Senior Adrian Caba scored three rushing TDs for Paramus, which improved to 3-2 on the season with a 28-0 win at Dumont.
DUMONT – Paramus is a gatekeeper of sorts in the New Jersey Super Football Conference. The Spartans’ two losses this year have come against Northern Valley/Old Tappan, the undefeated and defending Group 3 state champion and Pascack Valley, a program on the rise that just gave defending state sectional champion Northern Highlands a run for its money. If a team can beat the Spartans, it is likely a playoff team and upstart Dumont got a chance to test itself at home on Friday night.
Just two years removed from the Ivy League and with a comparatively solid roster size, the Huskies were 2-1 coming into the game, had some early chances with the field position advantage and hung in there right through halftime, but Paramus stayed the course.
With a conservative approach and some big plays in the running game, the Spartans turned an 8-0 halftime lead into a 28-0 shutout that pushed them back over .500 for the season at 3-2.
“We always say it is not about who is on our schedule, it is only about how we play. It’s been kind of what you saw tonight. We can look good at times and we can look ugly and sloppy sometimes,” said Paramus head coach Joe Sabella. “When we have it rolling we are a pretty good football team. When we make mistakes we can lose to anybody.”
It looked like it was going to be a toss-up early on as Dumont held Paramus to a three-and-out on the first offensive possession of the game and then, after the Spartans’ defense returned the favor, Dumont punter Ethan Chairamonte’s kick was downed at the 10. It was not until Chris Aykurt ripped off two consecutive long runs that totaled 39 yards that Paramus was able to get out from the shadow of its own goal posts for the first time in the game.
It was on Paramus’ third possession, which again started deep in its own end after another good punt by Chairamonte, this one of 54 yards, that the Spartans were consistently able to move the chains. Senior Adrian Caba had two straight first down carries to get the offense moving and a Cormac O’Hara hit Liam Jones for an 18-yard gain up the sidelines to put Paramus in Dumont territory. The drive spanned the end of the scoreless first quarter and the first 3:44 of the second before Caba went in untouched from 10 yards out to and a faked extra point out of the kicking formation went for a 2-point conversion pass to Drew Rennar.
Josiah Guzman and Dumont will try to get back on track next week at home against Kinnelon..
With 8:16 left in the first half Paramus went up 8-0 and never looked back.
“It was a close game at first, we had two players shaken up early but we had to rely on our physicality. Up front, I think we dominated and we needed that to gain momentum,” said Caba, not the biggest of backs, but one who picks a hole and hits it with speed. “If we play physical like we did tonight it is going to be hard for other teams to stop us.”
Dumont had some trouble stopping Caba as he broke off a 61-yard touchdown run on Paramus’ first drive of the second half and scored on a 6-yard jaunt 39 seconds into the fourth quarter to make it 21-0. The deficit forced Dumont to open up its offense more than it might like and that left fewer responsibilities for pass rushers like Isaac Moons, the two-way lineman who was in the backfield all night long.
“We were in the weight room all off season and this line, the guys up front, we are a like a family now. We know we have to work hard to get better and that is all we are focused on,” said Moon. “We don’t have a lot of guys [on the roster], but we are physical. Even though we are a small group we still feel like we can dominate and we did that tonight once we got the momentum.”
O’Hara’s QB sneak from two yards out with 8:40 left in the game closed the scoring as Paramus, which snapped a two-game losing streak last week, made it a two-game winning streak on the road on Friday night. The Spartans turned the ball over just once and also had one take away. Breaking even in the turnover battle was actually a plus for Paramus.
Junior QB Cormac O'Hara scored the final TD for Paramus, which will host Kennedy on Friday night.
“We made it happen. We are a physical team, we have our confidence back and I think we are going to get on a roll,” said O’Hara, “The first few games I threw too many picks. I was rushing, I was forcing throws and I wanted to stop that today. I feel like today as a team we were patient, we stuck with the basics, we didn’t force anything and it worked out.”
Dumont (2-2) never really got untracked offensively. The Huskies’ biggest plays in special teams where Chairamonte was a factor in the kicking game and they hung in their defensively. Jeremy Quezada forced a first quarter fumble with a big hit as AJ Rosenberger came up with the recovery, but Dumont could not cash it in and will try to push itself back over .500 on Friday night at Kinnelon.
The Spartans now have a chance to pile up some wins with four more regular season games starting at home on Friday night with Kennedy paying a visit to Paramus.
Sabella is not taking anything for granted, but if his team plays as well as it did against a scrappy Dumont side, it will have a chance to string together some wins.
“Tonight was one of those games where we thought we could control the line of scrimmage and we were successful moving the ball, we just have to stay away from the penalties. Penalties are just killing us,” said Sabella. “Our strength tonight was our line. We have Aidin Xheraj at [left] tackle, Ryan Vene at left guard, Isaac Moon at center, Hansel Asmar at right guard and Danny Elyash at right tackle. All of those guys up front are returners. To be honest, the Dumont game last year on Senior Night [a 13-8 loss] was definitely on our minds. Dumont is a really good football team, a well-coached football team, a tough football team and we are happy with how we played and we need to do it consistently moving forward.”
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