Post 1,424 – Bull Session Week Three

I was at the St. Joe’s (Montvale) game against Paramus Catholic last Saturday. I looked forward to the sausage and peppers that Joe’s is well known for. I bought it and it was good, but it was eleven dollars! I thought prices were always cheap at a high school event, but not this time. Next time I head to Joe’s, I will eat beforehand. The game was better in the second half; the first half was bad football with the only positive moment being Lamar Best’s dazzling touchdown run…. Westwood came out to the Dropkick Murphys “The Boys Are Back” and it was excellent. That almost made up for the bad music played during the pregame warmups, although the last song, Motley Crew’s “Kickstart My Heart,” rocked.…. One score I did not see coming was Chatham beating Mount Olive, 31-6. I expected Mount Olive to win that one….One game I would love to see played is Bergen Catholic against Hun. Hun playing someone like St. Joe’s (Montvale), Don Bosco, or DePaul would be good, too….A good game I saw part of on Big State Sports/YouTube was Sussex Tech beating Wallkill Valley, 35-33…..If I lived in South Jersey, I would go to the Millville-Winslow game Friday night….One thing I am an opponent of is replay in football. It never works as intended, takes too long, and doesn’t always solve anything. The NFL rule is to correct an egregious mistake. Most of the time, they are trying to split hairs, determining whether it is or isn’t, and that is not egregious. On television, they also play everything in slow motion, which is not how the official saw it. Let’s compare apples to apples. One of the announcers usually is in heat over the possibility of a call being overturned. If it is up to me, I would set a time limit of 30 to 45 seconds, the call on the field stands….4-0 Woodbridge has won the close ones against good competition: 2-2 Old Bridge by 2 points, 3-1 Watchung Hills by 3, 2-2 Plainfield by 5, and 3-1 Colonia by 3….Performances that caught my eye this past weekend from nj.com are Passing: Stephen Paradiso of Cedar Grove going 19-26-342-4, Ryan Novak of Morristown-Beard with 22-29-298-4, Wayne Valley’s Danny Ferrauilo completing 14 of 16 for 224 yards and 3 touchdowns, Jack Cannon of Holmdel going 12-14-209-4, Myles Balchan of Rutherford going 9-1`0-186-3, David Smith of Butler with 9-10-186-3, and Milan Desai of Hopewell Valley completing 11 of 14 for 238 yards and 4 touchdowns. Rushing: Mekhi Brown of Highland ran for 313 yards and 6 touchdowns on 20 carries, Jakir Thomas of Carteret with 15-230-2, Aidan Steiglitz of Ridge went 25-220-3, Woodstown’s Bryce Belinfanti rushed for 204 yards and 2 scores on 27 carries, Jahmir Beal of Woodbridge with 15-197-2, Keyshawn Warthen of Trenton going 10-182-5. Receiving: Ryan Fleming of Waldwick/Midland Park catching 10 for 199 yards and a touchdown, Vinnie Stigliano of Pompton Lakes with 9-173-3, Josiah Zayas of St. Thomas Aquinas with 5-161-2, Dez Jones of DePaul with 8-155-3, Iyan Gaynor of West Orange with 8-152-2, and Xavier Sabb of Glassboro with 5-128-2…. Rushing performances for two or more are Newark Central and Hasbrouck Heights: Newark Central’s Zahir Wilson with 33-293-2, Nashon Brown with 11-160-1, and Jahsyn Reid with 12-72-1, While Heights has Jake Summers go 7-139-3 and Michael Napolitano go 4-145-2. Newark Central rushed for 533 yards against Hudson Catholic….Old Bridge’s two losses are the aforementioned 2-point loss to Woodbridge and a 1-point loss to Piscataway….Freehold Township quarterback Nick Cardone leads the state (NJSIAA schools) in passing with 79-133-1,019-11-4 according to a Twitter post and I checked numbers on nj.com….Jack Moran of Hun (non-NJSIAA) has passed for 1,771 yards on 76 of 113 with 18 touchdowns and 4 interceptions….That’s all for this week! I will be back with more bull soon!