FOOTBALL: Westfield rides its defense to second straight sectional title

EAST RUTHERFORD - A state sectional final is no time to change things up, so the Westfield High School football team simply rode the unit that’s been responsible for the longest winning streak in the state, and Saturday it netted the Blue Devils their second-straight championship.

Second-seeded Westfield got another huge performance from its defense, holding its 11th opponent in 12 games to fewer than 14 points, forcing three turnovers, including two interceptions from Adam McDaniel, one of which he returned for a touchdown. The Blue Devils, meanwhile, notched five sacks, including two on the Panthers’ final drive, and turned in a game-changing play by shutting down a 2-point conversion attempt early in the fourth quarter that would have tied the game, notching their second straight NJSIAA North 2 Group V title and 25th consecutive victory, 15-13, at MetLife Stadium.

“Lights out, they’ve done it all year,” said Westfield coach Jim DeSarno, whose club beat Bridgewater-Raritan 10-7 in last year’s final. “The last two years we’re tough to beat when our defense is lights out like that. That’s a quality team. They’ve scored points on everybody. (BR quarterback Nick Attanasio) and (running back David Usewick) are as good as it comes, but we tackled them and made the plays and it was great.

“We’ve always prided ourselves on the strong defense,” said senior lineman Owen Kessler, who recorded two sacks, including one on B-R’s final drive, and watched teammate Jake Dayon put the nail in the coffin when he sacked Attanasio on a 4th-and-9 on his own 41-yard line three plays after the Panthers QB had a 56-yard run called back on a holding penalty. “This season, last season, and way before, and it was just really nice to end it on that note. It was a great feeling.”

Led by a front line of returning starters in Kessler, Jeff Gagum, who also notched two sacks, Nick Maher, and Jake Vall-Llobera, Westfield’s defense accomplished exactly what it set out to do, limiting Attanasio and Usewick, who have led a prolific Bridgewater-Raritan running attack to an 11-0 record entering Saturday’s game.

“The biggest thing was to contain (Attanasio),” Kessler said. “We knew we had to play like we always do. We have a great defensive line, everyone played strong and we just knew we had to play Westfield football. That’s what it was all about.”

Each of the Panthers standouts broke a big play, with Attanasio scoring on a 50-yard run in the second quarter to cut the BR deficit to 9-7 after Justin Davidovicz’s extra point, accounting for a large chunk of the 111 yards he gained on the ground Saturday. Usewick caught a 28-yard touchdown pass from Attanasio on the first play of the fourth quarter, setting up what proved to be the turning point of the game.

With the score 15-13 and 11:48 left in the contest, Bridgewater-Raritan coach Scott Bray decided to go for the 2-point conversion to try and tie, calling for an Attanasio sweep to the left. But Westfield was right on it, getting to the Panthers quarterback before he crossed the goal line, as Shea Elliott and Connor Scanlon got through for the stop.

“It’s the game,” DeSarno said. “We knew he would get the ball, so we just strung it out and they did a great job.”

Westfield also got a huge performance from junior corner Adam McDaniel, who missed last year’s final and most of the 2015 season with injury. McDaniel stepped up big time, intercepting a pass on a 1st-and-10 after his team had fumbled the ball away late in the second quarter, returning it 39 yards for a touchdown to make the score 15-7.

McDaniel grabbed another pick in the final seconds of the half, outleaping a Panthers receiver for a long pass near the end zone with seven seconds remaining in the period.

“Adam didn’t get a chance to suit up last year because he broke his collarbone,” DeSarno said. “He was going to make the most of this year, and he certainly did. I can’t be more proud of him. Our kids usually go one way, but he’s a receiver for us, he’s a corner for us, and he goes from not dressing last year to playing both sides, and he’s on every special (team), too.”

“It felt great,” McDaniel said. “Last year, knowing I didn’t play almost the entire season, this year I knew I had to come out and get it done and step up for all the guys who couldn’t play this year.”

After each team began the game by going 3-and-out, Westfield cashed in on its second possession, matching 69 yards on 11 plays, capped by a 28-yard field goal from Mike Moriarty. The Blue Devils then extended the advantage to 9-0 with 10:26 left in the second quarter, getting a three-yard run by Vall-Llobera.

Juandre House, filling in for Westfield’s top two backs, who are both out with injury, led the Blue Devils attack, going for 80 yards on 20 carries, while quarterback Phil Martini did a great job managing the offense, despite throwing for just 50 yards and running for another 34.

Attanasio finished with 111 rushing yards and 73 through the air, with Usewick adding 46 on the ground, but other than some flashes here and there, the normally potent attack just couldn’t gain any sustained momentum against Westfield’s vaunted defense, forcing the Panthers to the air a lot more than they would have liked.

“It was out inability to get ahead of the chains,” Bray said. “They did a good job keeping us in second and third-and-longs, and just putting that pressure on. We knew our pass game wasn’t the strongest, and that’s where they put the pressure on us. We had a few mistakes there in the beginning and two turnovers led to 14 points. I think our defense did a great job in the second half, we just couldn’t make the plays when we needed to make them.”

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