by Michael Moschella

[Stanhope, NJ] In this past week’s game it looked like it was going to be a struggle for Lenape Valley during Kittatinny’s first drive, as the cougars drove all the way down the field, finding holes in the patriot defense and making tacklers miss. All went smoothly for Kittatinny’s until they came within the LV 5 yard line, and fumbled the ball away. The patriots capitalized on Kittatinny’s mistake, and drove all the way back down the field, starting the drive with three carries for a total of 37 yards. Jim Labell ended the drive with a ten yard touchdown, and the patriots stopped the cougars on a fourth and long after kicking off to them. The next drive was filled with more long gains, including a 31 yard pass from Mike Iazzetti to Rob Dolce, and a 4 yard touchdown run by Travis Ressa. On the cougars next possession the Patriots defense forced them to punt, and Travis Ressa kicked off this drive with a nine yard run to the outside. Sophomore quarterback Matt Caimpaglio came in to run the 2 minute drill, and began by hitting Joey Moschella for 14 yards, Rob Dolce for 7 yards, and a 16 yard touchdown to Ressa to make the score 18-0. The 2 point conversion was a pass that bounced out of Moschella’s hands and into Ressa’s to make the score 20-0 at the end of the half.

                Lenape received the ball at the beginning of the second half, and continued to dominate the cougars, driving down the field again until Trevor Stempert scored. After the 2 point conversion the lead was extended to 28-0. On Kittatinny’s next possession they struggled again, and turned the ball over on downs. Lenape Valley got it into the end zone again, as Caimpaglio hit fellow sophomore Brian Kreuder on a short pass.

                Lenape Valley has continued to show improvement over the past four weeks, and this week will get a chance to see if they can handle Newton’s powerful passing game. Aside from playing Jefferson, the Patriot’s schedule has not been overly challenging, which seems to have helped the fairly inexperienced players on the team improve and step into their roles. Now the real tests start. Aside from Newton’s passing game they will face a High Point team with dual threat Chase Keifer, a very tough Sparta team under Coach Pat Shea, former league favorite Vernon, and finishing the regular season playing Pope John, with their multiple running backs including Matt Pepe, Kyle McGrath, Corey Bell, and new tailback Michael Linskey, who despite not having played football since his sophomore year rushed for 168 yards on only 16 carries this past weekend. The Patriots have a tough five weeks to look forward to, but seem to improve every week, and should be able to get the job done against these last five teams.