After rolling through an undefeated regular season last year, the North Brunswick Township High School football team was not accustomed to being dominated on the field as they were in their week-one loss to Edison’s J.P. Stevens.
In fact, the Raiders were so dominant last year that they hardly ever experienced the feeling of trailing the opposition. So you can imagine how many of the current Raiders felt after their 54-13 loss to Stevens.
That feeling carried the Raiders to an impressive win on Saturday as they knocked off J.F. Kennedy, 21-0, in dominant fashion.
The Raiders’ defense showed flashes of last season’s dominance, holding the Mustangs to one first down and forcing two turnovers, one of which was returned for a touchdown by Rashone Myers.
JFK got off to a fast start, picking off Raider QB Krimzon Marrero and returning it to the North Brunswick 10-yard line. But on third down, Jeff Jiminez slipped and lost the ball, allowing Myers to scoop it up and race 86 yards for the game’s first score.
The Raiders added to their lead early in the second half when Marrero hit Jason Schoonover from 14 yards out, following an Anthony Maurizio interception.
North Brunswick capped its scoring in the fourth when Marcel Rodriguez plunged into the end zone from one yard out, capping a 35-yard drive and effectively knocking JFK out of contention.
But it was the Raiders’ defense which sparked the win, which is a good sign for a team who gave up 54 points in its season opener.
The Raiders will need their defense to keep them in games while a young offense gains experience on the field. That maturation process will continue tomorrow when the Raiders travel to Bishop Ahr in Edison. The Trojans are 0-1 and are coming off a 33-0 drubbing by Carteret. Another win tomorrow could help refresh some memories of last season for the Raiders. Game time is 7 p.m.
As for the South Brunswick Vikings, they keep rolling along after posting their second win of the young season, a 38-18 victory over Edison.
The Vikes scored just about every way possible on Saturday, including a long run, an interception return, a kickoff return, a fumble recovery, a field goal and even a safety, as they knocked off the Eagles in impressive fashion.
South Brunswick’s defense was especially strong, picking off a school-record six Edison passes and recovering two fumbles, while holding Edison’s talented running back, Antonio Ellis, to 13 yards on 12 carries.
South Brunswick fell behind early when Edison’s Joe Bonner intercepted a Viking pass and returned it 51 yards for a touchdown. But the Vikings responded with a 61-yard TD run from Steve Ferrara three plays later. Ferrara missed the PAT but made up for it with a safety on the first play of the second quarter to give the Vikings an 8-7 lead, a lead they would never relinquish.
From there, Ferrara added a 27-yard field goal and returned an Edison kickoff 87 yards for another TD. Later in the third, Ferrara found the end zone again, this time from only one yard out.
With the game well in hand, the Viking defense came up big again as Sharyf Hooligan intercepted a pass and returned it 29 yards for a TD, before Chadd Wood recovered a fumble and returned it 31 yards for a TD.
South Brunswick ran its mark to 2-0 and hopes to make it 3-0 tomorrow when it faces a struggling East Brunswick team coming off a pair of blowout losses. The Vikings have to like the way they’ve played thus far, and appear to be one of the GMC’s most improved teams in the early going.
Game time tomorrow is 7 p.m.