Williams leads Old Bridge past North Brunswick

NORTH BRUNSWICK – Myles Williams says Old Bridge's football players are taught to approach each play like it could be the biggest of the game.

Williams made the philosophy count the first time he touched the ball in the backfield.

The senior dashed 42 yards along the left sideline to score on the Knights' first snap from scrimmage, helping Old Bridge open defense of its 2013 Greater Middlesex Conference Red Division title with a 28-0 win Friday night at North Brunswick.

Williams finished with 106 yards on six carries for the Knights, who got touchdowns from four different players.

"We played well and we executed," said Williams, who was a fixture at cornerback last season, but also showed talent at running back by gaining 108 yards on 21 carries. "We didn't take off a play, we played hard, and we came out with the win.

"We want to play hard every single play. Coach always says you never know which play is going to be the biggest in a game, so just play every play like that. That's what we did."

Williams' touchdown was a calming start for an Old Bridge squad that returns on four starters on each side of the ball.

"That was good for confidence and to settle us down on the road," Knights coach Anthony Lanzafama said. "(Quarterback) Mike Gargano read it, it's the triple option, and we got to the pitch phase and Myles was able to turn the corner and get six."

Old Bridge extended its advantage to 14-0 on Chris Crossman's 1-yard run with 2:47 remaining in the first quarter. The touchdown was set up by Gargano's 37-yard toss to Micah Trawick on a third-and-10 from North Brunswick's 46. Gargano was making his first start at QB.

The Raiders drove into Old Bridge territory on their first possession of the second quarter, but a holding penalty set North Brunswick back to its own 43 and one play later Tyler Hopman intercepted a pass and returned it 32 yards to set up another Knights' score.

Williams ran for 22 yards on a third-and-15 and Gargano followed with a 7-yard TD burst to give Old Bridge a 21-0 lead with 3:37 left in the first half.

Old Bridge capped the scoring on its first drive of the second half, with Gargano tossing a 20-yard strike to Hopman.

"We have a lot of inexperienced guys, a lot were coming in for their first varsity game," Lanzafama said. "For them to get reps, get experience, play a full game – which we haven't really done in the scrimmages in the preseason – I thought that was the most important thing. I feel good about that."

North Brunswick got a strong game from quarterback Kevin Poindexter, who completed 12 of 16 passes for 132 yards. The Raiders drove inside Old Bridge territory on their final three possessions, but mishandled the ball on two of them and came up short on downs.

The Raiders finished with 280 yards of offense, compared to 243 for Old Bridge.

"We made too many small mistakes that killed drives," North Brunswick coach Mark Zielinski said. "We did move the ball a little bit during the course of the game, but I thought one of the biggest differences was they came out and played at a different speed for the first six minutes of the game. It was 14-0 before you could blink. Our guys didn't really respond to that right away.

"On the other hand, I'm very proud of the way our guys played the rest of the way. We had some excellent energy. Defensively we came up with some nice stops. I was really proud of the way we battled right to the very end. We had some opportunities to get the ball into the end zone but we never quite got there."

OLD BRIDGE (1-0) …14 7 7 0 — 28

NORTH BRUNSWICK (0-1)… 0 0 0 0 — 0

SCORING SUMMARY

OB – Williams 42 run (Mish kick).

OB – Crossman 1 run (Mish kick).

OB – Gargano 7 run (Mish kick).

OB – Hopman 20 pass from Gargano (Mish kick).

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing - OB: Williams 6-106, Esposito 3-24, Crossman 6-22, Gargano 6-14; NB: Poindexter 16-54, Rosado 11-48, Emannuel 3-36, Rodriguez 2-12, Bryant 3-minus 2.

Passing- OB: Gargano 5-9-0-77; NB: Poindexter 12-16-1-132.

Receiving- OB: Trawick 2-45, Hopman 3-32; NB: Rodriguez 3-44, Krause 2-32, Thomas 2-22, Castellanos 2-20, Rosado 1-8, Omowole 1-5, Emannuel 1-1.