HNT Football: Colonia wins rival game over J.F. Kennedy

COLONIA—The J.F. Kennedy High School’s defense wasn’t moving much. The Mustangs created two turnovers and quarterback Kyle Heaney kept making plays on offense.

Colonia needed a spark. Or as defensive end Kyle Foster put it, “we needed something. Just something. We needed the offense to get the ball back.”

On the first play of the fourth quarter, Foster’s tackle caused a fumble that teammate Matt Allardice recovered at the Mustangs’ 40-yard line, firing up the sideline and crowd on a cold Friday evening. Luke Pero capped the drive with an 11-yard touchdown to give the Patriots a 13-10 lead that held up.

Besides tussling in a rival game between two Woodbridge Township schools, both squads were looking for NJSIAA North II Group IV power points at their eight-game cutoff. Colonia coach Tom Roarty said, “We absolutely had to win to get in. You know, we’ll see how it shakes out. But at least we gave ourselves a chance now.”

Both teams are now 4-4, but it’s the hot Patriots who emerged with a three-game winning streak.

“They were playing real well,” Roraty said. “We found a way. We’re growing up every week it seems. And every week we got another guy growing up. We’re getting better. A couple weeks ago, I don’t know if we would have pulled this one out. But now we’re maturing as a team.”

It wasn’t easy. The Mustangs led 10-7 at halftime and were putting together long drives. After the first quarter, fans might have expected a higher scoring game. Colonia scored on its first drive, capped by a two-yard screen touchdown pass from Tyler Layton to Tristan Weathers. Branden Ribeiro’s extra point gave Colonia a 7-0 lead with 10:36 remaining in the quarter.

J.F. Kennedy put together a drive that lasted 10:04 that ended in a 34-yard Gianfranco Tiseo field goal with 25 seconds left in the quarter. On that play, Colonia’s Isaiah Pahopin-Lige had a sack for a loss of seven yards on third-and-goal from the 10.

On the next drive, J.F. Kennedy’s Heaney scored on a 35-yard touchdown scamper, bouncing off a tackler around the 20-yard line for a 10-7 Mustangs lead with 9:26 left in the second quarter.

On the following drive, Deandre Carter intercepted a Colonia pass in the end zone on fourth down to kill the drive. Early in the third quarter, the Mustangs’ Will Smith recovered a fumble.

“They had us bottled up in the middle,” Roraty said. “It seemed like they were playing with 12 guys out there sometimes against our run game.”

Pero, who entered with 562 rushing yards, said: “You got to give them credit because our line has been thrashing teams the last few weeks. So you got to give them credit. It’s always going to be a good game between us, cross-town rivals. They want it just as bad as us.”

It was that fourth-quarter fumble recovery that fired up the Patriots. Just as impressive, they finished the drive. On a fourth-and-three from the Mustangs’ 33-yard line, Pahopin-Lige jumped up to catch the ball for a 12-yard gain. On fourth-and-5 from the 16-yard line, an offside penalty moved the ball to the 11. Pero scored on the next play with 9:31 remaining and a 13-10 Colonia lead.

The Mustangs got the ball back on downs on their 12-yard line with 2:39 left. Heaney moved the ball with a 12-yard and a 30-yard pass to Carter. J.F. Kennedy got to Colonia’s 17 with :20 left, but an offensive pass interference penalty pushed the ball back. On fourth-and-20, Tiseo’s 49-yard field goal attempt was knocked down by Colonia as time expired.

“We just had to get by them and we did just that,” Foster said. “It was a hard game but we fought through and we finished.”

There was some drama toward the end of the first half.

On second down, Steven De La Cruz and Sean Aston combined for a sack that equaled a loss of three yards. On the next play, Michael Matusz led a charge that stopped Layton for a loss. On fourth-and-21, the Patriots completed a 20-yard pass from Layton to Taj Johnson that fell short of the first down. The Mustangs took a knee with 10 second remaining and went to the intermission leading 10-7.

JF KENNEDY (4-4) 3-7-0-0-10

COLONIA (4-4) 7-0-0-6-13

SCORING SUMMARY

C – Weathers 2 pass from Layton (Ribeiro kick)

JFK – Tiseo 34 FG

JFK – Heaney 35 run (Tiseo kick)

C – Pero 11 run (kick failed)