SPORTS

South Plainfield pulls away in 2nd half for win

Charles Guthrie
Correspondent

SOUTH PLAINFIELD – The South Plainfield football team felt what it lacked in size, it made up with speed and athleticism.

Behind a stingy defense and an offense powered by the elusive senior Kyle Dickerson and hard-running Zaire Cone, South Plainfield scored 21 unanswered points in the second half to pull away with a 36-14 victory over St. Joseph of Metuchen last night in a Greater Middlesex Conference-White Division clash last night at Frank Jost Field.

"St. Joe's has a lot of two-way players, so with the offense we decided to spread them out," South Plainfield coach Gary Cassio said. "They have also have some big guys and one of the best linemen in the state in K. Our line is good. (St. Joseph) is huge, but we thought we had better athletes so we spread out the field a little bit. Big guys aren't great in open space and they got tired from running.

"That was the game plan. We were hoping to keep it even at the half and turn up the gas in the second half and hope they got tired. We shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times, but we prevailed and I'm proud."

Cone rushed for 129 yards and two touchdowns in the second half and finished with 152 yards on 23 carries. The senior extended South Plainfield's lead to 22-14 with a 37-yard TD burst with 10:12 in the third quarter and capped the scoring with a 7-yard TD run with 3:33 left to play in the fourth quarter.

"We worked so hard over the summer and said at halftime we worked too hard to lose," Cone said. "We worked out the jitters in the first half and were able to fix them."

Dickerson, who was one of the top receivers in the county last season, was stellar in his debut at quarterback, completing all six of his passes for 84 yards and rushing for 70 yards on 16 attempts. He gave South Plainfield a 29-14 advantage to start the fourth quarter when he rolled right and connected with a diving John Chillemi on a 15-yard TD pass on a fourth-and-seven.

The score was made possible when Yahmir Sass Cabell recovered a fumble on a punt to give the Tigers the ball back on the Falcons 18.

"We came out at the half and our defense was stopping them and our offense couldn't get going," Dickerson said. "But that punt recovery by Yahmir was great. That turned the tables around."

The South Plainfield defense allowed 200 yards for the game, but only gave up six first downs after falling behind 14-8 with 10:26 left in the second quarter. The unit was led by Dickerson, Chillemi, Joshua Siegenthaler, Leonard Scarpitto, Justin Counts and Dillon Harris.

St. Joseph, the defending White Division champions, was led by Breein Tyree, who finished with 61 yards and two TDs on 14 carries and was also solid punting, pinning two punts inside the South Plainfield 20.

The Falcons opened the scoring with a 1-yard TD plunge by Tyree in the first quarter, but the Tigers answered with a five-play, 65-yard drive, ending with a 25-yard TD pass from Jason Lee to Chillemi. Scarpitto recovered the fumbled snap on the extra-point try and hit Trey Martinez with a pass to make it 8-7 with 3:03 to play in the opening quarter.

After Tyree's second 1-yard TD run in the second quarter, South Plainfield went on a 10-play, 71-yard scoring march capped by a 6-yard TD pass from Dickerson to Scarpitto to make it 15-14 with 6:13 left in the first half.

ST. JOSEPH (0-1) … 7 7 0 0 — 14

SOUTH PLAINFIELD (1-0)…8 7 7 14 — 36

SCORING SUMMARY

SJ-Tyree 1 run (Sot kick).

SP-Lee to Chillemi 25 pass (Scarpitto to Martinez).

SJ-Tyree 1 run (Sot kick).

SP-Dickerson to Scarpitto 6 pass (Garcia kick).

SP-Cone 37 run (Garcia kick).

SP-Dickerson to Chillemi 15 pass (Garcia kick).

SP-Cone 7 run (Garcia kick).

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing – SJ: Tyree 14-61, Motisi 7-53, Horn 9-27, Papa 4-10; SP: Cone 23-152, Dickerson 16-70, Siegenthaler 1-5.

Passing – SJ: Tyree 5-11-0-49; SP: Dickerson 6-6-0-84, Lee 1-1-0-25.

Receiving – SJ: van de Sande 4-33, Yakely 1-16; SP: Chillemi 3-41, Martinez 1-34, Lee 1-10, Cone 1-8, Scarpitto 1-6.