THE GRIDIRON 9–201

By Dick Engelhardt

The injury depleted CUTTERS of Fair Lawn High were beaten 28-7 by the GHOSTS of Paterson Eastside in heavy rain last Thursday night at Bauerle Field in a Big North Conference (BNC) Liberty Division game. Captains George Alexandris, Boris Lifshits and Steve Tatakawa won the coin toss and Fair Lawn deferred its choice to the 2nd half. The GHOSTS drove for a TD and led 7-0. In the 2nd quarter they scored again. Then, just before the half, the officials incorrectly called a Fair Lawn incomplete forward pass a lateral and the GHOSTS ran it back for their 3rd TD and led 21-0. The officials realized their mistake too late to do anything about it and the score should have been 14-0.

In the 4th quarter, Corey Carlson ran for big yardage and QB Kevin Osback raced to the 5. He then threw a picture pass to Nick Hickey for a TD and the sure footed Aryeh Moslavi kicked the extra point. Hickey recovered Fair Lawn’s daring onside kick and our CUTTERS were in business. Osback threw to Carlson for a 1st down at the Eastside 15. A real warrior, he then raced to the 3 but was hurt on the play and the ball went over to the GHOSTS who ran out the clock. The score could have easily been 21-14.

On “D,” Osback recovered a fumble and Alexandris made a TD saving tackle. Fine plays were also made by Pete Danko, Lifshits, Brendan Sibilio, Tatakawa, Laine White and others. Fair Lawn still leads the 1947-54, 1983 and 2010-11 rivalry against Eastside 6-5 (.545).

Trying to keep my notes dry, I was welcomed into the Press Box by the announcer (Class of ’81) and the official clock operator (Class of ’72) and we enjoyed reminiscing about the old Fair Lawn rivalries with Eastside and Central/Kennedy. They were aware that, before FLHS opened; most Fair Lawn students attended Eastside! The announcer told me that he spent the 1980 football season chasing sensational Fair Lawn running back Chris Finn for the area scoring title! Coach Pete Natale’s ’80 CUTTERS shared the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League (NNJIL) title with Clifton and Passaic Valley and beat the INDIANS of Passaic 27-18 in 1st round playoff action at GIANTS STADIUM. They were the first Fair Lawn team ever to win 9 games and were followed in this by Natale’s ’85 and ’87 Northern Bergen Interscholastic League (NBIL) Division 1 champion and playoff bound CUTTERS.

Fair Lawn’s BNC Liberty Division played all division games. In addition to Eastside’s win, the FIGHTING MUSTANGS of Clifton High beat the KNIGHTS of Paterson’s JFK 27-8. I saw the defending champion KNIGHTS of Passaic County Technical Institute shut out the INDIANS of Passaic 34-0 in the snow at BOVERINI STADIUM and take the title again at 5-0 (1.000).

On Saturday at 1:00 our CUTTERS play host to those KNIGHTS of JFK in their final BNC Liberty Division and regular season game of the year at SASSO FIELD. Senior football players and cheerleaders will be recognized and escorted onto the field by parents or relatives. The award winning Fair Lawn High School Band and Color Guard were recognized at the Paramus game. The old Paterson Central and the newer JFK have been Eastside’s Turkey Day rivals since Eastside opened in 1926. During 1951-56 and 58 Fair Lawn went 5-2 (.714) over Central. Overall, during 1951-56 independently, in the playoffs in 1988, in a Consolation game in 2003, in the North Jersey Tri-County Conference (NJTCC) in 2009 and in the BNC Liberty Division in 2010, Fair Lawn has gone to 8-3 (.727) over Central/ Kennedy.

Both teams come into the game 1-6 (.143). Fair Lawn has been outscored 272-53 for an average 39-8 loss. Kennedy has been outscored 186-50 for an average 27-7 loss. I think our CUTTERS can close out their regular season with a win. From here it looks like Fair Lawn 17–Kennedy 7. GO CUTTERS GO!!!