Hamilton tops WW-PS as Hoglen wins 100th and Charles ties interception record

Tom Hoglen 100th win at Hamilton West

By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com

Sep. 22: Cire Peters had no idea what all the excitement was about.

He knew he was happy that Hamilton West’s football team had just taken a 30-7 victory at West Windsor-Plainsboro South Friday night, but he had no idea why coach Tom Hoglen was getting an ice water bath. And then he heard the news, that it was Hoglen’s 100th career victory as Hamilton coach.

“I just found out right when they started pouring the water that it was hit 100th win,” said Peters, who rushed for a game-high 114 yards and a touchdown. “I really don’t know who knew about it and who didn’t. They just said it’s his 100th win, I said ‘Oh, OK.’”

And once he knew, Peters got a little extra burst of happiness.

“It feels so good knowing it’s his hundredth,” Peters said. “Any win, period, makes it feel good. But since this was his 100th, it makes it a little more special.”

Hoglen took the milestone in stride, saying, “What it means is that I have coached a lot of great kids and have dedicated coaches.”

What it also meant, is that Hamilton was able to rid itself of the taste of last week’s blowout loss to Notre Dame, which left the Hornets in somewhat of a foul mood.

“Unbelievably angry,” Peters said of the emotions after ND. “I can’t even explain it. Words can’t even explain it.”

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Hamilton got a pretty nice team effort in the win, which came without running back/linebacker Ryan Hogan. One of the team’s top two-way players, Hogan could miss up to a month due to a health issue.

The Hornets had 12 different players rush the ball en route to 293 yards. Hezekiah Patterson completed five passes to three different receivers for 51 yards, while four different players combined for six sacks.

“We had a game plan to run the whole game and pass every now and then, which we did,” Peters said. “We wanted to come in here, dominate, win this game. Now it’s time to go home, rest up.”

Freshman Kevin Boswell ran for 68 yards while Francis Saydee had 23 on just four carries. Barry Ndeh had an outstanding night with 38 rushing yards, three catches for 39 yards and a touchdown, two sacks and two interceptions.

Rahmel Turner had two sacks, while Jeremie Zaire and John Piotroski had one each.

Ndeh put Hamilton in front on the Hornets first possession when he caught an 8-yard TD pass from Patterson. Peters’ 50-yard TD run made it 13-0 after one quarter.

Domonic Cooper’s 16-yard field goal and Tolu Adeaga’s 10-yard TD run made it 23-0 at halftime, and Chris Charles caught an 8-yard pass from Patterson to make it 30-0 after three. WWPS got a late 52-yard run that set up a touchdown in the final 15 seconds with the reserves in.

Charles not only found the end zone, he found a spot in the record book in the third quarter when he recorded his 11th career interception. The pick tied him with Chris Laezza for the school record.

“It’s unbelievable what he means to us,” Peters said. “He works hard, plays hard, plays with a bunch of energy. He loves the game. Best player ever. His energy motivates the whole team.”

The Hornets didn’t need much motivation after last week, as they knew how important it was to get back on the winning track to keep their playoff hopes intact.

“It was so important,” Peters said. “After last week, we got down on ourselves, but we had a good week of practice and we handled business.”

And handed their coach a milestone.

About The Author


Rich Fisher has been around the Hamilton Township sports scene for so long that he actually got Rich Giallella’s autograph when Giallella was still a player! Proud product of Hamilton YMCA and Lou Gehrig baseball leagues and former teammate of Jim Maher on a very average Barton & Cooney rec basketball team, Fish graduated from Nottingham Junior High and Steinert High school and has covered township sports since 1980. His goal in life is to convince Maria Prato that Jersey tomatoes are at least 100 times better than California tomatoes.