Kinnelon Outlast Boonton in Rematch

Kinnelon’s 2026 football motto is to “empty the tank.”

By the end of Week 4, the Colts were living up to that credo – but not in a good way.

The team was 1-3 and … boy, the tank sure looked empty, all right. 

Coach Dustin Grande’s team was on ‘E’ with a large chunk of the season remaining. They were that struggling vehicle in the slow lane on the Parkway, putt-putt-puttering along.

Turns out, the Colts had some fuel left in the tank after all.

And here they are, getting ready for a sectional semifinal game at Newton Friday night.

Kinnelon, off to a 1-3 start, has turned the corner, which comes as no surprise to Grande.

That has been the program’s MO since he arrived.

“One thing I always pride myself in,” he said, “is that our team always gets better.”

True to form, Kinnelon found its footing and has won five of its last six games, including a wild, 27-23 seesaw victory over Boonton in the North 1, Group I playoffs. 

Boonton had handed Kinnelon a 35-30 defeat back in September.

But that seems so long ago.

“We were 1-3 and we could have looked at it as, ‘We don’t have it,’” Grande said. “The kids could have quit but they didn’t.”

The team fought back from a 14-7 deficit against Boonton in the second half when brothers Chase and Gage Brancaleone scored touchdowns to put the team ahead.

Then after Boonton scored a touchdown, Gage Brancaleone responded with a 5-yard touchdown run, putting the Colts up for good. 

“I wasn’t planning on playing much offense,” Gage Brancaleone said. “Scoring two TDs in such a big game was awesome.” 

Chase Brancaleone rushed 19 times for a career-high 141 yards. Gage, who is rounding into form after breaking his ankle playing pickup basketball last season, added 45 yards and his two TDs.

Quarterback Matt Siciliano, who has rushed for more than 800 yards despite missing about one month due to a hamstring injury, saw his snaps limited because he seemed to reinjure it against Boonton.

“Matt got hurt,” Gage Brancleone said, “and I wasn’t counting on getting that many carries.”

The timing of Chase Brancaleone’s development in the backfield couldn’t have been any more timely after Siciliano’s injury.

During that stretch, Chase has three 100-yard games and has rushed for a total of 784 yards this year.

“They are really tough, hard-nosed kids who leave it all out on the field,” Grande said.

Kinnelon’s O-Line – John Donaldson, Anthony Manna, Kenneth Klein, Marko Kryshtof, Lennox Manton, and TE Dillon Aslani – were a major reason why the team rushed 44 times for 321 yards.

“We ran the Slot T, not the Power T, which we had used,” Grande said. “It comes from Texas. It is a derivative of the Wing T and the Power I. Liberty Hill School runs it. One of their coaches is retired and he has done clinics. I have been in touch with him. We are in it this year and I’d like to take it to another level next year. Paul Kilby is the assistant coach there. He puts on clinics.”

Kinnelon won despite – get a load of this – completing one pass for minus-4 yards. 

“It was a tipped pass, not a true pass,” Grande said. “Tyler (Grande’s son, the backup to Siciliano) threw an incomplete pass to stop the clock. We didn’t throw a pass in the game. In the second half, as we are driving and moving the ball, my assistant coaches are screaming in the head phones, calling for a pass play. I said, ‘Guys if they’re not stopping us, keep it going!”

Added Chase Brancaleone, “Our O-Line was great and so were our skill guys. We made no mistakes, which cost us the first time against Boonton. We emphasized moving at a faster pace. Limiting penalties was huge. We put a big emphasis on that.” 

The Colts defense, meanwhile, stepped up when it had to in the second half.

“They were lights out,” Grande said. “You are not gonna stop Boonton’s attack. You just hope to slow it down. The line, linebackers and secondary all did their job. We went to different fronts. We felt we had some answers. We didn’t have answers in the first game. We didn’t want to stay stagnant in one defense all game long.” 

Aslani, Jack Mayer, Braden Whalen were stout up front. The linebacking crew of Shane Marshall, Gage Brancaleone, Nate Parrella, Jack Felson, safeties Tyler Grande and Chase Brancaleone, and corners Skyler Porter and Leo Dimitrakiou took turns limiting Boonton’s big plays.

Even though Boonton beat Kinnelon back in September, Grande believed his team had a good chance to win the rematch. 

“We felt we could have success in the running game,” he said. “In that previous game, we had a TD called back because of a penalty. We had two drives where we were close to scoring, one where we threw an INT and another when we ran out of time.”

In that game, Kinnelon rushed for nearly 400 yards.

“We felt right there, Boonton made the plays, certainly more than we did,” Grande said. “I’m close with (Bombers coach) Sean Norton. He’s a good guy. These are rivalry games but there is a difference. There is a mutual respect between fans, and coaches and players. Neither of us wanted to have a rematch. We were hoping to play someone new. 

“My text to him when we found out we were playing them was, ‘It’ll come down to the wire and be another classic.’ Fortunately we made more plays this time to get the win.”

“Beating Boonton took a lot of preparation,” Chase Brancaleone added. “We had to change defensive schemes and move players around. One thing that we did that worked out was moving our end to middle linebacker. Dillon Aslani was making tackles all over the place.”

And now it is on to powerful Newton, the top seed.

“They are well coached,” Grande said. “When they dropped out of Group 2 and came down to Group 1, I knew they’d be a force. They are undefeated and a great team.”

Said Gage Brancaleone, “Our coaches will come up with a great gameplan together and hopefully we’ll succeed.”