Montgomery football rallies late for second win
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Heading into the second half of the season, everything is looking up for the football teams at West Windsor-Plainsboro High South and The Hun School.
WW-P South improved to 6-0 and clinched the West Jersey Football League’s Capital Division with a 48-0 win over WW-P North on Saturday. Meanwhile, Hun stayed unbeaten through five games and moved into the driver’s seat in the race for the Mid-Atlantic Prep League championship with a 24-17 win over Blair on Saturday.
Elsewhere in the Packet area, Montgomery improved to 2-4 with a 7-6 win at Union on Saturday, while Princeton slipped to 2-4 with an 18-13 loss to Pemberton.
Eight different Pirates ran the ball for a total of 370 yards, led by Brian Schoenauer’s 159 yards. The South junior has run for at least 100 yards in every game this season. Chris Evans threw a pair of touchdown passes to Marty Flatley and also ran for a touchdown for the Pirates. Schoenauer ran for a pair of touchdowns, while Chris Jones and Donyell Reid also had runs for scores.
”I am very happy at this point in the season,” WW-P South coach Todd Smith said. “Everyone is still healthy and it is very upbeat and positive as it should be for an undefeated team. The hard work the kids have put in is paying off every weekend. It is still the goal for us to spread it around. We feel if we need to pass, we can pass and if have to run, we can run.
”And the whole time we have been playing great defense. This was our second shutout of the year. The defense had been great all year.”
Since Rancocas Valley scored 27 points in the season opener again the Pirates, the defense has allowed just 21 points in the last five games.
Hun had the sort of tough battle it expected against Blair, which also came into Saturday’s game undefeated. The Raiders needed a Kylan Baker touchdown run in the closing minutes to pull out its fifth win of the season.
Hun took an early 7-0 lead on a John Loughery to David Dudeck touchdown pass. But Blair came back and grabbed a 9-7 lead at halftime on a safety and a punt return for a touchdown. A field goal followed by Baker scoring on a 3-yard run gave the Raiders a 17-9 lead early in the fourth quarter. But Blair tied the game on a touchdown and two-point conversion to set the stage for Baker’s winning touchdown.
Montgomery, which had suffered some narrow losses over the first half of the season, got a fourth-quarter touchdown on a Josh Reinson to Sam Oltmans touchdown pass for a 7-6 win over Plainfield.
”We needed it,” Montgomery coach Zoran Milich said of the win. “Our guys were fired up after the game. We used a lot of kids so it was a full team effort and we had to come from behind to do it.”
Plainfield scored on its first possession for a 6-0 lead and it stayed that way until the fourth quarter when the Cougars scored on a 15-play drive.
”It was a pitch pass,” Milich said. “Josh was playing tailback and we got him the ball and he tossed it up to Sam Oltmans. We moved Josh around a lot.”
Reinson played some quarterback as usual, but the Cougars also used Ross Baginsky and freshman Chris Chugunov at the position. Ryan Boyle led the offense with 117 yards on 25 carries.
”To come from behind and shut them down the rest of the way was good for us,” Milich said. “They had four possessions on our side of the field and the defense did a great job. Our kids showed great discipline and kept their heads really well.”
Princeton had its chances against Pemberton but came up just short, with the difference being a 60-yard fumble return for a touchdown for the Hornets. The Little Tigers trailed, 18-7, but scored on a Zack DiGregorio to Tim Miranda pass to get to within 18-13 before Pemberton was able to run out the clock.
”I was happy to see they didn’t hang their heads,” Princeton coach Joe Gargione said. “That was a big step in my eyes. They took a nice step forward. Zack came in there in the fourth quarter when we were down by 11 and he showed us some things, especially when he was scrambling there at the end.”
DiGregorio came on for injured starter Colin Bell and completed four passes and ran for a first down. The Little Tigers just ran out of time in the end.
”I told the team, we’re playing well defensively,” said Gargione, whose team will host Ewing next Saturday. “We can scheme it, but sometimes there are too many missed tackles. We can’t miss tackles and you can’t tackle high on two big kids like they had with the quarterback and the running back. They run hard and we’re not used to seeing huge kids like that.
”It was a tough loss. There were a lot of positives but also some negatives. We were able to get the ball to two other people for touchdowns. But we have to improve the tackling.”