FootballIt sounds ludicrous, but the Lawrence High School football team won its opener, 42-0… and the game wasn’t even that close.
By: Steve Feitl
The Cardinals, powered by four Orlando Kane rushing touchdowns, dominated West Windsor-Plainsboro North on Saturday at LHS. Despite stalling on each of its first two drives, the Cardinal squad proceeded to score on five of its next six possessions in the one-sided affair.
Coach Rob Radice was pleased with the way things came together for his squad.
"The thing we teach is patience," Radice said after the game. "We want the kids to know that things will happen good things at that even if they don’t click right away."
Kane, the junior back who led the Colonial Valley Conference in rushing yards as a sophomore last season, was the offensive star of the game, posting 235 yards on 14 carries to lead the Cardinals.
"He’s special," Radice said. "He’s bigger and stronger than he was last year. His challenge is going to be to bring it every single week this season."
Kane jump-started the Lawrence offense as it received the ball at its own 23-yard line to begin the second quarter. The flashy back took the ball up the middle before breaking to the Knights’ sideline. Once there, Kane simply turned on the jets and was gone for the 77-yard touchdown.
On their next possession, the Cardinals took over at their 26-yard line. After Kane picked up six yards on first down, junior quarterback Charlie Park went back to throw on second down. He found the wide-open sophomore tight end John Nalbone streaking across the middle on a slant pattern for a 68-yard touchdown and a 13-0 lead.
On the point-after attempt, kicker Ryan Dunn converted the extra point, but a 15-yard equipment penalty was assessed to Lawrence. Despite the extra 15-yards tacked on, Dunn easily put the ball through the uprights from a distance more consistent with a field goal attempt. Dunn was perfect on his six extra point attempts and also boomed a third-quarter kick-off into the end zone for a touchback.
After pinning the Knights deep in their own territory, Lawrence got the ball back on the North 28-yard line. Kane took over from there, converting a right sweep into another six points with five minutes, 55 seconds to go in the half.
With 2:28 to go, Lawrence took over at midfield. Kane picked up 25 yards on a third-and-15, and fellow back Emir Davis had a 23-yard rush to the WW-P 7-yard line. From there, Kane punched it in on another sweep for the 28-0 lead heading into halftime.
The Cardinals kept rolling at the start of the second half. Kane had a 43-yard touchdown called back for holding, but Lawrence converted anyway. Marcin Piegza brought the ball to the WW-P 35-yard line with a 10-yard rush, followed by a 9-yard bootleg by Park. Then Kane went for a right sweep, found no room to run, and cut back left. Twenty-six yards later, he had his fourth and final touchdown on the day.
Lawrence finished out its scoring with a 14-yard drive by junior back Calvin Cason. On the play, the Cardinal ran into a band of Knights, but amazingly, emerged from the pack unscathed as the North players watched in disbelief as he ran the final ten yards into the end zone.
While the offense was certainly potent, the Lawrence defense had a quiet, yet impressive performance. The Cardinals held North to 82 yards of offense and never even allowed the Knights to advance into the "red zone."
In fact, the only time North got past the 30-yard line, it was because of a 15-yard Lawrence pass interference call that put the ball at the Cardinal 23-yard line. Two plays later, junior linebacker Aaron Picott and junior defensive lineman Jason Williams crushed the Knights’ ball carrier, who coughed up the football. Senior defensive lineman Ian McKechnie recovered the loose ball, which set up Lawrence for its second score the Park-to-Nalbone 68-yard touchdown pass.
"We were a little nervous out there on defense," Radice said. "But our goal was to post a shutout, and that’s just what they did."
The dominant victory not only got the 2001 campaign off to a positive start for the Cardinals, it also gave them some much-needed momentum as they head into a challenging stretch of four games.
Awaiting Lawrence are four other top CVC squads Notre Dame, Nottingham, Hamilton and Steinert three of which also put up big numbers this weekend. Notre Dame crushed Trenton, 47-14, while Hamilton shut out Hightstown, 42-0, and Steinert blanked Princeton, 46-0.
Radice knows his team will have its work cut our for it this coming month of football, but also feels the rising Cardinals have not been given proper respect among CVC circles.
A win over Notre Dame at 11 a.m. Saturday at LHS would go a long way in earning that respect.
"We have something to prove each and every week," Radice said. "We’re coming off a 5-5 year and one publication had us picked to finish in the basement of the CVC. That hurt our kids.
"But we know respect is not given, it’s earned. And we need to earn it every single week."

