Bull Session Week One
With the season starting earlier, people think I love it, but I don’t. I prefer the old way when the season began the weekend after Labor Day. I believe summer ends on Labor Day weekend and the fall begins right after that. I also don’t like the heat from the earlier starts and last year was a hot one on week zero. I will work with it and enjoy the games, but I prefer the old way….I personally saw three games and was impressed by a few quarterbacks: Willingboro’s Lamar Best, Northern Highlands’ Nate Johnson, and Cedar Grove’s Stephen Paradiso. There were also three receivers: Montclair’s David Thom-Rogers plus the Cedar Grove duo of Nick Iannacone and Jackson Morrice….Watched a replay of the Toms River North-Millville game on Youtube. While many expected big plays, both teams played very good defense. Some who stood out were TRN’s Blaise Boland and Nasir Jackson, while Kyon Conyers was one who impressed for Millville….Two games with big comebacks were Roxbury going down 21-0 and rallying to win 22-21 – the winning points with six seconds left – and Randolph coming back from a 34-7 deficit to beat Shabazz, 42-40….Pet peeves: I am in a public restroom and go to wash my hands and there is an automatic faucet. I put my hands underneath and no water comes out. I raise them one one inch and nothing, drop them two inches and nothing. The water either never comes or it comes out when I least expect it … .While Rutgers has struggled more often than not in football, Princeton and Monmouth field competitive teams and are worth the watch … .There were two games that surprised me a little: Mount Olive easily disposing of Chatham, 46-14 and Burlington City beating Penns Grove, 33-22. I am not surprised that Mount Olive won, but I am surprised with the score. As for the other game, if I had to pick a winner, I would have gone with Penns Grove, but I believe that Burlington City is an ascending program and that is why I did a team preview on them. They avenged a 48-14 loss to them last year … .Some top performances, courtesy of nj.com that caught my eye were the following: AJ Surace of Notre Dame going 15-16-173-1 and rushing for 216 and 3 touchdowns on 14 carries. Cedar Creek’s Billy Smith passed for 226 yards and 4 touchdowns on 13 of 19 passing. And a player I really want to see, Brick Memorial’s Connor Dietz rushing for 225 and 5 touchdowns on 17 carries and going 8-11-173-1 passing. Dietz had 398 yards of total offense and Surace had 389…Some more in the receiving game were Paramus Catholic’s Kenyon Massey catching 10 for 224 and a touchdown; Ma’khy Acey of Orange catching 10 for 170 and 3 scores; and Kingsway’s Benny Liles III with 7 receptions for 197 yards and 3 touchdowns. Add a 1-2 punch on the ground for Long Branch with quarterback Earnest Reavey gaining 210 and 3 scores on 16 carries, while running back Zaheem Brown gained 184 on 28 carries….I have seen some good things from the Giants, but I do not want to be too optimistic in fear of the rug being pulled out from under me. Just beat Dallas opening night. And I think Eagle fans would accept that….As a Yankee fan, I think the team may be headed for some dark years. Just my opinion….That’s it for now; I will return next week with some more bull.
- Most stats come from nj.com – some from Maxpreps