By: Sean Moylan Sports Writer
The Florence Township Memorial High varsity football team has been so good for so long, it’s almost reached the point in which anything less than a Group I Central Jersey title would be considered a down year. However, longtime head coach Joe Frappolli has a magical way of putting things in their proper perspective and the only reason the Flashes are four-
time defending Group I Central Jersey Champs is he has always coached one game at a time.
"Our goal is to win on opening night (Friday) versus Palmyra. They (Palmyra) have a lot of talent," noted Frappolli, who thinks it’s far too early to start talking about championships, especially with such a young team. "We’ve got a long way to go. We’re replacing seven defensive starters."
Nearly Florence’s entire secondary graduated, including all-
stars Jeff Perro, Robby Hutchison and Chris Foehr. In fact, Florence had over a dozen seniors who played significant minutes on both sides of the ball last year. Even so, the Flashes can field a very talented starting team this year. But unlike the starters of the last couple of years, Florence’s starters will probably have to play complete games.
"Our overall talent pool isn’t as deep or it isn’t there at this particular time," said Frappolli, who is expecting some of the younger kids to get better as the year progresses.
Still Florence does have great players like senior Quentin Loftin, who is expected to have a breakout year as a running back. Senior Marcus Curry is also a strong runner. Chris Salaga is an all-star two-way senior lineman. Frtiz Miller is a fine senior offensive lineman while senior Matt Belcher is one of the most experienced kickers in Burlington County. Florence is also expecting big years out juniors Joe Price (running back), Jimmy Martinson (quarterback) and Anthony Krause (RB/DE/DB).
The rest of the Flashes’ varsity roster is as follows: Jon Robinson (senior end), Scott Meredith (senior end), Drew Johnson (senior end), Tyler Foehr (senior end), Dylan Martin (sophomore back), Stu Foulks (junior end), Ernest Curry (junior back), Patrick Sweeney (sophomore back), Anthony Miele (junior end), Mike Williford (senior end), Tom Napolitan (sophomore back), Marcus Rawls (sophomore back), Sean Harris (sophomore back), Zack Carugno (junior back), Daquan Chapman (sophomore back), Josh Stillwell (junior back), Anthony Glover (junior end), Steve Muni (junior end), Kevin Linico (senior back), Ricky Cajigas (sophomore back), Mike Staton (junior back), Anthony DeMaio (senior back), Korey Linico (sophomore back), Jim Narkun (junior lineman), Ian Groover (sophomore lineman), J.J. Roache (sophomore lineman), Kevin Jiras (junior lineman), Zack Lee (sophomore lineman), Ron Edmonds (senior lineman), Mike Benti (sophomore lineman), Dean Riker (junior lineman), Brian Cook (senior lineman), Ryan Ingham (senior lineman), Chucky Taylor (junior lineman), Shawn Teed (sophomore lineman), Bryant Watts (sophomore lineman), Jonathan Bethea (sophomore lineman), Anthony Craft (junior lineman), Chris Smolda (sophomore lineman), Taran Singh (senior end), Matt Mudrick (junior end), Mike Boyd (junior end) and Dominic Piantadosi (sophomore end).
Frappolli’s assistant coaches are Steve Ordog, Nick Lubrano, Ross O’Neill, Joe J. Frappolli, Cesar Pereda, John Frappolli, Don "Nemo" Nemeth, Dan Hegarty, Fred Dunphy, Tony Luyber and Pepe Piechett. Audrey Tannenbaum is the athletic trainer and her student trainers are Elizabeth Napolitan and Jessica Carroll. Matt Fletcher and Michael Muchowski are team managers.
In addition to winning four state titles, Florence has only lost one game the last four years.
With so many new players can Florence win again? The answer to that question is probably yes. But it will need for its stars to stay healthy and on the field. Florence is scheduled to host Palmyra on Friday night in the first game at the New Pit.

