Weequahic was leading, 20-7, at halftime. I am told it was 7-7 in the second quarter when they blocked a punt and forced the Mountain Lakes punter into shanking another. Both plays led to Indian touchdowns.
Mountain Lakes came out with the ball in the second half and put together a drive of almost eight minutes and scored on a 14-yard pass from Ben Miniter to Gavin Ananian to cut the deficit to 20-13. The Herd scored again on a 7-yard touchdown by Nico Dunn on the fullback trap, 21-20. The score was set up by a mishandled snap by the Weequahic punter that the Herd recovered on the 22.
Ibrahim Cisse kicked a 25-yard field goal to put Weequahic back in front, 23-21, on a drive that was over six minutes. Mountain Lakes came back, starting with a 29-yard run by Dunn. Two 11-yard runs, one by Miniter and another by Justin Hernando gave the Herd a first-and-goal on the 1. Dunn scored right away and the 2-point pass to Dunn made it 29-23 with 3:25 left. A fourth down pass for Weequahic was broken up and Mountain Lakes ran out the clock.
The second half belonged to Mountain Lakes, scoring three touchdowns and holding Weequahic to a field goal. Their opening drive in the third quarter consumed the clock and they took advantage of Weequahic’s mishandled punt snap to go in front. The Herd had three drives and three touchdowns plus the last one when they ran out the clock.
Weequahic was hurt by the mishandled snap, penalties on their second drive, and were stopped on their last drive. This is a young squad with many starters returning next year and will be contenders. Running back Rashawn Marshall is very good and will be worth watching next year and Cisse the kicker is a weapon.