Raritan Division foe Belvidere is next for Eagles.
By: John E. Powers
South Hunterdon Regional High School football coach Sam Jefferis has seen his team go through this before. So Friday night’s 49-13 loss at Middlesex, though disappointing, isn’t going to stick too long in the Eagles’ memories.
This Friday night, South heads to Belvidere to open the Skyland Conference Raritan Division season against the 1-0 Seaters. Belvidere opened by beating North Warren 13-6.
South, in contrast, will try to rebound from an ugly loss against the Blue Jays, a member of the Greater Middlesex County Conference. Middlesex piled up 465 yards in rushing, as quarterback Matt Campanella ran for 161 yards on 14 carries. Four of those carries resulted in touchdowns. South trailed 30-7 at halftime.
"I remember last year we went up to Boonton and we lost pretty badly in a game scrimmage, and then we opened with Middlesex and we beat them 28-0," Jefferis said. "We’re not dwelling on Friday night."
Jefferis, whose team finished last year at 5-5 with a Central Jersey Group I playoff berth, said that the team will switch back to a 5-3 defense after having tried an alignment with three down linemen and five linebackers.
"We were getting killed on the outside run," said Jefferis, in his 39th year as head coach of the Eagles. "Middlesex was pretty tough and aggressive. We’re still trying to find ourselves and we had a tough time finding ourselves on defense.
"We tried a stacked defense, but we have to go back to what we did before."
Middlesex scored on its first series of the game. Mike Hall carried the ball twice to move the ball into South territory. Campanella then broke free on a quarterback keeper and ran 48 yards for a touchdown. Big plays hurt South.
"I thought we were decent offensively, but we couldn’t tackle at all," Jefferis said. "We allowed our bubble to burst really early. I mean, we were out of it, but we really weren’t out of it."
South pulled to within 15-7 when senior back Jessie Fennimore scored on a 25-yard pass from senior quarterback Glenn Tabasco in the second quarter. Senior Joey Fenneman made the extra point.
"There aren’t too many better backs around then Jessie," Jefferis said.
Fennimore scored on a fourth-quarter run of 12 yards to finish the Eagles’ scoring. The 5-foot-8, 175-pounder finished with 53 yards on just five carries. The Eagles had just three offensive plays in the third quarter and junior varsity players occupied the field for most of the fourth.
"We were just flat, but we’ll get better," Jefferis said.
Jefferis said that the school has filled a void in its schedule with Imhotep Institute of Philadelphia Oct. 1. The game will be played at home.