Cardinals prove to be No. 1 in CVC Colonial Division

Lawrence football

By: Jim Green
   The Lawrence High School football team tried to treat this like it was any other game. And while their words backed up that premise, the Gatorade baths the Cardinal coaches received from their players late in the fourth quarter told another story.
   Lawrence quarterback Brett Brackett passed for 290 yards and two touchdowns Saturday, as the Cardinals clinched the Colonial Valley Conference Colonial Division title with a 25-13 win over Notre Dame — their first victory over their cross-town rival since 1998 — in front of a packed house at LHS. While Lawrence, which improved to 7-0, attempted to keep its focus on winning the division and staying in the hunt for the top seed in the Central Jersey Group III section of the state playoffs, all in attendance on this day knew the game meant more than that. This was a slaying of the giant that had beaten Lawrence 56-14 two years ago and slipped past the Cards by four points last year.
   So far this season, the Cardinals had proven to be the best team in their county and one of the better teams in the state. But they had yet to prove on the field that they were the best team in their own town. On Saturday, they left no doubt.
   "It feels really good," Brackett said. "This team (Notre Dame) is one of the best around. It feels very good to beat an outstanding program."
   Brackett admitted the 2003 blowout loss — his first game as a starter against the Fighting Irish and the last time Lawrence faced Notre Dame at home — was on his mind Saturday.
   "I think I thought about it a lot," Brackett said. "I didn’t want to repeat that. I had to take care of what was mine, and this field is mine. I didn’t want to go out like that again."
   When the best player in the conference has extra motivation to beat you, you’re probably in for a long day. And that’s exactly what Notre Dame experienced, as Brackett threw two TDs in the first half, as Lawrence took a 15-0 lead before running out the clock for most of the second half.
   "Each win is big," said Brackett, whose team next will visit Allentown at 7 p.m. Friday. "This is one more stop in the road. We took care of business this week. We have to keep taking care of business."
   For the second straight week against a top-flight opponent, Lawrence defensive coordinator Anthony Ammirata’s squad showed that it is ready for the coming state playoffs. A week after holding Hamilton to 10 points, the Cardinals shut the Irish out in the first half and limited them to seven first downs on the day, giving the Lawrence offense all it needed to win the game.
   "The defense played great," Lawrence head coach Rob Radice said. "Anthony Ammirata is putting in 70 to 80 hours a week extra looking at film, and it’s paying off."
   With an up-and-coming defense to go along with the best offense in the CVC, the Cardinals should be in prime form when it comes to the state playoffs. But for now, they know they have to keep their focus on Friday’s away game against Allentown.
   "We’re taking it one game at a time and see where it goes," Radice said. "We worked so hard in the offseason. We figured if we worked hard, good things would happen."
   Good things happened for Lawrence from its opening possession against Notre Dame. On third-and-25 of that first possession, Brackett lofted a 39-yard touchdown bomb to Jim Gorski down the left sideline. It was 10th touchdown of the season for Gorski, who finished with eight catches for a career-high 225 yards.
   "He always finds a way to get a hold of it," Brackett said. "He’s a true playmaker. That’s what Jimmy is. He’s the total package."
   The Cardinal offense stalled on its next four possessions with three punts and an interception, but the Lawrence defense was up to the task, forcing the Fighting Irish into four consecutive punts, including three, three-and-out sequences.
   Lawrence then took over at its 42, and soon found itself in another third-and-long, needing 23 yards for the first down. But Gorski struck again, taking a pass in the middle of the field, juking and spinning away from several would-be tacklers. He would pick up 30 yards and the first down before finally being brought down in Notre Dame territory.
   "It’s just a huge uplift," Brackett said of the play. "It picks everybody up. It gets the energy up."
   Brackett kept the momentum going, hooking up with receiver Ryan Welsh on a 24-yard screen pass to the Irish 17. He then hit Gorski for six yards before tossing an 11-yard touchdown strike over the middle to tight end Geoff Kimmel, giving Lawrence its 15-point halftime lead.
   "He (Brackett) just had a great day," Radice said. "He’s a great passer, and he had a great day. We were trying to be aggressive."
   The Cardinals put the game away with their opening possession of the third quarter. Starting from their own 29, they moved quickly down the field, as Brackett hit Gorski for gains of 21 and 43 yards. Three plays later, tailback Bayshawn Wells, who rushed for 55 yards on the day, carried the ball in from four yards out to seal the win. Notre Dame went on to tack on two mostly meaningless touchdowns, while Lawrence had a 14-play, 68-yard drive that ate up half of the third quarter and resulted in a 23-yard field goal by kicker Pat Stanger.
   After the Cardinals forced Notre Dame to turn the ball over on downs with 1:33 left and Lawrence leading 25-13, Cardinal coaches Radice, Ammirata and Dave Bossio had the team’s water buckets dumped on their heads.
   After the final whistle, however, Radice was clear that he wanted his team to keep its focus on the most important aspect of the victory.
   "It’s another game," he said. "We said we wanted to be the top dog in the conference. That’s important to us, and it’s important to the school and the community."