Florence football holds on for win in opener

BY: Sean Moylan Sports Writer
    This season a large number of the starting players on the Florence High varsity football team are learning new positions. However, Florence is such a well-coached team that its players often learn and win at the same time. And last Friday night at Maple Shade, the Flashes used superior special teams and defensive game plans to beat the Wildcats, 21-14.
    “We felt with a newer team that we had to make some things happen on specialty teams. We (Chucky Taylor) blocked a punt which led to our first score. We just put on some inside pressure. We’ll line up eight to ten men on the line. Steve Ordog and Donnie Nemeth do a great job coaching our specialty teams,” noted Florence coach Joe Frappolli.
    While many football teams spend much more time working on their offensive and defensive teams in camp, the Flashes have always treated their specialty teams with the same importance as their other units.
    Another Florence trait is to often establish the pass early in the contest to keep opposing defenses honest against the run. In fact, shortly after the blocked punt, Jimmy Martinson hooked up with Josh Stillwell for a 26-yard touchdown on a waggle pass to put the Flashes on the scoreboard first.
    “Our players played with a lot of intensity and Jimmy Martinson stepped up. We only threw the ball a couple of times, but he played with a lot of energy. He also punted the heck out of the ball and averaged 35 plus yards on his punts,” said Frappolli, who was happy to see Martinson get off such booming punts in the rain.
    Bryant Watts added the extra point to give Florence a 7-0 lead, but Maple Shade answered with a 1-yard touchdown to close the gap to 7-6 by the end of the opening quarter.
    In the second quarter Florence senior Joe Staton, who was converted from a linebacker to defensive lineman this season, and others came with intense pressure and forced a bad snap and a turnover. Moments later on Florence’s first play from scrimmage, Marcus Rawls scored from 3 yards out and Martinson added a two-point conversion to give Florence a 15-0 lead.
    “Rawls is not a real big guy, but he’s got tremendous speed. He’s not real big but he’s strong,” noted Frappolli, who also uses Rawls on defense. “This year we have a lot more guys who are playing both ways than we’ve had in the last two years.”
    Rawls scored again in the second quarter on a 70-yard buck sweep play. He ended the game with 125 yards rushing on 15 carries. Florence rushed for just 152 yards in the game and it ran just 12 plays in the first half. Still it led 21-6 at the half and the Wildcats didn’t score again until the fourth quarter. Marithe Harris scored both of Maple Shade’s touchdowns.
    “They drove the ball. Their quarterback (C.J. Szymczak) is a good baseball player and a very good athlete. I’d be surprised if they didn’t have a really nice year,” added Frappolli, whose defense made the big plays when it had to in the second half. “They had a lot of experienced veteran players back and I thought they had some good athletes. We knew it would be a tough game.”
    As it turn out a bad scrimmage versus West Windsor-Plainsboro South turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the Flashes.
    “West Windsor-Plainsboro South really exposed a lot of the things we were doing wrong as a team,” said Frappolli, who, along with defensive coordinator Nick Lubrano, made some smart changes after the scrimmage versus South. “The only guy on our whole defense that is actually playing the defensive position where he played last year is Jimmy Narkun (a senior defensive lineman).”
    Narkun and sophomore lineman Bobby Braun each had seven tackles versus Maple Shade. Taylor led the Flashes in tackles with nine. Staton had eight.
    Frappolli thought that offensive guard Kevin Jiras, who played some defense too, played an outstanding game as did Zack Carugno (a back).
    “I like the chemistry of our team. It’s a good group. They just have to get more game experience,” said Frappolli, whose younger players still need to adjust to the mental and physical speed of the varsity game.
    Florence (1-0) has a scheduled road game under the lights versus Robbinsville on Friday night. Robbinsville made the playoffs last year and is returning a lot of good players so it should be an excellent football game between two very good Group I teams.
    NBC
    Although an Andrew Bothwell 7-yard touchdown run and a Thomas Mannucia extra pointer gave the Northern Burlington County Regional High football team a short-
lived 7-6 second quarter lead over Burlington Township last Friday night at Burlington Township, the Falcons ended up coming back and beating the Greyhounds 20-7.
    Burlington Township’s Tyler Woolrige rushed for 131 yards and a pair of touchdowns versus the Greyhounds. NBC (0-1) is scheduled to host Pemberton on Saturday afternoon.
    BRHS
    Although the Scotties’ Thomas Lee had a very nice 15-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, Bishop Eustace still defeated the Bordentown High varsity football team, 28-6, last Friday night in Pennsauken.
    Nevertheless, Scotties fans have no reason to panic as Bordentown will now enter into a long stretch of games playing smaller schools roughly the same size as it is. Bordentown (0-1) is scheduled to host Palmyra on Saturday afternoon.