THE GRIDIRON 8–2011

By Dick Engelhardt

The CUTTERS of Fair Lawn High started out strong and moved the ball well before our injury depleted heroes fell victim to an avalanche of points losing a 48-0 shut out to the SPARTANS of Paramus in Big North Conference (BNC) crossover action last week. Captains Andy Chorlian, Boris Lifshits and Steve Tatekawa won the coin toss and deferred the choice to the second half. Our heroes held with great plays by Pete Danko, Kevin Osback Franklyn Ramirez and others. Then behind center Kris Burger (who would later go out with an injury), guards Lifshits and Brendan Sibilio, tackles Brian Centeno and Jeff Welsh and tight end Nick Hickey, backs Corey Carlson and Tatekawa picked up yardage. Osback sneaked for a first down behind Burger. After a scoreless 1st quarter, the pounding and passing of the SPARTANS took its toll and the score ballooned to 48-18 by the end of the game. Our heroes never gave up and fine defensive plays were made by Malik Contee, Mike Nieman, Tatekawa, Laine White and others. The win brings the 1962-83 and 2010-11 record of the SPARTANS over our CUTTERS to 14-10 (.583). The shut out loss was the 84th in Fair Lawn’s 69 seasons and our CUTTERS have shut out their opponents 82 times. The Class of ’66 was in town for their 45 year reunion. Their ’65 CUTTERS, under new coach Frank Devens, went 8-0-1 (1.000) and won the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League (NNJIL) title.

The game was broadcast live by MSG Varsity and Fair Lawn fans experienced commercial breaks for the first time! It could be watched on msgvarsity.com and, if you had them, TV channels 14 and 614 Monday night. At halftime the 2011 inductees into the Fair Lawn High School Athletic Hall of Fame were introduced. The Hall was established in 2006 and one of the initial inductees was the late athletic director 1944-78, Virgil “Virge” Sasso, after whom SASSO FIELD is named. Each inductee was escorted onto the field by 2 of Fair Lawn’s version of “Football’s Fabulous Females,” FLHS Cheerleaders under the direction of their coach, Lauren Gimon!

It was senior recognition Saturday for the band and color guard senior members who were introduced and escorted onto the field by parents and/or relatives. Then the award winning Fair Lawn High School Marching Band and Color Guard gave a stellar performance of their show, “Bound.”

Fair Lawn’s BNC Liberty Division played its games against outsiders. The FIGHTING MUSTANGS of Clifton High and the KNIGHTS of Paterson’s JFK drew byes. In two grotesque mismatches of parochial powerhouses against public schools, the BNC Liberty Division defending champion KNIGHTS of Passaic County Technical Institute were mauled 63-15 by the IRONMEN of Don Bosco and the GHOSTS of Paterson Eastside were buried 54-0 by the CRUSADERS of Bergen Catholic. The INDIANS of Passaic were beaten 48-13 by the INDIANS of Wayne Valley. With Fair Lawn’s loss the weekend BNC Liberty Division record against outsiders was 0-4 bringing the year to date record to a dismal 2-16 (.111).

In a game moved up because of the unavailability of the field, our CUTTERS travel on Thursday night at 6:00 to BAUERLE FIELD in Paterson to take on the GHOSTS of Paterson Eastside for the 11th time. The rivalry is sweetened by the fact that, until FLHS opened in 1943, most Fair Lawn students attended Eastside. A few students from the Columbia Heights section went to Hawthorne and the Radburn section students went to Ridgewood. During 1947-54 in independent action, 1983 in the NNJIL and 2010 in BNC crossover action, our CUTTERS have gone 6-4 (.600) against the GHOSTS.

Fair Lawn and Eastside come into the game 1-5 (.167). Our CUTTERS have been outscored 244-46 for an average 41-8 loss. Eastside has been outscored 153-35 for an average 26-6 loss. Our CUTTERS can win this game with an all out effort. From here it looks like Fair Lawn 14–Eastside 6. GO CUTTERS GO!!!