Football: A.L. Johnson wins ground offensive over Gov. Livingston

BERKELEY HEIGHTS -  The  Governor Livingston and  A.L. Johnson high school football teams entered their encounter Saturday in similar predicaments, each having secured a playoff berth but seeking a victory to improve their seeding.

The teams battled mightily on the ground, both rushing for more than 200 yards with Pat DeAngelis and Will Nicholson each delivering 100-yard efforts for Gov. Livingston.

Each team completed only three passes, but Johnson's three many have been the biggest plays in determining  the outcome, with  the Crusaders beating Gov. Livingston, 35-20.

Johnson's Vin Crisafi was 3-for-3 for 123 yards, his first two completions to wide open receivers for touchdowns of 29 and 69 yards that staked the Crusaders to a 21-7 edge at halftime. His third attempt, on fourth-and-11 just outside the red zone early in the fourth quarter, went to Jon Duffy for a 25-yard gain that set up Duffy's second touchdown run to put the game out of reach at 35-14 with 9:27 remaining.

"I thought they did a nice job of limiting their mistakes," Gov. Livingston coach Dan Guyton said. "We had a couple of blown coverages and an interception in the first half, and I think that was the difference in the game, those three mistakes."

DeAngeles carried 16 times for a game-high 105 yards and two touchdowns and threw for the Highlanders' other score.

Gov. Livingston (3-5) did not register a stop or force Johnson (5-3) to punt as the Crusaders scored on five of six possessions, not including taking a knee at the end of the first half. The lone exception was a Johnson red-zone fumble, near the end of the first quarter, which Matthew Schuman pounced on for the Highlanders.

Johnson raced 80 yards in eight plays to begin the match, with Crisafi finding Nick Fischetti wide open over the middle for a 29-yard score. Gov. Livingston stormed back with a nine-play, 69-yard match that DeAngelis finished from 2 yards out.

The Crusdars capitalized on the Gov. Livingston' lone turnover, an interception by Kevin Metz early in the second quarter, that gave it the ball at the Highlanders' 30. Joe Turek put Johnson on top to stay with a 2-yard burst off tackle, and Crisafi extended the lead to 21-7 when he spotted Ryan Koppel alone down the right sideline for a 69-yard strike with 2:42 left in the half.

Gov. Livingston received the kick in the second half and showed some different looks on offense, using a tighter formation and running Nicholson out of the Wildcat formation. The rejuvenated  Highlanders cruised 67 yards in nine plays and DeAngelis reduced the deficit to 21-14 with an 11-yard toss to Turner Haddad with 7:50 left in the quarter.

Duffy boosted the margin up to 35-14 with a pair of short touchdown runs, the second set up by his fourth-down pass from Crisafi.

Gov. Livingston, oddly, put together its best drive of the contest to finish the game, trekking  80 yards in 16 plays over the final 9:27 before DeAngelis scored on a 7-harder keeper as time expired.

Guyton hopes that drive will give the Highlanders some momentum as it enters the playoffs, which likely will begin at Ridgefield Park next weekend.

"That was part of the reason we wanted to keep fighting," Guyton said. "We wanted to have a little momentum, we wanted to keep our guys out there because we feel like we have to take every opportunity to continue to improve.

JOHNSON (5-3)  7-14-7-7-35

GOV. LIVINGSTON (3-5)  7-0-7-6-20

SCORING SUMMARY

J - Fischetti 29 pass from Crisafi (Casalino kick)

GL - De Angelis 2 run (Anderson kick)

J - Turek 2 run (Casalino kick)

J - Koppel 69 pass from Crisafi (Casalino kick)

GL - Haddad 11 pass from DeAngelis (Anderson kick)

J - Duffy 8 run (Casalino kick)

J - Duffy 6 run (Casalino kick)

GL - DeAngelis 7 run (no kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing - J: Fischetti 11-63, Duffy 9-56, Turek 13-55, Crisafi 10-27; GL: DeAngelis 16-105, Nicholson 14-102, Dwyer 6-30, Haddad 8-15, Bruno 3-5, Magliacano 2-4.

Passing - J: Crisafi 3-3-0-123; GL: DeAngelis 3-8-1-44.

Receiving - J: Koppel 1-69, Fischetti 1-29, Duffy 1-25; GL: Magliacano 1-17, Nicholson 1-16, Haddad 1-11.