Westwood 21 West Essex 0  

Led by the defense, Westwood was in front the entire game and beat West Essex, 21-0. The game wasn’t always pretty, but the outcome was not in doubt for most of the game. 

First Quarter: Westwood struck immediately when Aidan Carrazana took the opening kickoff 91 yards for a touchdown and the Cardinals were in front, 7-0. After forcing a West Essex punt, the Cardinals looked to be on their way with a Carrazana jet sweep run of 43 yards to the 24. But Westwood fumbled and West Essex recovered on the 18. A sack by Luke Bussanich pushed West Essex back to the 8 and the Knights ended up punting.  

Second Quarter: Westwood began a drive on the West Essex 35 and Robbie Carcich found Carrazana for 13 yards to the 17 on fourth-and-five. Two plays later, Carcich connected with a wide open Tommy Bussanich for a 17-yard touchdown and a 14-0 lead a minute into the quarter. Three drives later, Westwood recovered a fumble on the 10-yard line, the result of a bad center snap. The Cardinals did not take advantage, as they had a bad snap of their own on fourth down and West Essex had the ball on their own 8-yard line. The Westwood defense did their job, forcing a punt that gave the Cardinals very good field position. They took advantage and scored on an 11-yard run by Carcich to go up, 21-0 with 54 seconds left.   

Second Half: Things were uneventful with no scoring in the second half. West Essex had opened the half with a six-minute drive, but Steve Klein intercepted for Westwood and returned it their 41. The Knights drove again in the fourth quarter and had a chance to get on the board, but turned it over on downs. 

Comments: Westwood’s performance was a mixed bag. The defense was very good and held West Essex to one first down in the first half (courtesy of Sideline Chatter’s Bob Anthony, who told me at the half). It was hard to identify players because the Cardinals were wearing all black uniforms with red numbers and no trim. Luke Bussanich made some plays and it was a team effort all around. They set the Westwood offense up with good field opposition in the first half and had players around the ball. The offense hurt itself with numerous penalties and could have had two more touchdowns in the first half. They only scored 14 points because one was by the special teams. Overall, I would give the defense an A and the offense a C+. 

West Essex is in a rare 0-2 hole and next weekend’s game with Passaic Valley is very important. The offense was more on track in the second half, but could not sustain anything to get points. The defense did a solid job overall and was one reason Westwood’s offense was not firing on all cylinders.