Ford Carries The Load As Vikings Defeat Knights To Advance, 14-7
MONMOUTH JUNCTION, NJ–South Brunswick had been here before. Â A year ago in the semifinals of the Central Jersey Group IV state playoffs, the Vikings faced a familiar foe as it took on Red Division rival Sayreville, and lost. Â This year’s Viking team learned from that experience, especially in the fourth quarter after Old Bridge had tied the score at 7-7 with just under eleven minutes to play. Â South Brunswick promptly responded with a five play, 60 yard drive capped by a two yard sweep to the right corner of the end zone by Dion Hooper for a 14-7 lead with 8:38 remaining.
The key play in the drive was a 51 yard run up the gut by Dahrae Ford to the Old Bridge two yard line with 8:45 left. Â Ford, who carried the bulk of the Viking workload in the fourth with 77 percent of his 140 yards on the game, also had runs of six and five yards to get the drive stared with a first down. Â Old Bridge appeared to have time to make a rally, but after not moving the ball much in its ensuing possession and forced to punt with 6:37 to go, the Knights weren’t able to stop South Brunswick and get the ball back. Â Ford would do damage on the Vikings final drive as well with a key 24 yard run to the OBHS 40 yard line on a 3rd and 7 with less than four minutes to go to help put the game away.
South Brunswick got to the two yard line with a little more than a minute to go before quarterback T.J. Perkowski took a knee twice to finish the victory. Â The win gave South Brunswick a ticket to its first ever sectional final against top seeded Manalapan, a 17-7 winner over Hunterdon Central in the other semifinal, next weekend at a site and time to be determined. Â The Vikings dominated the first half, but couldn’t take advantage of their opportunities. Â South Brunswick got the ball in the red zone on four different occasions, but didn’t score until the 4:31 mark of the second quarter when Ford plunged in from a yard out to give the Vikings what would be a 7-0 halftime lead. Â The other three times, SBHS got deep into Old Bridge territory, they were stopped on downs twice, and fumbled away another scoring chance.
Speaking of fumbles, the Vikings had trouble pitching on the option at times.  Three times in the first half, South Brunswick fumbled the ball and lost it twice.  One of the other times, it halted what could have been a scoring drive after getting the ball to the Old Bridge one yard line on a catch by T.J. Taylor with a little less than three and a half minutes gone by in the second period.  According to the Star-Ledger, the Vikings dominated the first half with a 195 to 94 edge in total yards.  However, Old Bridge rallied back in the third by completely controlling the game with a 100 to 6 edge in total yards.  Much of those yards came on what would become the game tying scoring drive capped early in the fourth on a 14 yard pass from Vin Gargano to Dwayne Trawick in the end zone  with 10:47 left.
Old Bridge had its moments. Â After not getting a first down until the 2:15 mark of the first period, the Knights put together several nice plays including a run over the left side for first down yardage by Chris Middleton, a run by Aaron Ford off an option pitch from Gargano for another first down, and then a nice one handed grab by Ford at the 28 yard line. Â OBHS eventually drove 72 yards over a span of 5:55 to the South Brunswick 17 early in the second, but were unable to score as Ed Mish missed the field goal attempt wide left at the 9:47 mark of the period. Â In the second half, Old Bridge again put together a fine drive at the end of the third quarter into the early fourth. Â The Knights would tie the game on a 9 play, 72 yard drive that lasted approximately 5:10.
However, over the last 10:41 of the fourth, it was all South Brunswick. Â Old Bridge had the ball for only about two minutes during that span as the Vikings, which racked up 146 rushing yards in the second half, showed it was the more experienced team with two solid drives at the right time. Â The Vikes used a good blend of running and passing in the first half. Â Perkowski completed 8 of 10 passes for 155 yards. Â Taylor ended up with three of this completions for 47 yards while also adding an interception that set up South Brunswick’s best scoring opportunity in the third period, and a punt return in the first half. Â Dontae Strickland along with Hooper contributed to the running game success with a 9 yard run in the second period that set up the first score by Ford, and also had a catch on the Vikings opening drive.
South Brunswick had the ball for about 11:14 of the first half while Old Bridge held it for just under 12 minutes. Â The Vikings then were out possessed by a two to one margin in the third before putting together two drives in the fourth quarter that totaled 8:40. Â With the victory, the Vikings improved to 9-2 overall while Old Bridge, which had its seven game winning streak snapped, finished the season at 8-3.