Old Bridge football cruises to victory over New Brunswick
NEW BRUNSWICK - With Old Bridge and New Brunswick each coming off their biggest win of the season, the question before both teams met Friday night was which might suffer from a hangover, and which might use it as a springboard for the second half of the season.
As it turned out, Old Bridge did a little of both, but certainly more of the latter as it cruised to a 41-14 triumph in a rematch of last year's Central Group V semifinal, also won by the Knights.
Artur Sitkowski spearheaded the Knights' attack by throwing for two touchdowns and running for two more. Nick Sodano did much off the heavy lifting, running 25 times for a game-high 142 yards and Old Bridge's other offensive touchdown.
"Artur's a dynamite passer, and he's really worked hard in the run game," Old Bridge coach Anthony Lanzafama said. "He's a load to bring down, he's 6-5, 220. He gets out in space and he's a tank."
Old Bridge (4-1-1), No. 1 in the Home News Tribune ranking after handing Piscataway its first loss of the season with a rousing 24-20 victory last week, got off to a sluggish start.
The Zebras received the opening kickoff and picked up three first downs before Paul Ferali picked off a New Brunswick fourth-down pass at the 3. Old Bridge wound up punting from its 13 and was flagged for three penalties in the game's first six minutes.
Then Old Bridge went to work, scoring on its next four possessions, not including a 45-yard interception return for a fifth score by Anthony Imbimbo, to forge a 34-0 advantage at the break.
"We had a slow start, they completed some passes and made some plays," Lanzafama offered. "After that, our running game got going and we made some nice receptions when we had to. The offensive line played well, the defense settled down and we played fast."
The Knights did a terrific job containing New Brunswick quarterback Jah’Bree Seawright-Jeffery, who torched Edison by passing for 350 yards and five scores in last week's stunning 39-14 victory. Seawright-Jeffery completed just five of 16 first-half passes for 44 yards and two interceptions as Old Bridge took control of the contest, though he finished 10-for-27 for 150 yards and passed for one touchdown and ran for another after Old Bridge extended its cushion to 41-0 on Sodano's 30-yard run.
"I think we got a pretty good pass rush overall," Lanzafama said. "We didn't let him sit back in the pocket and pick us apart and we were really aware of their receivers going deep and trying to stay on top of them and keep the ball in front of us."
Sitkowski was an efficient 6-of-9 passing for 97 yards, all of the completions coming in the first half as his lone second-half pass was a throwaway to avoid a sack. Sitkowski was just as efficient running the read-option, sprinting 33 yards for the Knights' first score and running 10 times for 65 yards. Those running totals would be even more impressive if you take away a 4-yard loss on a fumbled snap and a 9-yard sack on the final play of the first half.
OLD BRIDGE (4-1-1) 7-27-7-0-41
NEW BRUNSWICK (2-5) 0-0-7-7-14
SCORING SUMMARY
OB - Sitkowski 33 run (Sammarco kick)
OB - Imbimbo 45 interception return (Sammarco kick)
OB - Knowles 24 pass from Sitkowski (Sammarco kick)
OB - Imbimbo 7 pass from Sitkowski (Sammarco kick)
OB - Sitkowski 3 run (kick failed)
OB - Sodano 30 run (Sammarco kick)
NB - Reams 51 pass from Seawright-Jeffery (Martinez kick)
NB - Seawright-Jeffery 9 run (Martinez kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing - OB: Sodano 25-142, Sitkowski 10-65, Meyer 1-9, Russo 1-3, Rivera 3-3, Remotti 1-minus 6; NB: Johnson 13-25, Hyman 4-19, Lewis 1-6, Seawright-Jeffery 7-3 .
Passing - OB: Sitkowski 6-9-0-97; NB: Seawright-Jeffery 10-27-2-150.
Receiving - OB: Knowles 2-43, Imbimbo 3-33, Meyer 1-21; NB: Reams 2-61, James 3-45, Lewis 3-28, Pimentel 2-16.