Offense wins games, Defense wins championships. The Madison Rec Varsity Dodgers found they could work both parts of that expression into their game plan Saturday night against the visiting Hackettstown Tigers at the MRC. The Dodgers, coming off a hard hitting loss last week, were anxious to show they weren’t about to make the same mistakes twice.
Madison’s offense showed significant improvement with more yards rushing by Jayson Candelario and Anthony Contessa and in the air by QB Ryan O’Rourke. But it was the super stinginess of the Dodger defense that frustrated the Tigers all night, with front line stops by Aniello Vacchiano, Skyler Pastro, Justin Slabaugh, and Sean Mariani. Scotty Spelker, Dante Izzo, and Cade LaFerriere had total control of the secondary , which kept the Tigers on their side of the field throughout most of the game. O’Rourke launched a missle to Contessa for a 33 yard TD in the second quarter and it was 7-0 at the half thanks to Brayton Boyers’ point after.
The second half again was all about the Madison defense, allowing little advancement to Hackettstown and dominating the game. Timmy Andersen, Vinny Finelli, Ben Coalao, Joey DeMarzo and Will Baisch all contributed to a total group effort, keeping the ball in Madisons possession for a considerable part of the game. After a punt, Madison took over on their own 30, where O’Rourke handed off to Contessa who chugged 70 yards for his second TD, and Boyers’ point after made it a well played shut out for Madison at 14-0.
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The Dodgers take their 1-1 record on the road next week against Long Valley.
