JACKSON – Both the Jackson Memorial and New Egypt high school football teams suffered setbacks in their respective first-round playoff games last weekend.
West Windsor South downed the Jackson Jaguars, 28-14, in an NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV match-up, while New Egypt endured a 28-0 shutout to South River in a South Jersey Group I contest.
In the loss to West Windsor, Jackson got off to a promising start as Mark Bergery electrified the crowd with a dazzling 93- yard kickoff return for a touchdown to start the game. Kyle Stybe’s PAT gave the Jags a 7-0 advantage and figured to be a momentum starter.
West Windsor, however, remained poised, and more importantly, took advantage of six Jackson turnovers to rattle off 28 unanswered points to take a commanding three-touchdown lead.
When Jackson did mount a drive and scored to cut the deficit to 21-13, Donald Murphy’s 8-yard touchdown run was negated by a holding penalty. Murphy, who rushed for 140 yards, scored on a 7-yard run in the fourth quarter.
With the loss, Jackson falls to 5-5, while West Windsor improved to 9-1.
PHOTOS BY JEFF GRANIT staff Left: New Egypt’s Ronny Tortoriello uses his head to tackle South River’s Michael Wilson in a first round NJSIAA playoff game. Right: New Egypt’s Langston Lacroix looks for yards against South River, who won the game 28-0. New Egypt coach Tom Farrell knew the Warriors were in for a battle with South River. Farrell expected to be facing a wellcoached, physical football team. He got what he anticipated.
New Egypt played South River virtually even for the first half and entered the intermission trailing just 7-0. South River’s offense, however, got untracked starting early in the second half and scored 21 unanswered points for the final margin of victory.
‘They’re a big, strong football team with a number of talented kids playing at the skill positions,” Farrell said. “We knew this was a program with a lot of tradition and history of winning behind it. We were thrilled to find ourselves in a position to be playing such a high-caliber squad in the post season.”
South River running back Jarvis Crandell gave the New Egypt defense all it could handle, rushing for four touchdowns and more than 200 yards.
“We realized that we needed to contain the run game in order to have a chance,” Farrell said. “They have some talented kids who can make big plays and put points up in a hurry.”
Langston Lacroix paced the Warriors’ offense with 65 yards rushing on 17 carries. Lacroix had a 91-yard TD run called back just before halftime after officials ruled his knee had touched the turf.