By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
The West Windsor-Plainsboro North football team had put up some gaudy offensive numbers in its first three games of the season.
But in its biggest win to date, the Knights were led by a defense that put the clamps on Hamilton in a 10-6 win on Saturday.
”We knew our defense was going to have to step it up,” said senior linebacker Greg Weisbecker. “They did a great job on our offense, but Joe Jensen really stepped it up at quarterback and led our offense. We knew it was going to be a big day in the trenches. Joe Jensen stepped up and did a great job.”
Neither team generated much on offense other than Jensen, who ran for 145 yards in the win. He also connected with Levin Mateo on a 25-yard touchdown pass to give the Knights the lead in the third quarter.
”The first couple of games we let up over 200 yards so our defense knew we had to step it up and show our defense could do it against a good offensive team,” Weisbecker said.
The North defense was up to the task, limiting Hamilton to 132 yards in offense. For Weisbecker, who is now in his third year as a starter, it showed just how much the defense has come along.
”Sophomore year was our first year with Coach (Chris Casamento),” he said. “Last year was our first year of really being successful. But now we just have that standard. We have to go out on the field and be confident and have that swagger and let them know the Knights are for real.
”Josh Bloom did a great job. This is Mark Cooley’s first year as a starter and he’s done real well. We had a lot of senior starters last year so we had to see who could come in and fill some spots.”
For a team that has scored 108 points in its first three games, it was nice to get a great defensive effort on a day when the offense came up against a strong defense as well.
”We’re pleased with the way the defense played,” Casamento said. “They did a great job of assignment football. The kids came out and did exactly what we wanted them to do. We knew they would have a hard time driving the length of the field on us.”
In other Packet-area football games this past weekend, The Hun School was the only other team to come away with win, posting a 48-0 victory over Kiski School. Julian Hayes ran for 201 yards and scored three touchdowns to pace the offense.
West Windsor-Plainsboro South dropped a 25-6 decision to Notre Dame. The Pirates scored their points on a pair of Alex Rohrbach field goals.
On Friday night, Montgomery fell to Franklin, 14-7. The Cougars led 7-0 through the first three quarters thanks to a DJ Ruhlman touchdown run before the Warriors rallied for the win.
Princeton fell to 0-4 with a 45-0 loss to Hopewell Valley.
