THE GRIDIRON 7-2014

 

By Dick Engelhardt 

The injury depleted CUTTERS of Fair Lawn High gave the COMETS of Hackensack a whale of a battle last Saturday at SASSO FIELD before losing 21-7. Captains Dan Morganstein, Matt Philips Dillon Rinaldo and Deshawn Roberts went out for the coin toss and Hackensack won and deferred. Fair Lawn’s 1st drive stalled. Tylor Pollock caused and recovered a fumble at the 16 and heroic defensive plays were made by Dominick Barbarulo, Jon Fochesato, Johnson, Mike Laboy, Anthony Messina, Phillips, Roberts, Jake Schwartz and others. Pollock and Frank Ortoll teamed up on a great stop! With Hackensack up 14-0, Tyler Johnson electrified the crowd with a 27 yard TD gallop. With Damien Rongo holding, the sure footed Dan Kutuzov kicked the extra point. Fair Lawn was down only 14-7 at the half and the COMETS knew they were in a game! Hackensack eventually prevailed, scoring only once more in the second half. Gal Harari made a great stop and Roberts and Laboy teamed up on a great hit. Harari threw a picture pass to Roberts for a 1st down! Ryan Rue once again boomed great punts!

Interim AD Mike Miello, who is serving while Fair Lawn AD Cory Robinson recovers from surgery, had high praise for the way our CUTTERS fought! He remembers that, while coaching the GREEN RAIDERS of Ramapo, he went 0-4 against Fair Lawn coach Pete Natale 1984-87. He also coached the COMETS years ago! The Hackensack victory brings the COMETS’ 1959-82 and 2010-14 record against Fair Lawn to 28-7-1 (.800).

 

Fair Lawn’s BNC Liberty Division went 1-3 (.000) against outside foes. In addition to Fair Lawn’s loss, the FIGHTING MUSTANGS of Clifton High were beaten 44-6 by the KNIGHTS of JFK and the undefeated defending champion BULLDOGS of Passaic County Technical Institute were shutout 38-0 by the IRONMEN of Bon Bosco. The GHOSTS of Paterson Eastside chalked up the only win beating the INDIANS of Passaic 44-7. The Division is 4-9 (.308) against outside opposition on the season.

This Saturday at 1:00 our CUTTERS travel to New Canaan, Connecticut to take on the STORM of St. Luke’s High School at 2:00. The game was scheduled when the PALADINS of Paramus Catholic, who Fair Lawn was scheduled to play, asked if it was alright if they play the HONEY BADGERS of Eastern Christian Academy in Elkton, Maryland instead. It certainly was! It is absurd to schedule any public school against one of the parochial behemoths unless the public school is willing to play them. What they do is not high school football but resembles college football with all that implies. The folly of this is seen in St. Josephs 42 - Northern Valley/Old Tappan 0, DePaul 35 – Pascack Valley 14 and Don Bosco 38– Passaic Tech 0 scores. Even great public school programs can’t compete with these all star programs. A few years ago Wayne Hills had a 55 game winning streak going until the PATRIOTS were forced to play St. Joes. Even they couldn’t win!

St. Luke’s comes into the game 4-2 (.667) having outscored the opposition 188-118 for an average 31-20 win. Fair Lawn is 1-5 (.167) and has been outscored 204-66 for an average 34-11 loss. St. Luke’s opponents are not the likes of Ridgewood, Passaic Tech or Hackensack! This is a game our CUTTERS can win. For the 1st time Fair Lawn is not outmanned. According to MaxPreps.com, St. Luke’s has a roster of 30 compared to Fair Lawn’s 39. Our heroes will give it all they have. From here it looks like Fair Lawn 21 – St. Luke’s 13. GO CUTTERS GO!!!