September 1, 2018
This is the second of two parts; I wrote about the afternoon games, now it’s the evening games.
Westwood at River Dell
River Dell had a drive that ended in a missed field goal, then received a break when there was a muffed snap on Westwood’s following punt, giving the Hawks the ball on the Westwood 10. This time, they scored when Jack Racine scored from one yard out, as the quarter ended. Westwood came right back on the ensuing kickoff when Tyler Giordano returned the kickoff for a 90-yard touchdown, knotting the score at 7-7.
River Dell came right back to score when Dave Fletcher scored on a 15-yard run in the Wildcat, finding a wide hole to run through. Joe Mellet intercepted a Westwood pass to give the Hawks the ball on the Westwood 35. Fletcher struck again, going 26 yards around the left side for another score and had a 69-yard run on their next drive to the 6-yard line. Mike Sirico went five years for a touchdown on a reverse and Jack Gilles found Matt McHale for a 28-yard touchdown to make it 35-7 with three minutes left in the half. The Hawks had another opportunity, going deep into Westwood territory, but headed for the locker room with two seconds left in the half.
River Dell caught fire in the second quarter, scoring 28 points and their defense was making plays. They looked like a top team, executing very well. They had at least three quarterbacks in the half, with Jack Gilles receiving most of the snaps.
Westwood is in transition after graduating its entire line from last year. They had trouble moving the ball and could not stop the big plays in the second quarter. If there was a positive, it was their defensive tackles, Benny Dahdah and Oladipo Amusan, limiting the inside run.
Parsippany Hills at Paramus
I took the short drive at the half, where Paramus led 30-14 and they added more, moving the ball with ease, scoring on a couple of lone runs and another long one set up another touchdown. Of the two long scores, one was by quarterback Trevor Bopp and Steven Prado had another.
Paramus is an improved squad and looks like a playoff team. While making it last year, they finished 3-7 with many underclassmen. Now they have experience and should have a winning record at the very least. How far they go is yet to be determined, but I came away impressed by the Spartans, as they rolled to a 51-21 win. They have good players, such as Matt Amato and Kyle Jacob on defense plus playmakers on offense. Much of the fourth quarter was played with backups and I went home with 3-4 minutes left in the game.
Parsippany Hills showed ability to move the ball with some nicely designed plays, but their defense could not stop anybody – it’s that simple. If they don’t improve that side of the ball, they may struggle.