If Roxbury’s 16-14 win over Montville caught your attention over the weekend, then you haven’t been paying attention.
At least, that is the way the Gaels see things.
Roxbury believes it is ready for prime time.
Maybe the Gaels are right.
Coach Ryan Roumes’ club is loaded with underclassmen. It was thought to be an up-and-coming team – but they seem to have arrived a lot earlier than some people planned.
Everything is running on schedule at Roxbury – maybe even ahead of schedule after the Montville victory.
The truth is, the only ones who saw that one coming could be found in the Roxbury locker room.
“It was an exciting win and we are a very underrated team right now,” Roumes said. “A lot of people are counting us out but we are young and have talent and we play hard.
“We knew we’d be in it, if not win it. It is not a surprise for us but we were excited to be where we were at the end of the game.”
Montville posted impressive wins over Sparta (38-22) and Warren Hills (38-13) earlier this month. When you consider that Warren Hills just had powerful West Morris on the ropes … well, Roxbury’s win catches your eye even more.
As things unfolded late, several Gaels stepped up to help pull out the win.
- Gaels kicker Josh DiPasquale, who had missed an extra point earlier in the game, booted a 26-yard field goal late in the game to put the Gaels ahead.
“Josh is a great kicker with a great leg,” Roumes said. “We watched him in practice and he hits 40-50-yard field goals, so he has the ability. He is a hard worker and ready for his moment when we need him.”
“Roumes told me after my missed PAT that he needs me and to not get down on myself because he said he’ll get me a field goal later to win the game,” DiPasquale added. “After the kick I was very excited but knew not to celebrate much because the game wasn’t over and there were four minutes left.”
- Roxbury linebacker D.J. Benfatti chased down Montville receiver Pete Matarazzo after Matarazzo had caught a fourth-down pass from QB Jackson Gering. Benfatti brought him down at the Roxbury 15. If Benfatti doesn’t hustle his way across the field … you’re not reading about the upstart Gaels right now.
“D.J. Benfatti,” Roumes said, “should have been nowhere near that play but ran it down.”
Benfatti comes from great football stock. His father, Dave, is an assistant coach at Mount Olive and was an All-State caliber linebacker at Morris Knolls before going on to play at Penn State. His uncle, Lou, was All-State for Knolls and played for the Jets.
“He comes from a big-time football family,” Roumes said. “He is phenomenal.”
- Gaels defensive back Blake Lieberwirth intercepted a pass in the end zone in the closing minute to clinch the win.
“We had a lot of momentum going into that last drive,” Lieberwirth said. “I delayed a little, then I started running faster and read (Gering’s) eyes and I got the ball. After that, I blanked out. It was amazing. All my teammates were around me. It felt so good.”
“Blake did a phenomenal job there,” Roumes said. “He read the quarterback’s eyes and we got a great pass rush.”
The irony of the final play is that Lieberwirth came into 2025 not knowing where he’d fit in and neither did Roumes. He had ability at receiver and quarterback but those positions went to other players.
Finally, Roumes plugged him in at safety.
“Blake is a really good kid,” Roumes said. “He has been waiting for his opportunity as a junior. Quarterback? Wide receiver? We didn’t know. But we had some injuries and he stepped in as safety and I couldn’t be happier for him. We didn’t know where he’d be. He made a couple of nice catches and had some pass breakups. I was so happy for him. He has a lot of athletic ability and he was thrown all over the place.
“We have found our identity and he has found his.”
“I was always an offensive guy,” Lieberwirth said. “I liked offense more. But Nick Edelman got hurt and I like safety. I like the position a lot.”
Montville took a 7-0 lead when Clement Hofbauer scored a 3-yard touchdown in the first quarter but the Gaels responded when Ryan Valentine intercepted a Gering pass and then immediately caught a 21-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Frankie Falco on the next play to tie things up at 7 before the half.
In the second half, Hofbauer scored again and Falco took off on a 56-yard touchdown run. But DiPasquale missed the extra point and Montville clung to a 14-13 lead.
DiPasquale would soon make up for that, of course.
“His story of the game was like the entire game,” Roumes said. “There was a missed PAT, but how do you respond? We all came over to him after that. ‘It’ll come down to you making a field goal.’ That is how the game works. That’s the story of the game. It didn’t start the way we wanted it to. Things didn’t go our way but we battled and kept our heads up and came away with the win.”
They also came away with a whole new outlook. If the Gaels had lost, they could have used their youth as a cover.
But they won over a Montville team that had been one of Morris County’s best coming in.
And now expectations are a little higher at Roxbury.
“Roxbury is better and ready for whatever,” DiPasquale said. “We have a great bond together as a team and we know what we can do as a team to be dangerous. We are hoping to build momentum and if things go in our favor we will be in the playoffs.”
“It might have been an upset on the outside,” Roumes said. “As a staff and team you have to think you can win and that was us. We thought we could win. It is early and we go into every game with a staff that has a lot of experience. We put a great gameplan together and the kids want to play football and execute. We are happy where we are at right now.”
