Saturday,
September 27, 2014
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Junior quarterback Kevin Martinez led N/V Old Tappan's offense to TDs on all six of its first half possessions as the Knights beat rival N/V Demarest, 43-12, on Friday night. |
OLD TAPPAN – Somewhere along the line in a football season a team is going to play that game that is the barometer for where it fits in. Northern Valley/Old Tappan's tester figures to be next week when it hosts St. Joseph Regional, the defending state champion, last season's No. 1 team in the state and one of Bergen County's Big 4 parochial powerhouses. For Northern Valley/Demarest the measuring stick came on Friday night when it visited it closest rival riding a two-game, season-opening winning streak.
While Demarest is clearly improved after its four-win season last year and has a player in senior running back Alex Wasserman that legitimately has to be game-planned against, Old Tappan proved that it is still a cut above with a decisive 43-12 victory in Old Tappan.
It was over early as Demarest was held to a three-and-out on the game opening possession, and Old Tappan got a 71-yard touchdown run by Zach DeNike, who ripped through the middle of the line on third down, to take the lead just over two minutes into the game. Old Tappan then held Demarest without a first half first down and scored touchdowns on all of its six first half possessions.
The Golden Knights' second possession consisted of nine straight runs that ended with DeNike's six-yard spurt of the middle for his second score of the night still less than eight minutes into the game. Kevin Martinez then avoided the rush to complete the two-point conversion pass to give NV/OT a 15-0 lead after the first quarter and the Knights scored four times in the second quarter to take a 43-0 lead into halftime.
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Matt Lee scored one of Demarest's two second half touchdowns. |
“We knew we had to come out and dominate from the start and take it to them the whole way. We focused on that all week and just came out and did our jobs,” said Martinez. “We ran the ball, when we needed to pass the ball we were able to and the line blocked great. We got the effort out of everyone and we played a complete game.”
Martinez looks every bit the composed and confident starting quarterback and that shows Old Tappan's depth as the job was supposed to belong to junior Jordan Fuller, who was set for a breakout season after an injury plagued 2013. When Fuller broke a bone in his left arm in the preseason, Martinez stepped in as the signal caller and Fuller is playing with a cast on in the defensive backfield and getting a few carries on offense.
When Fuller will return behind center is still unclear, but Old Tappan head coach Brian Dunn is in the position to not have to rush it. Martinez has been great and has plenty of weapons to work with as DeNike, Pierce Lucas, Jedh Downey and Fuller showed on Friday night.
“We have good kids in a lot of spots, kids that are solid highs school football players that can contribute. Between Jedh Downey at tight end, he's a real good player, Pierce is a real good player and DeNike doing what he does, all of these guys have a track record of good football, so it is not like they are surprising any of us,” said Dunn. “Kevin is better than a 'back-up' quarterback, we don't look at him as a fill-in. We know who our guys are and we have confidence in all of them to make a play at any point in the game.”
Lucas caught the 8-yard pass from Martinez and then kicked the extra point that gave Old Tappan the 36-0 lead with 8:19 left in the first half and was a threat to break it on numerous other occasions in carrying the ball on the Knights' signature play, the Jet Sweep.
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Center Justin Schettino and the Old Tappan offensive line controlled the line of scrimmage. |
“Our coach really emphasized coming out hard against them tonight. We wanted to prove a point. We were 2-0, they were 2-0 and we wanted to prove that we are the better team,” said Lucas, a senior and also a starting cornerback who helped shut down the passing game as Demarest tried to get back in it. “The start is great, 3-0 is as good as we can be and we just want to go week to week and carry it over.”
Getting to 4-0 will be difficult as Old Tappan goes out of its league to host St. Joseph Regional, but are hoping that they are not out of their depth. The Knights will see an increase in team speed against the team they will face next week and their starters did not play much in the second half against Demarest, so there might an early adjustment period.
But any changes designed specifically to counter St. Joe's have not yet been discussed.
“Honestly, I haven't even thought about it yet. I'll start on them tomorrow. It's like any other game and I wasn't worried about them tonight. This week was all about Demarest. I don't want to give you any stale answer, but tomorrow is when we start worrying about next week's game,” said Dunn, who, asked for a couple more cliches to end the interview, obliged with, “Three-and-0 is what it is. We'll take one day at a time and the kids played hard.”
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