THE GRIDIRON 2-2011

By Dick Engelhardt

Last week the CUTTERS of Fair Lawn High were surprised 46-14 by the INDIANS of Passaic in Big North Conference (BNC) Liberty Division action. Captains Kevin Benjamin, Boris Lifshits and Steve Tatekawa went out for the coin toss. Passaic won and deferred their choice to the 2nd half. Faced with an avalanche of speed and miscues, our heroes trailed 20-0. Just before the half, they were driving at the Passaic 5 when an interception resulted in a 98 yard Passaic TD run and, instead of closing the score to 20-7, our CUTTERS trailed 27-0 at the half. Laine White’s fumble recovery led to Tatekawa running to the 1. QB Kevin Osback snuck it in. With Benjamin snapping and Pete Danko holding, sure footed Aryeh Moslavi kicked the extra point and it was 27-7. The INDIANS scored again to lead 33-7. Our never-say-die CUTTERS drove as Osback passed to John Pagios and Mike Venezia for 1st downs and ran to the 13 for another. His TD pass to Nick Hickey and Moslavi’s kick made it 33-13. Moslavi not only kicked well all day but recovered a fumble on one kickoff! White blocked a PAT and Tyler Argot sacked the QB. Good defensive plays were made by Kris Burger, Carlos Carlone, Lifshits, Osback, Brendan Sibilio, and others. Fair Lawn leads the rivalry 3-2 (.600).

Coach Amir Saadah joins Al Reinoso (1972), Rich Szura (1975), Greg Tanzer (2002) and Stan Myles (2007) in losing his first game. It all started September 13th, 1943 when FLHS opened without seniors, who stayed at Paterson Eastside, Hawthorne and Ridgewood to graduate in 1944. Coach Marty Fischbein led the CUTTERS to a fine 9-4-2 (.692) record in independent action in 1943 and 44 after starting up with 3 JV games. Some called the new team the COMETS because they scored quickly in that 1st JV game, a 7-6 loss to Lodi, and others called them the CLIPPERS. It’s been said that some team members would leave school early to visit Doc Gurney, after whom Gurney Terrace is named, for taping and disappear for a time forcing Coach Fischbein to wait for the arrival of these "cutters" before he could run a full practice. Then, before the Leonia game, team captain Jack Van Olden led Tony DiNegri, Art Jaeggi, Jack Knowles, Al Livingstone and Bill Perkins on a sneak trip to the Rivoli Theater in Paterson to see a movie during school hours. The miscreants were caught and coach Fischbein kept those “cutters” out of the game. With the Lions up 12-0 he put our heroes in and Fair Lawn roared back to win 13-12. Livingstone took a pass from Van Olden and ran it 43 yards for a TD. In the 4th quarter, he ran 20 yards for a TD and plunged for the extra point winning the game. The student body, having chosen Crimson and Gray as the school colors, said “The CUTTERS won the game!” They insisted that the athletic teams be known as “The CUTTERS of Fair Lawn High.” And so it is 68 seasons later! The “original” 1943 CUTTERS were inducted into the FLHS Athletic Hall of Fame in 2009 along with this writer and others. Van Olden had been inducted individually in 2007.

In the other BNC Liberty Division game, the defending champion BULLDOGS of Passaic County Technical Institute beat the FIGHTING MUSTANGS of Clifton High 23-3. In BNC crossover action, the KNIGHTS of JFK of Paterson were shut out 26-0 by the HIGHLANDERS of West Milford bringing the BNC Liberty Division record against outsiders to 0-1. The GHOSTS of Paterson Eastside were idle.

On Sunday I took in the Clifton-Passaic County Technical Institute game. While saying hello to Clifton Band Director, Bob Morgan, I was recruited to be the anonymous “Guest Announcer” for the Clifton High School FIGHTING MUSTANG Marching Band halftime show at Clifton Stadium!

This Saturday our CUTTERS are home at SASSO FIELD to take on the NORSEMEN of Northern Valley/ Demarest for the 24th time. Our CUTTERS took the 1956-58 and 1990- 2008 Northern Bergen Interscholastic League (NBIL) rivalry 13-9 (.591). The 40-0 NV shut out win in 2010 in BNC crossover action brought the record to 13-10 (.565) Fair Lawn.

In their opener, the NORSEMEN fell 34-16 to the LANCERS of Lakeland. Representing their BNC Liberty Division against an outsider, our Cutters will fight hard. They’ve lost a game they won last year; now it’s time to win a game they lost last year! From here it looks like Fair Lawn 21- NV/Demarest 15. GO GUTTERS GO!!!