THE GRIDIRON 9 - 2015

 

By Dick Engelhardt 

Last weekend the CUTTERS of Fair Lawn High drew a Bye. The story behind that is interesting. The Big North Conference (BNC) placed the “Big 5” parochial schools in its United Division but schedules games with public schools for them. No public school wants to play these teams that essentially run college or semi-pro like programs and several had reached the point of threatening to forfeit games. The parochial schools often find another foe and let the public school off the hook. The trouble with this is that the public school either can’t find another opponent and has no game as happened to Fair Lawn in 2013 when Don Bosco let us off the hook, or has to go far in its search for a game, as happened to Fair Lawn in 2014 when Paramus Catholic let Fair Lawn off the hook and our CUTTERS traveled to New Canaan, Connecticut for a game against the STORM of St. Luke’s High.

Fair Lawn was scheduled to play Paramus Catholic again last week at SASSO FIELD but the PALADINS were able to schedule the ASCENDERS of IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida where they lost 28-20. In order to get a game, Fair Lawn had to schedule the RAMS of Dickinson High of Jersey City at CAVEN POINT Friday night of the Labor Day Weekend. This resulted in Fair Lawn having only three scheduled home games this year and playing on the “Zero” weekend when most teams would rather not play. Next year the merger of the BNC and several other leagues will result in a new “Super Conference,” as yet unnamed, and an end to scheduling these parochial behemoths against area public schools. It’s about time!

The GHOSTS of Paterson Eastside also had a Bye. In the only game involving Fair Lawn’s BNC Liberty Division, the BULLDOGS of Passaic County Technical Institute beat the FIGHTING MUSTANGS of Clifton High 19-7 taking the title for the 6^th straight time since the league was founded in 2010. 

This Friday at 7:00 our CUTTERS will travel to BOVERINI STADIUM in Passaic’ to take on the INDIANS for 9th time. The 2 most thrilling games in FLHS history were played against the INDIANS. Pete Natale’s 1980 Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League (NNJIL) tri-champion, with Clifton and the HORNETS of Passaic Valley, CUTTERS trailed the INDIANS 7-0, 12-0, 12-7 and 18-7 and roared back to win 27-18 in the North Jersey, Section 1, Group IV Playoffs at GIANTS STADIUM. In 2009, Stan Myles’ CUTTERS led Passaic 32-6 at halftime in the Playoffs at SASSO FIELD. The INDIANS roared back and our CUTTERS hung on for a 39-38 win. On 4^th down, with 5 seconds on the clock and Passaic out of timeouts, QB Travis Kubasta took the snap and ran 21 yards backwards taking a knee as the clock expired. Whew! During 1980, 1985 and 2009 in playoff action and 2010-14 in BNC action, Fair Lawn has gone 5-3 (.625) against Passaic. Fair Lawn is 1-6 (.143) and has been outscored 216-80 for an average 31-13 loss. Passaic won its first game last week beating winless Northern Valley/Demarest 46-38. The INDIANS are 1-5 (.167) and have been outscored 243-72 for an average loss 41-12 loss. With former Fair Lawn assistant coach Doug Lemberg on their staff, the INDIANS use the fabled “Single Wing” formation last used at Fair Lawn by legendary coach Frank Bennett 1945-60. I think our CUTTERS can win this one. From here it looks like Fair Lawn 21 – Passaic 13. GO CUTTERS GO!!