‘No way I’m 100 percent, but I owe it to my teammates to be out there.’
By: Kyle Moylan
PLAINSBORO – After getting injured in a contest two weeks ago, Alpha Koroma had to sit on the sidelines and watch the Hightstown High School football team lose a pair of games.
Yesterday at West Windsor North, Koroma was the one everyone was watching. Koroma ran for 100 yards and a touchdown and also caught a 58-yard touchdown pass as Hightstown defeated West Windsor North, 33-8, for its first win of the season.
"I had to watch the end of the Lawrence game knowing I could do something," Koroma noted. "I had to watch the whole Hamilton game (a 37-0 Hightstown loss) knowing that I could do something. I’m happy I was able to come back for this game. No way I’m 100 percent, but I owe it to my teammates to be out there."
Before Koroma ever even touched the ball, Hightstown had the lead. Greg Milesnick returned a punt 86 yards for a touchdown.
Early in the second quarter, Koroma caught a short pass from Brendan Murphy off to the right. Koroma was nearly brought down, but he fought off three tackles and went 58 yards for a touchdown.
On the last play of the half, Koroma added a 43-yard touchdown run.
Murphy and T.J. Williams each added touchdown runs in the second half, topping off Hightstown’s initial win under coach Bruce Broadbent.
Once the clock clicked down to 0:00 in the game, Broadbent had a bucket of water dumped over his head. Even though it was a bit of a chilly day, Broadbent seemed to enjoy the shower.
"It doesn’t matter," Broadbent said. "I’m happy for these guys. I’m thrilled for them. They needed this win. These guys have worked so hard."
A win yesterday was particularly important because Hightstown will now be off until it plays at Steinert on Oct. 14.
"We have 16 days off until the next game," Broadbent noted. "If we had lost this game, it would have been hard to keep their spirits up."
Instead, Hightstown has a reason to celebrate the next two weeks and Alpha Koroma has a lot of time to get back to 100 percent.
"Just because they are 1-2 and we are 0-3, that doesn’t mean this wasn’t an important game," Koroma said. "This game meant a lot to us."