Little consolation for area football teams

Public squads, Hun lose Saturday

By: Bob Nuse
   While the West Windsor-Plainsboro High South football team earned the school’s first playoff win in 18 years this weekend, the results were not as good for the rest of the Packet-area football teams.
   Montgomery, Princeton and WW-P North all lost state playoff consolation games, while the Hun School lost its season finale to finish below .500 for the first time since 2001.
   Montgomery ran into a tough Scotch Plains-Fanwood team Friday night in the North Jersey, Section 2 Group III consolations. The Cougars were within a point, 13-12, at halftime, but fumbled the opening kickoff of the second half and it was all downhill from there in a 40-24 loss.
   "It was a combination of a lot of little things," said Montgomery coach Zoran Milich, whose team fell to 3-6 and will end the season on Thanksgiving Day against Hillsborough. "Scotch Plains physically took it to us. They’re a tough team. But we also made too many mistakes and you can’t do that against a good team.
   "We had some opportunities in the second half, but we got behind by a couple touchdowns and it was tough to stay with what we wanted to do. We had to do some different things."
   Scotch Plains scored the first two touchdowns of the second half and the lead grew to 27-12, but when Ryan Morris returned a fumble 73 yards for a score, the Cougars were within 27-18. They then were successful on an onside kick to get the ball back, but fumbled six plays later.
   "I thought our kids played real hard the whole game," Milich said. "They played right to the end, but we just made some mistakes that hurt us. Now we just have to go back to practice and get ready for Hillsborough."
   Senior quarterback Chris Fischer completed 15 of his 27 passes for 202 yards, which included touchdown passes to Dupree Wade and Mike Andrew. Will Treichler also ran for 49 yards in the loss.
   Princeton fell to 5-4 with a 61-36 loss at Monroe. The Little Tigers trailed 48-8 at halftime but closed the gap with four second half touchdowns.
   Alexz Henriques rushed for 238 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns, while quarterback Jon Mitko threw three touchdown passes to Marc Andre. Mitko completed eight of 24 passes for 194 yards, with Andre making four of the receptions for 129 yards.
   WW-P North fell to 1-8 with a 26-12 loss to Red Bank. Mike DeGoria and Ray Sanchez each had a touchdown run for the Knights.
   Princeton and WW-P North will conclude the season against each other when the teams meet on Saturday at Princeton.
   Hun finished the season with a third straight loss when the Raiders fell to Trinity Pawling, 41-20. Senior Myron Rolle concluded his career with pair of touchdown runs, the second of which gave the Raiders a 20-14 lead in the third quarter. But Trinity Pawling scored the final four touchdowns of the game to win.
   Shane Davis completed eight of 14 passes for 115 yards, while Turner Wimberly led all rushers with 47 yards on nine carries. Angel Clybourne also ran for a touchdown in the loss.