FOOTBALL: North Plainfield finishes strong, tops sectional-finalist South Plainfield

SOUTH PLAINFIELD -  Things didn’t exactly go as planned for the North Plainfield High School football team this season. After an inspired opening-night victory over Delaware Valley, the Canucks couldn’t quite get everything working right, dropping seven straight, despite an offense led by quarterback Nick Cherasaro that’s proven to be quite prolific most of the time, averaging 30 points per game.

After its opener, North Plainfield didn’t win another game until a consolation-game victory over Monmouth two weeks ago, but faced with its annual rivalry game against South Plainfield on Thursday, a team scheduled to play for a sectional championship in 10 days, the Canucks found the complete effort they needed.

Cherasaro finished with 162 passing yards and three touchdowns, adding another 72 yards rushing, and Al-Nasir Robinson tallied 156 rushing yards on 13 carries, adding a rushing and receiving touchdown.  North Plainfield’s defense, meanwhile, did a fantastic job limiting the Tigers, especially in the red zone, and posted a 39-21 victory at Jost Field.

“All year, we’ve been on the cusp of doing some special things, and we kept coming up short,” North Plainfield first-year head coach Mark Ciccotelli said. “Today, I loved how physical we were and how hard we played. We played the game the right way and I’m very proud of them.”

“It was on our mind all week,” said Cherasaro, who admitted his team was extra motivated by the prospects of beating a club that will be facing Rumson-Fair Haven a week from Saturday in the Central Group III final at Rutgers University. “We were pushing to try and show that we were right there, we just couldn’t put everything together. Like our coach said, we haven’t fired on eight cylinders all year, but maybe we have today.”

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Cherasaro’s 162 passing yards put him just 28 yards shy of reaching 3,000, but the senior was still as key as ever to North Plainfield’s success. After both defenses did a nice job keeping the other team at bay for most of the first quarter, each getting key turnovers, North Plainfield finally broke through with 53 seconds left in the period as Cherasaro hit Robinson with a 45-yard scoring pass. The 2-point conversion made it 8-0, before South Plainfield got to within 8-6 on its ensuing possession, getting a one-yard touchdown run from Charles Lovett before the PAT kick failed.

But North Plainfield wasted no time responding, capping its next drive with a one-yard Robinson touchdown run and another 2-point conversion, taking a 16-6 lead into the intermission.

South Plainfield opened the second half with an impressive drive, starting at its own 37, using 13 plays to get as close as the Canucks 15-yard line, before the North Plainfield defense bore down, denying the Tigers points. It was one of three times the Canucks would stifle South Plainfield inside their 20-yard line, impressive for a team that had allowed nearly 38 points per game this season.

“Our defensive coordinator, Coach (Jimmy) DiPaolo does an unbelievable job,” Ciccotelli said. “He works as hard as anybody out there, and our other coaches do the same. Our kids really stepped up to the challenge. They knew we were playing a state-finalist caliber football team and they were excited. They did some of the things we asked them to do all year, and it was nice to see.”

”They (the defense) were just more physical today,” Cherasaro said. “They (South Plainfield) wanted to smash us in the mouth, but we had to take it right back to them.”

North Plainfield added a seven-yard Cherasaro-to-Brandon Smith touchdown and a 33-yard scoring run by James Gardner to open a 32-6 advantage early in the fourth quarter, before South Plainfield scored on an 18-yard Lovett-to-Jean Sapini scoring strike to draw within 32-14. North Plainfield got a 19-yard TD pass from Cherasaro to Gardner, before a one-yard scoring run by South Plainfield’s Ryan Marston capped the scoring.

DeShai Smith finished with 92 rushing yards on five carries to pace the Tigers, while Zach Delvacchio chipped in 17 carries for 86 yards to the effort.

The North Plainfield victory marks the 13th time in the past 14 years the Canucks have come out on top, with South Plainfield’s 2014 win the lone Tigers triumph in that span. For North Plainfield, it’s an extra-special way to end an otherwise disappointing campaign.

“I’m new to the rivalry, so I told them in pregame and all week, your roots are much deeper than mine, but I do know this history,” Ciccotelli said. “We have to lay it on the line and bring it home for our community. For our school, our student body, everybody. This was about our alumni and the whole community of North Plainfield.”

“I hope it rolls over for next year for the other guys,” Cherasaro said. “This made me feel like I was doing it for the kids behind me, and all the alumni before me.”

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

NORTH PLAINFIELD (3-7) 8-8-8-15 -- 39

SOUTH PLAINFIELD (8-3) 0-6-0-15 -- 21                  

SCORING

NP – Robinson 45 pass from Cherasaro (Cherasaro pass from Smith)

SP – Lovett 1 run (kick failed)

NP – Robinson 7 run (Smith run)

NP—Smith 7 from Cherasaro (Gardner pass from Cherasaro)

NP—Gardner 33 run (Smith pass from Cherasaro)

SP—Sapini 18 from Lovett (Smith pass from Lovett)

NP—Gardner 19 pass from Cherasaro (Cooney kick)

SP—Marston 1 run (Smith kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATS

RUSHING

NP: Robinson 13-156, Cherasaro 16-72, Smith 4-35, Gardner 2-86, Borfeld 1-6; SP: Lovett 21-58, Delvacchio 17-86, Smith 5-92, Cohen 1-(-2), Marston 1-1.

PASSING

NP: Cherasaro 11-24-1-162; SP: Lovett 2-2-27, Marston 5-16-78.

RECEIVING

NP: Cooper 3-25, Gardner 2-34, Hunter 2-25, Robinson 2-54, Smith 2-24. SP: Sapini 4-79, Stankan 2-17, Gaddy 1-(-2).