There are losses that sting a bit – but then you wake up the next morning and move on.

And there are losses that reach down into your heart and rip it out. Those take awhile to shake off. You wake up the next morning and you still feel crushed.

The Morris Knolls football team suffered the latter Saturday afternoon.

That’s putting it mildly.

This one shattered the Golden Eagles – and it will take a while to recover.

The team lost a wild 35-28 game to Ramapo in an epic North 1, Group 4 championship battle – a crushing blow to the entire Knolls team, from the seniors down to the underclassmen, from the cheerleaders to the ticket takers, from the coaching staff to the fans, and everyone in between.

Knolls was trying to bring home its fifth sectional championship (first since 2005) but fell just short.

Agonizingly short.

And it hurt.

As Ramapo took a knee in the closing seconds and began celebrating on Knolls’ home field, Golden Eagles players stood with their hands on their hips, trying to take it all in.

And when it finally hit them, tears began to flow.

Jayden Koger dropped to his knees near midfield and was comforted by teammate Max Minervini.

That was only the beginning.

One player began to weep, and then another, and another. Before long, many of the team members couldn’t hold back their emotions.

It was almost like a wake, with sad faces, watery eyes and hugs all around.

This is what a heartbroken team looks like.

Most of the Knolls players saw their careers end in brutal fashion.

The outcome was tough to stomach for everyone wearing the Green and Gold.

It was an epic game of can-you-top-this football, with both teams trading great, heroic plays for almost 48 minutes.

And that’s one reason why it was so painful to Knolls.

It was a heavyweight title bout and both offenses – Ramapo with a beautiful blend of running and passing, Knolls with its spread option running game – ruled the afternoon.

For every touchdown drive downfield Ramapo staged, the Golden Eagles answered with six points of their own.

It was a classic whoever-has-the-ball-last-will-win type of game, and Knolls did have the ball on the Ramapo 10 with a fourth-and-1 and just 31 seconds left.

Coach Bryan Gallagher’s team had momentum and it did have the ball last.

The script says that the Golden Eagles should win it then, right?

But that is when Ramapo made a gigantic, fourth-down stop – Braden Macke and Luke Gurba bottled up Knolls running back Bobby Brickner for no gain, actually about 6-8 inches or so shy of the first down – and that pretty much ended the game right then and there.

Knolls’ gallant effort wasn’t enough against one of New Jersey’s true powerhouse programs (14 sectional championships).

“We gave it our all and just came up short,” quarterback Chris Kaiser said.

“The fact that it hurts this bad,” Gallagher told his players afterwards, “is because you did it the right way.”

Gallagher was referring to the team’s daily work ethic leading up to and through the season.

He replaced legendary, 49-year coach Bill Regan and began building toward the 2024 campaign in late January. When he staged the football team’s first weight room workout, attendance was perfect. Same goes for the summer workouts.

The players poured their hearts – their entire lives, really – into the 2024 season. 

It wasn’t for naught, as they went through the rugged SFC-Liberty White undefeated, won two playoff games convincingly, and rolled up 10 straight wins along the way.

But that 11^th win was just out of reach.

Gallagher guiding the team to a state title in his first year back at his alma mater (he was a star running back for Regan before graduating in 1999) and the team winning it all would have been a storybook season.

And there was hope in the closing minute … until a sudden, shocking change to the script.

Gallagher said later, “All year long, we made one more play than the other guy. Today, they did that. It was two really good football teams. They made one more play than we did.”

Both teams made a season’s worth of terrific plays.

Ramapo took a 35-28 lead late in the third quarter by driving downfield and scoring for the fifth time in its first five possessions against a Knolls defense that had bottled up the opposition for most of the year.

The Rams had spent most of the year relying on the right arm of Casey Grusser, who came in with over 2,000 yards passing. But the team out of Franklin Lakes turned to the run with backs Liam Hayward (25 for 123) and Dylan Rosano (22 for 81) taking turns punishing the Knolls defense.

“They surprised us,” Kaiser said, “with the amount of times they ran.” 

The first four times Ramapo drove downfield and scored, the Golden Eagles answered by driving downfield and scoring themselves.

After Grusser hit Sal Livoti for a 12-yard touchdown to make it 7-0, Brickner went in from 5 yards out to knot it at 7-7 with 2:40 left in the first quarter.

Hayward went in from 2 yards out to make it 14-7, only to have the speedy Kaiser (14 for 158, 3 TDs) fly through the secondary for a 50-yard touchdown on a keeper to tie it.

Kaiser responded to Rosano’s 5-yard touchdown by breaking free for a 55-yard touchdown to tie it.

“Chris is a special player,” Gallagher said. “He is as good a quarterback as I have ever had the privilege to coach. When it comes to All-Area or something like that … he doesn’t have the passing numbers … but what he does … he can run, he is a great option guy and he is a leader. He’s All-State.

“Against the schedule we play … he led us all summer. He is a special, special football player.”

Kaiser was disappointed but able to smile a little afterward and laud his O-Line.

“Any success we have as runners is because of the line,” Kaiser said, referring to a wall of blockers that included Michael Harrison, Joshua Savitch, Derek Reinhardt, Dean Cervona, and Payton Ralston, who filled in beautifully for injured standout Brent Berchin, who’d separated his ankle early in the second quarter. 

That group helped keep Knolls in the game against Ramapo’s offensive onslaught.

Rosano plunged in from the 1 to put Ramapo ahead, 28-21, at the end of the first half – only to have Kaiser plow in from the 1 to tie it at 28 with 4:55 left in the third quarter.

Ramapo held up its end of the bargain with Rosano’s 1-yard touchdown, but that is when things took a turn for the worse for Knolls, which drove from its own 4 (the team fumbled the kickoff) down to the Ramapo 32 before fumbling the ball away.

The Golden Eagles finally forced a Ramapo punt and took over on their own 20 with 3:05 left. On third-and-10, Brickner (25 for 162) went 61 yards on a misdirection play to put the ball at the visitors’ 19. Justin Hanson (7 for 89) recovered a poor pitch to make it second-and-12. Kaiser got Knolls back on schedule when he rushed for 7 yards and Ayden Espeut rushed for 4 yards on an end-around.

That set the stage for the fourth-and-1. Season on the line. Sectional championship in the balance. 

But just short of the first down – and the sectional championship trophy.

“It’s a tough lesson,” Gallagher said. “Football is like life. Sometimes you give it all you have and it doesn’t work out.”