Brigham Farrand had the ball, cut through the line and … wait a second, Farrand didn’t have the ball. Tommy Hennessy did, and he spun in the other direction and … hold on, he just pitched the ball to Jimmy Steinmetz, who is now streaking up the sideline 20 yards downfield.
Welcome to Morris Knolls football, circa 2005 – and good luck stopping them.
Coach Bill Regan’s team rode the unique Veer running attack to a historic season. That Knolls team is the best I’ve seen in this quarter century and are the No. 1 team in Hofmann’s Quarter Century Top 20.
The Golden Eagles ran the ball to perfection – all the way to a 12-0 season that culminated with a 21-6 North 1, Group IV championship victory over Montclair at MetLife Stadium.
That Knolls team rushed for 4,600 yards, a staggering figure when you consider that Regan often rested his starters in the fourth quarter of games.
A classic example of just how good the club was came in its opener at Seton Hall Prep, when Knolls built an astonishing 39-7 lead in the third quarter. That Seton Hall team went on to post four shutouts in the rugged IHC-Iron that year, including three in a row at one stretch.
Oh, and by the way, the Pirates beat Bergen Catholic before losing in the state Parochial state semifinals to Don Bosco.
It was one of Seton Hall’s best teams – but that team was futile against the Veer.
Like everyone else.
Hennessy orchestrated everything and wound up being my Daily Record Player of the Year. That award could well have gone to Farrand, a brilliant runner who was also a terrific linebacker.
Knolls’ uniqueness when it had the ball gave them the edge over the rest of the field.
Here is a team-by-team look at the 10 best Morris-Sussex teams from 2000-2025.
The best teams 11-through-20, the other teams I considered, and the best offensive and defensive players can all be found on BigStateSports.com.
See you in 2050!
1. Morris Knolls 2005 – I referred to Hennessy as part-surgeon, part-field general, part-surfer dude, and part-great athlete in my Player of the Year. He was indeed all of the above and made great use of a line that included Mike McAloon, Adam Sergi, Bobby Hamill, Brian Ferraro, Tom Bell, and Justin Brancaccio. Regan would send in the play and trusted the heady Hennessy to change it if the kid saw the need to. He often did – with great success.
2. West Morris 2021 – The Wolfpack were good during this particular season but then turned it up a notch in the postseason to heights not many teams have attained in Morris County. At season’s end, they became something to behold. West Morris suffered three losses during the regular season but then beat Summit in the first round of the playoffs (56-31) and turned it up defensively as the competition stiffened by beating Old Tappan (21-0) and West Essex (21-0) to win the school’s seventh sectional championship. That paved the way for arguably the biggest performance in school history, when they obliterated a Cranford team that was one of the best public school teams in all of New Jersey (53-14). Incredibly, Coach Kevin Hennelly’s team scored on its first seven possessions, rolling up 458 yards in the process. Stefano Montella (161 yards, 1 TD), QB Trevor Hillier (7 for 11, 179 yards, 2 TDs), and Noah Turner (3 TDs) were some of the headliners that day – the best day in Wolfpack history and the best finish the school has ever had. And the second best team this century, when all was said and done.
3. Delbarton 2001 – What was better, the Green Wave in 2020 or 2001? I went with the 2001 version, which was a Top 5 team in New Jersey. The Green Wave beat Don Bosco in the first round of the state playoffs (one of Bosco’s better teams, by the way, 14-12) and then overwhelmed a powerful Holy Cross team that was the defending state Group IV champion (35-14) before losing in the state finals on a missed extra point to Bergen Catholic at Rutgers (10-9). John Kowalik’s team was stacked with the running of Mike DeFazio (177 for 1,287 rushing, 19 TDs), the receiving of All-State receiver Jarrett Schreck (47 catches, 1,120 yards, 12 TDs) and the passing of Mike Loree (who’d be an All-State candidate a year later). In 2020, Delbarton may have had the best team in the state but we’ll never know because of the ridiculousness and paranoia of some Covid restraints. Delbarton was 6-0, favored, and about to kick off against Bergen Catholic, only to have the game cancelled because … horrors! … someone tested positive for Covid. Coach Brian Bowers’ team had beaten Don Bosco (27-21) and Bosco had just beaten Bergen (21-20).
4. Mountain Lakes 2008 – I know, I know, Mountain Lakes is a Group I school. Who cares? They spent the entire year taking their opponents to the woodshed and would have taken anybody else – Group 3, Group 4, Group 100, or Group 1,000 – to the woodshed that year, too. Coach Doug Wilkins’ team was ultra talented and won its second straight championship when it overpowered Glen Rock, 35-21. The backfield combination of Greg DeLuca, Jake Tripucka, and Nick Lobiondo was too much for teams to handle out of the Wing T. Combined, they averaged 8.8 yards per carry) of the Wing T behind a terrific line that consisted of Pat Flynn, Drayden Siebold, Quinn Semler, Ryan Kamieniecki, Dave Bräunlich, and tight ends Billy VanTreuren and Chase Winter. The runners spent the entire year speeding through secondaries. Lakes piled up 137 points in the playoffs and outrushed opponents, 4,000-700.
5. Madison 2011 – The Dodgers were in the midst of three straight 12-0 seasons between 2010 and 2012 and this was the middle one. This team shook off the loss of four All-County players from the previous season and wound up routing a very good Summit team in the North 2, Group II finals, 47-7, for its 25th straight win. Coach Chris Kubik’s team overwhelmed opponents all season with an offense led by RB Justin Goodwin, who was 133 for 1,789 yards that year, scored 34 touchdowns, and accumulated 206 points to beat the school record set by Pete Jilleba, maybe the best athlete in Morris County history. Goodwin ran behind a powerful group of blockers consisting of FB Shone Register and O-Linemen Ben Anderson, Collin Scarpello, Jesse Ruela, cousins Steve and Michael Finelli, and Nick LaBarbera. The under-appreciated Kubik (five sectional titles) will go down as one of the best coaches in Morris history.
6 Jefferson 2008 – One of the most underrated teams in Morris County’s past 25 years. Coach Joe Mattesich’s team made state playoff history by dispatching River Dell and West Essex, both of which were defending champions and came into the Jefferson games undefeated. No New Jersey school had ever beaten defending sectional champions back-to-back before. The Falcons celebrated the final year of the late, great SCIL by tying Sparta and Pope John for the league championship. Quarterback Gavin McCarney was a terrific passer and running back-linebacker Kevin Murphy laid the wood on many, many ballcarriers that year on the way to the school’s all-time tackles record. The well-traveled Mattessich, a Bergen County guy, began his coaching career at the Bergen County Juvenile Detention Center and was discovered there by a Bergen County coach named Babe Mongilia. Mattesich went on to coach as an assistant at such schools as Palisades Park and Cliffside Park before coming out this way, where he coached at Jefferson, West Milford, and Vernon. He brought home a state championship, the school’s first since the John Cinotti Era in the late 1980s.
7. Sparta 2013 – The offense for coach Frank Marchiano’s Spartans was powerful beyond words in 2013-2014 (22-2 combined) but I’m going with the 2013 club, which annihilated River Dell in the sectional final at MetLife, 40-0. That year, the Spartans were impossible to stop because they ran the ball incredibly well (Lucas Faria rushed for 2,174 yards and 33 TDs) and threw the ball well (QB Matt Seville was 111 for 177 for 1,605 yards and 21 TDs). The following year, they were just as powerful with quarterback Anthony Argula dominant in the passing game (184 for 253, 2,476 yards, 38 TDS!) and Faria was brilliant in the running game (202 for 1,273 yards, 18 TDs).
8. Roxbury 2009 – Coach Cosmo Lorusso’s team was big and physical and was a rugged, powerful team. The 2009 squad was big and physical and very difficult to move the ball on, led by such defenders as Robert Wallace, Kevin Baker, Angelo Mangiro and Sean Moore. Fittingly, the team won a sectional title at Giants Stadium by beating East Orange, 14-6. Current Gaels coach Ryan Roumes, who grew up a shouting distance from the school’s field, strip-sacked and recovered the ball from EO QB Justin Laroda inside the Roxbury 10 with 16 seconds left in the game. Lorusso became one of the few coaches to have ever won a championship at more than one school. Lorusso won a pair of titles at Pequannock (1999-2000, with two entirely different rosters, by the way). When Gaels coach John Quinn moved on (another outstanding Roxbury coach, by the way), Roxbury brought in Lorusso, who led the Gaels to titles in 2009 and again in 2012.
9. Mount Olive 2002 – What a night it was in the North 1, Group III finals back in 2002, when the Marauders beat Jefferson for the sectional championship 14-13. One day after a major snowstorm hit New Jersey, Coach Jimm Kramer hosted the Falcons in what was the only state final game in the entire state that night. The people of Mount Olive brought their shovels and brooms down to the football field and cleared the field all day Friday so that the game could be played on schedule that night. The Marauders used the Veer running attack that Kramer brought over from Morris Knolls after spending time as an assistant under Regan. The team’s running game was a powerful one, led by Josh Adieyefeh (1,381 yards, 16 TDs), QB Brian Lyko (750 yards), and Sirag Ziyad (700 yards). The ringleader of the defense was linebacker Kevin Halonski. Get a load of his numbers: 94 tackles, 21 tackles for loss, 8 blocked kicks, 4 forced fumbles, 3 recoveries, 13 batted down passes. Read those stats again!
10. Pope John 2002 – Legendary coach Vic Paternostro’s Lions made history that year, becoming the final Pope John team to win a state championship when it overwhelmed Queen of Peace-North Arlington (41-12) in what seemed like one of the coldest, windiest, bitterest evenings in the history of mankind. Some interesting takeaways from that game: It was played at Mount Olive High School on the Sunday night after it was originally scheduled (Saturday afternoon) because Pope John couldn’t get its field ready in time (read the Mount Olive 2002 comments for more context). Paternostro beat fellow legendary coach Ralph Borgess, who was Paternostro’s high school coach. In that win over QP, Lions running back Ryan Pepe rushed for 213 yards and four TDs. He finished the year with 2,070 yards and 31 TDs. On defense, Pope John was led by Devin Perez, who had 93 tackles, 12 sacks, and a mind-blowing 10 caused fumbles.
