NV/Old Tappan stays undefeated, routs Ridgewood 35-7
OLD TAPPAN – Coming into September, the NV/Old Tappan football team treated the month as the culmination of their summer work. The Golden Knights played four perennially strong programs and each week seemed to make it look easier than the week before.
Their ‘end of summer’ was probably their best effort to date, a 35-7 throttling of previously-undefeated Ridgewood, a win that ended the Maroons’ Bergen County best 15-game winning streak.
“It’s been a build-up from June,” NV/Old Tappan coach Brian Dunn said. “We looked at September as a four-game package, games that would tell us exactly who we are. From this point on, it becomes about fighting for league titles and state championships.”
Those are goals the Knights, top-ranked in The Record Public Top 20, can certainly aspire to, and especially after the beat-down they put on Ridgewood, who came in as the No. 3 team.
The first quarter said it all. Ridgewood went three and out to open the game and NV/Old Tappan marched right down and scored on a Marquez Antinori 2-yard run. Ridgewood went three and out and NV/Old Tappan marched right down and scored on an Antinori 1-yard run.
Ridgewood went for a cross-field pass against the wind and Aidan Bilali stepped in front of the underthrown pass and took it 38 yards for a pick-six, putting NV/Old Tappan up 20-0 with 19 seconds left in the first period.
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Antinori and Bilali would add scoring runs to make it a running clock midway through the third quarter before Ridgewood broke the shutout against the Golden Knight second defense with 1:01 to go on a Will McDermott 28-yard run.
Johnson on the loss – “Now we’re going to find out who we are. This was a butt-kicking, no doubt. There are a lot of things we need to clean up and there are guys who need to get it figured out.”
Turning point: The Bilali interception at the end of the first period certainly turned the game over. Ridgewood was already stymied offensively and facing a three-score deficit so early basically put the game out of reach.
Dunn on last season: “There’s no doubt these guys wanted to make some amends for last year (Ridgewood 14-0 win). We felt we didn’t play as well as we could have and this one was definitely circled on the calendar.”
Solving the Wing-T: Many teams struggle defending the Wing-T offense, but NV/Old Tappan had a perfect formula – physical interior linemen who filled he gaps and refused to get blocked out combined with a veteran secondary that allowed the Knights to fill the box without having to give them help on the pass.
Stat line: Antinori ran 20 times for 133 yards, with 107 coming in the first half. Quarterback Nick McNerney was stellar, completing 11 of 13 passes for 144 yards to compliment the running game. NV/Old Tappan had 419 total yards. Tight end Chris D’Amico had 55 yards on 3 receptions. Ridgewood QB Jack Barclay was 10 of 18 for 127 yards passing for Ridgewood.
Coleston Smith watch: The Maroon outside linebacker was once again a defensive force, racking up 15 tackles, one for loss. He now has 52 tackles, 9.5 for loss, in four games.
Dunn on Antinori: “That was his best game, and he’s still learning. He’s getting better at reading the blocks and making the cuts. He runs hard and tonight you could see he was really focused.”