HIGH SCHOOL

Scotch Plains-Fanwood wins 51-48 shootout over Ridge

Matt Silva
@mattysilv

BERNARDS – The Scotch Plains-Fanwood football team was gashing Ridge with big plays on the ground, but in the end, all they needed was one yard.

Down three points with one second left, Marquel Taylor jumped over the line and crossed the plane for the game-winning touchdown to stun Ridge 51-48 on Friday night.

“It was hard,” said Taylor. “Everybody was rushing in and I just had to reach the ball out, because I play basketball. Just had to reach out and score. That’s it.”

Scotch Plains-Fanwood coach Jonathon Stack didn’t even get to enjoy it.

“Marquel is a basketball player so we said you know what, try to get it over the top,” said Stack. “You’re a basketball player. Get it over the top. I didn’t see what happened I got knocked over. “

The Raiders ran at will, busting huge gains on the ground. Emendo Thomas rushed for__ yards on ___ carries, while Taylor and Kobe White rushed for __ yards and ___ yards respectively. Thomas was able to pull off a nice 40 yard touchdown run with a nice block from Taylor. It was a sweep that didn’t go as planned, but went the distance.

“We’ve been repping that play all week and we knew it was going to be open,” said Thomas. “They shut it down at first, but I just cut it back and Marquel made the play, threw a great block and then it was just easy from there.”

Stack threw praise to the offensive line for the ability to open up lanes for his rushing attack.

“Our offensive line had a tremendous week,” said Stack. “Our two left tackles, Jalen Bryant and Ed DePaola. We ran the ball off the edge all night because those two and our guards and centers did a great job too. That’s where the game ball goes to. They did a great job.

Scotch Plains-Fanwood improves to (2-1) with the win.

Ridge moved the ball with ease as well, but did just about all their damage through the air as Duncan Roberts went 16-21 for 269 yards and four touchdowns. He had a great rapport with receiver Erik Zima who finished with 173 yards on six catches and two touchdowns. Unfortunately, it didn’t come in a win.

Scotch Plains-Fanwood (2-1)… 14 12 13 12 — 51

Ridge (1-2) …7 14 13 14 — 48

SCORING SUMMARY

S – White 60 run (kick good)

R – Hoffman 25 run (kick good)

S – Thomas 13 run (kick good)

R- Vigilante 30 catch (kick good}

R- Hoffman- 18 run (kick good)

S- Thomas 40 run (kick no good)

S- Thomas 25 run (White no good)

S- Taylor 59 run (kick no good)

R- Zima 52 catch (kick good)

S- White 49 run (kick good)

R- Hoffman 14 catch (kick good)

R- Phillips 1 run (kick no good)

S- White 56 run (kick good)

R- Zima 41 catch (kick good)

S- Taylor 1 run