After Passaic beat Pompton Lakes in the first round of the county tournament, they came to Hawthorne High School to play the Bears in a second round match-up. The winner of this game would get to go on to play Kennedy, the number 2 seed, on Saturday the 11 at Kennedy High School.

Right from the tip off, the game was a battle. Neither team could get a strong lead in the first half of the game, and the score at halftime was Hawthorne 26 to Passaic 24. Coming out of halftime Passaic was looking to put the game away and they came out firing. They went on an 8-2 run to start the third, and the Bears had to call a timeout. They got the game back in reach toward the end of the third, with the score being 37-35 Passaic.

The fourth quarter is where all the magic happened for the HHS boys. They outscored Passaic 30-15 in the quarter. 8 of those final points were contributed by Dallas Hoffman at the foul line after 4 Passaic technical fouls following a brawl on the court that had to be separated. After the dust had cleared, Hoffman was at the foul line putting the finishing touches on the Indians.

Dallas finished the game with 25 total points, and Kendale Butler added another 15 points. Ramon Mariano added a big three to put the bears up five in the middle of the fourth quarter as well. When asked about the game Mr. Ward said, “Oh brother. I’m glad we got out of there with a big W. This is one of the biggest wins for Hawthorne Boys Basketball that I have ever seen.”

Congratulations to the boys.