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Football: North Hunterdon wins fourth straight road game

Daniel LoGiudice
@danny_logiudice
North Hunterdon QB Matt Busher (5) runs for a first-quarter TD against Immaculata in Manville on Sept. 29, 2016.

MANVILLE – Having played its first four games of the season on the road, and having now won three of them, the North Hunterdon High School football team has earned itself a new nickname.

Led by junior quarterback Matt Busher’s two rushing touchdowns and one passing touchdown, the “Road Dogs” improved their record on the season to 3-1 with a 31-22 victory over Skyland Conference Raritan Division rival Immaculata on a soggy Thursday evening.

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“This will be our fourth road game, but the guys are buying into the road stuff, so we affectionately call ourselves ‘road dogs,’ that’s our new thing,” North Hunterdon coach Jared Mazzetta said. “Busher made some big plays, he’s a gutsy quarterback and he runs our offense very well.”

Trailing 14-10 with only seconds to play in the first half, Busher made the play of the game and swung the momentum into North Hunterdon’s favor. Busher broke out of a potential sack, rolled to his right and connected with senior wide receiver Jacob Berg at the sideline for a 17-yard touchdown pass to take a 17-14 lead.

“Me and my boy Berg haven’t really connected a lot this year but when we have, it’s been big plays,” Busher said. “That was a huge play for him to get open and make a nice catch.”

North Hunterdon rode that momentum the rest of the way while the defense shut down Immaculata in the second half. The Spartans drove the ball down to the Lions’ five-yard line, but the defense dug in and forced Immaculata to turn the ball over on downs with 9:32 left in the third quarter.

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The North Hunterdon defense also swarmed to an errant Immaculata snap and gave Busher and the Lions the ball on their own 40-yard line with 6:13 left in the third. Busher led the ensuing drive and scored on a 6-yard run to extend the Lions’ lead to 24-14 with 3:31 left in the quarter.

“We talked about being a physical football team, that was the message all week, and the kids were very, very physical tonight,” Mazzetta said. “We have something called the hard hat mentality at our school, and they really showed a lot of guts and a lot of character.”

Immaculata (2-2) drew first blood on its first play from scrimmage when quarterback Nathan Barnett pitched the ball to Keith Sivetz, who then tossed a 70-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Stephen Dwyer, but the Spartans missed the extra point.

The Lions, or more fittingly the Road Dogs, responded 10 minutes later with a 22-yard touchdown run by Busher to take a 7-6 lead with seconds left in the first quarter.

“We were hyped coming off two wins, and maybe we were a little too confident,” Busher said. “We thought we were going to roll right through them, but that wasn’t the case. Once we settled down, things started to click.”

Staff Writer Daniel LoGiudice can be reached at dlogiudice@gannettnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @danny_logiudice.