The surging Kinnelon Colts are pounding the rock and riding high in the standings – right into the school’s football record books.
Coach Dustin Grande’s team is 7-0, all alone and in first place in the SFC-National Blue, and ready to win a division championship for only the third time ever in school history.
It is the best start in the history of a school not exactly known for its football.
Kinnelon has a school-record nine-game winning streak and is hoping to host its first playoff game since 2008. When Kinnelon won its lone sectional championship in 2012, the Colts won road games at North Warren and Elmwood Park before beating New Milford at Kean.
Kinnelon expected a good year when players gathered at team camp in East Stroudsburg. There was some talent returning – but few expected such a record-setting getaway.
The team finished 5-5 last year and was nosed out of the final playoff spot. Kinnelon figures to get a high seed when the 2025 postseason gets underway at the end of the month.
“We knew we had a shot at the playoffs,” Grande said. “We were 16th seed and lost to Wallkill and they jumped us last year. We thought we had a lot of good guys back. We have some good seniors this year and we thought we could make a run and challenge for the division.”
As it stands now, the Colts (4-0 in the National Blue) are a win over North Warren (0-4 in the league, 1-6 overall) from winning the division in two weeks. In Grande’s first year in 2022, he guided the team to a share of the National Blue with North Warren. The school’s only other division title came in … wait for it … 1980.
But in the preseason, there were some questions that needed to be addressed.
“We were a little scared to see how we’d rotate our players around,” standout senior Soren Porada said. “Grande figured out what he was doing. We started hot and kept it going.”
Added two-way standout Wyatt Sisco, “To be honest, we lost a few seniors from last year but we installed a new offense which gave us more versatility. We knew we could be good but how good depended on us.
“We thought we’d be all right, but we’ve exceeded expectations by being 7-0.”
The team started out with some surprising victories, going up to Lenape Valley and winning its opener, 20-12, before surprising Verona, 22-20.
The wins kept coming: The Colts went up to Wallkill Valley and won, 17-14, and then held off Whippany Park, 14-6.
Kinnelon seems to have picked up the pace of late, beating Pequannock (21-0), Boonton (44-18), and Hopatcong (41-13).
“The first three games, our defense was holding our own,” Sisco said. “It showed how much heart we had. In years prior, we didn’t have that.”
The team began to believe in itself more after the win over Verona, which hammered Kinnelon last year, 38-20.
“That Verona game … we all went in remembering last year,” Sisco said. “We were scared, we knew who they were and we took it to them we should have won by more.”
The win over Hopatcong Friday night was impressive. Kinnelon rushed 32 times for 239 yards. Quarterback Matt Siciliano rushed five times for 94 yards and two TDs. Siciliano, a running back last year, has thrown for 461 yards and eight touchdowns and rushed 96 times for 630 yards and nine TDs.
“He is really dynamic with his legs,” Grande said. “He’s a competitor. He has a competitive edge and fire at that position.”
The versatile Porada rushed three times for 56 yards and a touchdown and caught three passes for 74 yards and a score against Hopatcong. He is 52 for 411 rushing with two TDs and 10 for 314 with five TDs receiving.
Sisco has also been a factor on offense, rushing 94 times for 523 yards and four TDs.
“Our bread and butter is to run the ball, dominate the clock, control time of possession, and lean on the defense to get stops,” Grande said. “We’ll take shots. Porada has a ton of catches in his career (80 for 1,553, 20 TDs). Siciliano was our leading rusher last year.”
Like the team, the O-Line has exceeded expectations and has been dominant at times. It consists of tackles Brayden McCormick and Kareem Abudaya, guards Kirin Kiesel, Anthony Manna and Braden Whalen, center Joseph Ferrara, and tight ends Landon Smith and Dillon Aslani.
“Honestly, from a summer standpoint, that was the biggest worry,” Sisco said. “They have gone way above expectations. The last two weeks, we have scored a lot of touchdowns and it’s all because of them.”
Said Porda, “The O-Line is getting the blocks right and the backfield is hitting the holes. We’re running the ball and pounding the rock. It is something us and coach take pride in.”
Kymanni Hinton (15 rushes, 107 yards, 1 TD) plays what Grande has called the Jersey Slot T. Giancarlo Anastasia and Skylar Porter rotate at what he has labeled the X spot.
In his first year, Grande flew out to Michigan and brought back the Power T Formation and it resulted in a division title and Kinnelon stunning highly regarded Park Ridge and winning a state playoff game on the road. The Colts were 2-8 the season before.
Before this year, Grande studied a new offense, popular at many Texas schools, that is a Wing T derivative with some triple option principles. He learned that from Liberty Hill High, which rolled up 82 points in one recent game.
“It is unique, another way to attack with the Triple Option, Delaware Wing-T, Power I and the Power T we were running,” Grande said. “It was easy for our guys to adjust. There is more misdirection and ways to attack the edge.”
The defense has been improving as well, with Anastasia and Hinton at cornerback, Porada and Tyler Grande at safety, Dillon Aslani (2 sacks, 5 tackles for loss, 2 fumble recoveries), Jack Felson and Sisco (82 tackles, 4 tackles for loss) at linebacker, and Tim May, Jack Mayer, Landon Smith (3 sacks, 4 tackles for loss), and Kiesel (3 sacks, 7 tackles for loss) up front.
Whalen has also contributed up front.
So is Kinnelon for real? We’ll know more Friday night, when the Colts travel to Newark to take on powerful Shabazz, which came up to Kinnelon and stomped all over the Colts last year, 53-0..
“We definitely remember last year,” Sisco said. “We got shut out pretty bad. But we are a 7-0 team and we shouldn’t be scared of anyone. That’s my thought. Just go out there and play. If we win, we jump to the front of the group. Let’s just go in there and do what we do.”
“Shabazz has a lot of raw talent,” Porada added. “This is going to be a real test of how our offense and defense are working. Shabazz is a powerhouse team, a big team and it’ll be a fight and we need to show what we have been doing and whether it has actually been working.”
With the playoffs looming, Kinnelon will soon find out if it can play with the big boys.
“It’s a huge game for both teams,” Grande said. “It’ll prepare us for the playoffs. They took it to us last year. Our goal is to go and be competitive and see what we could do.
“I told our guys we have nothing to lose. We’ll be a playoff team. We have to beat North Warren to win the division (in two weeks) and then there won’t be any tie for the division championship. We want it clean. We’ll treat Shabazz like a playoff team and we’ll put our best foot forward.”
