Florence football playing for title again

By: Kyle Moylan
   Years from now, the Florence High football players and coaches will sit back and think about what they have accomplished.
   Right now, Florence is too busy thinking about ways to create that next future memory.
   With its 38-7 win over South River at home this past Saturday, Florence picked up two more major accomplishments.
   The win not only set the Burlington County record for consecutive victories at 34, it put Florence into its fourth straight title game.
   "We got it (the county record), but there’s nothing to talk about," said Abree Jones, who will be looking to be a part of a third straight Central Jersey Group I championship team when Florence faces David Brearley on Friday, December 2 at 5 p.m. at Rutgers University in the title game. "Someday down the line I’ll look back and say, ‘I was on that team.’ We just can’t be thinking about that now."
   With a regular season home game scheduled for Thanksgiving against Riverside before the state final, Florence is focusing on completing its third straight 12-0 undefeated season. Florence’s last loss was 50-0 to Paulsboro in the South Jersey Group I state title game in 2002. Florence was switched to the Central Jersey bracket for 2003.
   "For these guys, that game (at Paulsboro) was a great motivator," Florence Coach Joe Frappolli said. "Now this team and program will go down in history."
   With so many seniors graduating after last season, the 2005 Florence team was never expected to be as good as the previous two. Florence was supposed to be especially vulnerable on the offensive line. Jones and Joe Spahn were back to run the ball, but who was going to create the openings?
   The answer is juniors Malcolm Jenkins, Kevin Watts, Josh Scassero and Irving Perkins, and sophomores Chris Salaga, Brian Cook and Fritz Miller.
   "We were skeptical at first," said Spahn, who carried the ball nine times for 85 yards against South River. "They showed us what they had, though. They’re young, but they’re good. If they miss a block, they come back the next play and pick it up a notch."
   The offensive line allowed Florence to run the ball 50 times for 365 yards against South River. In addition to Spahn, Jones carried the ball 20 times for 111 yards, Quentin Loftin had seven carries for 54 yards, Shaquan Virgil four for 88, Marcus Curry four for 17 and Kevin Reeder two for 15.
   "We have great backs here," noted Florence assistant coach Nick Lubrano, who directs the offensive line with Joe Frappolli Jr. "We give them the crease and they do the rest. That’s the tradition here in Florence — from Pop Warner all the way up."
   Florence didn’t even attempt a pass on either of its first two touchdown drives. It went 54 yards on nine plays for a score in the first quarter. Then, on a drive that started in the first quarter and ended with 8:50 to play in the half, Florence went 65 yards on 13 plays. Jones (on runs of 2 and 5 yards) scored the touchdowns to cap both drives.
   Frappolli was so confident with his running attack, the second score came on a fourth-down play with the team in field goal range.
   "Sometimes you just have the feeling," Frappolli said. "Our kids wanted to do it and no one has stopped our run the whole season."
   Jones added a third touchdown on a 2-yard run with three minutes to play in the half, capping off a 60-yard, 10-play drive.
   After three long, methodical drives, Florence also showed it could strike quickly. Shaquan Virgil ran 56 yards for the first of his two touchdowns (he scored on a 7-yard run in the third quarter) with 1:04 to play in the first half.
   "South River is a good team and I believe they came in here today (Saturday) thinking that they could do something," Frappolli said. "Overall, we had more speed than them, though. We were flying to the ball and gang-tackling on defense. And, on offense, we felt we could move the ball.
   "On our game sheet, we have a whole section of counter plays. They had trouble stopping it."
   Virgil’s 56-yard run started with the play moving to the right before the ball was handed off to Virgil coming back to the left. It had South River totally fooled.
   This was just one of many plays where Florence executed its plan and exerted its dominance. That’s the way it has been for 34 straight games.
   "The coaches tell us we have to bring it every week," Jones said. "Everyone wants to be the team to knock us out. It’s us against the world."
   And Florence is winning . . . and winning . . . and winning . . .