Cranford Makes Football History

Cranford didn’t just play a football game on Saturday morning – the Cougars made history.

Junior quarterback Reggie Green rushed for 124 yards and scored twice including a 41-yard TD run which set the tone for the day in Cranford’s 27-0 triumph over Parsippany Hills in a North 2, Group III state tournament championship contest on the Kean University turf.

J.P. Christiano and Adham McGuire added rushing touchdowns for the 10-1 team and the Cougars defense excelled by making three interceptions and recovering a fumble in its shutout effort. It is Cranford’s first NJSIAA football title.

The win dropped Parsippany Hills to 8-4 and denied the Morris County school a chance to win its first state title.

“It’s a tremendous feeling,’’ Cranford Coach Erik Rosenmeier said. “I can’t imagine it feeling any better than it does now. The kids worked hard all year. I told them that I believed in them from the beginning. They believed in themselves and I’m glad that things worked out the way they did.

“I told them on Aug. 15. I brought them inside and told them that I thought they could be champions on that day. We talked about pre-destination and the fact that I thought they were pre-destined to be here. It came true.’’

The contest had the feel of a Cranford home game. The stands were packed with raucous fans and the Cougars nickname - seen on the Kean University signs - might as well have stood for nearby Cranford, too.

“We’re not that far from Cranford,’’ senior lineman Kurt Rutmayer said. “It was great to see all the fans come out rooting for us. We just rewrote history. It’s a great feeling.’’

The Cougars players believed that they were all part of something historic - an event that might forever change the future of Cranford football.

“A win like this draws a lot of kids to the youth program,’’ Christiano said. “There’s going to be a lot more kids. Coach showed us last night when Cranford won the state title in 57. The next year they had 85 kids come out for the team. It’s just that much better when you have so many more kids to play.’’

The success starts with Green, the 6-foot-3 junior quarterback who helped Cranford score a pair of touchdowns to give them a 13-0 advantage just five minutes into the contest. Green finished a 3-play, 50-yard opening drive with a 41-yard TD burst with 10:54 left in the opening quarter to make it a 6-0 game.

“Reggie is phenomenal,’’ Rutmayer said. “I don’t know how he does it. I didn’t even know he was going to start before the season. He’s athletic. He’s fast. He makes good reads. He’s one of the best quarterbacks in the state.’’

On Parsippany Hills’ opening drive, Green got the ball right back by intercepting Simms first pass of the day and returning it to the Vikings’ 41 yard-line. The very next play a halfback option from Chris Witwick to Eric Garguilo netted 39 yards. Christiano then plunged in from the 2-yard line and Troy Kettler kicked an extra point to make it 13-0 with 10:11 left in the opening quarter.

“Reggie Green is a heck of an athlete,’’ Rosenmeier said. “We knew that when we started. He didn’t play quarterback until this year. He’s gotten better every week. There’s a lot of pressure on a quarterback because he has to read not only on the pass plays but on the run plays. He gives us an opportunity to score from anywhere. To start us off the way that he did was a great job.’’

Cranford built a 20-0 lead at halftime when it mounted a second-quarter, 8-play, 59-yard drive. McGuire took the ball in on a pitch and scored from 16 yards out with 9:52 left in the period.

It was more than enough for the Cranford defense which frustrated Parsippany Hills’ junior quarterback Tyler Simms all morning. Simms connected on 12 of 31 passes for 135 yards. Some of his passes were tipped at the line of scrimmage or hurried by Cranford’s defensive line pressure.

“I thought the key to the game was the work of our front four,’’ Rosenmeier said. “That was the key to the defensive side without necessarily having to blitz. Teams that run that type of offense, they are waiting for you to blitz and they can tear you up. I thought we were able to get pressure and when we couldn’t get pressure we got our hands up.’’

“The linemen did a great job getting pressure,’’ Green added. “Once they threw it up we got three picks on them. They run a lot of routes and they pass the ball well. We tried to cover everything and we did it the whole game.’’

Even with a solid halftime lead the Cougars were determined not to let the Vikings experience even a little success. Parsippany Hills is a team with a reputation for comebacks.

“We know they are a great team,’’ Christiano said. “They were not going to go away. We know they played West Morris. They were down 21-0 and they came back to win it, (25-21 in first round state play) so we knew that they were going to come back. We just had to fight through it and come back every single play and not give up.’’

Parsippany Hills did move the ball in the second half and several times got inside the Cranford 20, but those drives stalled usually because of a tipped pass or incompletion on fourth down.

The Cougars completed the game scoring in the fourth quarter with a time-consuming, nine-play 85-yard drive highlighted by a 41-yard run from Christiano. Green plunged in from the 2-yard line with 7:29 left in the game to make it 27-0. The Cougars were in control and intent on celebrating their first title in a long time.

“It wasn’t hard to get them going,’’ Rosenmeier said. “They surely wanted to play in this. They’ve been playing in a game like this since they were little kids. It wasn’t hard. The key was our senior class has a tremendous amount of character and maturity. Those guys, it’s like talking to a bunch of older kids. They did a great job of leading this team. That’s one of the main reasons we are where we are.’’

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