THE GRIDIRON 15-2012

By Dick Engelhardt

Fans of the CUTTERS of Fair Lawn High had lots of rooting interests in the Football Playoff finals. Fair Lawn was in them in 1980. After being behind 7-0, 12-0, 12-7 and 18- 7, our CUTTERS roared back to beat the INDIANS of Passaic in the first round at GIANTS STADIUM. In the finals at the stadium, they were shut out 20-0 by the HORNETS of Passaic Valley, a team they had beaten 7-6 during the season and with whom they and the FIGHTING MUSTANGS of Clifton High shared the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League (NNJIL) title. And now we have the 2012 finals involving many former Fair Lawn foes.

In North Jersey, Section 1, Group V, the BENGALS of Bloomfield were beaten 16-13 in double overtime by the MOUNTIES of Montclair at MET LIFE STADIUM. Our CUTTERS took the 1977 independent and 1978-81 NNJIL rivalry with Bloomfield 4-1 (.800). In ’77 Bloomfield was not yet a full NNJIL member because of a commitment to play Irvington on Thanksgiving. In Fair Lawn’s Group IV, the INDIANS of Pascack Valley were beaten 14-6 by the GAELS of Roxbury at Kean University in Union. PV Coach Craig Nielsen starred for the BEARS of Bergenfield in the 1970s and was an assistant at Fair Lawn under Pete Natale 1980-85. He was part of the Fair Lawn playoff run in ’80 and was responsible for the awesome offense on the 1985 Northern Bergen Interscholastic league (NBIL) Division 1 champion CUTTERS who played a thriller against those INDIANS of Passaic in the States losing 36-26. The GAELS beat Stan Myles’ CUTTERS 42-7 in the States in 2009.

In Group III, the GREEN RAIDERS of Ramapo edged the SPARTANS of Sparta 37-34 at Kean. Ramapo took the 1956-58 and 1984-2008 NBIL rivalry with Fair Lawn 17-11 (.607). There were some thrillers including beating Ramapo QB Chris Simms in 1995 when he was a freshman! In Group I, the CARDINALS of Pompton Lakes beat the PANTHERS of Cedar Grove 28-13 at MET LIFE Stadium. Legendary Coach Frank Bennett came to Fair Lawn in 1945 and his CUTTERS took the Bergen-Passaic Interscholastic league (B-PIL) title. They shared it with the BUCCANEERS of Bogota in ’46 and the GOLDEN BEARS of Lyndhurst in ’47 when Bennett was the NY Daily News “Coach of the Year” and won it in 1953 and ’55. The ’53 team, featuring “The World’s Fastest Human,” Dave Sime, shared the North Jersey, Section 1, Group III title with the COMETS of Hackensack. Bennett’s CUTTERS and Charlie Benson’s Pompton Lakes CARDS went 3-3 (500) against each other 1945-50.

Next week we’ll wrap up THE GRIDIRON with a look back at the 2012 season. Until then, GO GUTTERS GO!!!