Josh Godosky does it all for Fieldston

The first question posed to Fieldston head football coach Gus Ornstein following the Eagles victory last Saturday was when was the school going to hold its Josh Godosky Bobblehead Day? After yet another outstanding performance by the Eagles’ bruising running back/maniacal tackling machine/punt-blocking/all-everything, multi-purpose threat, it seemed like the obvious question.

“I don’t know about that,” Ornstein said, laughing. “But yeah, he was unreal. Just unreal.”

That’s as good a description as any for the 5-11, 195-pound (he seems bigger) junior running back/linebacker who seemed to take out two weeks of frustration brought on by back-to-back heartbreaking losses on Horace Mann last Saturday in the Eagles 47-14 victory over their neighborhood rivals at Homecoming Day at Fieldston.

“He does so much for us and he’s so good,” Ornstein said. “He’s the kind of kid that it doesn’t matter if he’s getting the ball, if he’s lead blocking, if he’s blocking in protection, if he’s playing defense, he just goes 100 miles an hour no matter what he’s doing. He’s the most unselfish kind of superstar that I’ve been around. He’s amazing.”

Godosky wasted little time getting to work last Saturday as he did most of the heavy lifting on Fieldston’s opening drive which went eight plays covering 64 yards. On the drive Godosky rushed five times, picking up 50 yards in the process before capping the drive with a 20-yard touchdown run for a quick 7-0 Eagles lead.

But Fieldston was just getting started.

After Horace Mann was forced to punt on its first possession, Fieldston’s Nick Gibson returned the kick to the Lions’ 30-yard line before a facemask penalty by Horace Mann moved the ball to the Lions 15. From there Tyler Kemp gave the Eagles a 14-0 lead after his seven-yard run with 5:16 to play in the first quarter. But there was still more to come for Fieldston.

After Pierce O’Hagen intercepted Horace Mann quarterback Ryan Holder on the Lions’ first play after the touchdown, Fieldston quarterback Jesse Cooper-Leary rewarded O’Hagen by connecting with him on a five-yard scoring toss for a 20-0 lead less than nine minutes into the game.

Three touchdowns by three different Eagles, but nothing unusual for this Fieldston team.

“Every single starting offensive player has scored this year in the first four games and I’m not sure that happened at all last year,” Godosky said. “We’re spreading the ball around because we have weapons all over the field. It’s going to be hard to stop us moving forward.”

As it was on their next possession as the Eagles kept up their relentless offensive assault. This time it was Kemp again, showing great hands and blazing speed, who Cooper-Leary connected with on an 89-yard touchdown pass that put the Eagles up 27-0 in front of an appreciative and raucous Homecoming Day crowd.

“We’ve waited about four years to see this from Tyler. We’ve seen flashes of it for the last three years but knowing his physical ability and his speed, his quickness and his talent, we’ve just been waiting for him to put it all together,” Ornstein said. “He’s been great for us defensively but offensively we were waiting for it to click for him and it has finally clicked this year. As a runner his patience has been incredible as well as his ability to explode and his hands have gotten so much better. He’s become such a weapon. That’s two weeks in a row now, last week he had a 76-yard touchdown and today 89-yarder. He’s been amazing for us this year.”

Not to be outdone, Godosky added his second touchdown of the day on the Eagles next possession, going 19 yards for the touchdown and a 33-0 Fieldston lead as he broke several tackles along the way as Lions defenders simply bounced off the beefy back.

“He runs so hard and he hits people so hard, around here in this league you just don’t see people hit people the way he hits people and love contact the way he loves contact,” Ornstein said. “And he is the quietest, most soft-spoken kid you’ll meet. You have to love the way he plays football.”

Bruising contact, stampeding over opponents, smash-mouth football? Yeah, that’s music to Godosky’s ears.

“Yeah that’s fun,” Godosky said. “To be able to take a hit and keep going, that feels good.”

On the Fieldston sideline one teammate was heard saying of Godosky, ‘He’s not human. He’s a robot.”

It was hard to argue with that assessment as Godosky was everywhere Saturday. From his linebacker spot on defense he delivered countless vicious tackles and on special teams he even blocked a punt late in the first half. Ironically that led to the only possession in the first half in which Fieldston failed to score as its drive stalled at the Horace Mann one-yard line.

“I love doing all of it. I’m just happy to help the team out,” Godosky said. “I don’t really care about scoring. I knew coming into this game I had been hearing stuff from Horace Mann players saying, ‘Look out for No. 20.’ (Godosky’s number). So I assumed coming into the game I’d be more of a decoy. But I just do whatever I need to do to help the team. You’ll see me after touchdowns, their nice but I’m not the person who is going to be celebrating. I just go back to the huddle and go on to the next play.”

Godosky’s no-nonsense, blue-collar style is a big hit with his teammates.

“He’s incredible. Not only is he one of the most gifted players on the field but he also has the best work ethic of any kid I’ve ever seen play football,” said Cooper-Leary, who racked up three touchdown passes in the win, including a second to Pierce O’Hagen. “He’s always in the weight room, he’s always running, he’s always doing something. He wakes up at 6 o’clock in the morning and he’s on his exercise bike. He’s honestly an incredible role model for all the kids on the team.”

All in all it was about as dominant a game as the Eagles (4-2) have played all season but Ornstein wasn’t exactly sure what to expect coming into the game after back-to-back soul-crushing losses to division rivals Montclair Kimberley and Hackley.

“Yeah it was tough. We didn’t know what we were going to do after two straight heartbreakers and then a short week because of the holidays so we only practiced twice,” Ornstein said. “So I loved how the kids responded from the get go. Everything they brought from the start of the game was awesome. I don’t think it could have gone any better. I think we played a complete game, I thought our energy was great, I thought our enthusiasm was great. I loved how we got after them on defense and on offense we were making plays. I thought we capitalized on everything.”

It also didn’t hurt that the win came against a Horace Mann team that not only had beaten Fieldston the past two seasons, but also spoiled last year’s Homecoming celebration.

“We’ve lost to Horace Mann two years in a row including our Homecoming last year in overtime so this felt really good. Really good,” Cooper-Leary said.

Yes, last Saturday it was a good day to be an Eagle and an even better day to be Godosky- even if his bobblehead day is not in the works. He’ll just be happy with a win in each of the final three games of the season.

“We just wanted to set the tone but we also didn’t want to come out expecting anything because we had done that the past two years against Horace Mann, saying we were going to roll right over them and we didn’t beat them in those two years,” Godosky said.

Godosky made sure that streak ended last Saturday.