By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
The annual football battle between West Windsor-Plainsboro North and WW-P South has special meaning for CJ Markisz.
Playing in his final game between the two rival high schools, Markisz rushed for 245 yards and three touchdowns to help their Knights to their third straight win in the series and first of this season, 33-7, last Friday night at South.
“It was a nice way to finish off the rivalry in my senior year,” said Markisz, a three-year starter for the Knights. “We have a lot of respect for South football. I grew up watching kids like Ryan Lupo, Dave Twamley and Brian Scheonauer. So there is certainly a lot of history around the sport and the game is always a lot of fun.”
While South dominated the rivalry for most of the first decade, the Knights have taken control the last three years. Markisz has been happy to be a part of the winning ways and knows no win comes easy in the series, especially for a team that had dropped its first two games of the season.
“They had a lot of heart,” Markisz said of the Pirates. “They kept playing to the end and gave us a run for our money. The rivalry lived up to expectations. We lost a tough game to Steinert (21-0) the first game and then had a rough one against Allentown (81-56). It was good to get this win over South and then we have Trenton and Hightstown. We still have our work cut out for us and we’re very optimistic about the season.”
Markisz had three touchdowns and nearly had a fourth on the opening drive of the game for the Knights, but he was stripped of the ball just before the goal line and offensive lineman Jude Patoon recovered for the touchdown.
For Markisz, it has been the development of the Knights’ offensive line over the first three weeks of the season that has helped the team make a big step forward.
“It’s all the offensive line,” Markisz said. “My left guard, Jacob Bellotti, actually had a 104 degree fever and he played his heart out. We had a lot of inexperienced linemen who really stepped up the past few weeks and certainly earned their spot.”
WW-P North coach Jeff Reilly has seen that same improvement up front. The Knights lost four starters off their offensive line of a year ago and the new unit is starting to come together.
“We have a lot of young guys but they are starting to gel and work through the scheme,” Reilly said. “We are starting to see a huge difference. We were four days into our pre-season and we said we can’t be a Pro-I team. We have to spread it around. So right there we were staying up late at night and reworking things.
“A huge part of that was our offensive coordinator, Jeff Torralba. He has done a phenomenal job. He has gone overtime and it has been very impressive. It’s a whole new scheme. He played it in high school a little bit and has done a spectacular job with it.”
The new offense needs the offensive line to come through and it has the last two weeks as the Knights have scored 89 points in two games.
“We graduated four kids,” Reilly said. “Roland Anderson was a returning starter. And then we have senior Jacob Bellotti, Jahvon Jackson, who we moved from tight end to tackle and that was a huge sacrifice on his part. And sophomore Jude Patoon, who has really stepped up. We didn’t expect him to be in this role right now but he has really embraced it and did a great job. And a guy who has stepped up is Jeremy Lockwood. He has played like a veteran as a junior for us.”
With their first win under their belts, the Knights are hoping for continued improvement down the road.
“We’re thinking this is our time now,” Reilly said. “(The loss to Allentown) was a huge confidence builder for us, believe it or not. We put up 56 points and were able to walk away from playing a really good team and be able to say we can do this. We walked away from the first week and said we have to wake up here. The kids have woken up. This is our crosstown rival and it is a game where weird stuff happens.”
