New Egypt football looks to bounce back in finale today
By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
Lyle German and the New Egypt High School football team knew it needed to keep Dunellen’s offense off the field.
After fumbling on its first play after Dunellen took a 6-0 lead, the Warriors buckled down inside their own 25-yard line. Kevin Mason delivered one sack and German ended the threat with a fourth-down sack, but the Warriors couldn’t find enough big plays after that in their 35-0 loss to Dunellen in the Central Jersey Group I semifinal Friday night.
”Win or lose, it’s our second home playoff game,” said German, a senior captain who also plays on the offensive line. “We lost to them, hopefully they win it all so we lost to the state champions. They were a tough team. I just thought we’d play a little tougher. I don’t know what it was. We were prepared. We just didn’t execute.”
The Warriors stayed in the game in the first half. They still trailed, 6-0, when Dunellen scored on a 9-yard pass with 35 seconds left in the second quarter.
”I’m really proud of my guys in the first half,” said New Egypt coach Luke Sinkhorn. “They did a really good job in the first half. I would have liked to score.”
They came close to tying it early in the second quarter, but Dylan Wills’ long pass was just out of the diving attempt of Jamel Smith. New Egypt still was moving the ball on the drive but another fumble killed their momentum and the drive stalled at the Dunellen 28-yard line.
”There were a couple mishaps here and there,” Sinkhorn said. “I would have liked to fall back on sustained drives offensively, but credit Dunellen.”
Against a high-powered Dunellen team that hadn’t been held under 40 points in its last four games, giving the ball back to the Destroyers was a bad idea. The Destroyers had their double-wing offense — in which all 11 guys are within two yards of the line of scrimmage before most snaps — running well.
”I knew going in it’s a tough offense, it’s tough to prepare for,” Sinkhorn said. “They have a bunch of guys on the edge and they hit a bunch of spots and they’re not one-dimensional. They have a couple guys that can do a couple different things. It’s a tough offense.”
Things started to unravel some when the Destroyers scored on their opening possession of the second half, stopped New Egypt, then scored on their next two possessions to close out the Warriors.
”Because our offense wasn’t working like it should, and they were on the field to sustain those five-minute drives, we’re down on our defense and our offense never got working,” German said. “We have to work our offense. If we score points, we win. In every game we lost, we did not score a point. We did not get our offense going.”
Added Sinkhorn: “I don’t think it was anything special. We had the turnover, which hurt us a little bit, and I think our guys got down a little bit. We should have been able to do a little more offensively. They did some good things, but we should be able to do a little more.”
The loss follows the first playoff win for the Warriors, and while Friday’s results sting after they fell to 7-3, there’s plenty to be proud of for a New Egypt team that had a big turnaround.
”We were 2-7 last year,” German said. “That was unbelievably horrible. We turned it around to 7-3 right now and winning our first playoff game. We’re home for our second playoff game, this is amazing. We came a long way. We needed to pick it up a little more.”
All season, New Egypt has been able to answer different challenges in a way that hadn’t happened before.
”Last year was a tough year,” Sinkhorn said. “I knew we were going to do good things. Going this far was a nice surprise. I knew we had some good components. It was all about coming together, and whether those things were going mesh.”
The Warriors will the chance to close their year on a high note. They will finish their season when they host Bordentown Regional High School 10 a.m. today.
”It’s just like after Florence,” German said of the Warriors avenging their regular-season loss to Florence with a playoff win last week. “We had some emotions built up. This one hurts. We’re going to come back fired up on Thursday.”
After that, it will be time to reflect on a terrific season for the Warriors, who enjoyed the first playoff win in program history and the chance to play for a berth in the sectional final.
”You don’t like to settle, but these kids did a lot of firsts and a lot of good things,” Sinkhorn said. “They’re proud of them. Hopefully they can take this in the next couple years and capitalize on that.
”You get the seniors that can appreciate it. Hopefully the other guys get some experience and get in there and maybe get some more guys out next year as well. There’s nothing but positives with what we’ve done this year.”
For the seniors like German, Friday’s game wasn’t a fitting ending. It was a sign of how far they have come in earning a second playoff game, and a step in the right direction for the program.
Said German: “This whole entire year – we won a banner for the first time, we’re 7-3 right now, we could be 8-3 after the Thanksgiving game, we have a 1,000-yard rusher, until now we were undefeated at home and we beat Florence for the first time in history. There’s a lot of positives. This is a little sore note for us, but we got this far, which is good for the future guys.”