FOOTBALL: Fast start helps Ridge cruise past Hillsborough

BERNARDS TOWNSHIP – The Ridge High School football team has learned its lessons well. Chief among them is how important it is to be ready to play from the opening whistle, something the Red Devils learned the hard way in their only loss of the season, Week 2 at Westfield.

Friday night, against Hillsborough, Ridge put that lesson to good use, opening a 24-point lead just over a quarter into the contest and finishing with a 44-20 victory at Lee Field.

“One thing coach always emphasizes is starting out strong because we hadn’t done that earlier in the season,” said Ridge senior quarterback Aidan Murphy, who threw for 213 yards and three touchdowns. “So we tried to smash them from start to finish, and I think we accomplished that tonight.”

“We’ve got great guys, and we caught a little fire tonight,” said Ridge coach Bill Tracy, whose club trailed Westfield 21-0 just 7:40 into its meeting, falling 35-21 when a late rally fell short. “If we play each other 100 times, maybe each of us get this (lopsided) score once. We prepared all week for a great classic-kind of a game, and we got some big plays early. We’ve challenged the guys since the Westfield game about being ready right at the start of the game, and they’ve done it now three weeks in a row.”

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Ridge (4-1) dominated on both sides of the ball, holding Hillsborough (3-2) to just 245 total yards from scrimmage, including just 92 in the first half, with 80 of those coming on one play. The Red Devils offense had their way with the Raiders vaunted defense, totaling 395 yards and five touchdowns, with 330 yards and four scores coming in the opening half, leading to a 30-7 halftime advantage.

The Red Devils spread the wealth, getting touchdowns from four different players, receptions from seven different guys, and defensive contributions across the board, including three interceptions.

“Coming in, we knew their D was good and we knew they were good at smashing the running game,” said Murphy, who connected with Matt Rusiniak and Devin Stieglitz and Andrew Lusardi on touchdown passes, and watched Reed Handabaka score twice and RJ Milligan once on running plays. “So Coach set up a good game plan for us and we tried to spread the ball around and attack their weak points, and all props to coach on that, to the line for giving me time to thrown and the receivers for making the catches.”

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The tone-setting play came early. After Ridge scored on a 37-yard field goal from Nolan Hughes on the game’s first drive, the Red Devils were 4th-and-1 its own 43-yard line and Tracy called for a fake punt, as Handabaka took the direct snap and rumbled 46 yards. He finished with 112 yards on the ground.

“We told the kids all week that we were going to have to play very aggressively if we were going to have any chance to win this game, and we promised them that we would coach the same way,” Tracy said. “You don’t want to be reckless, but it was 4th and very short, we got a look that we liked, and we said, ‘Heck, let’s go for it,’ and the guys executed it.”

“They made every play they had a chance to make, and we should have done a better job of stopping them early,” Hillsborough coach Kevin Carty said. “Our guys fought hard, but we couldn’t continue to execute and make plays. They were very sharp today.”

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Hillsborough did have a couple of highlights, including an 80-yard touchdown connection from Matt Moore to David Amankwaa on a go route down the left sideline midway through the second quarter, and a pair of scoring runs by Tyler Boatwright in the second half. The Raiders also recovered an onside kick.

“I like that our guys fought to the end, but we have to become a better team as the year goes on,” Carty said. “I thought we were and I know we can be, but to their (Ridge’s) credit, they took it to us and put us in a confused state early, and we have to handle that better.”

Simeon Pincus can be reached atSPincus@GannettNJ.com. Follow him on Twitter @SimeonPincus and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SimeonPincusCN