THE GRIDIRON 8 - 2007

By Dick Engelhardt

The CUTTERS of Fair Lawn High beat the HIGHLANDERS of Northern Highlands 20-7 in Northern Bergen Interscholastic League (NBIL) Division 1 action last week. Team captains Mike Barchefski, Ahmet Basci, Lasha Malazonia and Kevin Ramishvilli with the injured James Mallon as an honorary captain, won the coin toss and elected to receive. Our CUTTERS cut right to the chase with Kevin Carlson, Barchefski and Joe Visaggio picking up yardage behind center Brian Walis, guards Yuval Bussi and Ramishvilli and tackles Chris Liptrot and Alberto Zabalaga. Carlson’s 4 yard TD put Fair Lawn up 6-0. With Barchefski holding, Chris Soltys kicked the extra point and it was 7-0. Visaggio recovered a fumble at the HIGHLANDERS 18 and Carlson’s TD run was nullified by a penalty. No matter! Visaggio raced to the 5 for a first down and QB Travis Kubasta threw a perfect TD strike to Basci. Soltys kicked the extra point and our heroes led 14-0. The HIGHLANDERS scored with 4 seconds on the clock to cut the lead to 14-7 at the half.

In the second half Barchefski recovered a fumble and Visaggio picked up yardage. Kubasta passed to Basci to the 10 and Barchefski came out of the backfield to snare a picture TD pass from Kubasta to close out the scoring. It was great to see Kubasta take a knee to end the game! On “D” Bussi, Carlson, Mike Copelton, Sergio LaPlaca, Malazonia, Peter Park and Ramishvilli made great plays. Basci recovered a fumble. Melkis Rosario made a TD saving tackle on a kick off and Nick Graff sacked the QB. Soltys broke up a pass and nearly intercepted it. On the next play he did just that! The 1986-93 and 1998 – present rivalry with the HIGHLANDERS is all tied at 9. The impressive win was Fair Lawn’s first since 2003 over the HIGHLANDERS and marked the first time our CUTTERS won 2 in a row since they finished the 2004 season with wins over Belleville and Bergenfield. Fair Lawn Hall of Fame member Bruce Jankowski, star of the ’65 and ’66 CUTTERS and spark plug behind that 24 game non-losing streak 1964-66 was in town from Kansas and stopped by the Highlands press box where I was with former Fair Lawn announcer (1967-96) and now “The Voice of The HIGHLANDERS,” Joe Hausmann. My twin brother, Bill, and I “spotted for Joe for 30 seasons and I succeeded Joe as “The Voice of The CUTTERS” in 1997. It felt like a Fair Lawn reunion!

In other NBIL Division 1 action the PATRIOTS of Wayne Hills kept right on rolling beating the NORSEMEN of Northern Valley/Demarest 42-7. In Division 2 the INDIANS of Pascack Valley shocked the THUNDERBIRDS of Mahwah 28-14 and the BRAVES of Indian Hills beat the RAMS of Ramsey 23-13. In interdivisional action the GREEN RAIDERS of Ramapo brought the ‘06 record of Fair Lawn’s Division 1 to 8-9 (.471) against Division 2 beating the BEARS of Bergenfield 28-20. The Division 1 GOLDEN KNIGHTS of NV/Old Tappan had their Bye week.

This Saturday our CUTTERS are home at SASSO FIELD against the PATRIOTS of Wayne Hills, who might be the best public school team in North Jersey. Fair Lawn comes into the game 2-4 (.333) having been outscored 138-99 for an average loss of 23-17. Wayne Hills is 7-0 and has outscored the opposition 260-21 for an average victory of 37-3. Our CUTTERS have scored at least 2 TDs in every game and 3 in 3 of them. No team has scored more than 1 TD on the PATRIOTS and no team figures to beat Wayne Hills this season but our heroes will give the PATS a battle. I hope I’m wrong but from here it looks like Fair Lawn 14 – Wayne Hills 28. GO CUTTERS GO!!!