THE GRIDIRON 2 - 2005

By Dick Engelhardt

Last Friday night Our CUTTERS traveled to Franklin Lakes and faced the powerful GREEN RAIDERS of Ramapo in their Northern Bergen Interscholastic League (NBIL) Division 1 opener. Team Captains Vinnie Graff, Michael Keating and Scott Leathem started the season going out for the coin toss. QB Graff threw passes to Keating and picked up yardage on the QB draw. Michael Liptrot and Leathem ran the ball. Liptrot fills big shoes wearing number 28. That number was run across the goal line numerous times by the great Bruce Jankowski during Fair Lawn’s 1964-66 twenty four game non-losing streak. Jankowski played for Ohio State and the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL and the Shreveport STEAMER in the World Football League (WFL). Michael Barchefski made a jarring tackle early and Graff and John Macko sacked the QB. Josh Aviles, Yuval Bussi, Sean Hughes, Stephan Macchiorola, Dominick Rizzo, Tom Spear and others made big plays on “D.”

When it was over the GREEN RAIDERS had shut out our CUTTERS 38-0. This was slightly better than last year’s 41-0 shut out. It was the 75th shut out loss in FLHS history. The last shut out loss was 21-0 in 2004 at the hands of the BRAVES of Indian Hills. Our CUTTERS have shut out their opponents 81 times. The last shut out win was 20-0 over the KNIGHTS of JFK High of Paterson in the 2003 State consolation game. The CUTTERS and GREEN RAIDERS first met in 1956 with Fair Lawn beating the new Ramapo Regional High School 21-6. Our CUTTERS won all 3 games before leaving the NBIL for the NNJIL 1959-83. Fair Lawn, Bergenfield and Ramsey all returned to their old NBIL in 1984. Ramapo now leads the 1956-58 and 1984-present rivalry 15-10 (.600).

In the other NBIL Division 1 game Northern Valley, Demarest beat Bergenfield 46-14. In Division 2, Mahwah edged Northern Highlands 28-26 in a thriller. Fair Lawn’s NBIL Division 1 went 1-1 (.500) against Division 2 as Wayne Hills beat Indian Hills 40-7 while Northern Valley, Old Tappan lost 24-13 to Pascack Valley. The NBIL is 0-1 against other Leagues as Ramsey lost 9-7 to Wallkill Valley of the Sussex County League.

On Friday night our CUTTERS travel to Wayne to take on the NBIL Division 1 and North Jersey, Section 1, Group III defending State champion PATRIOTS of Wayne Hills. The PATS lead the 1984-present rivalry 16-5 (.762). Fair Lawn’s last victory was 35-8 in 1989. The 1984-93 Thanksgiving rivalry would up 5-5 (.500) with our CUTTERS winning 4 of the first 5 games and the PATRIOTS 4 of the next 5. The PATS are the team to beat in ’05, possibly even ahead of Ramapo, and will be heavily favored. Their 33 point victory margin last week compares to Fair Lawn’s 38 point loss. I think our CUTTERS will improve as they go along but they, and every other team except possibly Ramapo, are over matched in this one. I hope I’m wrong but from here it looks like Wayne Hills 28 – Fair Lawn 10. GO CUTTERS GO!!!