Who were the best offensive football players in Morris and Sussex County over the past quarter century?
If you want to know the answer, you have come to the right place.
I did the research, scanned my brain, analyzed the data and came up with a list of incredible offensive football players who dominated Morris and Sussex County from 2000 until today (The All-Hofmann Quarter Century Defense ran in Big State Sports last week and is on the website).
These are the very, very good area offensive football players.
Not just the good.
Not just the very good.
They are the elite. The best of the best.
I have seen the good and the bad and everything in between from that time until now.
Obviously, to be great, you had to be first-team All-County or All-Area at least once.
But more is required.
To be among the truly elite, you had to be a cut above, so you had to be mentioned among Gannett or AP All-State teams. There were some years when AP didn’t put together a team and Gannett did, or years when no one put an all-state team out there so I went to the Star-Ledger.
So what else goes into this? Well, you take loads of notes from the articles written and begin to formulate your team … stats matter, of course, and so does strength of competition.
Longevity matters, too. A terrific senior year means a lot, but a great two or three-year career means even more. And if you led your team to a sectional championship, that is a definite plus.
So, is that it? Nope. The last line of defense for me is the coaches and the word of people I trust. Many coaches have been around for a long time. They don’t coach for a paycheck, they coach because the absolutely LOVE this stuff.
So how hard was putting this together? Well, put it this way: Some of the running backs I left off were terrific but had to turn in their playbook when it came time for me to turn in the team: Chase Cramer (Newton), Logan Pych (Vernon), Ryan Trafford (Delbarton), Jacob Mafaro (Kittatinny), Tom Cabarle (West Morris), Austin Castorina (Sparta), Braydon Nolan (Newton) and Jared Greenberg (Butler) were just a few.
And look at some of the quarterbacks who were in the discussion but were sent home: Drew Willy (Randolph), Tommy Hennessy (Morris Knolls), Jack McBride (Delbarton), Cole Freeman (Delbarton), J.D. Breslauer (Parsippany Hills), and Mike Gerardi (Parsippany Hills), to name a few.
See where I am at? Some very, VERY good players couldn’t crack the all-quarter century team.
Some other considerations in selecting my team: If a kid makes the NFL, does that automatically put him on my team? Nope. NY Giants starter Jermaine Eluemunor was not highly regarded when he was a senior at Morris Knolls. He went to junior college, then Texas A and M, and then blossomed.
This is about high school performance.
And what about kickers and punters? That is a great question. When selecting them down through the years, I usually opted for a kid who was a great all-around player who was pretty good at kicking. Unless there was a kicker or punter who was so good at his job that I couldn’t go anywhere else.
But here are some tidbits about who made the team:
- There were many, many terrific quarterbacks but Nick Verducci (Parsippany Hills) and Grant Dixon (Roxbury) win out in the end. Both were incredible passers and runners. Verducci’s four-year career blew me away: He was 426 for 660 with 5,889 yards passing, 66 touchdowns and only 20 INTs but that’s not all. He was 393 for 3,766 rushing with 42 touchdowns and quarterbacked a sectional championship team as a freshman.
- Dixon was a two-time Daily Record Player of the Year (2015-2016) and was a stellar passer (323 for 556, 4,721 yards, 49 TDs, 12 INTs) and runner (196 for 906, 14 TDs). Dixon was so good that he caused then-Roxbury coach Cosmo Lorusso to abandon one offense (Cosmo is Wing-T to his very being) and switch to another (the Spread). That’s like the Pope becoming Protestant.
- The 2006 season was an incredible one in Sussex County because it featured both Joe Martinek (Hopatcong) and Jeremy Tucker (Pope John) at the very top of their games. Together, they graced the cover of the Daily Record preseason football section (I miss doing those!). Each week, they both seemed to out-do the other. Martinek finished his four-year career with a New Jersey-record 7,589 yards and 80 TDs and led the team to a sectional title as a junior in 2005. Tucker, meanwhile, had two 2,400-yard seasons for legendary Vic Paternostro and finished his career with 6,337 total yards after transferring in from Bayley-Ellard, which closed after his sophomore year.
- Jason Harper (Pope John) rushed for 2,995 yards and 35 TDs as a senior and finished his Lions career with 4,876 yards.
- Justin Goodwin (Madison) led the Dodgers to three straight sectional championships and was 358 for 4,097 yards and 64 TDs during that stretch.
- Stefano Montella (West Morris) led the Wolfpack to two straight sectional championships, rushing 537 times for 4,296 yards and 50 TDs in his career.
- There were a TON of terrific linemen to choose from. Choosing linemen can be tricky. Down through the years, I have seen some great high school linemen who were ordinary-looking kids off the field but feisty, relentless and top-notch on the O-Line. Other kids are gigantic and went on to major colleges. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to war with the latter, which was the deciding factor in picking my first-team linemen here.
So without further ado, here is the All-Hofmann Quarter Century Team Offense.
NEXT WEEK: We begin looking at the best teams of this century.
All-Hofmann Quarter Century Team
FIRST TEAM OFFENSE
QB-Nick Verducci (Parsippany Hills)
QB-Grant Dixon (Roxbury)
RB-Joe Martinek (Hopatcong)
RB-Jeremy Tucker (Pope John)
RB-Jason Harper (Pope John)
RB-Stefano Montella (West Morris)
RB-Justin Goodwin (Madison)
OL-Aiden Lynch (Mount Olive)
OL-Andrew Ottermann (Delbarton)
OL-Robert Mahon (Randolph)
OL-Angelo Mangiro (Roxbury)
OL-Leigh Denman (Roxbury)
OL-Dante DiIonno (Madison)
TE-Marco Dzamba (Mountain Lakes)
TE-Ryan Izzo (Pope John)
WR-Jarrett Schreck (Delbarton)
WR-Noah Brown (Pope John)
WR-Andrew Turzilli (Butler)
UT-Adam Lavalley (Sparta)
UT-Michael Burton (West Morris)
PK-Jack Morgese (Pope John)
SECOND TEAM OFFENSE
QB-Liam Anderson (Mount Olive)
QB-Austen Frattura (Sparta)
RB-Sean Szarka (Roxbury)
RB-Lucas Faria (Sparta)
RB-Tylik Hill (Pope John)
RB-George Scalley (Dover)
RB-Ryan Pepe (Pope John)
OL-Zack Heeman (Mount Olive)
OL-Seth Pearson (Delbarton)
OL-Rodney Doster (Dover)
OL-BIlly Taylor (Parsippany Hills)
OL-Collin Leonhardt (West Morris)
OL-Mike Saint Germain (Morristown).
TE-Chris Rudanovic (High Point)
TE-Eric Magnifico (Hanover Park)
WR-E.J. Comerford (Parsippany Hills)
WR-Colin Larmond (Morristown-Beard)
WR-Phil Folmar (Delbarton)
UT-Mike Groome (Lenape Valley)
PK-Will Kramer (Delbarton)
