LITTLE FALLS, NJ — The West Essex Regional High School football team defeated Passaic Valley 14-0 for its fifth win in a row to improve to 5-1.
It was a highly anticipated matchup that everyone in the greater Essex County area was talking about this past week as the highly-touted Knights of West Essex made the short trip down the Route 46 corridor to Little Falls for a meeting of the football minds with their long-standing rival, the Passaic Valley Hornets, for a Saturday Nights Lights edition.
The game got started with an immediate bang after the Hornets took possession after the opening kickoff. Passaic Valley quarterback Anthony Bagnuolo was looking to drop a bomb on the Knights defense on the first play from the Hornets 33-yard line. His intended target, Ayden Mulroony, looked to have beaten the defensive double coverage near midfield and was preparing to make a bigger play with only one defender standing his way. Knights DB Anthony Drago, who is committed to Duke University for lacrosse, swooped in for the interception, returning the ball back 40 yards to the Hornets 5-yard line, setting up Knights RB Michael Lozito for the 1-yard rumble into the end zone on the very next play for a very early 7-0 lead with just 11:30 left in the first quarter.
After trading punts, the Hornets thought they had a defensive rhythm going, registering a sack and a forced turnover on downs. With the clock winding down in the first quarter, the Hornets had the Knights pinned inside their 19-yard line after a 10-yard offensive holding call. Knights QB Jake Long decided to drop a bomb of his own, finding a streaking Drago, who did his best impression of Alabama WR Ryan Williams and Hall of Fame RB Barry Sanders, by putting the Hornets defender on skates, making him hit the spin cycle as he easily breezed right past him for the 81-yard touchdown with 37 seconds remaining in the first quarter. The Knights stretched their lead to 14-0.
The second quarter was more of a defensive struggle, where neither teams’ offense was able to make headway into the opposing defenses’ territory. The Hornets turned the ball over three times as the Knights defense, led by LB Brady Phillips, registered a sack and two more interceptions to shut down Passaic Valley’s vaunted passing attack going into the half. Both defenses were working on all cylinders, shutting down all rushing attempts and creating no fly zones through the air.
Passaic Valley had an opportunity to score before the half after a forced fumble was negated after Bagnuolo found Ralphie Cintron for a 30-yard strike. He followed that up with a 27 yard zinger to Dante Benvenuti for a touchdown, but it was called back for holding with 1:35 left in the first half. West Essex DB Vincent Giaquinto would have the honor of plucking the second interception of the second quarter, halting the 12-play, 69-yard march to end the half.
West Essex had more fireworks waiting for the Hornets to start the third quarter. Starting from their 29-yard line, Long found WR Justin Perini for a 66-yard aerial assault for a would-be touchdown with 10:25 left in the third quarter. But hold everything, there was laundry on the field and the Knights were hit with a 10-yard holding penalty, taking the touchdown off the board, which forced the Knights to punt for the fourth time in the game.
Taking over at the West Essex 45-yard line, Passaic Valley switched tactics, opting for its ground attack behind RB Nick Huliev, who gave the Hornets a different dynamic that the Knights weren’t planning for defensively. Huliev rushed five times for 30 yards in the quarter, but would attempt to be a weapon in the passing game out of the backfield. However, he was held to 4 yards receiving on four catches the whole game.
Knights DB Max Garcia led his defensive backfield with two interceptions, snagging the second one and the team’s fourth of the night with 11:42 remaining in the game. As the all-out chess match was being waged, neither team was able to crack the goal line without incurring a penalty or punting the ball away. West Essex put up a conservative 131 total yards on offense, while Passaic Valley would only have 105 yards in total offense.
The leading tackler for the Knights was Drago, who finished with nine tackles and one interception, while Benvenuti would take home 11 tackles with one tackle for loss to his credit. The Hornets were able to get one of those interceptions back with 5:25 left in the game. DB Marc Meola’s sticky fingers sparked a late Hornets rally where Bagnuolo would look for one of his favorite targets, WRss Citron, Benvenuti, and Vincent Berardi. They were only able to complete one of six passes for 6 yards, as Bagnuolo was either dropped unceremoniously for a sack or forced to throw incompletes. West Essex killed the clock, preserving the 14-0 victory.
“We knew that we had to shut down their passing lanes and keep the pressure up on their quarterback,” said West Essex head coach Chris Benacquista. He went on to say the interception by Drago on the first play of the game allowed his team to completely focus as it set the tone of the game for being hard and physical. “We expected this from them,” said Passaic Valley head coach Max Wassel after confirming they were able to score a combined nine points in the past two seasons. “We wanted to stick to our game plan, knowing that they were coming at us full throttle,” he said about West Essex’s defensive game plan. Wassel would go on to say that they were looking forward to this game, but in the end, there were several mistakes that forced them out of scoring position.
The 14-0 victory over Passaic Valley puts West Essex in the driver seat and control of the Super Football Conference–Patriot White Division as they will have a bye week this weekend. This makes the second straight pitched shutout after defeating Nutley handily 28-0 the week prior. The Knights will be back in action Friday, Oct. 18, at 7 p.m. They will be on the road visiting another Hornets Nest at Hanover Park. Passaic Valley will remain home this week. They have a short turnaround where they will play host to Wayne Hills on Thursday, Oct. 10, as part of their three-game home stand. The Hornets are set to kickoff at 6:30 p.m. at Passaic Valley High.
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