NUTLEY/BELLEVILLE, NJ — The Nutley and Belleville football rivalry will be renewed on Friday night, Sept. 10, at Belleville’s Doc Ellis Field at Municipal Stadium.
Prior to the game, a ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place to officially unveil the new turf field at Doc Ellis Field. The new turf replaced the old turf.
Both teams are 1-0 after they won their openers.
Nutley defeated Bloomfield, 18-13, at Owens field in Nutley on Friday, Sept. 3. The game was originally scheduled to be held at Bloomfield’s Foley Field, but the field was damaged due to the remnants of Hurricane Ida.
It marked the first game for Nutley head coach JD Vick, who has been a longtime assistant coach for the Nutley Raiders. Vick served as the interim head coach for the Raiders in 2019.
“We made a lot of mistakes in the game,” said Vick, “however our defense came up with some key stops when they needed to and our offense came up with a huge game-winning 95-yard drive in 90 seconds for the go-ahead score with 50 seconds left in the game.”
The Belleville Buccaneers, under head coach Jermain Johnson, downed Barringer, 44-6, Saturday, Sept. 4 at Schools Stadium in Newark.
The Raiders are looking forward to the game with Belleville.
“Belleville has a very good team and are well-coached,” Vick said. “They have speed and good skill players. The game is going to be a challenge for us, hopefully we have corrected our mistakes from last week and are ready to meet the challenge. I know Belleville will be well prepared to play us. It’s Nutley/Belleville, Friday night lights, you don’t need to say much more than that to get motivated for this game.”
Nutley leads the all-time series, 54-19-4, including winning the last nine meetings. The last time Belleville defeated Nutley was in 2008 in Belleville.
Here are the scoring plays and stats from Week 1 games:
Nutley 18, Bloomfield 13
Nutley 0 12 0 6 18
Bloomfield 0 7 0 6 13
Second quarter
N – Matt Harbison 2-yard TD run, 9:22. Extra-point failed.
N – Brandon Lucia 85 kickoff return, 0:41. Two-point attempt failed.
Fourth quarter
N – Matt Harbison 38-yard TD pass to Vinny Miller, 0:50. Two-point attempt failed.
Nutley stats
Rushing: Paul Scutti: 43 yards on 6 carries. Harbison: 4 yards on 7 carries. Lucia: 7 yards on 2 carries. Maniero: 56 Yards on 8 carries. Zitola: 1 yard on 1 carryReceiving: Scutti: 82 yards on 5 receptions. Miller: 67 yards on 4 receptions. Lucia: 6 yards on 1 reception
Passing: Harbison: 155 yards on 10 for 21 passing, 2 interceptions, 1 TD.
Defense:
Lucia: 2 tackles, 4 assists, 1 INT.
William Mielnicki: 3 tackles, 5 assists, fumble recovery
Frankie Contella: 1 tackle, 3 assists
Belleville scoring
First Quarter: James Cook Jr. 5-yard TD run. Two-point conversion good by Najee Harris, 8-0.
Second Quarter
Colin Cook 21-yard INT return for TD. Two-point conversion good by Najee Harris, 16-0
Safety, 18-0
Brent Rojas 18-yard TD pass to Najee Harris. Bryce Gude PAT good, 26-0)
Third Quarter
James Cook Jr. 72-yard TD run, PAT no good, 32-0
Chris Vitale 43-yard INT return for TD., PAT no good, 38-0
Fourth Quarter
Jeremiah Cook 33-yard TD run. PAT no good
Statistics:
Brent Rojas: 7 of 11 passing for 112 yards 1 TD
James Cook Jr.: 9 attempts for 112 yards and 2 TDs
Defense:
Terence Folkes: 10 Tackles, 1 sack
