South Plainfield At Scotch Plains–North Jersey Section 2 Group III State Tournament–November 17, 2007

SCOTCH PLAINS, NJGMC Hoops resumed its high school football coverage on Saturday afternoon as all of the Greater Middlesex Conference teams still alive in the various state tournaments were in action. One of those teams was South Plainfield, which after entering the North Jersey Section 2 Group III State Tournament as the eighth seed, traveled up to top seeded Irvington, a school that thumped the Tigers in the opening round last year (49-14), and stunned the Blue Knights in overtime, 18-12. On this chilly Saturday afternoon, the Cinderella Story Tigers went on the road again to another Watchung Conference school, Scotch Plains-Fanwood, the fourth seed in this year’s tournament.

Both teams have had common opponents this season. In their first round game last weekend, the Raiders defeated Colonia by a score of 19-13 while the Tigers played the Patriots several weeks ago, and lost by a field goal, 10-7. While the Tigers upset Irvington, then the eleventh ranked team in New Jersey according to the Star-Ledger, the Raiders lost at home to the Blue Knights by a 42-20 score back on September 21st. The only other loss that Scotch Plains-Fanwood had going into this game was to Union at home by a 22-13 tally on October 20th. Meanwhile, the Tigers entered the game with all three of its losses coming in Greater Middlesex Conference White Division play. South Plainfield lost two straight to North Brunswick (27-19) and New Brunswick (21-7) after opening the year with two wins over Newark Eastside (33-0) and another playoff team, Carteret (19-18). Then, they had the loss at Colonia on October 20th.

This game was the most competitive one of the three that the site has covered in the past two weeks. After a scoreless first quarter, Scotch Plains took the lead going into the locker room on a touchdown with under a half minute to play in the second. However, South Plainfield would take the lead for good on the second play from scrimmage in the third quarter on a long touchdown run, and took command early in the fourth on a fumble recovery that was returned for another score. Scotch Plains-Fanwood would respond with a touchdown pass on the very next possession, but failed in its final two drives to get a score as South Plainfield won, 16-14. Running back and linebacker, Kyle McMahon led the way for the Tigers with 165 yards rushing on 25 carries for an average of 6.6 yards per carry. According to the Star-Ledger, McMahon had 77 percent of those yards in the second half, where he got the majority of his carries. McMahon also made big plays on the other side of the ball with two sacks and a huge tackle on 4th and 1 to cap a key goal line stand on Scotch Plains opening drive of the game. Russell, who scored off the fumble recovery in the fourth quarter, collected ten points on a field goal, touchdown, and extra point.

It was a bit difficult to find a parking spot after arriving at the school late so the coverage of the game didn’t begin until late in the second quarter. As a matter of fact, South Plainfield had just gotten on the board with a 27 yard field goal by Troy Russell, who played hoops for the Tigers a couple seasons ago, and is the younger brother of Ulysses Russell, who started for South Plainfield Boys Basketball team back in the 2001-02 season. With under three minutes to go in the first half, the Raiders got the ball back on the ensuing kickoff. Michael Chervenyak, who ended up with 12 completions including two for touchdowns in 24 pass attempts for a total of 178 yards, or 14.8 yards per completion, found J.J. D’Agostaro on the left side in front of the Tiger bench for a first down at the South Plainfield 43. After Scotch Plains was stopped for only a one yard gain on the next play, Chervenyak hit D’Agostaro again for a 32 yards to the Tiger ten yard line. Chervenyak then followed that up with a pass to his left to Marcus Green for a seven yard gain to the three before Benny Gibson came up with a big hit.

On the very next play, Scotch Plains-Fanwood went back to the air as Chervenyak found Kameron Williams for a three yard touchdown pass, and with the extra point, the Raiders were now on top by a score of 7-3 with just 28 seconds remaining before the intermission. On the ensuing kickoff, Scotch Plains squib kicked the ball, which was bobbled, but then recovered by South Plainfield at about midfield. On the first play from scrimmage, Tiger quarterback, Mike Burton, tried to pass to his right, but he couldn’t throw it over the much bigger Scotch Plains defensive linemen. The Tigers then ran the ball to avoid a turnover, and was content to go into the locker room only trailing by four. In the second half, SPHS got the kickoff, and returned the ball to about its own 26 yard line. The visitors from the GMC White, lost a yard on the next play as a Burton handoff to Gibson, who went in motion to the left, was stuffed by the SPF defense on the 25 yard line. On the following play, Burton, back in the shotgun, handed off to McMahon, who went right up the middle, and found a ton of daylight for a 75 yard touchdown run. The subsequent extra point attempt by Russell was partially blocked to the right by the Raiders, and South Plainfield was now in front by a score of 9-7 with 10:59 left in the third.

On the ensuing drive, Scotch Plains got the ball, and drove it to the South Plainfield 38 yard line in a span of 4:46. However, with 6:13 remaining in the period, the Raiders were confronted with a key 4th down and 5. SPF took the snap, and Chervenyak went back to pass, and threw into the middle, where the pass was knocked down by South Plainfield’s defensive lineman, Kyle Darr and the Tigers took over on downs. SPHS then took the ball, and drove it deep into Scotch Plains territory, but on a Burton handoff to Gibson that appeared to be a big gain as the running back, who also plays forward during basketball season, ran left, and was knocked out of bounds near the Raider 20 yard line. However, South Plainfield was cited for holding, and the play was nullified and the Tigers were backed up ten yards. On the next play, Burton handed the ball to Russell, who ran to the right, but also into the sea of blue defenders as Scotch Plains stood him up, and forced a fumble. The Raiders were unable to pick up the ball, and Gibson recovered it at about the SPF 45 yard line. The Tigers ultimately punted, and the fourth quarter began with the Raiders in possession of the pigskin at the 26 yard line.

After gaining only five yards in two plays, Scotch Plains-Fanwood was facing a 3rd Down And 5 situation at their own 31 yard line at the 10:58 mark. Chervenyak took the snap, and attempted to hand off to his left when Russell, who had a great jump, managed to get in the way of the handoff, forced the fumble, scooped up the ball, and ran it in from 26 yards out. The middle linebacker then tacked on the extra point to make the score, 16-7 with 10:23 remaining in the game. On the ensuing kickoff, Scotch Plains took the ball at their own 7 yard line as Williams fielded the kick. He then found a crease on the left side, and ran up field along his team’s sideline to the South Plainfield 42 yard line, where he was knocked out of bounds by Russell, who happened to be the only man to beat for a score. The Raiders then drove the ball an additional 20 yards to the Tiger 22 when on a third and nine situation, Chervenyak fired to the end zone, but the ball was dropped at the 8:11 mark. Facing a critical 4th and 9 situation, and still needing two scores to go ahead, SPF went for it, and this time, Chervenyak went long again, and found D’Agostaro for the touchdown. With the PAT, the Raiders pulled to within two points at 16-14 with 8:07 remaining.

The next South Plainfield drive was somewhat brief as the home team forced it to punt, but Scotch Plains-Fanwood couldn’t do much either, and had to punt with 3:25 to play in the game. The Tigers then got moving as McMahon picked up some first downs, and the Raider defense had to come up with big plays to get the ball back. SPF was able to do just that as it got a stop on third down, which set up a 4th and 1 at the Raider 43 yard line with 2:12 left. Calling timeout to stop the clock, the Raiders were lining up for a punt when the Tigers played a bit of strategy by deciding to go for it. Scrambling and confused, Scotch Plains was forced to call another timeout, which turned out to be very important later. Finally, with 2:06 to go, South Plainfield went ahead with a quarterback sneak by Burton on fourth down, but it was stopped by the Raider defense on the 43 yard line. A measurement was then taken by the officials, and the Tigers were unable to get the first down. Taking over on downs, Scotch Plains went back to the air as Chervenyak tried to throw to the right side, but it was knocked down by Darr with 2:04 to go.

On 2nd down and 10, Chervenyak went back to pass again, but couldn’t find a receiver. Scrambling to his left, the SPF quarterback had McMahon bearing down behind him, and the Tiger linebacker picked up a sack for a four yard loss on the 39 yard line with 1:37 left. Running out of times, and with one fewer timeout, the Raiders had to go back to the air again. But, once more, Chervenyak couldn’t find a receiver, and Greg Burton eventually wrestled him down for another sack for about a 14 yard loss back to the Raider 25 yard line with under a minute to go. Following a Scotch Plains-Fanwood timeout with 56 seconds to play, the Raiders were faced with the daunting task of converting a 4th and 27 situation on their 25 yard line. Chervenyak took the snap, looked right, and threw down the field along the South Plainfield sideline, where the pass was picked off by Darren Campbell at about the South Plainfield 40 yard line. From there, the Tigers were able to run out the clock since Scotch Plains had no timeouts left, and South Plainfield emerged victorious to the jubilation of its fans, which stormed the field as time expired.

With the victory, South Plainfield moved up to 7-3 on the season, and will face Newark Westside, which defeated Morristown in the other semifinal, 12-7, for the North Jersey Section 2 Group III Championship in two weeks. Prior to that game, South Plainfield will face off against long time rival, North Plainfield in their annual Thanksgiving Day game. The Tigers have yet to defeat the Canucks in this rivalry game since the it was renewed five years ago. Meanwhile, Scotch Plains dropped to 7-3, and will face Elizabeth in their Thanksgiving Day contest. The Raiders lost all three of its games at home, and were 3-3 on their field while going 4-0 on the road. On the other hand, South Plainfield, which has played four straight road games, has gone 4-2 away from home. In addition, the Tigers have gone 3-0 in games played against the Watchung Conference this season, and have outscored their three opponents (Newark Eastside, Irvington, and Scotch Plains) by a margin of 67-26. View the video highlights of this game at YouTube.

Other Results

In other action, two other Greater Middlesex Conference teams advanced to Championship Games as top seeded Piscataway defeated Westfield by a score of 31-0 in the semifinal round of the North Jersey Section 2 Group IV State Tournament while sixth seeded Carteret registered two defensive touchdowns and got a touchdown run from running back Byron Lewin to defeat second seeded Rahway by a score of 19-14 in the Central Jersey Group II State Tournament. Unfortunately though, the rest of the conference didn’t fare as well. Top seeded South River was upset at home by fourth seeded Asbury Park, 22-7 in the Central Jersey Group I State Tournament. In the same bracket, Highland Park was pummeled by Keansburg, 53-30. Then, in the Central Jersey Group III Tournament, third seeded Sayreville was upended on the road by second seeded West Windsor-Plainsboro South by a score of 34-14 while Monroe was defeated in the same bracket by Long Branch, 39-7.

Team 1 2 3 4 Total
South Plainfield (7-3) 0 3 6 7 16
Scotch Plains-Fanwood (7-3) 0 7 0 7 14