FOOTBALL: Somerville blasts Gov. Livingston, clinches divisional crown

BERKELEY HEIGHTS – It’s pretty much been the dominant storyline for the Somerville High School football team since the season began, the amazing turnaround for a club that was putting the finishing touches on a historic 25-game losing streak a year ago, to one that is undefeated and putting up some eye-popping numbers as its mutilated opponents week after week.

Saturday, the Pioneers saw the first of what should be plenty of fruit its labors will bare, as all the hard work and commitment to getting the program turned around has netted some hardware, namely a conference championship.

Senior quarterback Nick Couzzi threw for 184 first-half yards and four touchdowns, adding 72 yards and a touchdown on the ground, and the Somerville defense held Governor Livingston to under 200 total yards and just one score, as the Pioneers clinched the Mid-State 38 Conference Mountain Division title with a 49-7 victory.

“It feels really good,” said senior receiver/cornerback Nasyr Petties-Jackson, who caught three passes for 100 yards, all for touchdowns in a game that featured a running clock for the entirety of the second half. “It’s been a while since we’ve done anything. The last few years we haven’t won many games, and now this year, to come out 6-0 and beat a team that we lost to last year and the year before, and to clinch a division title, it feels good.”

“It’s so satisfying,” Somerville coach Jeff Vanderbeek said. “The kids worked hard, the coaches worked hard, and you want to be rewarded for that. To see the positive reinforcement, quite frankly, it makes coaching a lot easier. We’ll celebrate this, but we have bigger fish to fry.”

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Vanderbeek, who served as co-head coach last season, finishing 2-8, before taking solo control of the program this year, said he is happiest for the senior class, especially. The first day of practice last year, the coach said, he asked for a show of hands from anyone who had won a varsity game, and not one hand went up on the whole field.

What a difference a year makes.

“I’m just so happy for the kids,” Vanderbeek said. “The seniors have been through so much. It just feels so great for these kids to buy into something and to taste the success.”

“I stuck with the program all throughout high school,” Petties-Jackson said. “I played, win or lose, because I love these guys and wouldn’t rather play with anyone else. And now, just winning feels great. We were so used to losing before that just winning feels amazing.”

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Somerville’s dynamic offense has gotten most of the headlines for the Pioneers this season, a unit that’s averaged 50 points per game and imposed its will on all manner of defenses.

But Saturday’s victory was a prime example of the Somerville defense stepping up in another big spot against a dangerous opponent, and this time the unit imposed its will from the start. The Pioneers held Governor Livingston and its maddening single-wing offense to just 138 yards and a touchdown in the first half, and not much more after halftime, as Somerville built a 42-7 lead by intermission and enjoyed a running clock the rest of the way, limiting the Highlanders to just two second-half drives.

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“Coach told us in the beginning of the game we need to come out fast (on defense),” Petties-Jackson said. “The last five game, we were a second-half team. We would wait until the second half to start shutting teams down. This game, we came out from the start, the first whistle, to try and shut them down, and we did.”

“I’m so proud of the defense,” Vanderbeek said. “It’s really been much maligned, whether it’s that we’re a second-half team, or the offense is tiring people out, or whatever. We challenged the defense to show up and play 48 minutes today against an offense like they haven’t seen before. And it was a game that everybody had their jobs. It wasn’t necessarily to tackle the ball carrier, but maybe to own this gap, or win this gap, or keep contain. All 11 people had a job to do, and they did it, right from the get-go.

“Anytime you see an offense like that, for only one time per year, that’s perfected it, it scares the hell out you. They do this in their sleep. You don’t know how your kids are going to react. It’s a test.”

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