a 30-yard field goal.
Why go for three there? Because Certo has learned his lessons well as a second-year head coach. Two years ago, he was an assistant under Sean Norton. One time, the Chiefs got inside the Teaneck 5 and decided to go for it on fourth down.
“We didn’t get it, and we wound up losing,” Certo said, referring to an 8-7 Hopatcong loss. “Had we kicked the field goal there, we would have won the game.”
Trailing 7-3, Hopatcong got the ball back later in the third quarter and wound up scoring when Certo’s son, Michael (15 for 67 rushing) scored a 29-yard touchdown on fourth-and-2 one minute into the fourth quarter.
Certo saw his son not only get the first down but then he made two Elmwood Park defenders miss on his way to the end zone.
Finally, Hopatcong had a second-half lead.
The Chiefs kept Elmwood Park off the scoreboard for the game’s last 11 minutes, which seemed like an eternity.
The clock, at that point in the game, seemed … to … tick … this … slow.
“Longest 11 minutes of my life,” Certo said with a laugh.
There were Hopatcong heroes all over the place. When you’re a program looking to gain some traction, contributions are needed all over the place and that is what the Chiefs received.
Running back Kiyon Simpson led the Chiefs rushing attack with 70 yards, including a critical first down on a third-and-12 in the second half that kept the ball away from the Bergen County school. Simpson and Mike Certo led a strong running game.
Hopatcong DEs Isaiah Lugo and Kyle Ladomirak were two of the leaders on ‘D.’ When Strack wasn’t blocking well for the Hopatcong runners from his receiver position, he was creating problems for Elmwood Park’s passing game with his pass defense. Strack had an interception.
“We worked so hard in the offseason to get to this point,” Strack said.
With 1:30 left in the game, Mark Certo sensed victory was at hand, when the Chiefs had the ball on a third-and-5. Elmwood Park was out of timeouts – and was overly anxious, as things turned out.
Certo called for Freeze, where Chiefs quarterback Antonio Briggs lines up under center and … the ball is never snapped.
Elmwood Park went for the bait and jumped offsides.
That seemed to set off a minor celebration on the Hopatcong sideline.
Hopatcong took a knee, the clock wound down to 0:00 and then bedlam ensued.
“I knew we’d won,” Certo said, “when (assistant coach) Gary Andolena came over and we shook hands.”
A few moments later, the Chiefs gathered to listen to Certo.
One problem, though: He was so excited that he couldn’t come up with the words to say to them.
“We celebrated,” he said. “I said, ‘Guys, I’ve never won a game. I don’t know what to say.’”
He didn’t need to say anything: His son soon awarded him the game ball, much to the delight of the team.
The ball now sits in Certo’s office. No doubt, he will find a more prominent place for it.
That is another thing he had no experience with.
“The thing I’m most proud of,” he said, “is that, win or lose, the kids kept fighting. I think that is my most proud moment.”
What a difference a year makes.
Last year, Hopatcong played scared and often stopped putting forth a good effort. They shied away from blocks and were … well, soft.
That’s never a good look for a high school football team.
From the outset during training camp in the summer, Certo vowed that they’d be more physical and practice tackling every single solitary day.
Softness would be out. Physicality would be in.
That was Certo’s pledge – except one particular day. There was one practice where the coach got away from his credo. His son Mike would have none of it.
“Dad, you said every day,” Mike Certo said, and then the Chiefs practiced tackling that day.
That desire to hit someone marks one of the major changes from last year, if not the major change. No one shied away from contact against Elmwood Park.
“We made a conscious effort to not go backwards this year,” Mark Certo said. “Last year, guys avoided blocks. Sometimes, we were ready to make tackles and didn’t. We were inexperienced.
“This year, they all had experience. I told them, ‘You’re juniors, let’s make the plays that need to be made.’”
The new-look Chiefs took it from there. 2024 is now in the rearview mirror, getting smaller every day.
