Bloomfield HS football team tops Nutley to improve to 2-0

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NUTLEY, NJ (updated Saturday Sept. 16, 11:34 a.m.) – The Bloomfield High School varsity football team posted a dominating effort for the second straight week to start the season.

The Bengals defeated Nutley, 49-21, Sept. 15 at Monsignor Owens Field in Nutley to improve to 2-0. It marked the second straight week the Bengals eclipsed the 40-point mark. In the season opener, BHS defeated Columbia, 41-13. Nutley fell to 0-2.

Senior running back Jeremy Whitherspoon rushed for 151 yards and four touchdowns on 27 carries and returned a kickoff 71 yards for touchdown to lead the Bengals.  Whitherspoon scored three TDs in the first quarter: a 5-yard TD run to make it 6-0; a 3-yard TD run for a 12-7 lead; and the TD kickoff return to put BHS up 18-13.

Junior quarterback Kyle Tice completed six of 10 passes for 137 yards, including two touchdowns to junior receiver Will Robinson.

Senior Marcus Wolf kicked a 25-yard field goal to extend Bloomfield’s lead to 21-13 in the first quarter and Robinson caught a 21-yard TD pass from Tice to make it 28-13 at the end of the quarter.

After a scoreless second quarter, Tice hit Robinson on a 79-yard TD pass for a 35-13 lead. After Nutley junior quarterback Josh O’Neill threw a 16-yard TD pass to senior tight end Wayne Whittmann, followed by the two-point conversion, to cut it to 35-21, Whitherspoon scored on a 2-yard run to make it 42-21 at the end of the third quarter. Whitherspoon closed out the scoring on a 33-yard run in the fourth quarter.

Wolf kicked four extra-points. Robinson finished with four catches for 128 yards and two TDs.

Defensively for the Bengals, senior outside linebacker Judah Bartley had six tackles, four assists, one sack and two tackles for loss; senior linebacker Joe Bumpus had five tackles, four assists, and one TFL; junior linebacker Andrew Terc had four tackles, two assists, one sack and one TFL; and senior DB John Ridley had three tackles and three sacks.

O’Neill threw two TD passes in the first quarter and finished with three scoring strikes. Senior running back Nick Mainiero rushed for 124 yards on 24 carries for Nutley.

The Bengals will host North Bergen on Sept. 22 at 7 p.m.

Nutley will visit Pascack Valley on Sept. 23 at 1 p.m.

Photos: BHS vs. Nutley