HHS football clinches Valley championship

By: Sean Moylan
   After a semi-shaky start, the Hightstown High varsity football team righted the ship and blasted Princeton 35-7 in last Thursday’s (September 21) road game. The win made Hightstown the Valley Division champs, which is not bad for three games of work.
   "It feels good that we were able to win the Valley. But we won three division titles in the last four years," said Hightstown head coach Ed Kopp, who thought it was a bit unusual that his team played three divisional games so early in the season.
   Out of all of those contests, Hightstown was the biggest favorite in the Princeton game. Nonetheless, the Tigers actually tied the score at 7-7 with a second-quarter touchdown.
   "They (the Tigers) came out ready to go and we looked like we were asleep," added Kopp.
   However, Tim Lawson (6 carries for 42 yards), who had previously given the Rams’ a temporary 7-0 advantage with a 5-yard first-quarter touchdown run, caught a 5-yard Joe Medici touchdown pass with 26 seconds left in the half, giving his team a lead (14-7) it would not relinquish. In fact, Hightstown did not surrender a single point in the second half. And Kopp did not have to give his club any big halftime speeches either, as his boys were able to recognize and correct their own first half mistakes and come out after intermission with a renewed winning attitude.
   "It wasn’t anything I said. The kids just came alive," added Kopp, whose Rams put together a 21-point third quarter.
   First, Mike Bernazal recovered a fumBle, which led to a 17-yard touchdown run by Corey Delacruz (2 carries for 23 yards). Then Kenny Amponsa, who rushed for 46 yards on 12 carries, punched it in from the 5-yard line. And in the final minute of the third quarter, Hightstown turned to its budding sophomore superstar Tommy Apgar loose to run for a 54-yard touchdown. Apgar, who had 70 yards rushing on just 5 carries, had previously recovered a fumble to set up the Rams’ first score.
   "The kid is just phenomenal," said Kopp of Apgar. "I think he had over 20 touchdowns as a freshman."
   Matt Fried connected on five PATs without a miss. Hightstown rushed for 273 yards as a team as Johnny Lee-You (6 carries for 27 yards), Thomas Powell ( 3 carries for 13 yards), Bernazal (3 carries for 19 yards), Chris Werner (2 carries for 11 yards) all had good games rushing the football. Medici ran well too and he also connected with four different receivers (Dan Ratner, Drazdik, Joe Schettini and Lawson).
   "Wev’e been the model of consistency on offense," noted Kopp, who uses multiple weapons on the offensive side of the ball. "Defensively, we did an outstanding job. We had eight sacks."
   Matt Stinson lead the charge with four sacks, but Zach Ahmed, Marc Wargo, Bryan McGinn and Shaun Schachner also tackled the Princeton quarterback for a loss. Lawson and Powell each had an interception.
   Kopp was pleased to see a mixture of back-ups and junior varsity players move the ball over 60 yards in the final quarter. And everyone was happy to see over 50 Hightstown students make the trip to Princeton to cheer on their Rams.
   "I’m just really impressed with our team’s ability to get things done in the second half. It’s a credit to the kids’ conditioning in the off season. 82 percent of them are in the weight room (in the off season). They’re very dedicated," said Kopp. "We’ve become a second-half team."
   Hightstown has also become a winning team and it has already surpassed last year’s win total. But this is a veteran club that’s ready to win on a regular basis. The next challenge for the undefeated Rams will come this Friday as they’re scheduled to host Hopewell Valley.