THE GRIDIRON 7–2011

By Dick Engelhardt

The CUTTERS of Fair Lawn High came out firing last Friday night at Clifton School Stadium and upset the FIGHTING MUSTANGS of Clifton High 13-12 in a Big North Conference (BNC) Liberty Division thriller! Captains Nick Hickey, Boris Lifshits and Steve Tatekawa won the coin toss and our CUTTERS deferred their choice to the 2nd half. Kicker Aryeh Moslavi made a TD saving tackle on the kickoff and with great plays by George Alexandris, Corey Carlson, Lifshits, Kevin Osback, Franklyn Ramirez and Laine White, they held the Fighting Mustangs off. Kris Burger made a hellacious hit sacking Clifton’s talented QB and knocking him out of the game with an ankle injury. It wasn’t until 7:06 in the 2nd quarter that Clifton scored. Our “never-say die” CUTTERS came right back as Osback threw to Carlson for 2 big first downs. His picture TD pass to Hickey was nullified by a penalty but Osback bulled in for the tying TD and the Clifton crowd, expecting an easy win, grew very quiet!

In the 2nd half the Fair Lawn heroics continued. The teams battled back and forth and Alexandris’ interception led to Osback throwing a beautiful TD pass to John Pagios with 4:39 on the clock. With Mike Nieman snapping and Pete Danko holding, Moslavi kicked the extra point to put Fair Lawn ahead 13-6. With 1:16 on the clock, Clifton scored but a sensational stop on the 2 point conversion try by Lifshits kept our Cutters in front 13-12. Osback’s interception of a desperation Clifton pass had Fair Lawn fans screaming with unbounded joy! Fine defensive plays were made by a plethora of Cutters including Brian Centeno, Carlos Carlone, Danko, Andy Chorlian, Dan Laboy, Scott Marcoux, Brendan Sibilio and Jeff Welsh. Shame on me for predicting an 18-10 Clifton win! Once again privileged to announce the Clifton Mustang Marching Band and also to help the stadium announcer “spot,” I witnessed almost the exact opposite happen.

During 1972-74 independently, 1975-81 in the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League (NNJIL) and 2010-11 in the Big North Conference (BNC) Liberty Division, Clifton has gone 9-3-1 (.750) over Fair Lawn. Our CUTTERS are 1-1 (.500) against Clifton in BNC Liberty Division play and this delicious victory is their first over the FIGHTING MUSTANGS since 1979 when Pete Natale’s Cutters shocked them 21-0 in NNJIL play before falling 30-0 to them in the States.

The weekend saw Fair Lawn’s BNC Liberty Division playing Division games. In addition to Fair Lawn’s win, the BULLDOGS of Passaic County Technical Institute beat the Knights of JFK of Paterson 35-12 and the GHOSTS of Paterson Eastside shut out the INDIANS of Passaic 22-0.

On Saturday at 1:00 our CUTTERS are home at SASSO FIELD to take on the SPARTANS of Paramus for the 24th time. During 1962-83 in NNJIL action, the SPARTANS went 12-10 (.545) over our CUTTERS. It was a great rivalry that ended when Fair Lawn returned to the Northern Bergen Interscholastic League (NBIL) in 1984. It resumed in 2010 in BNC crossover action and the 42-13 Paramus win put the SPARTANS up 13-10 (.565). This is the “Hall of Fame Game” and the 2011 inductees to the Fair Lawn High School Athletic Hall of Fame will be introduced at halftime. Fair Lawn comes into the game 1-4 (200) having been outscored 196-46 for an average 39-9 loss. Paramus comes into the game 3-2 (.600) having been outscored 103-73 for an average 21-15 loss. I know our CUTTERS will make an all out effort and I think thy can beat the SPARTANS. From here it looks like Fair Lawn 17 – Paramus 14. GO CUTTERS GO!!!