By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
The schedule says the New Jersey high school football playoffs begin in mid-November.
But the playoffs all already underway for the Montgomery High football team, which entered last week’s game against Scotch Plains-Fanwood knowing they likely needed three straight wins to secure a spot in the Central Jersey Group 5 playoffs.
The Cougars responded with a 26-6 win to improve to 2-4 overall heading into Saturday’s game at Plainfield.
“In practice and all throughout the week we said failure is not an option,” said defensive back Zach Masessa, who had a pair of interceptions in the win over Scotch Plains. “We put that up on the board that failure is not an option. This is like a three-game playoff for us from Scotch Plains to Plainfield to Hillsborough. Those are our big three games coming up and we’re just taking them one game at a time.”
Injuries have hurt the Cougars throughout the first six weeks of the season and even in the win over Scotch Plains they played without several key players. But the team came together with a performance that kept their playoff hopes alive.
“We lost seven starters last game,” Montgomery coach Zoran Milich said. “We got (Jared) Reinson back this week. He had a great night and we needed that. Brandon Szigetti had a real nice night. We moved him from safety to outside linebacker. We started Kyle Kuminsky, a sophomore, at safety and he showed some guts in there and is going to be a very good player for us.
“We needed this one. Foe us we said the playoffs started tonight and we just have to keep winning. We are back in the mix.”
The Cougars trailed, 6-0, after Scotch Plains opened the game with a touchdown drive. But from that point on the Montgomery defense buckled down and the offense came alive. The Cougars had four interceptions on defense and sacked the quarterback four times. Masessa had two of the interceptions, while Anthony Lopresti and Szigetti also intercepted passes.
“The defense stepped up tonight big time,” Milich said. “They had a sophomore quarterback back there so the idea was to try to get some pressure on him and make him throw it. The first time he made a big throw but after that we did a real nice job defending against the pass and we created some turnovers.”
On offense, Matt Stagnitta ran for one touchdown and threw for two others to Mitch Chugunov, while Reinson also scored on a touchdown run.
“Throughout the season the offense hasn’t necessarily put up a ton of points but they have put up the points we have needed to progress throughout the season,” Masessa said. “Since all the people have been hurt and throughout the week with all the reps we have just had guys step up. People really learned to fill in those roles. We are going to keep pushing that failure is not an option. That is going to be with us throughout the next two games to make the playoffs, those are our goals.”
Masessa had two picks, but he knows he was just part of a unit that overall came together and got the job done.
“The defensive line stepped up with Jared Reinson and Mike Simonson,” Masessa said. “They held down their top running back, who is one of their key players and that forced them to pass the ball and we were able to force some turnovers.”
The win left the Cougars in tied for eighth place with Edison in the CJ 5 power points standings. The top eight teams qualify for the playoffs.
In other football action from last weekend, Hun remained undefeated with a 44-6 win over Hill in its Mid-Atlantic Prep League opener. Imamu Mayfield rushed for 187 yards and scored four touchdowns to lead the offense for the Raiders. Simon Vadas threw for 300 yards and tossed one touchdown pass, while Luke Apuzzi caught seven passes for 145 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
West Windsor-Plainsboro North lost to Notre Dame, 41-0, to fall to 2-4 on the season. WW-P South dropped a 35-6 decision to Ewing to fall to 0-6. Scott Cochrane scored on a 1-yard run for the Pirates’ only touchdown. Princeton fell to Winslow, 46-21, to fall to 2-4 on the season. David Beamer threw three touchdown passes — two to Rory Helstrom and one to Jakob Green in the loss.
