By: Sean Moylan
Now that’s more like it.
This time around the Northern Burlington High football team left nothing to chance as it went out and pounded Woodrow Wilson, 41-0, last Friday at Northern Burlington.
"We did everything right defensively," said Northern Burlington Coach Jon Reising, whose Greyhounds had held Pemberton off the scoreboard for three and a half quarters only a week before. "Offensively, we scored because we had some short fields. They had two bad punts and we were very fortunate."
NBC’s quarterback Jake Pates took it 5 yards for the only touchdown of the opening quarter. Pates’ score actually helped set up the Greyhounds’ next touchdown as Woodrow Wilson’s defense was looking for a quarterback sneak when Jake DiCioccio, the Greyhounds’ star running back, punched it in from the 1-yard line early in the second quarter. He would later score on nearly the same play in the second half.
"They (Woodrow Wilson) were stacked up inside and we just ran an off-tackle play," added Reising of DiCioccio’s first touchdown. Soon after Troy Richards exploded for a 74-yard touchdown run and the Greyhounds were suddenly running off to a 27-point second quarter. "We had not had a long run like that all year."
Richards then scored on a 1-yard run. A Josert Fonseca extra point increased the lead to 27-0. Pates then tossed a 33-yard touchdown strike to Bryan Reading with 20 seconds left in the first half.
"He (Reading) just ran a post corner pattern and we found him open in front of the end zone," said Reising. "I think the team played very well."
After three frustrating losses against three powerhouses (two of the games the Greyhounds could have won if they had made an extra play or two), Northern was very pleased to get back in the win column. Although Pates has super arm, Northern, wisely, threw just enough to keep Woodrow Wilson honest.
"We had over 200 yards rushing. It was very windy so we didn’t have Pates throw much," said Reising, whose senior quarterback did have roughly 90 yards in the air. "We just did what we had to do to get the win."
Despite the windy conditions, Fonseca made five out of six PAT attempts. Northern’s defense played so well it gave its offense a short field to work on nearly the entire game. It was the Greyhounds third shutout of the season.
NBC (4-3) is scheduled to host Paul the VI on Friday night. Through action this past week, NBC is 11th in power points Central Jersey Group III. The top eight teams advance to the playoffs. Paul VI, however, is a Group IV school with three wins, so a victory would be a power point bonanza for NBC.

