Saturday,
September 12, 2015
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Justice Witkowski ran for two long scores, including one as time expired in the first half as New Milford opened its season with a 32-0 shutout in Palisades Park on Friday night. |
PALISADES PARK – New Milford’s football team from a year ago had a lot of underclassmen and a lot of inexperienced varsity players, which made for a little bit of a roller coaster ride. When the Knights took care of the ball and stuck to their assignments, they could play with any team on their schedule. When the opposite happened, well…that is why they finished 5-5 and just out of the playoffs.
One of the down moments came in last season’s opener when, on the same night that New Milford honored Ed Marinaro, one of its favorite sons, the Knights dropped a decision to Palisades Park/Leonia, the co-op program that was then the more experienced side.
This year the roles are reversed and New Milford looked far more composed and far more athletic in the rematch on Friday night in the season opener for both teams. After a scoreless first quarter New Milford found the end zone on all three of its second quarter possessions. The last of those scores was the clincher, a 31-yard tackle-breaking run by junior quarterback Justice Witkowski with no time left on the clock, as New Milford set the tone for its season with an impressive 32-0 win on the road.
“I think these kids were embarrassed a little bit by what happened on opening night last year and we just wanted to come out here and play a cleaner game,” said New Milford head coach Billy Wilde. “We had eight sophomores and freshmen playing in that game last year and when the lights came on, maybe we weren’t really ready. It was part of the learning process and we are back this year with just about the same team. We still only have two seniors starting, but we are more experienced and I think that showed tonight.”
New Milford did not try to force the issue. Instead, it waited out the Tigers long opening drive that consumed nearly eight minutes and got as far as the Knights’ 28-yard line. Facing a fourth-and-3, Pal Park quarterback JoJo Robinson threw a strike that would have been good enough for a first down, but it was dropped and New Milford took over possession and control of the game. The Knights ate up the last 4:27 of the first quarter and the first 1:24 of the second before Christian Correa found a hole on the left side and then ran over a defensive back on his way to an 8-yard TD that put the Knights ahead for good.
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Dual threat senior quarterback JoJo Robinson will be a key to Pal Park/Leonia's season. |
“Our line showed up today, they played great and the holes were huge. I was a big step up from last year and (tackle) Dave [Willock] and (guard) Eddie [Rynander] were opening up plenty of space,” said Correa, a 5-foot-10, 175-pound junior. “Once I scored that first touchdown I knew it was going to be our game.”
New Milford’s next possession looked like it was stalled at its own 37 before the Tigers were flagged for having too many players on the field during the punt return. Two plays later, Witkowski went 43 yards up the left side to make it 12-0. Then, just before halftime, Witkowski took a snap with five seconds remaining, checked a couple of receivers that were covered and then weaved his way through for the 31-yard touchdown that made it 19-0 at the break.
And that was pretty much it.
“It was good to get the kinks out and get the season going with a good win on the road. We made a few more mistakes than we wanted to, but we know what we have to work on now and we’ll do it,” said Witkowski, a junior. “We felt like we had to come out and make a statement about what kind of team we are. We think we are going to have a great season.”
Correa scored on a 6-yard run with 8:14 left in the third quarter to make it 25-0 and Brett Kornberg ran one in from the same distance on the first play of the fourth quarter to cap the scoring.
Pal Park/Leonia finished up one of the best four-year runs of success in school history last year, but has had to hit the reset button and start a new cycle. Because it is a co-op program, the Tigers will have to do it against a challenging schedule. There is no freshman team and JV games are going to be decided on a week by week basis. Mike Coyne is the new head coach and he is assisted by, among others, AJ Scoppa and both of them have links to Friday night’s opponent. Coyne was the defensive coordinator on Wilde’s staff when New Milford went to a state final in 2007. Scoppa is a New Milford alum and one of the best running backs in program history.
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Christian Correa scored twice for New Milford, which will host Lyndhurst next Friday night. |
“That was interesting because Mike (Coyne) was my defensive coordinator, we go back a long way and we are running pretty much the same defense with the same terminology. We worked on so many things throughout the summer and we pretty much had to change everything for this one game,” said Wilde. “I am happy that we got this win and I am happy for (Coyne) because I know he will do great things with that program.”
Pal Park will try to get its head coach his first win next Saturday at Manchester Regional, while New Milford will host Lyndhurst next Friday before heading out of state. With Ridgefield pulling out of its varsity schedule this season, the Knights filled the open date with Abbott Tech/Immaculate of Connecticut in Week 3.
North 1, Group 1, as it is just about every year, is wide open and the Knights might just have taken the first step in what could be a special season.
“We have a lot of kids back from last year, we have a little size and we have some speed, but we have to get better. We have to clean things up,” said Wilde. “The great thing about this team is that they love to play. We could have taken the forfeit against Ridgefield and moved on, but we looked all over the tri-state area looking for a game and we are really looking forward to it, but we’ll worry about next week first.”
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