South football runs record to 6-0
By: Bob Nuse
The West Windsor-Plainsboro High South football team showed a new dimension of its offense on Friday night. And the old dimension wasn’t too bad either.
Ryan Lupo rushed for 129 yards and scored three touchdowns on the ground, while quarterback Colin Dampier recorded season highs in attempts, completions and yards as the Pirates topped WW-P North, 47-0, before a large crowd at North.
The win was the sixth straight for the unbeaten Pirates, who will play at Steinert on Saturday.
"This is a big rivalry and one of our goals each year is to beat North," said Lupo, whose three touchdown runs gave him 10 for the season. "It’s great to come out in front of a huge crowd like this and play well. There are so many people who support both programs, which makes North-South such a great game.
"They had beaten us the last two years and we really wanted to come out and get a win this time. With a game like this, the records don’t matter. We knew we had to play well to beat them."
Not only did the Pirates play well, but they showed a new wrinkle to their offense. In the first five games of the season, the running game had carried the load. And while South did rush for 261 yards on Friday night, Dampier also threw for a season high 141 yards, completing eight of his 15 passes.
"We had the bye week and that gave us some time to work on some new things for the offense," said South coach Todd Smith, who has the Pirates at 6-0 for the first time since 1997. "Teams are going to have some things to work on when they play us. We wanted to work on opening up the offense a little bit this week. Colin had a nice game. And our backs did a nice job, as they have all year."
South’s offense has been able to use a variety of runners to keep teams guessing. On Friday, Lupo carried the ball just eight times, but two of those carries were for at least 50 yards. E.J. Burgess had 11 rushes for 57 yards, while at other times Stuart Adams or Brian Morris can carry the load.
"We have a nice variety with our backs," said Smith, whose team could get to 7-0 for the first time since 1987 when they started 8-0 with a win over Steinert. "Ryan is more of a north-south runner and once he gets past the initial line, he gives you a burst of speed. E.J. just makes people miss. He’s such an elusive runner, you think he’s down but he’ll spin out of a tackle and just keep moving. And we’ve also tried to get Stuart involved a little more when we get the chance."
On any given week, it could be any of the backs that are asked to make the big play. Each just waits for their chance.
"When I get an opportunity, I try to make the best of it," said Lupo, who has a team-high 614 yards this season. "I think the main thing for all of us is we just want to win. Some games I’ll get the ball. Some games it will be E.J. or Stuart. We all try to make the most of the opportunities we get."
Said Smith, "Ryan certainly does the most with the chances he gets to run the ball. He’s averaging over 10 yards a carry this year, which is pretty remarkable."
At times, it seems as if the only one who can stop Lupo is Lupo himself. Against North, he scored on a 50-yard touchdown run and was just short of a second long run for a score when he ran 56 yards before falling nine yards short of the end zone.
"I think I tripped myself on the white line," Lupo said with a laugh. "But I got the ball on the next play and was able to take it in. I need to be able to stay on my feet."
The South defense posted its third shutout of the season and has allowed just 19 points in six games. The Pirates had two sacks from Derek Greczyn and three interceptions in the game.
"The defense has been playing well all year," Smith said. "I’ve been happy with those guys all year. Hopefully we can keep it up. And now we’ve got some added dimensions to the offense."
Dampier did not throw a touchdown pass, but his passing set up several scores. A 30-yard pass to Lupo set up the Pirates’ second touchdown as Lupo ran nine yards for the score on the next play.
In addition to the three touchdown runs by Lupo, Morris, Burgess and Dan Fryer each ran for a score. And Adams returned a blocked punt for a touchdown.
EXTRA POINTS Princeton Day school won its sixth game of the season, the first time the Panthers have reached that total since 1981, with a 26-18 win over George School. Mike Shimkin and Andrew Ojeda each ran for a touchdown and caught a touchdown pass from Clint O’Brien in the win. Shimkin finished with 156 yards rushing. . . Princeton improved to 4-2 with a 35-7 win over Hopewell Valley. Alexz Henriques rushed for 266 yards and scored all five touchdowns for the Little Tigers. John Mitko passed for 127 yards on nine completions. . . Montgomery evened its record at 3-3 with a 27-19 win over Voorhees. Kevin Watson threw for 178 yards and three touchdown passes in the win. Two of the TD passes went to Steve Watson, while the other went to Dupree Wade. Will Treichler rushed for 146 yards and a touchdown. . . Hun improved to 4-2 with a 14-13 win over Peddie. Turner Wimberly threw a pair of touchdown passes, one each to Myron Rolle and Buddy Buckner as the Raiders earned the win. Angel Clybourne ran for 96 yards. Charlie Martin had a key interception in the fourth quarter.