Who had the biggest wins of the week?
Darren Cooper: The biggest wins for anyone in North Jersey belong to Nick Suriano of Bergen Catholic and Dave McFadden from DePaul for winning their wrestling matches out on Pennsylvania. I swear I want to watch the Suriano match, but I don’t have 32 minutes to put aside to watch the whole thing start to finish. And by the way, do you want to know who was texting me from Pennsylvania about the matches because they were there? Paramus Catholic coach Chris Partridge and OC Greg Russo. They are both big Suriano fans. The biggest football win of the week belongs to Wood-Ridge, for upsetting Bogota in a game I don’t think anyone would have predicted in any way. Charlie Trentacosti just got named Group 1 coach of the week in the NJ HS Football Coaches newsletter I am told. I thought Pascack Valley had a big win, you know who had a good win sort of under the radar? Wayne Valley. It just doesn’t look like it’s going to be Northern Highlands’ year in football. That opening loss to Teaneck really hurt them.
And of course, its Bergen Catholic. Coming into June, I would have listed Bergen as 5th in the Big Five (Big North United), after watching them play against St. Peter’s Prep, I was blown away at how overmatched they were. They beat DePaul, which you could kind of understand (I think Bergen — and Bosco — really wanted/want to pay DePaul back for last year) but I was still surprised. But I thought Joes was a different animal completely, and when Joes went up and Guarantano got hurt, I was like, no way. But Bergen did find a way. Nunzio has been talking about his defense all season saying how good it is, and he’s right. They have found a way to make plays. And now, you have to say Bergen is No. 3 in the Big 5 with a shot at No. 2 on Saturday.
JJ Conrad: Huge win for Pascack Valley over Old Tappan in a game that lived certainly lived up to the hype of being a potential North 1, Group 4 final. Although let’s not forget about Paramus, who has bounced back with two convincing wins since losing to Bergenfield a few weeks ago, including shutting out Ridgewood, 35-0, last week. The two-RB tandem of Jorge Cortes and Rocco Swatek for PV continues to carry that Indians offense. But man, was Jordan Fuller of Old Tappan good vs. Pascack Valley (almost 300 rushing yards). Fuller almost single-handedly won that game for the Knights, but their defense just couldn’t make that key stop to turn momentum. And I’ll get to Bergen Catholic’s win over St. Joe’s in our Don Bosco-Bergen Catholic chat with Darren coming later this week. I tweeted it out on Saturday, but that’s a no-doubt Acey Award Game of the Year nominee.
Ed Mills: Biggest win of the week could have been Pascack Valley, who reinforced earlier win over two-time defending North 1, Group 5 champion Montclair by defeating Old Tappan, 35-28. Defending North 1, Group 4 champion Pascack Valley is at the top of that bracket’s seedings again and has tough games the next two weeks against Passaic Valley and Ramapo as it will be tested in its bid to clinch No. 1 seed in section. Other big wins including Passaic Valley with a good 35-28 win over a 2-4 Lakeland team, whose other losses came to 3-3 West Milford, 5-1 Paramus and 5-1 Demarest; St. Mary keeping its unbeaten season alive with dramatic comeback 19-14 win against Hasbrouck Heights at Depken Field last Friday night, Paramus’ eye-opening 35-0 win over previously unbeaten Ridgewood and Bergen Catholic coming back from two touchdowns down to overcome rival St. Joseph, 37-24, in two overtimes.
Keith Idec:Â Bergenfield came into last weekend 1-4, yet still can reach the North 1, Group 3 playoffs because the Bears beat West Milford, 29-25. Bergenfield has to win road games at Teaneck (1-5) and Clifton (0-5) to get in, but none of that would be possible had the Bears not defeated much-improved West Milford.
Wood-Ridge’s big overtime upset of Bogota also was huge for the Blue Devils. Their 26-23, double-overtime victory marked their first win of the season and Bogota’s first loss of the season. In addition to halting a five-game losing streak, Wood-Ridge’s win provided a huge morale boost for the small Bergen County program.
Jim McConville: I will put in a vote for Paramus, especially because of the Pascack Valley-Old Tappan game. The Spartans fell off of the high end radar when they inexplicably lost to Bergenfield two weeks ago (Paramus coach Dan Sabella told me last Friday that the game was a ‘debacle’ and that, ‘after 14 years, you think you’ve seen everything, then you see a game like that.’). They used a 35-0 win over previously undefeated Ridgewood team as their springboard back into the North 1 Group 4 talk while putting that ugly loss further into the rear view mirror. Don’t expect the Spartans trip over themselves again, not with Wayne Hills and Northern Highlands the next two weeks.