How abruptly summer ended. Just a week ago in Sparta, it still felt like July weather. Sunny, 80 degree weather and no breeze. Today was a different story, however, gone was the warmth of the summer heat and replaced with a crisp fall breeze. Walking towards the field I thought, "Now this is football weather"; weather in the 50's, wind blowing with overcast skies. Now while most people would commonly agree with me that this weather is more like football weather, I'm sure St. Joe's given their inexperience would have much more appreciated last weekend's weather. The weather and rain would be an added test for St. Joe's as they traveled to Marlboro High School to take on the Group IV Mustangs. Marlboro though they have struggled in recent years still is a Group IV school. They won 4 games last year, 0 games the year before and 1 game 3 years ago. Many of their losses were lopsided along the way but have slowly gotten back to respectability. The Home News Tribune picked St. Joe's in a 2 point game and the Star Ledger picked Marlboro in a 2 point game so people expected this to be a very close game coming in.
St. Joe's early on had trouble holding onto the ball resulting in a fumble which allowed Marlboro to start their first drive on the St. Joe's 42 yard line. They soon punted it and St. Joe's did as well. Early on, it looked like this was going to be a low scoring battle and field position was going to be key in deciding the victor. Marlboro then went on a long drive spanning two quarters before coming up empty on the 4th down. After another St. Joe's punt, Josh Hudson ran into the Marlboro return man at the St. Joe's 49 yard line after calling a fair catch. This was an egregious penalty and while it did not cost the Falcons on this drive, it could potentially in another game. This moved them to the 34 yard line but they were stopped on a 4th and 1. St. Joe's got the ball back but on their third play of the drive, perhaps their biggest display of inexperience so far in their first two games was when there was miscommunication between the quarterback and running back and they ran into each other which resulted in a fumble after if ricocheted off a couple other players. Marlboro recovered and had great field position once again and this time, they took advantage. Jason Kaplin wound up running it into the endzone to give Marlboro the 6-0 lead just before halftime. They would convert on the 2 point conversion to make it 8-0. An encouraging sign was when St. Joe's quarterback Ryan Campbell connected on a couple passes to get St. Joe's in field goal range near halftime. Keep in mind, they did not throw one pass last week against Sussex County Vo-Tech so it was good to see the team starting to air it out a little bit and have some success in doing so. St. Joe's kicker Bryan Rafano can be described as a secret weapon. For a first year varsity program, he is a very good kicker. One of the coaches told me he is division I good. Although the kick hit the left upright before halftime, many parents at Marlboro expressed in awe the ease in which he attemepted his 40 yard field goal right before halftime. Marlboro, however, led 8-0.
It was going to be interesting to see how St. Joe's responded after halftime to their first deficit of the season. They were in a tough spot now because if they're tied or ahead, they're obviously going to be a predominantly running offense. However, once they fall behind, they are going to have to rely considerably on their passing game to make a difference. After they punted on their first drive of the half, St. Joe's multisport athlete in football and basketball, Al Myers took a punt back to the house for a touchdown which got St. Joe's rejuvenated. Matt Greene wound up running it in on the 2 point conversion to tie it up. After another punt, St. Joe's got it back and after a 12 play, 64 yard drive, Matt Greene helped out the team again by scoring a 1 yard touchdown to put the Falcons up for good.
Matt Olivo would make the lead 22-8 after a 40-yard touchdown scamper. A very questionable moment in terms of playcalling for me, came soon after. After Marlboro went 3 and out again, they decided to fake punt on a 4th and long in their own territory. It's still the 3rd quarter, it's a less than two touchdown game. St. Joe's had struggled to some extent on offense and it was not like the Falcons were a shoe-in to score. This had given St. Joe's great field position once again and Rafano would easily make a kick to extend the lead. Not only would St. Joe's extend the lead, but all of a sudden, Marlboro was looking at the scoreboard down 3 scores.
In the waning moments of the game, 5:48 remaining on the clock in a lopsided game at the moment, every parent's worst nightmare happened when #57 on Marlboro, Mike Colley, a 6-2 senior, was badly injured on a play. He was lying motionless on the ground for probably over 25 minutes or so. When stuff like this happens, it is always a sobering moment because as with anything when tragedies or bad things happen, you seldom think about actions or what can potentially happen before it actually does. He had hurt his neck. But although he was motionless, I don't think it was as it looked or when he was on the ground, because soon after the athletic trainer was talking to people with a smile on his face as one of the parents near me had noted so while it was a bad injury, Colley should be able to make a recovery so that's good.
After a long delay, Marlboro, I think took the Falcons off guard when they got a long reception. That set up Tommy Vetrano for a 1-yard touchdown. Jordan Jimerson soon added to his touchdown tally for the season with a long 51-yard touchdown play which finished the scoring for the day. St. Joe's won 32-16.
There's a couple things I would take out of this game. It was very encouraging to see St. Joe's come back after falling behind. Not only did they do so, but they exploded on offense, scoring three touchdowns in the third quarter. Ryan Campbell completed 66.6% of his passes finishing 6 for 9, with 52 yards. So he had proven to be effective to some extent and they made more playcalls for his use this week than last week. Although Marlboro has struggled, St. Joe's proved they could compete with a Group IV school and for the second game in a row, hardly resembled a first year varsity team. Some of the Marlboro parents were even saying St. Joe's does not look like it was only their second game...so the Falcons must be making progress.
A quick note to finish, the first power points of the season came out and here are the seedings through the first 2 weeks. The top 8 make it.
1) Don Bosco Prep 2-0 32
2) Bergen Catholic 1-1 18
3) Notre Dame 2-0 18
4) St. Joe's (Metuchen) 2-0 17
5) Seton Hall Prep 1-1 14
6) Paramus Catholic 1-0 12
7) Paul VI 1-1 10
8) St. Augustine 1-1 10
9) St. Peter's Prep 0-2 2
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