CALDWELL, NJ —The Caldwell High School football team defeated Westwood HS 17-14 on a field goal in overtime on Friday, Sept. 19, at Bonnel Field in Caldwell for its first win of the season.Caldwell improved to 1-2.
The Chiefs were looking for their first win of the season to stay in the hunt for the North Jersey, Group 2 playoffs later this season. They dropped their first two games to backyard rivals West Essex and Passaic Valley by a combined score 51-42, where in both games the Chiefs didn’t have an answer for the late-game rallies that had them on the ropes coming into this past weekend’s contest against perennial North Jersey powerhouse, Westwood Cardinals.
The Cardinals were riding a three-game winning streak over Lyndhurst, Pascack Valley and Pascack Hills with a combined score of 82-21. The Cardinals won last year’s contest 35-13 on their way to the North Jersey, Group 2 playoff semifinal round, where they lost to a dominant Shabazz squad 14-6.
Leading the Cardinals from the opening kickoff was sophomore quarterback Bruno Vega and senior RB/DB Steve Klein, while the Chiefs countered with sophomore QB Adam Sepe, senior RB Solomon Soriente and senior WR/DB Kaelen Harper. The two teams traded their first punt and interception of the game where Westwood’s Klein snagged the ball, returning it to the Caldwell 28 yard-line with 7:55 left in the opening quarter. The Cardinals’ Vega would dive head-first into the end zone from 1 yard out to give Westwood a tenuous 7-0 lead over the Chiefs six plays later, leaving 5:24 on the first quarter clock. Both teams would continue to trade punts until the Chiefs would respond midway through the second quarter.
Sepe found some creative wiggle room, keeping his eyes downfield for open receivers, handing the ball off to Soriente, and taking the ball himself to get his Chiefs in the red zone, where Soriente would sweep to his left and dive in for the tying 2-yard touchdown with 6:36 remaining in the half. Just as Westwood was mounting an attack, Caldwell would nab an interception back from Vega on Caldwell’s 38-yard-line. Sepe would find Soriente on a screen pass for 7 yards before uncorking a 55-yard scrambling bomb to Harper, who was quietly sitting behind the Cardinal defense for the 14-7 halftime lead.
The arduous defensive struggle kept each opposing defense busy, as no one scored during the third quarter. But the Cardinals would find their groove late in the third quarter, starting at their own 21-yard line that had 5:27 remaining in the third quarter. Westwood would march 81 yards in a 15-play sustained drive that bled into the final quarter, where Vega fired a 17-yard bullet to junior WR Tyler Hanson to knot the game up 14-14 with 8:34 remaining in the game.
Both opposing quarterbacks were pretty even, with Vega finishing with eight completions on 19 attempts for 81 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. Sepe would finish with nine completions on 23 attempts for 125 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
The two teams again traded punts, with Caldwell receiving the final punt in regulation. Like the start of the game, Westwood won the coin toss and elected to take the ball from the Caldwell 25-yard line, but Caldwell’s defense, led by senior DL Elvis Nikollaj, wasn’t having any of it, forcing Westwood to turn the ball over on downs and giving Sepe a chance to inch closer for a score. But after back-to-back uncompleted passes, Caldwell sent junior kicker Matt Murtagh out for a 42-yard field goal. Murtagh would nail the kick with the hush of the stadium’s baited breath. The ball sailed like a Steph Curry long-range 3-pointer that snuck just past the cross bar, dropping in the bottom of the bucket. The walk-off winning field goal would give the Chiefs a stoic 17-14 victory over previously undefeated Westwood. “We needed this,” said Caldwell head coach Todd Romano to his team after the game. “They are a tough team and we knew that it was going to come down to the final minute.” He said that he knew it would come down to possibly kicking a field goal if they weren’t able to score. “We knew we have a kid that has the range. I’m happy that we were able to finish the game.” Westwood head coach Bobby Guy was in shock, stating, “They needed this, it was a hard-fought four quarters, they needed this for their season.” When asked about Vega and Klein, he simply explained, “They stopped everything we were trying to do.”
Both teams will be looking to continue their winning traditions as they prepare to face the heart of their schedules. Westwood will begin a two-game homestand against Dumont and Weequahic starting on Friday, Sept. 26, at 7 p.m. Dumont is currently riding a five-game winning streak dating back to last season against Tenafly in a New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association consolation crossover game. Caldwell will start a two-game road trip with stops at Wayne Hills and Cedar Grove. Both games are Friday evening, Sept. 26 tilts that start at 7p.m. Wayne Hills started their 2025-26 campaign with a trip to Wheat Ridge, Co., spurring a 42-6 victory over the Farmers. The Patriots are currently 4-0 with victories over West Essex 45-38, Nutley 34-10, and Paterson Kennedy 49-0.
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