SPORTS

Spotswood rides Fee’s effort to victory over Dunellen

Steve Macri
Correspondent

SPOTSWOOD – Emotions ran high for the Spotswood High School football team when the Chargers began their 2014 campaign at home against Dunellen on Saturday.

The Charger faithful were in full force to pay tribute to Jeffrey Szatkowski and Nicole Surace. The two former students were killed in a car crash in December of last year. Szatkowski was on the football team and Surace could be found each week rooting him on with her fellow cheerleaders.

This season childhood friend Chase Fee will wear Szatkowski old No. 7. Saturday was Fee’s first game playing without Szakowski since their childhood.

“It’s very special,” Fee said about wearing the No. 7. “I was honored to get the privilege to wear it. I hope I made him proud.’’

And the Chargers did not disappoint the home crowd, winning 28-13.

Fee, who wore No. 20 the first three years of his high school caeer, had a performance to remember in his new number, rushing for 166 yards and had three touchdowns. He also made sure to get involved in the pass game with two receptions for 36 yards, which gave him 202 all-purpose yards.

“I’ve never had a game-breaker like that,” coach Andy Cammarano said.. “I’ve had great kids who work hard. Chase is all three of them. He’s a great kid, a game-breaker, and he works hard.”

The game began with Dunellen’s David Johnson returning the opening kick for a touchdown, but it was called back because of a holding penalty. Spotswood held on defense and gave the offense a chance for an early lead.

Quarterback Ryan Smolin handed the ball off to Fee, who did the rest of the work, using his lightning-quick speed to find the back of the end zone and give Spotswood the early 7-0 lead.

Fee was not finished. During the next drive, the Chargers marched all the way to the one-yard line, but had trouble punching it in. That was until Fee took another handoff and crashed over the goal line with force.

Smolin did not see much work because of the successful rushing attack, but when he did, the quarterback responded. Smolin found fellow captain Ryan Long for a 20-yard score to give Spotswood a 21-0 advantage.

Just when Dunellen seemed down and out, Johnson gave the team some hope heading into halftime. Johnson dashed 40 yards into the end zone with seven seconds left in the first half. The Destroyers failed on the two-point-conversion and were down 21-6 at the break.

Fee capped off his scoring for the afternoon when he scored from three yards out to give the Spartans a 28-6 lead.

Robert Young Jr. responded on the following drive with a 55-yard touchdown. The Destroyers gave the ball to Paul Appleton for the successful two-point-conversion.

Duneleen had one final drive in the fourth quarter, getting the Spotswood 11-yard line, but Johnson was unable to hit Danny Russamanno over the middle on fourth down. The Chargers then ran out the clock.

“I expect everything this season.” Fee said. “We worked so hard during the offseason and I can’t even imagine what we are going to accomplish.”

It was a death by fumbles for Dunellen, which could not seem to hold onto the ball during the rainy conditions.

Smolin finished the game 5-for-10 for 121 yards and a touchdown toss. Long picked up 46 hard-earned yards on the ground, but he was arguably a bigger force through the air with two receptions for 70 yards.

Young Jr. finished the game with 103 rushing yards on 13 carries and a touchdown for the Destroyers.

After the game Cammarano and a group of players rang the victory bell and touched the No. 7 sign that is hung up on the Spotswood fence this season. Cammarano and his team hope to hear the sound of the victory bell often this season and have high hopes heading into the rest of their schedule.

“We want to keep moving,” Cammarano said. “We have a tough schedule and we want to compete every week.”

DUNELLEN (0-1)… 0 6 8 0 — 13

SPOTSWOOD (1-0) …14 7 7 0 — 28

SCORING SUMMARY

S – Fee 40 run (McCloskey kick)

S – Fee 1 run (McCloskey kick)

D – Johnson 40 run (run failed)

S – Long 20 catch (McCloskey kick)

S – Fee 3 run (McCloskey kick)

D- Young Jr. 55 run (Appleton run)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing - D: Young Jr. 13-103, Johnson 12-74, Anderson 10-44, Appleton 2-(-1); S: Fee 22-166, Long 18-46.

Passing - D: Johnson 1-4-35-0; S: Smolin 5-10-121-1.

Receiving - D: Russamanno 1-35; S: Long 2-70, Fee 2-36, Hippeli 1-15.