THE GRIDIRON 8-2012

By Dick Engelhardt

The injury depleted CUTTERS of Fair Lawn High were outgunned 38-0 by the MAROONS of Ridgewood in Big North Conference (BNC) crossover action last week at SASSO FIELD. Captains George Alexandris, Pete Danko, Franklyn Ramirez and Jeff Welsh won the toss and our heroes received. They mounted a drive with Alexandris and Ramirez picking up yardage. Then Ridgewood’s depth took its toll and the MAROONS led 17-0 at halftime. They scored 21 more points in the second half, one TD by an interception runback. Alexandris intercepted a pass, Matt Ferry sacked the QB, Nick Tsinkelis clobbered a punt returner and Tyler Argot, Kris Burger, Danko, Thomas Koike, Brendan Sibilio, Mike Venezia and Welsh made big plays. Danko once again played QB filling in for the injured Kevin Osback and Venezia took over his punting duties. Dillon Rinaldo finished up at QB.

The win brought Ridgewood’s record 1944-83 on Turkey Day and 2012 to 27-11-3 (.711) over our CUTTERS. Fair Lawn’s last win was in 1980 by Pete Natale’s Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League (NNJIL) tri-champion (With Clifton and Passaic Valley) and playoff bound CUTTERS. The shutout was the 85th in FLHS history and our CUTTERS have shutout their foes 82 times.

It was nice to see right halfback Jim Harrison wearing his 1955 Bergen-Passaic Interscholastic League (B-PIL) championship Fair Lawn jacket at the game. Jim, who came down from Ringwood, received an ovation when I introduced him! My twin brother, Bill, and I were “Water Boys” on Coach Frank Bennett’s ‘55 championship team that came from behind to beat Ridgewood 19-7 on Turkey Day.

In the only BNC Liberty Division game, the FIGHTING MUSTANGS of Clifton High beat the GHOSTS of Paterson Eastside in a 28-21 thriller that ended in a donnybrook! The Division went 1-1 (.500) against outside opposition. While Fair Lawn lost, the champion BULLDOGS of Passaic Tech beat the KNIGHTS of JFK 45-14. The BNC Liberty Division is 6-12 (.333) against outsiders so far in 2012.

On Saturday at Noon at SASSO FIELD our CUTTERS play host to the LANCERS of Lakeland Regional High School of Wanaque for the first time ever. The Red and Gray will win this one! Trouble is we might have a hard time telling the Crimson and Gray clad CUTTERS apart from the perennial playoff contending Scarlet and Gray clad LANCERS! Their upset 29-25 loss to the GOLDEN KNIGHTS of Northern Valley/Old Tappan last week has them at 6-1 (.857) having outscored their opposition 246-103 for an average 35-15 win. That game showed the LANCERS can be scored upon. Fair Lawn comes into the game at 1-6 (.143) having been outscored 203-69 for an average 29-10 loss. Talk about David versus Goliath! Here’s a vote for “David.” I know our “never-say die” CUTTERS will give it their all. From here it looks like Fair Lawn 21 – Lakeland 19. GO GUTTERS GO!!!