Ridgewood 29 Ramapo 17
Ridgewood scored 22 unanswered, third-quarter points to beat Ramapo, 29-17 after trailing 10-0 at halftime. The Maroons held off an attempted Ramapo comeback to walk away victorious with a final touchdown to win, 29-17.
First Quarter: Charlie Wingfield intercepted for Ramapo on the game’s third play to set the Raiders up on the Ridgewood 33. Eight plays later, Wingfield booted a 21-yard field goal to put Ramapo in front, 3-0. After a Ridgewood punt gave Ramapo the ball on their 40, they picked up three consecutive first downs. Quarterback Casey Grusser was involved in all three of them with passes of 14 yards to Michael Ballan and 12 to Sal Livoti sandwiched around a 15-yard run. They scored on a 2-yard run by Liam Heyward to make it 10-0 with 56 seconds remaining in the quarter.
Second Quarter: Ridgewood moved the ball on Hudson Feeney passes to Will Yates for 26 yards and James Nugent for 14. The drive stalled and Ramapo took over on their 35. Gino Gorga immediately ran for 12 yards and Grusser found Wingfield for 11 to get past midfield. A 6-yard pass to Connor Pane advanced the ball to the 16, but Yates intercepted in the end zone for Ridgewood and ran it to the 18. The rest of the quarter had possession ending in punts and Ramapo’s last drive running out of time.
Third Quarter: A Ramapo punt gave Ridgewood the ball on Ramapo’s 45. Nugent ran 27 yards on third down to the 14-yard line and Colin Burns put the Maroons on the board three plays later with a 10-yard touchdown going outside to the right and running through tacklers. Ramapo picked up a first down but had to punt to the 43 of Ridgewood. After penalties moved the ball back to the 33, Burns struck again with a 67-yard run down the right sideline fo put the Maroons in front, 14-10. The momentum had changed and Ridgewood’s defense forced a three-and-out for Ramapo. Ridgewood needed only one play with Burns scoring on a 62-yard run, bouncing off a defender. The Maroons successfully executed a two-point conversion to make it 22-10.
Fourth Quarter: The teams exchanged punts with Livoti returning 21 yards to the Ridgewood 44. Grusser found Livoti for 15 yards on fourth-and-10 for a first down and the Raiders picked up two more for a first-and-goal on the 4. Heyward scored on the following play to make it 22-17 with 6:32 remaining. The next Ramapo possession gave them the ball in Ridgewood territory. It was fourth-and-3 when a Grusser run lost two yards, with Ridgewood taking possession. A punt gave Ramapo one last chance on their 24 with 1:47 remaining. A 4-yard run, an incompletion, and a 4-yard completion made it fourth-and-2 on the 32, and a completion to Pane produced a first down at the 36. Grusser dropped back to pass on the next play, and tried avoiding pressure, but had the ball stripped by John DeVincenzo and lineman Max Caruso picked up the ball and ran 27 yards for a touchdown with 16 seconds left.
Comments:
It was a tale of two halves for Ridgewood: they were flat in the first half and turned things around in the second. Head Coach Torre Watson was not pleased with the first-half performance and did not make many adjustments, but appealed to the players to pick things up and play Ridgewood football. The Maroons rushed for 15 yards in the first half, but Burns obliterated that figure in the third quarter with his three touchdowns accumulating 139 yards, 151 in the half, and 164 for the game. His runs were physical, bouncing off defenders. He told me he was tired of getting stopped and decided to lower his shoulder in the second half and go right through the defenders.
Caruso had a lineman’s dream when he scored the final touchdown. He spoke about his touchdown, saying he thought team when he scooped up the football and headed for the end zone.
From the Ramapo perspective, this was a tough loss. They appeared in control of the game and once Ridgewood fought back, they were not the same. Once they cut their deficit to five points, their next two possessions fell short. Their final possession consumed too much time to gain only 12 yards on their side of the field. They are 0-2: both tough, close losses to good teams and it does not get easier with Old Tappan visiting next week and Passaic Tech two weeks later. They must regroup or they will have the kind of season they are not accustomed to.