By Mark Simon
D3sports.com

On Saturday afternoon, for the first time since the backyard games of their childhood, J.D. and Keith Ricca will be more than just brothers and best friends. They will be rivals.

CHARTING THE RICCAS

Kevin (Catholic U., 1994-97)

No. 13 Ht. 5-11 Wt. 200 Best performance: 26-for-43, 410 yards, 4 TD in 47-40 loss to Albright, Nov. 16, 1996. Career yards: 9,469 D3football.com photos

J.D. (Hampden-Sydney, 2002-05)

No. 10 Ht. 6-1 Wt. 195 Best performance:27-for-40, 476 yards, 3 TDs to help H-SC past Emory & Henry 54-41, Oct. 11, 2003 Career yards: 7,229

Keith (Catholic U., 2005-)

No. 14 Ht. 6-4 Wt. 200 Best performance:23-for-45, 488 yards, 5 TDs in Catholic's 41-34 win against I-AA La Salle, Oct. 15, 2005 Career yards: 1,998

The Hampden-Sydney Tigers, quarterbacked by senior All-America candidate J.D. come to Washington, D.C., to take on the Catholic Cardinals, helmed primarily by freshman up-and-comer Keith, about 90 minutes from the Ricca family residence in the Maryland suburb of Poolesville. A large contingent of family and friends will be on hand to root on both of them in a matchup that has been anticipated for the last six months.

The Ricca family football lineage dates to their grandfather, Jim Ricca, who was a defensive end in the NFL in the 1950s for the Eagles, Redskins and Lions.

His son, John Ricca was a defensive end in the Canadian Football League and World Football League and coaches high school football at St. John’s at Prospect Hall, where Keith set a number of state passing records. He coached Keith, J.D. and Kevin in high school. John and Therese Ricca, both teachers, have six children, three boys and three girls, all of whom were athletically inclined. Kevin, who came first, was a superstar quarterback at Catholic in the mid-1990s, and also coached his brothers.

Kevin’s impact resonates in his presence as well as his stats. Now 30, Kevin works for a mortgage firm and attends either J.D. or Keith’s game each week. He still has the 21st best single-season quarterback rating in Division III history (it was No. 11 at the time).

“Kevin was one of the all-time great Division III players,” said Catholic U. coach Tom Clark. “He had a great touch and was a terrific scrambler. He left some big shoes to fill.”

A half hour or so before games, Kevin, as part of what would become his routine would go over to the sidelines and play catch with his younger brothers (he’s eight years older than J.D. and 11 older than Keith), who were amazed that their older sibling would pay such attention to them. He would continue to do so, serving as their football mentor to this day.

“Keith and I were always in awe of Kevin,” said J.D., which stands for John David. “We wanted to do everything he did.”

That meant becoming quarterbacks as well (“It was an easy choice,” noted Keith, of the decision to play that position instead of following his dad’s and grandfather’s footsteps on defense). And in this case, that meant becoming really good ones.

The 6-foot-1 J.D., who holds a number of school and Old Dominion Athletic Conference records, has completed 65% of his passes for 2,327 yards (388 per game) and 23 touchdowns this season.

Keith, who at 6-4 was recruited by several Division I programs, has thrown for 1,988 yards and 19 touchdowns this season, splitting time with sophomore John Jacobs in an offense in which the pass/run ratio is 2.5-to-1.

“We compare stats all the time and J.D.’s got me on everything this year,” Keith said, though the gap is small and bragging right are very much up for grabs. “J.D is a great quarterback. He’s more athletic and smarter on the field than me. He can make plays happen and can move more than I do.”

Those comments notwithstanding, the gap between the two and the two teams for which they play, is small.

The Tigers are 4-2, 2-1 in the ODAC after losing to Washington & Lee last Saturday. The Cardinals are 3-3, 1-1 (including a forfeit win for a game they lost to Shenandoah), but have won two of their last three games. Washington & Lee rallied to beat both Catholic and Hampden-Sydney on touchdowns in the final seconds. McDaniel scored with no time left to tie, then beat Catholic in overtime. Hampden-Sydney lost a squeaker to Bridgewater on a late touchdown. Thus, both brothers can share the same lament.

“This has been a decent season, but it could be better,” said J.D. who is “98%” recovered from a thumb injury that cost him much of his junior season, but still became the ODAC’s all-time leader in passing yardage this season. “We’re 4-2 and we’re two or three plays away from being 6-0. That’s football though. Sometimes the breaks don’t go your way.”

“We’re about six seconds from being 4-2 (5-1 with the forfeit),” said Keith, who has helped engineer a turnaround from an 0-10 mark the previous season, which included throwing for 488 of Catholic’s 728 yards in its win last week over Division I-AA La Salle. “Hopefully we’ll just continue to get better.”

Their respective coaches, themselves former colleagues turned rivals, are each proud of what their player has accomplished and wary of what the other might do. Hampden-Sydney coach Marty Favret noted that Keith’s performance last week “really gets your attention.” Clark had plenty of praise for J.D. saying “I’ve never seen a better quarterback on film. I don’t see any weaknesses.”

“J.D. is the best quarterback I’ve ever had,” seconded Favret, who also coached Kevin Ricca as the offensive coordinator under Clark at Catholic. “He’s accurate. He’s slick as a ballhandler and he can throw the deep ball. He plays at a really high level.”

“Keith is a tremendous talent,” said Clark, highlighting the accomplishments of someone who will keep the family name in the sport for this year, plus three more. “He’s a Division I-caliber player. We’re fortunate to have him. He’s a prototype quarterback at 6-foot-4, 200 pounds. He can throw it down the field. Last Saturday he threw one off his back foot, while under pressure, 60 yards. I was optimistic he was going to be this kind of player and it’s been exciting to see him perform that well as a freshman.”

J.D. and Keith both have the same competitive nature. They differ both in how they throw the ball (J.D.’s release point is by his shoulder and he uses his legs to drive for power. Keith throws more over the top, relying on arm strength to get distance) and in how they react after doing so.

“J.D. is extremely calm on the field,” Kevin Ricca said. “Whether it’s the first quarter or fourth quarter, he carries himself the same way. Keith gets a little more excited. You might see him jump around after throwing a touchdown pass, whereas J.D. will just walk off the field.”

That comes from the experience from being a little bit older.

“My dad taught me how to deal with things,” J.D. said. “He always would say that if I made a mistake, there was no use in thinking about it afterwards, to just keep going out and playing the right way. Now I tell Keith, ‘There are going to be lots of ups and downs. Remember that your teammates are always going to be seeing how you react. You just have to keep playing.”

The influence of their mom, Therese, also has been significant. The Ricca boys point out that she taught them to be modest and to be good people, as well as good football players. Therese Ricca knows football too. She won’t break down X’s and O’s but can tell who’s playing well and who isn’t, and won’t hesitate to criticize the Redskins when she watches them on Sunday. 

“Family is more important than football,” Kevin said, “but football has brought us together. My parents have sacrificed so much for us that watching J.D. and Keith play, it’s really their day.”

It’s a day for the whole Ricca family to celebrate. The Ricca sisters are just as intense as the Ricca brothers, hardened by years of those backyard football and wiffle ball games. Jamie, the oldest of the girls was her high school’s first 1,000 point scorer in basketball and had a successful collegiate career at Marymount from 1997 to 2000. Kristi played both softball and basketball at the scholastic level and is now a student at Frostburg State. Jacqui, the youngest, plays lacrosse at Division I Mount St. Mary’s and is considered the most athletic member of the family. J.D. noted, with a laugh, that all of his sisters played soccer at some point and all three had been ejected from games for fighting, something that has never happened to either him or Keith.

“They’re probably tougher than us,” Keith said, with a touch of both humor and praise. “When we played football in the backyard, it was the ‘K’s’ (Kristi, Keith, and Kevin) against the ‘J’s’ (J.D., Jacqui, and Jamie). I was the youngest and the smallest and my sisters took advantage of that. Now, they’re our biggest fans.”

Two hundred friends and family members have already committed to coming to the game, with the possibility that another 200 will join them. Relatives are flying in from places such as South Carolina and California and the hope is that the threat of rain will hold off. The Ricca family has already asked for 60 spaces in the parking lot for what might be Division III’s biggest family tailgate.

It’s going to look kind of odd to have that many fans in the stands cheering for both quarterbacks, but that’s what the scene will be like at DuFour Field. Those who think of that and say “Oh, brother,” would be accurate.

“They’ve been asking my dad who he’s going to root for and he says ‘The offenses,’ ” said Keith. “He’s hoping it’s 60-something to 60-something.”

“I don’t know if there’s ever been a game with that many bipartisan fans,” Kevin said. “To a lot of the guys and girls that are going to be there, J.D. and Keith are like their little brothers too.”

The backyard games of way back when usually ended with one set of siblings in tears as they walked back to the house for dinner. There shouldn’t be any crying this year. J.D. and Keith have agreed afterwards that they’ll hang out together, with some of their football friends on Saturday night.

“And that’s no matter who wins or loses,” Keith said.