Saturday,
November 21, 2015
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Jordan Fuller scored three times and had an interception for Old Tappan, which beat Wayne Valley, 42-20, in the North 1, Group 4 semifinals. The Knights will play Wayne Hills at MetLife Stadium for the title in two weeks. |
OLD TAPPAN – In 2010 there was ‘The Runback’, the 75-yard touchdown on a kickoff return, laterals included, with five seconds left in regulation that gave Wayne Hills an improbable victory in the state championship game. In 2011 there was a Wayne Hills team short nine players due to suspension that still found just enough firepower to beat Northern Valley/Old Tappan by three points in the state final rematch. Neither team has been back to MetLife Stadium since. That is why it is going to be so much fun in the Meadowlands two weeks from now.
Round 3 is now a reality after Wayne Hills came from the No. 7 seed to earn a spot in this year’s North 1, Group 4 final and Old Tappan played like the undefeated top seed that it is in a convincing 42-20 win over No. 5 Wayne Valley on Friday night.
“It’s been my dream ever since [UCLA senior] Devin Fuller was here and now we get a shot at it. Words can’t describe the feeling that we all have right now,” said Zach DeNike, the senior running back who scored two of Old Tappan’s six touchdowns. “Every one of us played our hearts out tonight and we came out on top.”
If Wayne Valley was going to have a chance to pull the upset, it was going to have to get ahead early use the clock to its advantage and force Old Tappan to think about all it had to lose. It never got that far.
Old Tappan set the tone defensively by holding the Indians to a three-and-out on their first possession and then 65 yards on its first possession for the touchdown that put the Knights in front for good. Senior quarterback Kevin Martinez hit DeNike for a nine-yard gain on third-and-8 from deep in Wayne Valley territory to set up Jordan Fuller’s 11-yard touchdown scamper from the Wildcat formation. Yani Mitropolous added the extra point with 6:32 to play in the first quarter as Old Tappan went ahead to stay.
Wayne Valley did not pick up its first first down of the game until its fourth offensive possession and by that time the Indians were already down three scores. DeNike scored from a yard out with 1:23 left in the first quarter and Fuller took a punt back 55 yards for a touchdown early in the second quarter to put the home team up 21-0 with still 11:07 to play in the first half.
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Quarterback Nick Goodwin threw for two scores for Wayne Valley, which finished the season at 9-2. |
Fuller, the younger brother of the aforementioned Devin Fuller and one of the state’s most sought after collegiate recruits, gave a hand signal while the punt was in the air, but not the fair catch sign that a couple of players on Wayne Valley’s punt coverage team thought it had seen.
“I was saying ‘scatter’ to my teammate because I thought he was going to run in to me,” said Jordan Fuller. “But I knew I was going to catch it and run from the get-go. I was not fair-catching that ball or signaling for it.”
Old Tappan had a chance to really drop the hammer one its final drive before halftime, but a holding call on third down for the Knights into a 39-yard field goal attempt that came up well short. Wayne Valley used the remaining 1:23 of the half to drive 80 yards for its first score. Quarterback Nick Goodwin scrambled for 32 yards to put the Indians in position and his third down pass on the final play of the half was hauled in by Joe Scancarella for an 11-yard score. The extra point was blocked and Old Tappan settled for the 21-6 lead at the break.
“The punt return made it 21-0 and we really had a chance to take the game over late in the half, but we stalled out with a penalty and a missed field goal. It would have been nice to get that touchdown there, but Wayne Valley is a good team,” said Old Tappan head coach Brian Dunn. “They play tough ‘D’ and they made us work for everything we got. It was not easy out there.”
Old Tappan got the ball to start the third quarter and quickly restored order. Behind an offensive line that gave him time to throw, Martinez hit DeNike for 12 yards on a third-and-8 to keep the drive going, he hit Ryan Weis down the hash marks for 35-yard gain and Fuller did the rest, scoring from 15 yards out, again from the Wildcat formation, for a 28-6 lead.
“It all starts with what we do in practice. The shoots, the sleds, the coaches staying right on top of us, all of this wouldn’t be possible,” said Mike Mancuso, Old Tappan’s sophomore center. “We just wanted to stay on our toes, come off the ball hard and blow them back. That is what we did. We owned it up front, but we can still get better. There is always room for improvement and we have to be better in the final.”
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Senior running back Zach DeNike scored twice for top-seeded Old Tappan, which improved to 11-0 on the season. |
Wayne Valley showed some signs of life late in the third quarter. On a fourth-and-goal from the 7, Goodwin hit Scancarella at the pylon for a touchdown to cap a 78-yard drive and then hit Vincent Tedesco for the two-point conversion that got the Indians back to within 28-14.
The ensuing kickoff was pooched high and short and was caught by one of Old Tappan’s up backs, who took a hit and put the ball on the ground before quickly covering it up himself. The Knights kept possession and used it to put the game away. Martinez kept the ball for himself on a zone read for 12-yard scored that made it 35-14.
DeNike closed Old Tappan’s scoring with a 37-yard touchdown with 7:50 left to play and Tedesco scored from three yards out on the game’s final play to make the final score a little more palatable for Wayne Valley, which closed its resurgent season with a 9-2 record.
Old Tappan (11-0) has one more game to play. It will come against its old nemesis in a familiar venue that has been a little bit of a house of horrors for the Golden Knights, who were a total of six points away from back-to-back state championships, but instead came away empty.
It’s Old Tappan/Wayne Hills once again for all the marbles in two weeks and the Knights have a chance to close some old wounds.
“We want to take this whole thing,” said Fuller. “The season would be a disappointment if we got this far and didn’t end up with a ring. That is our only focus right now.”
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