By: Sean Moylan Sports Writer
Using a relentless passing attack, Bound Brook High (seeded third) captured a 36-26 come-from-behind victory over the Florence Township Memorial High football team (seeded sixth) in last Friday night’s NJSIAA Group I Central Jersey playoff contest at Bound Brook.
And as unbelievable as this might read, the Flashes were eliminated from the post season in the first round for the second year in a row.
Despite the incredible prowess of Crusaders’ quarterback Mike Romanella, Florence found itself holding a 26-14 lead after its senior quarterback Jimmy Martinson hit Bryant Watts with a 24-yard touchdown pass with 6:02 remaining in the third quarter. However, when the Flashes failed on their subsequent 2-point attempt, Florence coach Joe Frappolli knew those lost two points might come back to bite his team later in the contest.
“We didn’t finish the deal. We knew we had to keep it a two-
touchdown margin on the road,” said Frappolli, who knows, from years and years of experience, the huge difference it makes to be up by 14 instead of 12. “It seems like we never got control of that game.”
And as it turned out, Frappolli was right. Less than two minutes after Watts had given Florence its biggest lead of the game, the Crusaders scored a touchdown on an 11-yard run by Andrew Capolattano. The extra point cut the Flashes’ lead to just 5.
Then in the fourth quarter, Romanella, who completed 19 of 30 passes for 340 yards and two touchdowns, and his fleet of receivers took over the contest. Bound Brook took a 29-26 lead after Romanella hurled a 35-yard pass to Jordan Hawkins and the same two Crusaders hooked up for a 2-point conversion.
Moments later, Florence had a long kickoff return by junior Marcus Rawls called back when he was called for a face mask penalty on what Florence felt was a legal stiff arm. After that, Florence couldn’t get anything going offensively. To add insult to injury, Romanella scored an insurance touchdown on a 1-yard run with under a minute remaining in the game.
“Our defense had a great year and the strength of our defense was — and is — our defensive line. But I don’t think we had a sack all game long. We couldn’t get the pass pressure we needed. Plus they went to a no-huddle offense and that hurt. Their receivers were the best we’ve seen all season. But their quarterback was the difference. And when the field is a little damp the advantage goes to the receiver because he knows where he’s going,” said Frappolli, whose team has so many two-way players that they were almost too exhausted to score in the final quarter.
“A couple of times we were right there (to pick up a first down) and couldn’t close the deal. In the fourth quarter, all the guys that had to make plays for us had spent so much energy chasing them around on defense that they had nothing left.”
Nevertheless, for nearly the first three quarters, Florence was the superior football team. The Flashes shut down the Crusaders’ opening drive on the first of two Rawls’ interceptions. Five plays after his pick, Rawls barreled into the end zone from 7 yards out and Martinson added the extra point to make it 7-0.
Bound Brook tied the game at 7-7 with a second-quarter touchdown, but the Flashes answered with a 70-yard touchdown run by senior Ernest Curry on a counter play and a Martinson PAT on their next possession to go up 14-7.
With the score knotted at 14-14, Martinson threw a long to Josh Stillwell to set up Korey Linico 2-yard touchdown run in the final minute of the first half. Unfortunately, Florence missed the extra point and led by 6 at the half.
If they had trimmed a couple of minutes off of each quarter, Florence would have probably came out on top. Unfortunately, a football game is a physical, punishing marathon and an undefeated Bound Brook squad used its tremendous team speed to wear the Flashes down in the second half. Nonetheless, sophomore Adam Schmidt had a solid game with two catches and Rawls was great as usual. Moreover, Florence’s defense was outstanding in the first half and the Flashes offense excelled into the third quarter.
“They were a very good team and they were very well-coached,” said Frappolli. “They were picking up huge chunks of yardage at a time and we’re not that kind of a team. We’re more like a surgeon (picking teams apart a few yards at a time).”
Florence (6-3) still has a chance to win a piece of the Freedom Division but it needs to defeat Riverside on Thanksgiving and Burlington City has to beat Palmyra.
NBC
With tornadoes and other wicked weather in the forecast this past Saturday, the Northern Burlington County Regional High School varsity football team’s (2-7) scheduled consolation game at Deptford Township was postponed until today (Thursday).

