Football: Voorhees falls short in quest for North 2 Group III title

RUTHERFORD - The Voorhees High School football team proved to be a play or two short Saturday morning in its quest to win the program’s first sectional title since 1995. 

Top-seeded West Essex (11-1) rushed for 271 yards and sophomore Zach Lemanski threw for four touchdowns to power a 28-14 victory in the North 2 Group III final at MetLife Stadium on Saturday. Third-seeded Voorhees, making its third- ever sectional final appearance and first since 1995’s Group II title, finished 9-3 after a 3-7 season last year.

“We just came up short. We didn’t catch a couple of breaks, and we hurt ourselves a couple of times,’’ Vikings coach Bobby Angstadt said.

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West Essex’s dominant ground game made it especially important for Voorhees to take an early lead. But it was the Knights that scored first – on their third play of the game – as Lemanski connected with junior Will Perez on a 64-yard strike with 8:09 left in the first quarter. Pat Delehanty’s extra point kick made it 7-0.

Voorhees caught a break of its own when Vincent Scaglia had an 8-yard touchdown run called back because of a holding penalty. But on the next play, Lemanski dropped a 25-yard pass into Scaglia’s hands between two Vikings with 10:02 left in the first half and Delehanty’s second extra point made it a 14-0 lead.

“We knew we had to get ahead and we weren’t able to do that, and facing a team that can run the ball like that, if you don’t score touchdowns you’re going to be in trouble,’’ Angstadt said.

Lemanski looked remarkably smooth for a player who’d suffered a non-contact hip injury during an Oct. 28 game with Barringer. West Essex coach Chris Benaquista didn’t make the decision to start Lemanski, who was 5-for-7 for 160 yards, until late in the week.

“The injured quarterback just threw dimes out there, they weren’t blown coverage, we had people on them, but he threw the ball right on the money,’’ Angstadt said. “I thought we played the run fantastic but we got beat on four touchdown passes, which just blows my mind.’’ 

Voorhees has its own outstanding quarterback in junior George Eberle. The Vikings came back to cut the deficit to 14-7 when a wide receiver option pass from Jack McCabe to Will Rodenberberger picked up 32 yards to the West Essex 27. Colin Tong carried for five yards before Eberle’s 18-yard run to the Knights’ one. Eberle scored two plays on a sneak, then added the extra point to make it 14-7 with 6:39 left in the half.

“I wasn’t able to pass the ball as well as in previous games, I probably should have run the ball more to start the game to get more momentum, but we did all we could,’’ Eberle said. 

Benaquista said the No. 1 objective was to disrupt Eberle. He ran for 87 rushing yards and the touchdown and threw for 98 yards and 39-yard touchdown pass to McCabe with under a minute left in the game. Eberle threw for 1,946 yards, 18 touchdowns and ran for 568 yards or the season.

"I told Eberle at the end of the game, he's one of the better players that we played all year," Benacquista said. "We game-planned to stop him, you want to take away a team's best player and he's clearly their best player. We wanted to make sure that we would allow him to scramble and get some yardage, but we wanted to cover deep."

The Vikings were able to keep the momentum as McCabe covered a fumble three plays after the Voorhees touchdown, but the momentum charge was short lived. On the next play, Luke Dignazio intercepted Eberle. Voorhees stopped West Essex on five plays and had the ball for the rest of the half, but three Eberle incompletions ended the Vikings last drive of the half.

“I missed a lot of throws I should have made and have made in past games,’’ Eberle said.

Five plays into the second half the Knights took a 21-7 lead. Another Lemanski pass found its way into the end zone and Phil Lutz’s hands for a 46-yard score. The ball was tantalizingly just beyond the hands of two Viking defenders.

“We just came up short, we didn’t catch a couple of breaks and we hurt ourselves a couple of times,’’ Angstadt said.

Eberle praised the team of seniors that were the team’s core – John Roncoroni, Tong, Rodenberger and McCabe among them.

“Every single one of them are the reasons we got here,’’ Eberle said. “We got here and its because of the seniors. We lost. But at least we got here.’’

VOORHEES (9-3) 0-7-0-7-14

WEST ESSEX (11-1) 7-7-7-7-28

WE: Perez 64 pass from Lemanski (Delehanty kick)

WE: Scaglia 25 pass from Lemanski (Delehanty kick)

VO: Eberle 2 run (Eberle kick)

WE: Lutz 46 pass from Lemanski (Delehanty kick)

WE: Perez 21 pass from Lemanski (Delehanty kick)

VO: McCabe 38 pass from Eberle (Eberle kick)

RUSHING

V: Tong 9-21, Eberle 13-87, McCabe 1-2, Roncoroni 5-32; WE: Perez 15-112, Scaglia 11-79, Lutz 1-6, Lemanski 4-1, Gashi 1-26, Sangillo 16-47.

PASSING

V: Eberle 8-18-98-1-2, McCabe 1-1-0-0-32; WE: Lemanski 5-7-160-0-4

RECEIVING

V: Roncoroni 4-26, Rodenberger 1-32, McCabe 4-72; D’Albo 1-4, Lutz 1-46, Perez 2-85, Scaglia 1-25.