Saturday,
September 19, 2015
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Jordan Fuller scored the go-ahead touchdown midway through the fourth quarter and Old Tappan held on from there in a 32-28 win over Ramapo. |
OLD TAPPAN – High school football is in a bit of a state of flux right now. The publics are no longer obligated to schedule the parochials, but public school schedules are not exactly balanced just yet. Change is coming with the formation of a ‘Super League’ that will give the flexibility to match teams of like size and ability, but until that all gets sorted out, it is necessary to enjoy games like the one that happened on Friday night in Old Tappan.
The first four possessions of the second half all ended in scores before an Old Tappan turnover, its fifth of the game, seemed to turn the tide in favor of visiting Ramapo. That lasted only until Jordan Fuller’s dazzling 35-yard touchdown run gave Old Tappan the lead back and it held on, barely, as what looked like a late go-ahead touchdown turned into Ramapo’s only turnover of the night, a fumble through the end zone that went for a touchback.
In the end, Old Tappan escaped with a 32-28 win, a playoff power point builder that will certainly help later on in the season.
“I thought coming out of halftime that we were going to take the game over, but we didn’t. They responded quickly and they are a very good team. I was impressed with the way Ramapo played, how hard they played,” said Old Tappan head coach Brian Dunn. “We got a couple of big plays by [quarterback] Kevin [Martinez] and then by Jordan [Fuller] and we were fortunate to get out of here with a win.”
Old Tappan was sloppy in the first half. It’s first four possession of the game ended with a fumbled punt return, an interception, a punt and another interception and it fell behind when Ramapo quarterback Keith Woetzel scored on a 5-yard keeper with 3:03 left in the first quarter. Paul Mokrzycki added the extra point to make it 7-0.
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Ramapo QB Keith Woetzel ran for three scores and threw for another in a brilliant performance. |
After having a Fuller punt return for a TD called back by a penalty the Golden Knights were finally able to settle in. On a third-and-8 from just inside midfield, Martinez hit Fuller down the season for a 49-yard score and Fuller then hit James Kelly with a shovel pass for the 2-point conversion that put Old Tappan in front 8-7.
It looked like the Golden Knights had taken firm control as Fuller took a snap from the wildcat formation and scored from 13 yards out to give his team a 15-7 halftime lead and Old Tappan went 59 yards in eight plays for a score on the first drive of the second half. Martinez’s 13-yard run and Yanni Mitropoulos’ extra point gave the home team a 22-7 advantage.
Instead of looking for the exit, Ramapo instead opened up its offense. The Green Raiders played it close to the vest in the first half knowing that a punt was not necessarily a bad outcome while the game stayed close, but when they fell behind by multiple scores; they started to use not only Woetzel’s legs, but also his arm and threw the ball down the field.
“They surprised us a little bit with the amount of blitz and man coverage they came out with in the first half. They haven’t shown that much in the past, so it took us a little while to kind of adjust our game plan to throw the ball a little more,” said Ramapo head coach Drew Gibbs. “Keith made some tremendous plays in the second half. He showed he could throw it, he showed he could run it and he is a multi-talented kid. Keith and Jordan [Fuller] are two of the best players in North Jersey in the public school realm for sure and they both made a lot of plays.”
Woetzel kept for a 14-yard score with 6:12 left in the third quarter to make it 22-14 before Mitropoulos’ 29–yard field pushed the NV/OT lead back up to 25-14. It was the next two snaps of the ball from scrimmage that almost tipped the balance in Ramapo’s favor for good.
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Old Tappan QB Kevin Martinez threw for one score and ran in another one. |
On first down from his own 28, Woetzel hit Ryan Curtiss for a 72-yard TD to make it 25-21 with 59 seconds left in the third quarter and then, on Old Tappan’s next offensive snap, Ryan Curtiss won the battle for a fade thrown up the left sideline. It was Old Tappan’s fifth turnover on the night and Ramapo turned it in to a 9-play, 72-yard drive that culminated in Woetzel’s 9-yard keeper that gave Ramapo a 28-15 lead with 8:13 to play in the game. Another Old Tappan mistake, a roughing the punter on a fourth-and-14 from near midfield, kept that drive alive for Ramapo.
But no matter what else might be going wrong, Fuller has the kind of athletic ability to make things right in a hurry. He took a wildcat snap and rolled left, outrunning two defenders closing from the inside and then turning another defender a couple of different ways before darting through for a 35-yard score with 8:05 left that eventually turned into the game-winner.
“I don’t really remember everything that happened on that play right now because I have so many emotions going on right now, but I do know that I got a great block on the corner from Joe Al Sharif and I ran through it,” said Fuller, who scored twice on the ground, once through the air and was the holder on all three successful extra points and the made field goal. “This is a big win. Ramapo is a great team, there are a lot of good players on that team, so get this win really feels good right now.”
The game wasn’t over, however, not even close, as Ramapo took over on its own 27 with 5:36 to play. Woetzel kept for 33 yards on the first play of the drive and then ran for 17 on a fourth-and-1 from the Old Tappan 28 to put the Green Raiders on the doorstep.
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Ramapo's Ryan Curtiss caught a 72-yard TD pass. |
A halfback pass from Greg Latushko to Woetzel, who had snuck around the left side, put Ramapo just two yards away from the go-ahead score and it certainly looked like they would take the lead on a conventional running play off left tackle on the next play, but a fumble that found its way out of the end zone instead was the result.
Instead of facing the prospect of having to drive the length of the field with just over one minute to play and trailing by at least two points, Old Tappan instead kept its lead and took over possession on its own 20 needing to just run out the clock.
Old Tappan’s Zack DeNike and Johnny Piccinich could hardly believe it.
“We were both on the same side of the field. We both saw the ball go out of bounds and we just looked at each other and said, ‘We just won the game,” said Piccinich.
“It was crazy,” said DeNike. “The ball went out of bounds and I said, ‘That’s our ball. We get it on the 20-yard line and we just won the game.”
That said it still was a little dicey in the final minute. Ramapo used its two remaining timeouts, the second leaving Old Tappan with a fourth-and-5 from its own 25. There were five seconds left on the clock and Fuller sprinted right for 6 yards as the scoreboard clock began to add seconds instead subtract them and a flag flew from an official’s pocket.
When it was sorted out, the clock was ruled to have run out, but the penalty was called against Old Tappan, which means there was still one untimed down to play. Had Fuller not picked up the first down on his run, Ramapo could have declined the penalty and taken over on downs with one shot at the end zone from inside the 20. Instead, Ramapo had no choice and Old Tappan took a knee to end it.
“I am thrilled that we won, or at least I will be at some point, but in truth we kind of snuck out of here with this win. The kid fumbled the ball [through the end zone] and we survived, but they were making plays on us,” said Dunn, whose team improved to 2-0 heading into next week’s rivalry game against Northern Valley/Demarest. “This game will be a great teaching tool because a lot of our weaknesses were exposed and we have to get better.”
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