Watchung Hills Pop Warner Results

Submitted by Jason Taub

Jr. Midget

The Watchung Hils Wolverine Jr. Midgets improved their winning streak to four with a 22-0 win over the Raiders of North Rockland this past Sunday. The WH offense sputtered in the first half but the defense kept the game tied at zero points with great plays in the middle by Jonathan Taub, Gary Gaglioti, and Matt Roth.

Toward the end of the second quarter, Chris Clintock stripped the ball from a North Rockland running back causing a fumble in the end zone. Kevin Caracappa pounced on it for the first Wolverine score of the day. Clintock added the kick to go up 8-0. The Wolverines received the kick off in the second half and drove 65 yards for the second score behind the blocking of Tyler James, Rob Saum, and Caleb Parker.

Tommy Schelling carried the ball four times and 51 yards during that drive and Chance Modica finished it off with a 6-yard run on the left side into the end zone. The kick failed. Taub and Ryan Padrani made great tackles from their linebacker positions to stop the Raiders and Devon Bennet broke up a pass play to stall the Raider drive. The Wolverines took over on downs at the Watchung Hills 15-yard line with eight minutes to play. Connor James carried the ball four times for 23 yards before Schelling connected with Clintock for 68 yards and the final score.

Senior Flag

The Watchung Hills Wolverines took on the Dukes of Hillsborough in a rematch from last week. The tough Dukes runners were too much to handle as they scored seven times on the day. The Wolverines defense hung in there keeping the Dukes scoreless in the final ten minutes. Kyle Checchio led the defense with nine flags while the speedy Ryan Johnson pulled five.

Colin Kolakowski continued to play well grabbing four flags.  Chase Miller and Jayden Fernandez each pulled three flags, David Dubas and Michael DiNardi pulled two and William Morreale and Max Phillips each added one flag.

The offense had a tough time getting into the end zone, but Colin Kolakowski's 25-yard touchdown run put the Wolverines on the board. Ryan Johnson rushed for 125 yards on seven carries, Kyle Checchio had 80 yards rushing on eight carries, Jayden Fernandez added 70 yards rushing, Byron McCann had 40 yards rushing and Jack Clintock added 25 yards on the ground.

Junior Flag

The Wolverines Junior Flag team had a big day against the Hillsborough Dukes racking up 360 yards on the ground and seven touchdowns. Jadon Prinzivalli led the offense with 110 yards rushing on five carries and two touchdowns. Jadon also completed a pass late in the game to Perry Weingarten. Brayden Kelly racked up 110 yards on five carries and scored once.

K.J. West added 40 yards rushing and a score. Aidan Grochowski rushed for 35 yards on three carries and a touchdown. Perry Weingarten took advantage of his only touch of the day going 20 yards for a touchdown.  Mason Kelly capped off the scoring with a 10-yard sprint to the end zone.

Charlie Betzner added 20 yards rushing to the offensive total. Cameron Kolakowski, Kyle Ling, Max Yaeger, Stephen Prisco and Nicolas Betancourth helped open up holes for the Wolverines runners.

The Wolverines defense had a rough first half allowing the Dukes to score four times in 10 minutes. However, the second half was a different story as the stingy defense held the Dukes to two touchdowns in 20 minutes of offense. The defensive line of Jack Martin, Brayden Kelly, Mason Kelly and Jadon Prinzivalli held the Dukes offense to under 5 yards in the remaining 10 minutes. Brayden Kelly finished the day with eight flags while Jadon Prinzivalli, Lucas Garcia and Jack Martin each grabbed four flags. Mason Kelly, Aidan Grochowski, Perry Weingarten and K.J. West pulled two flags and Nicholas Valenti grabbed one.   

Mity mite Gold

Watchung Wolverines v. Woodbridge Golden Knights: On Sunday September 22, the Watchung Hills Wolverines played away against the Woodbridge Golden Knights. Leading offensive running back was Riley McCann who carried the ball for over 80 yards over the course of the game. Vincent Lee ran 28 yards, John DiMaggio ran 22 yards and John King contributed 19 yards. 

On defense, Dylan Braunstein led with four strong tackles. Lorenzo Percaio had 2 tackles and Vincent Lee, Brett Christopher and John DiMaggio each had a tackle.  The final score was Golden Knights 22, Wolverines 8. 

Blue Mity Mite

After a tough first half against the Hillsborough Dukes, the Wolverines pulled through strong in the third and fourth quarters. The defense stopped the Dukes from advancing with four tackles each from Colin Archbold and Elhannan (Ellis) Wilson. The Wolverines offense shined with 2 great pass plays from Jake Checchio to Martin Howell for 12 and 15 yards. Colin Archbold also had a key 16-yard run on third down. Late in the game, with solid blocking from the Wolverines across the field, Aqili Holmes scored on an 85-yard touchdown run.

Watchung Hills Pop Warner — Junior Pee Wee — Sept 22

WH JPW — 21

Hillsborough JPW — 6

The Watchung Hills Pop Warner Junior Pee Wee team advanced to 3-1 on the year with a convincing 21-6 win on the road at Hillsborough on Sunday. Game captains were Jack Haiken, Tyler Piggot, Tyler (Tito) Marion, and Luke Marion. The Wolverines lost the coin flip but used an on-sides kick to start the game and Jack Valenti pounced on the loose ball and recovered it for Watchung around midfield. It took 5 plays for the first offense to score a touchdown. It was a total team effort as the squad moved down the field with ease.

The starting group consisted of: LT, Tyler Piggot; LG, Josh Claxton; C, Shane Kelly; RG, Jack Valenti; RT, Luke Malfetti; TE, Bryce Rooks; SE, Tyler Marion; 4 back, Justin Drews; 3 back, Luke Marion; 2 back, Justin Ferreira; and 1 back, Adam Cardoza. Scott Cunningham rotated at SE on the drive as well.

The first period ended with the Watchung Hills Wolverines leading 7-0 as the home squad from Hillsborough was unable to advance the ball very far. Several Wolverines made nice tackles early in the contest  including Tyler Piggot, Justin Ferreira, Jack Reale, and 8-year old Peter (the Wild Man) O'Mara. Early in the second period the Wolverines scored again to take a 14-0 lead. Key blocks on the drive were turned in by Thomas Johnson and Arnav Ramidi. Later in the period it was the second team offense known as "Hammer O" that found the end-zone as well extending the lead to 21-0. Hammer O consisted of: SE, Arnav Ramidi; LHB, Justin Ferreira; LTE, Jack Valenti; LG, Bryce Rooks; C, Shane Kelly; RG, Logan Schiebler; RT, Nick Lourenco; RTE, Peter O'Mara; RHB, Josh Claxton; FB, Luke Marion; and QB, Justin Drews. Hillsborough had a nice drive to end the half but could not score as Shane Kelly intercepted a pass with time running down.

The only true highlight in the third quarter was for the home team from Hillsborough as they returned a Watchung punt for a touchdown. Their extra point attempt failed and they closed the gap to 21-6. During the quarter, Josh Claxton had a nice tackle for the Wolverines and the game moved to the final period. During the 4th quarter, there was no scoring for either team. Nevertheless, a few nice individual plays were turned in by Bryce Rooks who had a tackle for a loss, Shane Kelly, Justin Ferreira, and Luke Marion all had hard hitting solo tackles, and Luke Malfetti recovered a fumble.

The Junior Pee Wee squad returns home next weekend to take on Montgomery on Sunday, September 29.

Watchung Hills Pee Wee

The score of WHPW 28, Hillsborough 0. The Watchung Hills Pee Wees defeated the Hillsborough Dukes 28-0 this past Sunday at Hillsborough High school.  The Watchung Hills Offensive line of Adam Claxton, Charlie Everhard, Michael Fornaro, George Rooks, and Anthony Tomaro controlled the game from the get go running for over 300 yards on the Hillsborough defense.

The first touchdown was a sweep run by Andrew Reale for 20 yard touchdown run.  The second score was 35 yard touchdown run by Connor Cook which was set by a crushing block from Justin Uberoi. The third Touchdown of the day was scored by Matty Colantuono on a 1-yard plunge which was set up by a great sweep by Reale.  The final touchdown of the day was Owen Kovacs 6-yard touchdown run. Kovacs also made 2 of his 4 extra point attempts.

Once again the Wolverine defense was ferocious led by middle Linebacker Jack Taub  who led the effort with 10 solo tackles.  The Defensive line of Claxton, Colantuono, Matthew Pereira,  Isaiah Parker, And rooks kept pressure on the quarterback all day sacking the Hillsborough quarterback  6 times. Parker had great tackle in the fourth quarter causing a fumble which was recovered by Tomaro.  The Wolverine secondary Joey Denave, Sean Dillon, Mario Martino, Reale, and Patrick Stefurak cover the receivers of the dukes all day.  Stefurak and Martino both had interceptions to keep the high flying offense off the board.  The wolverines  take on the Montgomery Wildcats on September 29 at home.