FOOTBALL
By Tim Falls, Sports Editor
Penalties abounded against the Lawrence High School football team, yet the Cardinals still claimed a 14-0 victory Saturday over a Hopewell team playing for a spot in the postseason.
Lawrence clinched its fifth straight NJSIAA Group III Central playoff berth with the victory as quarterback Anthony Russ helped the Cardinals overcome 16 penalties with his passing game.
”16 penalties are a major concern for me,” said Lawrence coach Rob Radice. “We’re very happy with the win. We’re happy with our kids’ effort. We’re happy to be 6-2. We’re happy to make the state playoffs five years in a row. But we’re not happy with the way we played. We made five personal fouls and 11 more penalties for silly things. That stuff is going to come back and haunt us.”
Luckily for Lawrence, Russ was able to connect with his receivers, especially Keith Sherman, on several big passing plays.
”It’s not even that we gave up the big play,” said Hopewell coach Dave Caldwell. “They made the big play. That’s a very tough football team, that’s a playoff-bound football team.”
Sherman caught 12 passes for 169 yards, including several on third-and-long that kept the Cardinals’ offense on the field. Sherman had a 41-yard catch on third-and-24, which helped put Lawrence in scoring position.
”Sherman and Russ, they connected and hooked up well and really bailed us out of some deep situations where we were back first-and-20, first-and-30,” said Radice. “A couple of third-and-longs we were able to convert, but it would be awfully nice not to be in those third-and-longs.”
Sean Pearson punched in Lawrence’s two touchdowns on one-yard runs after the Cardinals approached the end zone with deep passes.
While the penalties kept the Cardinals from rushing as much as they usually like to, Hopewell’s defense stood strong against the run, requiring Russ to connect in the air.
”Hopewell did a great job, they put a lot of guys in the box and when you put a lot of guys in the box, we’re going to throw the ball,” said Radice. “We threw the ball for over 250 yards for that reason. You kind of pick your poison, you might limit me someplace, but if you stop the run we’ll keep throwing.”
Russ completed 15 of 22 attempts for 257 yards and finished the game just shy of Lawrence’s single season passing record of 1,583. Russ needs just 63 yards to claim the Cardinal record set by Brett Brackett in 2005.
Along with finding Sherman on a dozen passes, Russ connected with Nick Bracket on two throws for 44 yards and Colin Anderson on a 44-yard pass on another fourth-and-two.
Pearson had 27 carries for 115 yards, including his two one-yard touchdown runs and Sherman had three carries for seven yards, but clearly passes drove the Lawrence offense over Hopewell.
Defensively Hopewell posted its third shutout of the season.
”I’m always happy with a win,” said Ethan Posey. “We kept fighting and made them put up a zero on the board.”
Lawrence held Hopewell to 52 rushing yards on 33 carries and 10 passing yards on two completions. The Bulldogs held Lawrence scoreless in the second half, as penalties plagued the Cardinals.
All of Lawrence’s infractions made shutting out Hopewell that much more important.
”The defense, no mater what, just keeps fighting,” said Posey. “If you can’t stop them from getting into the end zone, then there’s no way to guarantee a win. We only put up 14 points, but I have faith in our offense and we’ll put up a lot more.”
Hopewell tested Lawrence defense and had ample motivation to reach the end zone. The Bulldogs needed a win over Lawrence for a chance at reaching the state playoffs for the first time in their program’s history. With playoffs on the line Hopewell viewed the game against Lawrence as a playoff game, but so did the Cardinals.
”We always play for each game,” said Posey. “We play each game like a playoff game, so for us this was a playoff game. Hightstown (on Saturday) is a playoff game) and when we get to the playoffs, we’ll play just as hard.”
Lawrence hosts Hightstown in its last Colonial Valley Conference game of the season at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The NJSIAA playoffs begin the following week.
”Hightstown is coming off a win versus Trenton and two wins in a row,” said Radice. “They knocked off Princeton, then beat Trenton. Hightstown is not going to the playoffs, so we will be their Superbowl. They will come in here fired up. If we come in and clean things up, we’ll be fine. If we don’t come in and clean things up, Hightstown will beat us,”
The penalties are the big issue for Lawrence and Radice said the Cardinals will work all week to ensure his team is not penalized like it was 16 times against Hopewell.
”I’m embarrassed by that,” said Radice, “because that’s not how we play football at Lawrence. We’ll address it in practice and come back crisper and hopefully with much less penalties. Clean it up, we must clean it up.”
Regardless of the penalties, Radice said he thought Hopewell played a great game and even the Cardinal players respected how hard the Bulldogs played.
”Hopewell played a great game,” said Posey. “I have a lot of friends on that team I’ve grown up playing with most of them and they all played hard.”

