Football: Verano powers Bridgewater-Raritan over Linden

BRIDGEWATER — Greg Verano has a very short memory and for the Bridgewater-Raritan High School football team on Friday night, that was a very good thing.

After tossing a pair of interceptions in the final three minutes of the first half, the first leading to the only score before intermission, the junior quarterback put those gaffes behind him and rebooted the offense.

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Verano passed for two scores and ran for another on Bridgewater-Raritan's first three possessions of the second half as the Panthers seized control of a taut contest and held on for a 28-12 victory over a Linden team that entered on a high-scoring roll.

Bridgewater-Raritan (4-2), ranked third in the Courier News Top 10, scored on its first four possessions of the second half before taking a knee twice on its game-ending fifth drive. Anthony Goffe did most of the heavy lifting for the Panthers, running for 150 yards on 26 fumble-less carries, but it was the work Bridgewater-Raritan did on defense that keyed the outcome. Linden (3-2) entered riding a three-game winning streak in which it averaged a whopping 43.7 points, but was limited to 183 yards of total offense, 61 of which came on a fourth-quarter touchdown pass from Zion Marshall to Markel McDuffie. The Tigers other score came on a halfback option pass.

“Our defense is doing a great job,” Bridgewater-Raritan coach Scott Bray said. “We have a couple of kids in the secondary and they’re coming along, but we knew our front seven was going to be our strong suit and they battled.”

Neither team advanced inside its opponent’s 20 before Marshall picked off a Verano pass at his 40 with just under three minutes left in the half. Linden broke the scoreless tie on a halfback option pass from BJ George to Luis Rodriguez on fourth and 2 from the 20 with 55 seconds left in the second quarter.

Two plays later, Linden’s Lawson Paden intercepted another Verano pass and the Tigers left the field at the break clinging to a 6-0 edge after a first half in which both teams each compiled exactly 84 yards of total offense.

“It was a tough first half with the two interceptions, it’s hard, but we all trust in each other,” Verano said. “We found something that worked and we kept going to it.”

Bridgewater-Raritan came out firing in the second half, marching 73 yards in eight plays after taking the kickoff, with Verano tossing a 20-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Myers to finally put the Panthers on the scoreboard nearly three minutes into the third quarter.

The Panthers limited the Tigers to three-and-outs on its next two possessions, with Verano scoring on a 6-yard keeper and a 6-yard pass to Justin Bryant to extend its cushion to 21-6 on the first play of the last quarter.

Just when Bridgewater-Raritan seemed to have the game under control, Linden struck with the 61-yard pass a minute later and, after it held the Panthers to a three-and-out, the momentum appeared to shift in Linden’s direction.

But a roughing the kicker penalty on Bridgewater-Raritan’s punt extended its possession and it was able to take five more minutes off the clock by calling for 10-straight running plays, the last a 1-yard touchdown plunge by Bryant with 4:19 remaining.

“That killed us, we had the momentum there and we thought we could get to the punter and make a big play,” Linden coach Al Chiola said. “They beat his up, it’s that simple. They controlled the line of scrimmage on us and they took away our big plays and we couldn’t get anything done.”

LINDEN  (3-2)  0-6-0-6-12

BRIDGEWATER-RARITAN  (4-2)  0-0-14-14-28

SCORING SUMMARY

L - Rodriguez 20 pass from George (kick failed)

BR - Myers 20 pass from Verano (Balliro kick 

BR - Verano 6 run (Balliro kick)

BR - Bryant 6 pass from Verano (Balliro kick)

L - McDuffie 61 pass from Marshall (pass failed)

BR - Bryant 1 run (Balliro kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS 

Rushing - L: George 15-49, Marshall 8-27, Myers 1-6, Parker 3-6, McDuffie 1-3; BR - Goff 26-150, Bryant 10-53, Usewick 1-4, Verano 11-3.

Passing - L: Marshall 3-12-1-72, George 1-1-0-20; BR - Verano 9-14-2-110.

Receiving - L: McDuffie 1-61, Rodriguez 2-24, George 1-7; BR - Rosseland 5-51, Bryant 2-28, Myers 2-23.