By: Sean Moylan
While few were surprised to see the Florence High School football team beat Bordentown, 61-0, on Saturday afternoon at The Pit to bring its winning streak to 42, the sheer speed and power of the Flashes’ onslaught on both sides of the ball was disarming to say the least.
On their first two plays from scrimmage the Scotties tried to run the ball and were hit with short losses. Then they took to the air and Jeff Perro picked off a pass, which set off a Flashes’ first-half attack that left the crowd exhausted just by watching it. Following a 17-yard run by Quentin Loftin, Timothy Bihlear put the Flashes on the board with a 30-yard scamper into the end zone. Then with 7:37 to go in the opening quarter, Loftin took off to the left sideline and didn’t stop running until he had a 47-yard touchdown.
"On my first touchdown my line blocked very well," Loftin said.
There would be more blocking and scoring to come.
Florence’s defense stopped Bordentown on three plays and Flashes quarterback Robbie Hutchison quickly found Perro open over the middle for 13 yards. After a long touchdown run by Bihlear was called back on holding penalty, Florence took to the air again. Only this time "Hutch" found Kevin Reeder in the middle of the end zone for a 31-yard score. For Reeder it was a big play because he was just coming back from a serious injury and he loves to play the game.
"That (Reeder touchdown) was on a blown play," said Florence Coach Joe Frappolli. "We ran the wrong motion. He ran the wrong pattern and somehow he scored. I call him Ali because he’s undefeated. I said Ali you’re still undefeated. You scored a touchdown when you weren’t even suppose to get the ball."
The first quarter was barely half over and Florence already had a 21-0 lead following a Matt Belcher extra-pointer. But in case anyone was getting bored, Loftin woke up the crowd with a spectacular 59-yard touchdown run, which featured a tremendous cut back across the middle of the field.
"I was running to the sideline and the whole time I was looking in," said Loftin, who ran for 123 yards on just a trio of carries. "I saw a seam between one of their players and one of our players so I just cut to the seam and scored."
Loftin’s touchdown, which came after an Anthony Krause interception, gave Florence an insurmountable 28-0 lead and there were still a couple of minutes to play in the first quarter.
While Frappolli basically shut down Loftin as a runner after that, the Flashes star continued to dazzle the Homecoming crowd with a series of long punt returns.
"I noticed that they didn’t run down the field too hard so I just picked up the punts and looked for a seam," said Loftin, who "seems" to be nothing short of fantastic.
In the Scotties’ defense they were playing without at least five of their best seven players. Josh Slezak and Darnell Ganges, Bordentown’s best runners, were both in street clothes while Nick Dekovitch and John Hull also missed the game with injuries. Tim Gola, Bordentown’s starting quarterback, has been out for much of the year.
"He (Slezak) had a high ankle sprain a few weeks back and he’s having a tough time recovering from it. He tried to come back too soon last week but he should be good to go next week," said Bordentown Coach Larry Larned. With no where else to turn, the Scotties asked Scott Stillwell, a receiver, to do the bulk of running. And while Florence held Bordentown to negative yardage, Stillwell showed courage throughout the day as a runner.
"I was really impressed with Scott (Stillwell). He ran the ball hard," said Larned. "We knew it was going to be tough coming in, especially with us missing all those guys. I don’t think the score showed what kind of team we are."
Meanwhile Chris Salaga stood on the Florence sidelines with an anguished look on his face. He had just three tackles and he longed to get back on the field for more before the game got too out of hand. When he finally did return to the field, Salaga flattened three or four more runners and he was suddenly rejuvenated. Nick Lubrano’s great defensive feeds off of tackles and interceptions. They’re the lifeblood which sustains the Flashes’ defenders. Early in the second quarter, Florence got its hard-working fullback Chris Foehr a 1-yard touchdown and then call went out for the Flashes to empty their bench.
But Florence’s reserves were nearly as good. Zachary Carugno, who played an excellent game, scored from 38-yards out on a cool reverse play. Then Jerome Davis nicked the left pylon on a 21-yard touchdown score.
Following Davis’ score, Demetrice Sims, who has always been a very good football player, blocked Florence’s extra point attempt.
"He (Sims) just comes out hard off the snap and shoots the gap," added Larned. Even so, Florence kept on coming. Joe Price, who also had a strong second half, scored from 24 yards out and Florence went into the intermission with a 54-0 lead.
A long punt return by Kevin Linico at the end of the third quarter set up a 1-yard fourth-quarter score by Joe Staton. Meanwhile Andre Boone, Josh Stillwell, Staton and Davis ran out the clock. Fan favorite Anthony Craft received a huge ovation when he entered the contest. And Florence quarterback Paul Wright did the classy thing and took a knee three times rather than try to run it in for a short touchdown at the end of the game.
Near the end of contest Frappolli turned to one of his better players, Shaquan Virgil, who was sitting the game out due to an injury, and joked that he didn’t know where he was going to get "Shaq" the playing time he so richly deserves. It was the kind of problem a lot of coaches would love to have.
Florence (6-0) is scheduled at Trenton Catholic Academy on Saturday afternoon, though there is talk of moving the game to Friday night. Then on November 4th, Florence will host Holy Cross in a big alumni game at 2:00 p.m. There’s little doubt that it will be the biggest regular season game of the year. Many former players are expected to return for the final regular season contest at The Pit. Tickets for the game will be a hot item so get them while you can. Bordentown (1-5) is scheduled to host Burlington City this Saturday afternoon.

