THE GRIDIRON 7 - 2005

By Dick Engelhardt

The CUTTERS of Fair Lawn High faced the tough GOLDEN KNIGHTS of Northern Valley, Demarest in Northern Bergen Interscholastic League (NBIL) Division 1 action last Friday night and were beaten 41-20. NV had given the powerful PATRIOTS of Wayne Hills all they could handle the week before losing a 16-14 heart breaker. Scott Leathem booted punts and threw a pass on a fake punt and broke up a pass. Josh Aviles, Michael Barchefski, Amet Basci, Vinnie Graff John Macko, and Tom Spear and made nice plays on “D.” With NV up 41-0 our never-say-die CUTTERS fought on. Graff threw a 5 yard TD pass to Spear and, with Stephan Macchiorola holding, Randy Platter kicked the PAT. Dan Kissane alertly recovered his own on-side kick and Graff then threw a 24 yard TD strike to Macchiorola. Macchiorola’s 2 point conversion pass to Spear just missed. Then it was Mike Keating’s turn to haul in a TD pass from Graff, this one for 20 yards. Macchiorola and Platter clicked again on the PAT to close out the scoring. Fair Lawn still leads the 1984 – present rivalry 14–8 (636) but the GOLDEN KNIGHTS have won the last 4 games.

In the press box helping with the “spotting,” I had a nice chat with William Paterson University Coach and former Rutgers assistant and Ramapo Coach, Mike Miello. He was a Hackensack Sophomore in 1959 when Fair Lawn’s Bob Wright ran the opening kickoff back in that historic 27-6 victory for Coach Frank Bennett’s CUTTERS in Fair Lawn’s maiden season in the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League (NNJIL). He said that when he was at Ramapo, former Fair Lawn Coach Pete Natale (1978-87) was one of a very few coaches who had a winning record against him. He sure had that right. During 1984-87 Natale's CUTTERS went 4-0 against Miello's GREEN RAIDERS in NBIL Division 1 action!

In the other NBIL Division 1 game those GREEN RAIDERS of Ramapo shut out the BEARS of Bergenfield 37-0. The NORSEMEN of Northern Valley, Demarest had their bye week. In Division 2 the BRAVES of Indian Hills shut out the RAMS of Ramsey 7-0 and the INDIANS of Pascack Valley shut out the THUNDERBIRDS of Mahwah 14-0. Fair Lawn’s NBIL Division 1 saw its PATRIOTS of Wayne Hills wallop the Division 2 HIGHLANDERS of Northern Highlands 47-0. The NBIL Division 1 is 4-5 (.444) versus Division 2 on the season so far.

This Saturday our CUTTERS travel to Ramsey at 1:30 to face the RAMS for the 34th time. Bennett’s CUTTERS beat Ramsey 14-6 in the first game in 1945 on their way to a Bergen-Passaic Interscholastic League (B-PIL) title. During 1945-58 in the B-PIL and NBIL (the league was renamed in 1956) Fair Lawn went 11-3 (.786) over Ramsey. Since returning to the NBIL in 1984 after 25 seasons in the NNJIL, Fair Lawn has compiled a remarkable 16-3 (.842) record over Ramsey during 1984-99 and 2002 to the present. Our CUTTERS have amassed a phenomenal 27-6 (.818) record over the RAMS overall! Ramsey won last year 33-7.

Fair Lawn comes into the game 0-5 having been outscored 174-61 for an average loss of 35-12. Ramsey is also 0-5 and has been outscored 105-21 for an average loss of 21-4. With an all out effort our CUTTERS can win this one. From here it looks like Fair Lawn 24 (Let’s have another Randy Platter field goal!) - Ramsey 6. GO CUTTERS GO!!!