Watchung Hills Youth Football Notches Several Weekend Wins

Gridiron action is up and running for Watchung Hills wee ones. Here is a look at how the little footballers did last weekend.

Junior Midget 

The Watchung Hills Junior Midgets defeated the Flemington Falcons 22-0 this past Sunday afternoon at Hunterdon Central High School. The Watchung Hills defense was tough letting up only one first down all game. The middle was controlled by Gary Gagliotti and Connor James while Matt Cardoza and Chris Clintock maintained the edge of the defense. Matt Roth made some excellent open field tackles from his inside linebacker position and outside linebacker Tommy Schelling was tough on the Falcons' run game.

On the other side of the ball, Chase Jones ran hard behind Jonathan Taub and Caleb Parker and had one touchdown. Schelling also ran well from his quarterback position and had a 15-yard run for the Wolverines' second score. Devon Bennet capped off the offensive scoring with a hard five-yard run into the end zone behind the blocking of Clintock and Ryan Pedroni. The defense put up two points when Parker sacked the Falcons' quarterback in the end zone for a safety.

The Junior Midget Wolverines take on South Plainfield on Sunday, Sept. 8 at their field. 

PeeWee

The Watchung Hills Pee Wees defeated the Flemington Falcons 20-0 Sunday at Hunterdon Central High School.  The Wolverine offense scored  touchdowns on the first two drives of the game going 65 yards on six plays capped off by a one-yard touchdown run by Matty Colantuono,  and followed that drive with 50 yards on seven plays finishing with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Colantuono to Patrick Stefurak. 

The Wolverine offense ended the day with Andrew Reale running a 45-yard touchdown behind great blocks from his offensive line, which includes Anthony Tomaro, Michael Fornaro, Adam Claxton, Charlie Everhar and Christian Rowan. The defense held the Falcon offense to zero first downs.  The defense  was led by linebackers Connor Cook, Owen Kovacs and Jack Taub.   The defensive line of Marc Daas, Michael Butrico, Isaiah parker Matty Drews and Colantuono made play after play keeping the Falcons off the score board.

The Wolverine PeeWees take on Del Val Dawgs on Sept. 8th at their field. 

Pop Warner-Junior Pee Wee 

The 2013 Watchung Hills Pop Warner Junior Pee Wee team began the season with a 19-6 victory Sunday in Clark. The Junior Pee Wee level is comprised of boys from ages 9-11 and 21 players make up this year's roster. The core of this team moved up from the Mitey Mite level last year, where they completed an undefeated 11-0 season. Prior to the game, the team was represented by game captains Scott Cunningham, Justin Ferreira, Justin Drews and Luke Malfetti.

Watchung received the ball to start the game and drove quickly down the field scoring a touchdown in seven plays. The starting offensive line of Justin Drews, Luke Malfetti, Jack Valenti, Mac McAteer, Shane Kelly and Tyler Piggot blocked aggressively and opened up running lanes left, right and up the middle. Luke Marion carried the ball for the touchdown that put the team on the board. The extra point attempt failed and Watchung Hills led 6-0. The Clark team turned the ball over on downs as they failed to move the ball at all on their first possession and the Wolverine offense was back on the field. Another quick scoring drive for Watchung was capped off with a 30-yard touchdown run for Justin Ferreira. The extra point failed again and the visitors took a 12-0 lead. That would end up being the halftime score as neither team saw the end zone the rest of the half. Nevertheless, some strong individual plays were featured during that time including a recovered on-sides kick by Luke Malfetti, a solo tackle by Shane Kelly, a recovered fumble by Justin Ferreira, a tackle for a loss by Jonathan deMontagnac and a nice open field tackle to end the half by Tyler Piggot. 

The only scoring in the third quarter was done by the home team from Clark. They closed the gap to 12-6 on a quarterback run from six yards out. During the quarter, however, a few Watchung Hills Wolverines made some nice defensive plays including Jack Reale's tackle, Justin Drews had another hard hit, and Jack Haiken had a tackle for a loss. The Wolverines put the game out of reach in the 4th quarter with a solid scoring drive. Jack Valenti had a strong run for a 1st down. Thomas Johnson had a key block that sprung Justin Drews for another good gain. The Watchung offense showed the discipline to "go on two" and draw an offside penalty against the Clark team which resulted in an easy first down run on the next play for Luke Malfetti. Drews finished the drive with a 20-yard touchdown run and Jack Valenti carried for the successful point-after conversion and the Watchung Hills Junior PeeWees took a commanding 19-6 lead that became the Wolverines' first win of the season.

The Watchung Hills Junior Pee Wee team will play again in two weeks on Sept.8 at South Plainfield.

Gold Mitey Mite 

The Gold Mitey Mite team started the season with an incredible 19-0 win at Clark.

Early in the first quarter, quarterback John DiMaggio handed off to Vincent Lee who ran 50 yards for the first touchdown.  Later in the half, Riley McCann ran for 40 yards and scored the second touchdown of the game.  Quentin Tao started off the second half with a big run to the 20, which led to the third touchdown by quarterback John DiMaggio.

The Wolverine defense held the Clark Patriots to fewer than 50 yards, with great efforts by linebackers Brett Christopher, Dylan Braunstein, Kenny McGoldrick and David Rosenfarb.  The defensive line, led by Joe Vecchio, Will Grabko, and Lorenzo Percario, prevented any run through the mid-field. 

Blue Mitey Mite

Playing shorthanded against a tough, physical Flemington team contributed to a bit of a rough start,  but the Mitey Mites quickly regained their composure and played great football for the remainder of the game.  With a solid defensive effort and two critical offensive plays, the team rallied and finished the game on a high note.

On the defense side, the team was carried by stellar play from Elhanan (Ellis) Wilson, Jake Checchio, Dylan Simon, Dylan Kelly and Luke Malin, who each made four or more tackles.  Nirio Garcia III also recovered a Falcons fumble late in the fourth quarter.  Offensively, Dylan Simon caught a pass from Jake Checchio and rambled downfield for an impressive 30-yard gain.  This set the Wolverines up for their only score, when Aqili Holmes ran 20 yards for a touchdown and capped the scoring with a run for the extra point.