By Kyle Moylan, Sports Editor
Tom Farrell knew the scenarios that needed to happen in order for his New Egypt High football team to make the state playoffs.
He just tried not to think about them too much unless he had a bottle of aspirin handy.
”With power points, it gets to be pretty complicated,” Farrell noted. “We needed Middlesex to lose to South River. We needed South Hunterdon to lose to Dunellen. Then we needed either Maple Shade to beat Delran or Palmyra to beat Cinnaminson. That’s why I tried not to think about it too much this year.”
Instead, Farrell just prepared his team for Riverside, a team it defeated, 27-13, to improve to 5-3 last Friday night.
”I told the guys after the game that they did everything they could,” Farrell noted. “Our three losses were to a Group III team (Northern Burlington), a Group IV team (Paul VI) and Florence, the four-time state champions (for Central Jersey Group I).”
Farrell went about his normal duties on Saturday as a coach. He didn’t go to any games to cheer against or for a certain team. Instead, he scouted Bordentown to prepare for the annual Thanksgiving contest. He also checked in on some of his future players at a New Egypt Pop Warner game.
”When I got home I got a call at about 7:30 p.m.,” Farrell noted. “We made the playoffs.”
New Egypt tied for eighth place with Middlesex, but earned the final spot in the Central Jersey Group I playoffs via strength of schedule. It seemed only right New Egypt finally caught a break, especially considering it missed the playoffs by a point two different times in the past.
”We’re a young team,” Farrell noted. “We have only five seniors (Dylan Rowley, Davion Clanton, Lance Sutton, Kevin Vaclavicek and Tom Boguc). I didn’t have any inkling this would be the year we’d make the playoffs for the first time. I’ve been in coaching for 19 years. Who knows what the year will be?”
Farrell just knew his team wasn’t going to miss the playoffs because it looked past Riverside.
Rowley scored on runs of 26 and 41 yards. Rowley also threw a 66-yard score to Langston Lacroix. The other score came on a 4-yard run by Lacroix.
New Egypt led this game 14-0 after the first quarter, 21-7 at the half and 27-7 going into the final minute of play.
”Dakota Havens had a great defensive game for us,” noted Farrell. “Offensively, Cody Shields (slot back) also played very well.”
Once Friday night came and went, however, New Egypt’s squad turned from players to fans.
According to Farrell, the playoff chases were always so close in the past, he spent a lot of time adding up power points, figuring out the different scenarios. He decided he wouldn’t do that this year until after his team defeated Palmyra on October 26.
”I looked at it and thought we’d come up a point short again,” Farrell said.
Fortunately, that wasn’t the case.
”I’m happy for the boys and the program,” Farrell said. “We’ve been knocking on the door a couple of times. I didn’t know this would be the year, but the program is at the point now where we should be competing for a playoff spot every year.”
And if that’s the end result, Farrell will gladly break out his calculator and state schedules and try and figure out which teams are in the state playoffs.
”There are just so many possibilities with the residual points,” Farrell noted, pointing out how the decisive Palmyra-Cinnaminson game was played by two teams not even in New Egypt’s sectional bracket. “It can really drive you crazy. You really want to worry about things you can control.”
Like this Saturday’s Central Jersey Group I opener at South River at 1 p.m.
