As season wraps up, locals don’t look ahead

All three local high school teams took to the gridiron again last weekend as they looked to pick up a big win with the season winding down.

by Mike Mack, Special Writer
All three local high school teams took to the gridiron again last weekend as they looked to pick up a big win with the season winding down.
   Northern Burlington County Regional faced a big challenge on Saturday as they traveled to take on an undefeated Lawrence team. That challenge proved to be too much for the Greyhounds as they took a loss by the score of 33-6.
   Head coach Jonathan Reising credits his opponent with the win.
   ”Lawrence is a very talented football team,” he said.
   Despite the loss though, Northern Burlington is sitting with a very good record of five wins and two losses. With two games left in the season, Mr. Reising is still focusing on the big picture.
   ”We don’t focus on one game or making the playoffs, but getting better as people, students and as football players each day,” he said. “The growth of the individual will help the team to reach whatever we will achieve as a team.”
   Mr. Reising is not measuring his team in wins and losses, but rather by the growth he sees in his players both on and off the field.
   ”Each day, I see members of the team working harder to be a better football player than when they arrived at the field,” he said. “That to me is the sign of a successful season.”
   Northern Burlington’s next challenge will be at home against Burlington Township on Friday night.
   The other two schools faced off against each other on Friday night as Bordentown traveled to Florence with both teams sitting at 4-2.
   The two teams proved to be very evenly matched with Florence coming out on top by the score of 33-26.
   Florence head coach Joe Frappolli has his team focusing on taking things one game at a time.
   ”We treat each game as an opportunity to play and compete and that’s always our focus,” Mr. Frappolli said. “We, as a team, know that if we prepare and deal with the game at hand, the rest will take care of itself.”
   That approach seems to be working for the Flashes as they now boast a 5-2 record, guaranteeing themselves a plus .500 regular season. But Mr. Frappolli isn’t worried about all that, or the postseason, or anything more than what’s next for his team.
   ”Deal with the present and focus on that,” he said. “By the schedule given to us, you have nine scheduled games as everyone else does. Then a tenth game, in some shape or form, as everyone else does.”
   Next up for Florence is a game at Burlington City on Friday night.
   As for Bordentown, head coach Stephen Perry said he feels that his team is in a big spot now and every game left on the schedule is going to be very important.
   ”These last few games are huge,” Mr. Perry said. “They could be the difference between us possibly having a home playoff game to possibly not making the playoffs at all.”
   Next up for Bordentown is Cinnaminson at home on Friday night.