PHS, MHS also win on gridiron
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Jordan McGriff is a perfect example of the turnaround for the Hun School football team this season.
A year ago McGriff played just defense for the Raiders, as he struggled to get on the field with the offense. But after a summer of working to improve, McGriff is a two-way, every down player for Hun, which improved to 5-1 with a 62-14 win over Lawrenceville on Saturday.
”Jordan just keeps coming together,” said Hun coach Todd Smith, who could say the same thing about his entire roster. “We are so proud of Jordan. He is probably our most improved player from last year. He has dropped about 60 pounds and he can move his feet. His becoming a two-way player is attributed to what he did in the summer working hard and losing that weight. He’s an intelligent young man and the offense comes easy to him.”
After a 2-6 season a year ago, Hun has completely changed its fortunes this year. The Raiders raced out to a 56-0 lead at halftime against Lawrenceville to put itself in the driver’s seat for a Mid-Atlantic Prep League championship. Hun is 3-0 in the conference with games remaining against Peddie and Mercersburg.
”Some of my seniors, Chris Sharp, Julian Williams, Donovan Harris, Thomas Zuewsky, they went through what we went through last year and before the season even started they said that is not going to happen again,” said McGriff, a 6-3, 325 pound two-way lineman from Willingboro. “They said we are going to win a MAPL. We have a really good chance to do that. We control our own destiny right now.
”Everything just came together today. Coach put us through a hard week of practice so we knew any possible formation or play they could put together we felt prepared for.”
Hun got off to a quick start when Cameren Kitchen returned an interception for a touchdown and scored on Chris Sharp touchdown runs on each of its next four drives to make it 35-0. After Kyle Horihan returned an interception for a touchdown, Justin Morrison scored on a pass play from Simon Vades and a run of his own to make it 56-0 by halftime. Sharp, who finished with 212 yards rushing, would add his fifth TD of the game early in the second half for a 62-0 lead.
”I thought the offensive line played exceptional today,” Smith said. “And Chris is finally starting to get it. He loves running outside but he is starting to find that cutback and finding the holes in the middle.
”I think our team is capable of something like this. We tell the kids they are if we play mistake-free football. We are capable of putting up a lot of points and when the defense chips in the way it did today that is when you get something like what happened in the first half.”
McGriff has just enjoyed being part of the turnaround.
”This year I feel like I am having an outstanding offensive year and an outstanding defensive year,” he said. “My coaches have really prepared me with the summer workouts three days a week and with mini-camp. And I have to give a shout out to my trainer here, Coach (Na’ati Akauola), as well as Coach Smith and Coach (Nick) Steffner.
”I love playing both offense and defense. That is something I have had to work real hard at. The first few years there was always someone ahead of me on offense and this year I have had to work hard to play both ways.”
If Hun can close out the season with two more wins, it will have completely turned around last season’s results.
”It is coming together,” Smith said. “The communication and the talk at practice is intelligent football questions with intelligent football answers and you can see it all clicking. I have been happy with the way the kids are communicating.”
Hun was not the only Packet-area team to have a big weekend. Both Princeton High and Montgomery continued their winning ways with lopsided wins as well.
One week after losing for the first time this season, Princeton got back to its winning ways in a big way. The Little Tigers topped West Windsor-Plainsboro High South, 50-0, to improve to 6-1 on the season.
David Beamer threw a pair of touchdown passes and Rory Helstrom ran for 131 yards and a pair of touchdowns to lead the way for the Little Tigers. Colin Buckley also ran for a pair of touchdowns, while Helstrom added a kickoff return for a touchdown in the win.
Montgomery, which improved to 6-1, kept on winning as well as the Cougars topped Plainfield, 46-7, on Homecoming Night. The win sets up a showdown on Friday against undefeated Hillsborough.
Trevor Schmidt ran for 78 yards and three touchdowns, while Chris Chugunov threw for 324 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the win. The Cougars have now won four straight games and scored 185 points in the four games.
West Windsor-Plainsboro North slipped to 4-3 with a 34-26 loss to Hamilton. The Knights received three touchdown passes from Kevin Murphy and a touchdown run from C.J. Markisz in the loss.