By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com

Nov. 6: Ewing’s Edamiyon Doggett and Allentown’s Jordan Winston are the first two names brought up when it comes to the Mercer County Player of the Year in football, but Nottingham coach Jon Adams is tossing his own name into the race.

“In my opinion, with all due respect to the other two guys that are up for that, Reidgee’s the player of the year,” Adams said, referring to Hamilton’s Reidgee Dimanche. “He showed it again today. He’s unbelievable.”

Dimanche was his typical self in Saturday’s 23-21 Northstars win over the Hornets. He caught four passes for 93 yards, including an electrifying 57-yard touchdown pass.

“God please,” Adams said. “He caught a little dig route, he broke three tackles and he was gone. I know the kid from track, I’ve seen him do the triple jump and he’s so explosive. And he could put his foot down and just explode.”

Defensively, Dimanche was leveling people head on or tracking them down from behind when he appeared to be out of a play. He also blocked a punt that led to a Hamilton safety.

“On defense he’s a monster, he can hit like a machine,” Adams said. “We were watching where he was lined up so we could run away from him, and he’s still walking it down from the back side! He’s just that good.”

Stars home for playoffs, Hornets on the road

According to the final power points posted on gridironnewjersey.com, Hamilton slipped into fifth in South Jersey Group III, meaning the Hornets will have to travel to Lakewood for a first-round game.

Nottingham, Brick Township and Allentown were all listed with 115 power points in Central Jersey Group IV. Adams said the Northstars finished third in that trio on tie-breakers, meaning Nottingham will host defending champion Jackson Saturday.

“We’ve gotta get our game up,” Adams said. “Number eight (Mike Gawlik) is in that offense and he’s one of the best backs in the state (with over 1,600 yards this year). I don’t know too many kids who’ve run for 6,000 yards in the state. And they’re very gritty on defense. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

Championship Saturday

Nottingham claimed one championship and a share of another with the victory. The Northstars tied Ewing for the West Jersey Football League Valley Division title, and won the Joe Logue Trophy for Hamilton Township supremacy.

The win lifted Nottingham to 6-2 as it has won three straight entering the playoffs.

“To me, this is our best win of the year so far, it was like revenge for last year,” said West, referring to a 7-6 loss. “We came here and didn’t get the job done last year. We wanted to come here and leave with our trophy.”

“That means a lot,” linebacker Kier Jenkins said. “The trophy’s now home and we’re just feeling good.”

Dobron unsung hero

Jon Jacobs has been handling the punting for Nottingham this year, but with a slight leg injury, the coaches felt he should just play linebacker and running back.

They turned to tight end Glenn Dobron, who was given a game ball after hitting four punts for a 39.0 average. Each one had great hang time allowing the Stars to get down and cover.

“His efforts were very good,” West said. “If he didn’t have those punts, we probably would have lost the game.”

Reclamation for West

A year ago, as a sophomore, Deonte West was given his first varsity start at quarterback at Hamilton and had a rough game in a 7-6 loss.

As a junior, West wanted to turn things around.

“At the beginning of the game I thought to myself ‘I can’t have a game like last year,’” he said. “I didn’t get the job done.”

With two long TD passes to offset no running game, he got it done this time.

Front seven dominance

Along with Dimanche, Hamilton’s defensive line had another outstanding game, which is par for the course this season.

But Adams felt it was more than that.

“Nobody stopped us from running all year until today,” he said. “It wasn’t just three (Dimanche), it was that whole linebacking corps had a great game. Their defensive coordinator Gerry (Van Slooten) did a great job putting his players in position and gave us fits. They put their players in great position to stop our run, and they pretty much did. We were able to get some big plays in the passing game, which was obviously the difference.”