Sometimes nothing can lead to greater discomfort than getting comfortable. Certainly, that was the case for the Monroe Township High football team last weekend.
By Ken Weingartner, Sports Writer
The Falcons jumped out to a 19-7 lead less than three minutes into the second quarter against visiting South Brunswick, scoring on a 77-yard, 12-play drive to open the game and returning two fumbles for scores. Then a funny thing happened on the way to imminent victory – a battle.
Monroe needed Brian Taylor’s 3-yard touchdown run and Matt Nawracaj’s extra-point kick, coupled with South Brunswick missing a PAT, to pull out a 29-28 overtime victory last Saturday at Hugh Walsh Field. It was the Falcons’ seventh consecutive regular-season win dating to, ironically, a 29-28 overtime loss at South River last September.
”We got kind of comfortable going into the second half,” said Monroe senior running back Ryan Meseroll, who had 149 yards on 29 carries. “We had to keep fighting; we didn’t want to lose this football game. We put the ball in the end zone in overtime; we did our thing.”
Putting the ball in the end zone was a struggle for the Falcons’ offense. Three times Monroe had the ball inside South Brunswick’s 10 during regulation, but because of penalties and mishandled handoffs came away with a total of just three points.
”If we put the ball in the end zone every time we had the ball in the red zone, the score would’ve been a lot higher,” Meseroll said. “I think in practice this week we’re going to focus on finishing the job and putting the ball in the end zone.”
Taylor, making his first start at quarterback, capped Monroe’s opening drive with a 6-yard touchdown run. He finished with 65 yards on 10 carries and completed 9 of 19 passes for 114 yards.
Dale DeGraw returned a fumbled kickoff 18 yards for a touchdown and Brett Rutzler returned a fumble 79 yards as the Falcons built their 19-7 lead with 9:22 remaining in the first half. From there, Monroe managed just three points on a 23-yard field by Nawracaj, and had to battle into overtime after South Brunswick’s Mohamed Sanu tossed a 58-yard TD pass on a fake punt to tie the score at 22 with 3:40 to play.
”I know it was a missed extra point, but we did what we had to do in overtime,” Falcons coach Pat Dowling said. “That’s part of the game; we’ve been on the losing end of that. The guys hung in there and scored when they had to score. But we can’t leave all those points sitting on the field. We were way too sloppy, way too undisciplined. We’ve got to get better if we’re going to make a march.”
Monroe rolled up 255 rushing yards and outgained South Brunswick, 369-259, in the game. Nearly one-third of the Vikings’ yards came on their final two plays – Sanu’s pass that tied the score at 22 and his 25-yard touchdown strike on SB’s only snap in overtime.
”We shouldn’t have been in that situation,” Dowling said. “But it was a great high school football game. I know we’re capable of playing better football than this, and we beat a well-coached football team.
”Good teams prevail in this type of atmosphere, and we prevailed. So that’s a positive I’ll take away.”
The Falcons, who were 8-2 last season, are hoping to repeat last year’s success by reaching the postseason. Their next test en route to that goal is a 1 p.m. tilt at Colonia Saturday.
”If we come out like the first drive and keep the tempo the entire game, we have a great chance to make it to the state playoffs,” Meseroll said. “I think there’s great potential.”
Just no time to get comfortable.