Remembering the 1974 Bloomfield HS football team’s magnificent season

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — In 1974, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association implemented state championship football games. The association selected the teams for the title games.

That year, Bloomfield High School was one of the teams that played for a state sectional championship.

Fifty years later, a few members of that Bengals team reflected on their season journey in recent interviews with The Independent Press.

The Bengals, under legendary head coach Sam Cavallaro, traveled down to Atlantic City to play Morristown in the NJSIAA’s North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 state championship. 

The game was played indoors at the Atlantic City Convention Hall. There were eight championship games played there over three days – one game on Friday, Dec. 6; four games on Saturday, Dec. 7; and three games on Sunday, Dec. 8. The Bloomfield vs. Morristown game was the second Saturday game. The games drew thousands of fans.

Pat Bottone, who was an assistant coach and the sophomore head coach for the BHS program, recalled that the team was shocked that it was chosen to play in the title game. “It was supposed to be Westfield vs. Morristown, but Bloomfield was chosen based on strength of schedule,” Bottone said.

Bottone remembered sod was placed on the Terrazzo floor to create a football field. The sod would rot and smell, and the field had to be re-sodded after each play, he recalled.

Bloomfield scored the first TD of the game, but Morristown took control and won, 30-10. Morristown was led by quarterback Rick Sofield, who was also a standout baseball player drafted out of high school in the first round by the Minnesota Twins.

With first-year starting quarterback Chris Gemgnani running the offense, the Bengals beat Seton Hall Prep and Belleville to start the season, before losing to West Essex in the third game. They later beat two strong teams in Phillipsburg and Montclair, both on the road, with the latter coming on Thanksgiving Day.

In the previous year, Bloomfield was declared the state champion by the Star-Ledger, running the famed wishbone offense, which was used by such powerhouse college teams as Oklahoma and Texas. George Middleton, one of the Bengals assistant coaches who also was a BHS head wrestling and head softball coach and later became a longtime BHS athletic director, helped implement the wishbone in the 1972 season.

The Bengals’ experience in the 1974 title game was thrilling, Bottone said. “It was exciting,” he said. “The Fifth Quarter Club provided lunch for us on the way down. We were able to stop at a place on the way back for dinner after the game. Even though we lost, it was an exciting experience for everybody, not just for the kids, but for the coaches, too. We had a large crowd, because people paid for one admission for all the games. It was really exciting.”

A 1966 BHS graduate, Bottone taught health and physical education at BHS for more than 40 years, retiring in 2011. He later became an assistant coach at New Providence where he helped the school win the 2010 sectional title at MetLife Stadium.

Middleton remembered the 21-0 season-opening win over Seton Hall Prep. Usually, the Bloomfield–SHP games were close. He also recalled when Bloomfield brought 15 fan buses to Phillipsburg for a night game.

The senior captains for the 1974 Bengals were defensive end/tight end T.K. Tripucka, running back/DE Joe Mastriani and linebacker/offensive lineman Ron Rowe.

The 34-7 win over Montclair on Thanksgiving also was memorable, Tripucka said. When Bloomfield got to the field, the team noticed that the field was wet, even though it didn’t rain, he said. The Bengals, Tripucka said, felt Montclair wanted to slow down their wishbone offense by watering the field, but it didn’t work, as the Bengals coasted to the win.

Tripuka’s father, the late Frank Tripuka, was considered one of the greatest high school football players ever in the state, quarterbacking the 1944 Bengals to the state’s No. 1 final ranking. He continued his career at Notre Dame and played in the NFL, AFL and CFL. T.K.’s brother, Kelly Tripucka, a 1977 BHS graduate, is considered one of the greatest high school basketball players in state history, playing at Notre Dame and in the NBA, most notably for the Detroit Pistons.

T.K. remembered that the 1973 BHS team had few juniors. On Thanksgiving in 1973, they played Montclair in front of 16,000 fans at Foley Field. Montclair was the No. 1 team in the state after beating Bricktown and Westfield, two of the top teams in the state. Bloomfield, which was also highly-ranked, beat Montclair that day.

Going into the 1974 season, T.K. recalled the Bengals didn’t have much returning experience.

“We had no expectations going into that ’74 season,” T.K. said. “We had a new quarterback, new running back, new everything. We really overachieved. We opened the season by beating Seton Hall, 21-0. Those games (against Seton Hall Prep) were always close. We beat them easily. They ended up going undefeated the rest of the year and won Parochial A. We beat them (and) we beat Belleville, 21-0. So here we are, playing two great games, and we went up to West Essex, the third game of the year, and our running back, Wayne Wallace, got hurt walking off the field (before the game). Their locker room was inside the school building and he slipped on the Terrazzo floor with the medal cleats. We went out for warm-ups, and then came back to the school for a pre-game talk and he slipped and fell backwards and hurt his knee and he couldn’t play. He was our star running back, so that really killed us. We had no back-up role. We ended up losing, 12-0. We just couldn’t score. And they ended up winning Group 3, Section 2, so they were state champs that year. They also played Morristown that year and Morristown hung up like 50 points on them.”

The Bengals were tough to beat because of their speed.

“We had a lot of speed,” T.K. said. “Wallace and (running back Joe) Testa were really fast. We were the only team running the wishbone, so a lot of teams really didn’t know how to defend it.”

Cavallaro also was a great coach, with his no-nonsense style.

“He was one of those old-fashioned, 1940s, 1950s coaches,” T.K. said.

The assistant coaches recognized the team’s speed. That’s why Middleton and assistant coach Bruce Lackey instituted the wishbone.

 “It was interesting because George Middleton and our other assistant, Bruce Lackey, were the ones with the idea of running the wishbone in my sophomore year, because that’s when Oklahoma was running it, Texas was running it, Alabama was running it,” T.K. said. “And they got the idea of, ‘Hey, we can run this. We got the right personnel.’ The first year, we had a lot of injuries and ended up around .500. And then the next year, we really got good at it and we went undefeated. Then we came into my senior year, and we replaced everybody, but we still had a couple of really fast guys.”

The 1974 Thanksgiving Day win over Montclair was certainly memorable.

“That’s the biggest win we had over Montclair in like 50 years,” T.K. said. “I think they have only beaten them like twice up there since my senior year.”

The Bloomfield players thought their season was over. But much to their pleasant surprise, they got phone calls from their coaches who told them they would be playing in the state sectional final.

“The coaches were calling us on Sunday night. We were ready to turn in the equipment on Monday,” T.K. said with a laugh. “Now, it’s like 20 degrees out. We were practicing all week and we had to go down and play indoors at the convention center. We walk in (at the convention center) and it’s like 80 degrees in there.”

The roots of those great BHS teams started on the middle school level. In middle school, there were football, basketball and baseball teams. The players formed a strong bond that carried into high school. T.K. said the middle-school coaching was better than at the Pop Warner level in football.

T.K., like his brother, Kelly, was a star basketball player. After graduating BHS, T.K. played basketball at Fordham University on the Division I level.

Rowe also shared his memories of the 1974 team.

“The start of the 1974 Bloomfield High School football season was unique in that for the first time in decades, BHS Football was following an undefeated state championship season of 1973. A placard ‘Bloomfield Bengals State Champions 1973’ is hung on the back wall of Holsten’s Ice Cream Parlor in the iconic final scene of ‘The Soprano’s’. The 1974 team had only one returning starter on each side of the ball. But many of the 1974 players had made significant contributions to the prior year championship season.

“The challenge before the team would be ‘will the football dominance of the 1970s continue?’ The Bengals were off to a fast offensive and defensive start with twin 21-0 scores against Seton Hall and Belleville. Including the prior year, the Bengals now had a 10-game winning streak. Next game, against West Essex, the Bengal defense would not be perfect, as it was vulnerable to a deep sideline pass, which West Essex played twice and won 12-0, as the Bengal offense sputtered.  After a spirited week of head coach Sam Cavallaro motivational practices, consisting largely of full contact drills running into each other for four straight practices, the Bengals were back to their winning ways, routing Union, 34-8, and Kearny, 28-6, before traveling to state powerhouse Phillipsburg to play under the Friday night lights, winning 26-15.  The following week, it was back to play before the friendly confines of the concrete stadium at Foley Field.  The Bengal scored a season-high 48 points against Irvington in a 48-14 victory before a defense dominated 14-7 win over Nutley.”

Rowe also remembered the rivalry with Montclair.

“The ultimate game of any Bloomfield High School football season is the annual Thanksgiving rivalry game with Montclair,” he said. “Before 1969, Montclair owned a 24-year winning streak, however, the 1970s would become the decade of Bloomfield dominance. Montclair was looking for revenge from their defeat in the 1973 classic Thanksgiving game at Foley Field. The Bengals traveled to Montclair’s Woodman Field. The team remembered the banner predominately displayed beside the visiting team entrance to the field house, which read ‘Flush the Bengals’. The Bengals began a rallying cry that this game would be a ‘whole season in one game.’ It didn’t matter what was achieved thus far or our season record, if we didn’t win this Thanksgiving game. The Bengal offense got off to a great start on a 51-yard quarterback counter run by Chris Gemgnani through the middle of the Mountie defense.  In the prior year, Montclair had aggressively overplayed the outside traditional wishbone offense. 

“This run in the center of their defense opened up the wishbone triple option the rest of the game. The Bengals’ offense ran roughshod to accumulating five touchdowns, while allowing a late-in-the-game touchdown, to secure a late-in-the-game 34-7 score.

“The offensive line was led by tri-captains Joseph Mastriani, myself, T.K. Tripucka; seniors Kurt Barrow, Domenic Aquino and juniors Robert Motta, Alfred Reagan, Edward Kellenbenz, Dargie D’Argenio, Drew Tognola and Peter Ponzio. Though primarily undersized, this group was well coached by line coach Bruce Lackey, who scientifically taught fundamentals of footwork, leverage, center of gravity, speed and balance.

“The defense was superb, with many team members playing both ways. There were defensive specialists that included senior defensive backs Gerard Trapp, Buck Braunskill, Daniel Kerrigan, defensive end John Montross, junior middle guards Carl Albano, Michael Fuma Freddo, defensive ends John Gilbert, Nick Lukarella, linebacker Dominic Cantalupo, defensive line Michael Romanski, Mark Hill defensive backs Damian Tuorto, Albert Patti and Daniel Busichio.

“Special mention should be made of Dominic Aquino, Billy Bender and Ken Rowe. Dominic Aquino aspired to be a Bloomfield Bengal football player. Never daunted, as an undersized player, he gave his all in the practices, finally achieving his goal as the starting offensive center position by mid-season of his senior year. So enthused, he wrote to the Houston Oilers about his achievement and stating his desire to continue playing and becoming a Houston Oiler, thus earning the nickname by the team as the ‘Houston Flash’.  Billy Bender did not have much game-playing time, but he practiced and prepared just as hard as the team’s starters. He was dedicated and proud to be a member of the glory years of the 1973 and 1974 football teams. Ken Rowe was a three-year football letterman and never played a down.  His poor vision, the result of a childhood brain tumor, took away any chance of his playing football. He served as a team manager for all three of his high school years, allowing him to be a part of the BHS football tradition.          

“This team was motivated by the community spirit, the reputation and identity that Bloomfield is a football town with a rich tradition,” Ron Rowe continued. “This was not to be considered as above any other BHS sport or activity. However, to be a member of the Bloomfield High School Football team was considered a special honor to join in the tradition of the previous year’s team and the ranks of former players. This 1974 team proudly was undefeated at Foley Field in its five home games, shut out two opponents, outscored the opposition by 132-29. The seniors were undefeated at Foley Field during their junior and senior years. To this 1974 team, Foley Field was considered hallowed ground and a sacred gridiron.”

Photos Courtesy of Bloomfield High School athletic director Steve Jenkins

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