Ramapo earns bid to North 1 Group 3 final with win over Sparta by Greg Mattura of The Record
FRANKLIN LAKES – A strong start helped earn Ramapo a winning finish and trip to a championship game.
Junior quarterback AJ Wingfield ran for a touchdown and threw for a score to lead top-seeded Ramapo to a 21-14 victory over No. 4 Sparta in Friday night’s North 1, Group 3 football semifinal.
Ramapo extended its lead to 21-0 at 10:37 of the third quarter on a 47-yard TD run by senior running back Shane Brancaleone. The Green Raiders needed Brancaleone to pick up a key first down, on a third-and-2 at the Sparta 48-yard line, in the final two minutes to secure the win.
“It was a little nerve-racking at the end,” Ramapo coach Drew Gibbs said, later adding, “Our guys did what we had to do at the end of the game to get it won.”
Wingfield scored on a 21 yard-run in the second quarter for a 7-0 lead, then he tossed a 35-yard TD pass to senior Michael Graff to stake the Green Raiders (9-2) to a 14-0 halftime lead.
“I thought our offense played very well,” Gibbs said. “We took advantage of some big plays early in the game, got a couple of big throws. When we were trying to run the ball a little bit later in the game to eat up the clock, I thought Sparta did a good job defensively of stuffing the run, but I think our balance early helped us.”
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Sparta came as close as 21-14 with 2:53 left in the game, as senior quarterback Anthony Broccoletti scored on a 4-yard run, then, on a trick play, caught a two-point conversion pass from junior Will Cisko.
“I thought our offense slowed down, but I thought our defense really picked it up, held their offense up, and we came out with the win,” said Ramapo junior Anthony Sargenti.
Key stat: Sparta arrived averaging 35 points per game and was held to two second-half touchdowns. “Outstanding job today, outstanding job,” Gibbs said of the defense. “I thought we tackled well, we prevented, for the most part, big plays in the passing game.”
“We came out and we were really fired up,” Graff said. “We played really good defense throughout the game. When our offense didn’t make the plays that we needed to make, our defense stepped up and we were able to get stuff done.”
Turning point: Sparta fumbled in the second quarter, Ramapo recovered at its 10-yard line, and the Green Raiders scored three plays later for a 14-0 lead. That’s when Graff caught the 35-yard TD pass, and it came one play after Brancaleone produced the longest play of the game, a 52-yard run.
Quotable: “Our goal every year is to win a state championship and this group has just done a great job all year,” Gibbs said. “We lost the opening game [to Wayne Hills], they never got discouraged, kept working very hard all season and now we have a chance to make that goal a reality.”
Up next: Ramapo will face defending champion River Dell for the title in two weeks, at a date and time to be determined. The Green Raiders defeated the Golden Hawks, 23-20, on Oct. 20. Ramapo was eliminated by River Dell in last year’s semifinals, 35-21.