Fails to get any breaks in loss to West Windsor-Plainsboro North.
By: Kyle Moylan
With two starters missing from a team that already had depth problems, the Allentown High School football squad needed most if not all of the breaks this past Friday night at West Windsor North.
It didn’t get any of them.
Allentown committed the turnovers. West Windsor North made the big plays. Heck, even the lighting was a problem for Allentown in its 28-3 loss to West Windsor North.
"There’s not much I can say," Allentown Coach Greg LaCava noted. "Every loss is disappointing. In the big picture, losses are disappointing."
Especially this one. While West Windsor North did have more kids available to play, this is a team Allentown defeated last season. This West Windsor North team was one which had never defeated a team other than McCorristin.
While LaCava is quick to point out that Allentown isn’t in the position to look past anyone, it did have to look at this past one as a winnable game. Instead, it ended up as probably the most significant win in the history of the West Windsor North program.
"This team took the program over the hump with this game," noted West Windsor North Coach Kevin Kehoe. "You don’t turn it around one day. It took a year and a half to get bigger, faster, stronger. I coach these kids to win. That’s why this win was so important. The players have to see it to believe it. Now they believe it."
Last season Allentown was the one making believers out of people. And even with a 1-4 record coming into last Friday night’s game, there was the time, schedule and players to do it again. Allentown just needed to start getting some breaks.
Instead, West Windsor North converted an Allentown fumble into a touchdown in the first quarter. Allentown, however, cut into that deficit when Dan Gentz connected for a 40-yard field goal late in the second quarter.
Whatever momentum that came from that score vanished in the final minute of the half, though. The turnaround started innocently enough with an interception by Eric Glover at the West Windsor 29 with just over a minute to go before half. But even though West Windsor North had only attempted one pass in its previous 16 plays, it came out throwing.
Brian Davis connected with Glover on first down for a 26-yard pickup. The pair then connected for 15 yards, down to the Allentown 30. With 8 seconds left on the clock, West Windsor called a timeout to set up one last play.
That play was a long pass into the right corner of the endzone, which a diving Glover somehow pulled down for a score.
"With 8 seconds left in the half, something like that is a major turnaround in terms of momentum," LaCava noted.
Kehoe was also very aware of that.
"It was the biggest play in the game," noted Kehoe, who also got a 95-yard touchdown run in the second half. "That really changed the game around. It got us fired up to the point where we could just come out in the second half and play our game."
As for Allentown, it just could never quite get going. It would start to move the ball, but then a sack or penalty would drop it back again.
"It’s obvious to me from this point on officials will be looking extra hard at us," noted LaCava, who had two players ejected two weeks ago and another against West Windsor North.
Unfortunately for Allentown, the officials weren’t always looking from the Redbird side of the field. If they were, they wouldn’t have called the penalties they did against Allentown or West Windsor, for that matter. Heck, they would have had a hard time calling anything.
West Windsor North was holding its first night game ever. It had six light stands set up on both sides of the field, but for some reason it was a lot harder to see from the Allentown sidelines. A lot harder.
Not that this was offered as any excuse. The lighting was the same for both teams on the field. But for a team struggling to find itself and fighting to gain respect in the CVC, it didn’t need to be left in the dark.

