Joe Hofmann Notes Column: High School Football’s Most Unforgettable Seasons (Part 3)

The 2014 season ended with three sectional champions in Morris-Sussex – all of them thanks to incredible running games.

Sparta QB Anthony Argula had a mind-boggling senior season (184 for 253 passing, 2,476 yards, 38 TDs). How great was he? He threw just six INTs all year – and just three in the team’s final 11 games – all wins – after a season-opening 24-21 loss to Roxbury.

But Frank Marchiano’s Spartans didn’t need much from Argula in a 31-23 North 1, Group III victory over River Dell as Lucas Faria concluded his incredible career with a 239-yard, 3-TD performance. River Dell led early in the second half, 17-16, before Faria scored a 10-yard touchdown to put the Spartans ahead for good. Faria had a brilliant two-year career, going 280-for-2,174 rushing and 33 TDs as a junior. As a senior, he was “only” 202-for-1,273 yards. What a career he had for the Spartans: He was 513 for 3,630 rushing and scored 54 TDs.

This was a great era of Sparta football, maybe the best run the school ever enjoyed. The Spartans were always a good program during the days of the SCIL but, when the NJAC was formed in 2009, Sparta picked it up. The Spartans were arguably the best public school program in a very good conference that included the likes of traditional powerhouses like West Morris, Randolph, Roxbury, etc.  

In Morris County, Mountain Lakes Wing-T-d its way to a second straight sectional title (and 24th straight win overall) by beating Lincoln at MetLife, 36-28. Coach Darrell Fusco’s team had the ball three times in the first half and strung together long, time consuming drives each time. 

That’s not that impressive to read, but very impressive to watch if you’re a Wing-T purist (to which I plead guilty!).

QB Brad Smith, who’d torn his ACL just two months earlier, rushed for three TDs and Bobby Frawley rushed for another.

Par Hills, meanwhile, brought home a 20-13 victory over mighty Cranford for the Vikings first-ever state championship. The star of the game was diminutive-but-powerful Par Hills RB Angelo Gallego, who was 35 for 181 rushing, including a 12-yard touchdown run to put coach Dave Albano’s team ahead for good. The Par Hills game program listed Gallego as 5-7, 160. 

“I’m 5-4,” he told me with a laugh, “5-5 on a good day!” 

Meanwhile, freshman QB Nick Verducci had a 2-yard touchdown run and threw a 3-yard TD pass to Anthony Barlotta. Verducci had a magnificent career and was named to my All-Quarter Century team last summer.

2023

We had one of the most unlikely scenarios develop: West Morris won its third straight sectional championship but it was regarded as a total surprise. Kevin Hennelly’s Wolfpack lost five of six heading into the state playoffs and was 4-5 going into the postseason but managed to beat Pascack Valley, 19-17, Sparta, 30-9, and then stun highly regarded Old Tappan by coming from behind, 21-17. Old Tappan booted a field goal and seemed to have things under control at halftime with a 17-7 lead. But Hennelly’s team strung together two very long drives out of the Wing T. The first drive was an epic, 19-play, 80-yard march capped by QB Jacob Morris’ 1 -yard touchdown run. In the fourth quarter, the team went on a 10-play, 76-yard drive that ended with Garrett Crisp’s 20-yard touchdown run. West Morris may have been one of the worst sectional champions in the history of man (finishing fifth out of six teams in its league) but it sure came up clutch at the right time. 

Meanwhile, Mount Olive traveled to Roxbury and scored a wild, 27-26 come-from-behind victory over the neighboring rival Gaels. The winning TD came when QB Jake Asbury threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Vin Carpini with just 23 seconds left to conclude an 80-yard, 14-play march that began with 6:54 left in the game.  

Roxbury was ahead at halftime, 20-7, causing Marauder coach Brian O’Connor to tell his team at intermission, “Congrats, you just played your worst half of the year!”

Interesting sidebar to all of this: I didn’t have a Big State Sports All-Area QB selected yet coming into the Roxbury-Mount Olive game … and my two best candidates were Asbury and Roxbury’s Anthony Skawinski. Asbury drove his team downfield for the sectional championship winning score. You do that in front of the All-Area selection committee (me), and you’re in good shape for the postseason awards. Asbury wound up being my first-team QB. 

Ironically, Skawinski was constantly harassing Asbury on defense with three sacks during the final drive.

Another thought regarding this game: There were about 7,000 fans at the game and Roxbury High was rocking with a great atmosphere. In many previous years, this game would have been at Kean, MetLife or Rutgers, where there would have been tons of empty seats. I used to think playing in a sectional final at a big-time neutral site was a great reward for the athletes. But I have done a 180. 

Oftentimes at the big venue, the kids and coaches had a few minutes to celebrate and then were chased off the field so that the next game could go on schedule. 

But now, with the championship games on the high school field, the winning team can celebrate and pose for pictures for as long as they want – long into the night. The players, families and friends get a chance to hug and pose for pictures and that’s special. And you cannot beat the atmosphere at the high school site. I hope they never go back to the cavernous stadiums.

Mountain Lakes became the first (and only) Morris school to win a state Group championship by beating Glassboro at Rutgers, 24-6. With Lakes’ Wing-T bottled up, Herd senior Marco Dzamba dominated on defense (1 sack, 2 ½ tackles for loss, 2 forced fumbles, 1 recovery, 1 recovery for a TD). Not bad for a lax kid who went on to Dartmouth. 

It should be pointed out that, a week earlier, the Herd Wing-T obliterated Shabazz, 49-12, rushing 66 times for an astounding 447 yards. The Wing-T was percolating. 

There is a back story to all of this: I had just written a column for Big State saying Fake Group I schools like Shabazz (and Weequahic) had an enormous roster advantage over True Group I schools like Mountain Lakes, Boonton, Cedar Grove, etc. The advantage: With the growing number of charter schools in Newark, athletes could attend a charter school all day and then select which school they could attend to play football. It became the “in” thing to go to Shabazz, which was getting kids from a 12-mile radius. 

Meanwhile, Mountain Lakes, Boonton, Cedar Grove, etc. got its players from … about one square mile. I began referring to Shabazz as Shabazz Catholic. Shabazz had a racket going and the NJSIAA, possibly after seeing my column, pushed Shabazz up from Group I to Group II. Now they’re Group III. 

In bringing up the 2023 season, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Delbarton. All the Green Wave did was field perhaps its best team ever, beating DePaul, 28-0, St. Joe’s, 24-21, and Bosco, 14-9, in successive weeks. Coach Brian Bowers’ team lost in the state finals to powerhouse Bergen Catholic, 24-14. Delbarton’s defense may have well had the best linebacking unit in Morris history with Kyle Checchio (4 sacks, 9 tackles for loss, 78 tackles), Dallas Hurley (3, 5 ½, 90), and Johnny Riley (2 ½, 7 ½, 73) to go along with DT Connor Martin (4, 15, 54).

1998

The 1998 season was one of the best ever in Morris-Sussex. No less than five teams (four from Morris, one from Sussex) were sectional champions.

The big question of the day was, “Did he, or didn’t he?” Did Roxbury running back John Van Brunt cross the goal line in the Gaels 7-6 surprising victory over much-more-talented-but-not-nearly-as-well-coached Plainfield?

Spoiler alert: He absolutely, positively did not.

“They said I did,” Van Brunt said after the game. “I don’t know what the TV (replay) said but it doesn’t matter.” 

Added QB Josh Biber: “No comment. I plead the fifth!” 

Said Roxbury coach John Quinn: “I thought he broke the plane … Great call!”

I was standing on the sideline that afternoon. Take it from me: He didn’t. In fact, when the referee raised his arms, the Star-Ledger’s Sean Reilly and I looked at each other incredulously. We were on the sideline and had a clear view of the “touchdown.”

Regardless, Roxbury PK Jason Pike made his extra point and Plainfield failed to make theirs. Roxbury played a superb, near-perfect game defensively.

Don’t get me wrong: I wrote for a Morris County paper, and I was delighted with the outcome. 

Morristown, meanwhile, began the day at Giants Stadium with a 37-14 victory over Westfield in North 2, Group IV. The Colonials started out with a stunning 22- lead less than eight minutes into the game before Westfield cut it to 22-14 at the half. So coach John Porcelli called for a reverse and Stewart Winston returned a kick 68 yards to set up a Colonials TD and they rode that to the victory, their second of three straight.

Meanwhile, Madison – 1-2 to start the season and 3-7 the year before – captured a surprising 19-13 victory over New Providence to win North 2, Group I. First-year coach Milt Theodosatos was brought in to bring home a title and he did. It was his first championship after 38 years of coaching. Madison AD Ted Monica, himself a longtime brilliant coach at Madison, called Theodosatos during the previous offseason and said, “Bring back the Glory Days.”

That is exactly what Uncle Miltie did.

Delbarton, meanwhile, captured Parochial Group III at Rutgers with a convincing 21-3 win over Immaculata. Jermaine Pugh rushed for 155 yards and two TDs and the Jeff Parros-to-Wes Swackhamer combination, combined with a stout defense, helped lift coach John Kowalik’s team to its first state title in five years – and last one that the school has earned.

Pope John annihilated outmanned Pingry, 46-7, to win its fourth straight title in Parochial Group II and 18th overall.  

1994

So, who wins a one-game playoff between a great Group I school (Butler) and a great Group IV (Randolph)? That question was posed in 1994, after Butler beat New Providence to win a sectional championship, 35-21. Bulldog players, after the game that clinched  an 11-0 season, asked if one more game could be added to their schedule. Butler wanted a piece of mighty Randolph! Another kid said he wanted Bergen Catholic!

Coach Bob Jones was the first Run and Shoot outfit in Morris County and it paid immediate dividends as the team outscored its opponents that year by a whopping total of 459-75. QB Dan Madine threw for four TD passes against New Prov and set the state TD pass record in the process (38). Dave Conklin caught two TD passes and returned an INT for a touchdown. Butler’s receivers (Scott Van Zile was another) were lightning fast and often turned short completions into long gainers

Randolph, meanwhile, playing in its ninth straight sectional championship (positively mind-boggling!), seemed to be closing in on a victory over Montclair with a 12-7 lead with 3:43 left. The Rams were getting the ball via a Montclair punt and were moving the ball much of the afternoon. If memory serves, John Bauer’s team had 10 possessions all game long and had at least one first down in nine of them. 

In other words, all the Rams had to do was take possession of the ball and milk some clock. But University of Iowa-bound Tarig Holman took his eye off the punt and dropped it. Montclair recovered and wound up scoring … and then scoring again for a 22-12 win. (Holman recovered as well, intercepting TWO Tom Brady passes in the same Big 10 game a few years later).  

I have always been an advocate for Group I schools against Group IVs – but only when the Group I schools are incredible and Group IVs are suspect. One year (2008), Morris County’s bigger schools (Randolph, Roxbury, Morristown, Morris Knolls, West Morris, etc.) beat up on each other and then none of them went anywhere in the state playoffs. I saw Mountain Lakes a few times that year and the Herd went undefeated with an impressive 35-21 win over Glen Rock in the sectional finals. I went with Mountain Lakes as my final No. 1 team.

There was an outcry from Group III-IV fans and coaches – none of whom had even seen the Herd play. If I told you your favorite restaurant stunk – even though I’d never eaten there – would you respect my opinion? 

So could 1994 Butler have beaten 1994 Randolph? Interesting question, but I would have still gone with the Rams in that one. How about if the 1994 Butler team could somehow be placed in Morris County in 2008 (when the big Morris football schools were mediocre)? Yes, they would have been better than the Group III-IV teams from that year.

Meanwhile, Morris Knolls captured a wild 21-14 victory over West Essex to win a North 2, Group III championship at Giants Stadium. Knolls won it with 27 seconds left when, on fourth-and-2, workhorse RB Chris Cervona (36 for 224 rushing) followed a Tim Vorhies block and scored the touchdown to give Bill Regan his first of three straight sectional championships in East Rutherford. Oddly, Cervona missed two days of school the week leading up to the game with tonsillitis and an ear infection. His run completed a 16-play, 73-yard march.

The next day, Wallkill Valley didn’t have nearly the struggle Knolls had at Giants Stadium as the Rangers beat SCIL rival Lenape Valley, 22-0. John Pew’s team played bigger than their stature. He nicknamed them The Smurfs because the front seven on defense averaged a mere 5-foot-11. Wallkill won it thanks to the work of QB Lou Finamore (1 TD pass, 1 TD run) and Doug Talmadge (73-yard touchdown run, 39-yard INT return for a touchdown). The two teams tied earlier in the year, 14-14. How great an all-around player was Talmadge? Lenape coaching great Don Smolyn said after the game that Talmadge was the best player in the SCIL that year.

1975

The Morris-Sussex season ended with a ton of activity. The headliner was Morris Hills’ 7-0 win over mighty Phillipsburg to win the sectional title for the Scarlet Knights, who staged one of the most remarkable turnarounds in Morris history. The team finished 1-8 the previous year under coach Bill Galese, who returned most of the team for the next year. It may have been one of the most incredible coaching jobs of all time as Morris Hills completely flipped the script. Winning a few more games and making the playoffs would have been a great coaching job … winning it all one year after going 1-8 simply doesn’t happen too often.

The decisive play was Tony Lusardi (15 for 129) using a Harold Campbell block and going 67 yards for a stunning touchdown run before Joe Csabai booted the PAT. Late in the game, PBurg drove deep into Morris Hills territory, but Duane Fredericks sacked QB Mike Stocker as the clock ran out. 

Two Morris teams in a state final is always a treat and that is what we had when Mendham won its first and only sectional title when it beat Mountain Lakes, 19-6. Mendham had won eight wins in its previous five seasons before shifting in the Colonial Hills Conference. Minutemen QB Greg Keriazakos completed only three passes the entire game and all three went for touchdowns. Running back Ralph D’Agostino rushed for 130 yards for Mendham. Mendham, coached by Rich Attonito, and Herd, led by Doug Wilkins, played to a scoreless tie in a CHC regular-season game a short time earlier.

Meanwhile, Madison overwhelmed New Providence to win another sectional championship, 35-6, as Aaron Hagen (139 rushing yards, 2 TDs) and John Weller (135 passing yards, 2 TDs) provided the offense. The Dodgers defense, which allowed just 36 points all year, was dominant once again. 

Madison finished the year 10-0-1, with the tie coming against Verona. The state final game pitted college buddies/coaching legends Ted Monica and Frank Bottone. The two attended Panzer College (later to become Montclair State). Bottone coached under Monica for eight years at Madison.  

Pope John, meanwhile, had a dynasty of its own going when it beat St. Mary’s-Rutherford, 14-6, as Chris McGrath rushed for 168 yards. It was the 34th straight win for Vic Paternostro’s Lions.

1999

The season may well have had the highest level of football Morris County has ever seen as three Morris County schools (Delbarton, Pequannock, Morristown) finished in the Top 8 in New Jersey’s final Gannett Top 20. Morristown ended up No. 3, Delbarton was No. 4, and Pequannock was No. 8. I had a problem with how it all turned out (more on that later) but it was indeed an incredible ending to the season. Morris was loaded!

Morristown overwhelmed Rahway at Giants Stadium in the North 2, Group III final, 46-0, for the school’s third straight sectional crown and 30th straight win under coach John Porcelli. The defense, led by eventual All-State performer Jamahl Cochrane (12 sacks), linebacker Carmine Fornaro, and DB Rob Ogilvie, allowed just 70 points all year, competing in the mighty IHC-Iron. Porcelli said after the season that the 1999 Colonials were as good as the 1997-98 teams (I disagreed, but what was he supposed to say)? 

Delbarton, meanwhile, had two terrific All-State players in running back Jermaine Pugh (1,695 yards rushing, 33 TDs) and Penn State-bound LB Tim Johnson. The Green Wave won their first 11 games and held a late lead on powerful St. Joe-Montvale but couldn’t finish at Giants Stadium. Coach John Kowalik’s club went up on Joe’s with two minutes left, 17-14, but surrendered a long kickoff return and Joe’s wound up scoring and capturing a 22-17 victory. A week or so earlier, Joe’s hammered Bergen Catholic, 32-13, and Delbarton argued that its team should finish second in the state’s final rankings.

This leads us to Pequannock, which had an absolutely amazing team and season under coach Cosmo Lorusso and such 1AA players as QB Chris Wispelwey, WR Dave Telesh, LB Ben Burklow, DB Kyle Shenton, and versatile Rob Lomoriello. The Golden Panthers obliterated a strong Mendham team in the North 2, Group II semifinals, 56-21 after an incredible 42-point halftime lead. I was at that game … that Pequannock team was about as good as it gets in high school football, and Mendham was no slouch. After the game, Mendham coach Bill Carpluk put Pequannock on the same pedestal as some of the great Summit and Dover teams he’d encountered down through the years. Keep that in mind as you read on.

But in the sectional finals at Kean two weeks later, Pequannock beat Hanover Park by “only” 14-8. 

So the final Daily Record poll was turned on its ear. 

Heading into the final week, I had it 1. Delbarton, 2. Pequannock, 3. Morristown. The way I saw it, Delbarton lost and should drop. Next up? Pequannock should slide into No. 1, right? Morristown was great, but they entered the final week behind Pequannock – and Pequannock just won a sectional championship. Easy call? To me it was. A team should never drop after winning a title, right?

So, how did Morristown begin that final week behind Pequannock? That’s an easy explanation. The Colonials lost most of the players from the great teams from 1997-98 so they started out the season ranked behind a Pequannock team that returned pretty much its entire team from a (hotly disputed) sectional finals loss to Caldwell a year earlier. True, Morristown had had a long winning streak coming into the season, but so what? That had nothing to do with 1999.

So what happened? Well, the sports editor twisted my arm. And I think the editor of the paper (a Morristown resident, by the way) may have strong-armed the sports editor’s arm. We (The Daily Record) sold something like 4,000 papers per day in Morristown, compared to about 50 in Pequannock. To me, that should never enter into it, but it did.

So I wussed out. You cannot fight city hall. I was none too pleased (and still kind of annoyed how this all turned out)!

So the finish was 1. Morristown, 2. Pequannock, 3. Delbarton.

Lenape Valley, meanwhile, won its seventh overall title under legendary coach Don Smolyn when it beat Westwood, 14-7. The Bergen County school was a big comeback team that year, overcoming 20-point deficits to win three different games during the year. But the Patriots turned to defensive standout Chris Vaughan, who had a critical sack and pass breakup late in the game, and Chris Holland, who wound up being All-Area. 

NEXT WEEK: The No. 1 team in Hofmann’s All-Quarter-Century team shows why at Giants Stadium.

Here and there

1.) The NJSIAA has decided to stage all seven state football finals on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 28-29 (Thanksgiving weekend). 

Robbinsville has decided that Thanksgiving rivalries (Phillipsburg and Easton (Pa.) at Lafayette College, Shabazz vs. Weequahic, Millville vs. Vineland) no longer matter. I have come full circle on Thanksgiving football. I used to think they were pointless, but they are not at all pointless to the communities who still play them. 

When rivalry games have been played for over 100 years, who does the NJSIAA think they are telling them to scrap it (if a team makes the state Group finals, that is). This comes after the state starts the season way too early (the weekend before Labor Day, before kids are even in school) so that two more weekends are available for the handful of teams (out of about 330) who make it to the Group championship game. 

But what about most of the schools who don’t make it that far? Well, most schools now see their seasons end on Halloween, which used to be the beginning of the season’s crunch time. Now, many coaches have told me they pack stuff away by Halloween. Even midget football leagues last into November (maybe because they don’t have Robbinsville running their leagues)!

“Play the game or don’t play the game, but the point is we’re at MetLife for seven games,” NJSIAA Executive Director Colleen Maguire told NJ.com last week. “You’re on notice. Plan accordingly.”

WOW! Way to be flexible!

If a school like PBurg makes it to the Group V finals, I think they’d prefer to face Easton on Thanksgiving than play at MetLife. Telling Pburg to suck it up and figure it out is pure arrogance!

Memo to the NJSIAA: End the state Group championships, finish the season with sectional finals the first Saturday in December, and begin the season in early September. Most New Jersey coaches will thank you. 

2.) Group II Bernards is shrinking in enrollment (they are expected to be Group I by 2031) and would like to leave the Skylands-Big Central Conference and gain admission to the NWJAC-Super Football Conference.  3.)

3.) Immaculata, meanwhile, is seeking to leave the SFC and gain admittance into the Big Central. The SFC “awarded” Mendham, West Morris and Morris Knolls with games this year – and none of those schools are particularly thrilled with the arrangement. Rightly so. If you’re a public school, would you want a school that draws all over creation dumped on your lap?