FOOTBALL: Bernards’ defense comes of age in shutout of Voorhees

BERNARDSVILLE – The Bernards High School football team has been led by a offense that had averaged just under 35 points per game this season, including four of seven outings that featured five or more touchdowns entering Friday night’s regular-season home finale with Voorhees.

And while the Mountaineers offense continued to have its way with opposing defenses Friday, it was the much-maligned Bernards defense that had averaged nearly 30 points against that stole the headlines.

The Mountaineers held the Vikings to just 141 total yards, including just 31 on the ground, and Matt Tantleff added an interception return for a touchdown to go with a pair of receiving scores, as Bernards rolled in a Mid-State 38 crossover game, 35-0 at Olcott Field.

“(The defense) was really big,” said Tantleff, whose team held Voorhees to minus-one rushing yards in the first half and only 60 yards through the air. “Our coach gave us a sick game plan, we let them catch one-yard passes all day because we knew it was their thing and eventually they’d mess up, which they did a couple of times on interceptions and fumbles.”

“It was effort and intensity,” said Bernards coach Jon Simoneau, whose team improved to 5-3 after capturing its third straight victory. “Defense is an ameba, it keeps changing and it keeps moving, we just had to develop. We had some young guys on our defense early on and they struggled. I had to get guys in the right spots and there was a little bit of dialing in. Maybe staring the season in Week zero and seeing (powerhouse offensive) teams like Shabazz and Johnson and Roselle early was a little bit difficult on a young defense. So we learned our lessons and it’s paid off.”

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The game looked as if it might be a two-way defensive struggle early, as Voorhees forced Bernards into a 3-and-out on its game-opening drive, but the Vikings (1-6) couldn’t convert on offense, despite starting their own series at the Mountaineers’ 38 after a poor punt.

Bernards scored on its ensuing possession, getting a 55-yard scoring run from Tantleff, before Voorhees missed a field goal on its next trip. Mountaineers quarterback Stephen Gribben then capped the next drive by hitting Alex Mastronardi with a four-yard scoring toss, and Bernards took a 14-0 lead into halftime.

The Mountaineers clearly weren’t satisfied, recovering an onside kick to open the second half, a drive that eventually ended on a Jack McCabe interception, before getting a 13-yard Tantleff touchdown run on their second series. He then added his pick-six on Voorhees’ ensuing drive to help his team pull away.

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“We had a big talk at halftime that we knew this was a good team and that game wasn’t over,” said Tantleff, whose club added a four-yard touchdown run from Marc Murphy in the fourth quarter to cap it, and Jonah Walsh’s fifth extra point in as many tries Friday. “The game was only 14-0 and could easily turn around. So when we came out, we knew we had to play the way we had been playing, and we did. We didn’t let up.”

“For the last two weeks, we knew if we lost this game we were not going to get into the playoffs,” said Simoneau, who watched Tantleff tally 112 yards rushing and 55 receiving yards, while Murphy gained 100 yards on the ground on 21 carries. “In our section, 4-4 was not going to get you in. Central Jersey Group II is one of the best sections around. So at 14-0 we knew we couldn’t be happy and we had to go out and do whatever we needed to do to win the last two quarters.”

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