Bull Session Week Eleven
November 9, 2023
Congratulations to Highland Park for their win over Point Pleasant Beach last Thursday. It was their first win since 2016 and that is a tough thing to go through when one plays for those teams…..I will be the first one to admit that I did not see Lakeland’s win over Caldwell coming. Not only that, they overcame 21-7 and 28-21 deficits. Their reward is playing undefeated Bernards this week…..I liken the recent World Series between Texas and Arizona to the tree that falls in the forest, but nobody is around to see or hear it…..A great thing during last week’s playoff was Mount Olive’s game-winning field goal by Izzy Kolbusz, a girl, with six seconds left….. Individual performances that caught my eye last weekend were – Passing: Landon DePrima of Ramapo completing 32 of 48 for 477 yards and 6 touchdowns, Deante Ruffin of Winslow going 14-21-348-3, Collin Sabric of Lakeland going 19-30-310-4, Billy Smith of Cedar Creek completing 19 of 26 for 212 yards and 3 touchdowns, Robbie Carcich of Westwood completing 10 of 11 for 261 yards and 2 scores, Tyler Menne of Hawthorne going 10-13-213-3, and Woodbury’s Jayden Johnson completing 8 of 10 for 189 yards and 3 touchdowns; Rushing: Matt Morad of Paul VI rushing for 336 yards and 5 touchdowns on 32 carries, Trashon Dye of Passaic Tech going 230-2-27, St. Augustine’s Julian Turney going 196-4-23, The Point Pleasant duo of Matt Oliphant and Jake Croce combining for 305 yards and 3 touchdowns on 19 carries with Oliphant going 179-1-8 and Croce with 126-2-2, Stephen Ordille of Mainland rushing for 141 yards and 1 touchdown on 10 carries, and John Wargo of Phillipsburg going 185-3-19; Receiving: Zachary Schnorrbusch of Ramapo catching 10 for 208 yards and 3 touchdowns, Lotzeir Brooks of Millville had 8 receptions for 202 yards and 3 touchdowns, Ryan Ward of Rutherforg going 6-188-2, Cam Miller of Winslow going 3-185-2, Jake Spear of Lakeland with 7 receptions for 166 yards and 3 touchdowns, Logan Perez of Washington Township with 8 receptions for 155 yards and 1 score, Michael Quinn of Notre Dame with 10-143-1, and Brandon Del Valle of Ramapo going 10-140-1 – it should be noted teammates DelValle and Schnorrbusch combining for 20 receptions for 348 yards and 4 scores…..In consolation action the Roselle Park duo of Nick Salas and Adrian Palacios rushed for a combined 393 yards and 5 touchdowns on 40 carries – Salas had 212 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries, while Palacios had 181 yards and 4 touchdowns on 21 carries…..No truth to the rumors there is a Dads Gone Wild video is coming out, out similar to the Girls Gone WIld of yesteryear. But if there was, there could be some entertaining clips. Last week at the playoff games I attended, there was a dad screaming out of the stands “how many timeouts do you get?” and a colleague said “three to a half for each team. Another game had a dad not happy with the officials because his kid’s team was losing and was screaming “you’re a disgrace to your profession.” But the craziest outburst I heard was about ten years ago with a dad whose team had lost a player to a broken leg in the first half. When the teams came out for the second half, he yelled to some of the players, “they broke one of our legs, now we break one of theirs!” The sad part is I caught his act the previous year when he was “encouraging” the boys on the team. So when he yelled that out prior to the third quarter, my back was turned, but I knew who it was and when I turned around, it was him decked out in camouflage. And coaches know this stuff all too well…..One of the best colleagues to hang out with at a game was the late Mark Czerwinski from The Record. An all-time great guy, He was done with The Record when Gannett bought it and began laying many people off. Mark died in 2020, but he did not die of COVID. It was always great when Mark was on the sideline and we could always chat about what was going on in the high school football world. He is missed by many in Bergen County…..That’s all for this week; I will return with more bull next week!
Most stats come from nj.com – some from Maxpreps and Jersey Sports Zone