THE GRIDIRON 8 - 2015

 

By Dick Engelhardt 

Last Friday the CUTTERS of Fair Lawn High put up a real battle before being shutout 26-0 by the COMETS of Hackensack in Big North Conference (BNC) crossover action. Captains Dominick   Barbarulo, Mike Laboy and Tyler Johnson, went out for the coin toss and Fair Lawn received. The COMETS kept our CUTTERS bottled up but, thanks to heroic play by Alex D’Angelo, Johnson, Tyler Pollock, Bradley Ramirez, Damian Rongo, Marc Terwilliger, who recovered a fumble, and others, they didn’t score until the clock read 4:12 left in the half. Johnson blocked the extra point. QB Rongo had thrown a pass to Johnson for a first down, Ramirez had run for a big first down and D’Angelo and Larry Tobe had picked up yardage. A sure TD pass was just a little high. Our heroes were hanging on! Ryan Rue, who boomed punts all night, put one down at the 9 only to have the COMETS run 91 yards for a TD to lead 13-0 at halftime.

In the second half, Aaron Gutierrez and Rue recovered onside kicks, one of which was unintentional and ruled a squib kick, giving our CUTTERS good field position but they were unable to capitalize. Rongo passed to Johnson for a first down at the 21 but the drive ended. Johnson intercepted a pass and ran it to the 9 but that drive ended with the ball turned over on downs. Rue, probably Fair Lawn’s most valuable player, placed a punt at the 1. The COMETS would score 13 more points in the second half. The game ended after Tobe recovered a fumble and raced to the 27. The win brought the Hackensack record against Fair Lawn 1959-82, 2000 and 2010-15 to 23-7-1 (.767). The shutout loss, the first this year, was the 93rd in FLHS history versus 83 shutout wins.

In 1959, Fair Lawn’s maiden season in the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League (NNJIL), Frank Bennett’s CUTTERS upset Hackensack 27-6 and yet saw Hackensack take the title by half a game. Fair Lawn Mayor John Cosgrove kicked the winning extra point to help Coach Frank Devens’ 1972 CUTTERS beat Hackensack 7-6. Fair Lawn’s last victory over Hackensack was 21-0 in 1980 when Pete Natale’s CUTTERS shared the NNJIL title with the FIGHTING MUSTANGS of Clifton High and the HORNETS of Passaic Valley and beat the INDIANS of Passaic 27-18 at GIANTS STADIUM in the 1st round of the Group IV Playoffs before being shutout 20-0 by the those HORNETS, who they had edged 7-6 in the regular season.    

Fair Lawn’s BNC Liberty Division saw it’s 5 times champion and undefeated BULLDOGS of Passaic County Technical Institute pummeled 35-0 by the IRONMEN of Don Bosco. This is just another example of why the parochial behemoths have no business playing public schools. The “Super Conference,” scheduled to start next year, will solve that problem. The Division went 2-2 (.500) against outside competition. While Fair Lawn and PCTI lost, the FIGHTING MUSTANGS of Clifton High shutout the KNIGHTS of JFK of Paterson 38-0 and the GHOSTS of Paterson Eastside beat the INDIANS of Passaic 24-7. The Division is 8-6 (.571) against outside opposition so far.

This weekend our CUTTERS have a Bye. More about that and the reason why next week. Until then, GO CUTTERS GO!!!