Jackson Memorial looks every bit a champion in playoff win over Nottingham

By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com

Nov. 12: Jon “Big Dawg” Adams would have liked to have seen his Nottingham High football team put up a little better fight against Jackson Memorial on Saturday, but the loss can’t take away from what his group of seniors meant to the Northstars this year.

“They put the program back on its feet,” Adams said. “We really struggled last year, and they set the tone in the off-season. They assumed the leadership role. Darry Felix, Glenn Dobron, Dylan Adams, Kadier Nelson. So many of them. They took it in the weight room.

“I’m gonna miss them, I love them all. It’s a shame we went out like this and we didn’t play better.”

It was a rough day for the 3rd-seeded Northstars, who had about five minutes of highlights in a 39-6 loss to 6th-seeded Jackson Memorial in an NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III quarterfinal game.

The Jaguars (6-4) move on to play at 2nd-seeded Allentown in their quest for a third straight sectional title, while the Northstars finish 7-3 after going just 2-8 in 2015.

“It was huge for us seniors to come together and shape this program into what it used to be,” said Dobron, who had the Northstars touchdown. “I feel like next year’s team will follow us and excel even further. We feel they’ll have a huge chance to do what we did and go even further.”

For 2016, however, it was the end of the line after one playoff round. Jackson roared to a 20-0 lead as Mike Gawlik scored on touchdown runs of 29 and 7 yards and quarterback Dan Barker tallied on an 18-yard run.

The Northstars offense had done nothing to that point, but with 6:28 remaining Deonte West marched the Northstars 69 yards in 11 plays, capped by his 10-yard TD toss to Dobron. West was 3-for-3 for 33 yards on the drive.

Taking over with just a minute left, Jackson looked ready to deflate Nottingham when Gawlik took off down the sideline on what would be a 50-yard gain. A great hustle play by Eric Mitchell pushed Gawlik out at the 15 with 12 seconds left and the Stars held on to keep it at 20-6.

Nottingham received the ball to start the second half and talked in the lockerroom of scoring on its first possession, shutting down Jackson and maintaining the momentum. It didn’t happen, however, as the Stars went three-and-out on their first two series while Jackson scored two more touchdowns to make it 32-6.

“If we got one more score as soon as we came out, things would have changed right around,” Dobron said. “That’s where it all went downhill. We were at the top right there. Even though they were up by so many scores, they didn’t have the momentum because we just shut them out to end the half.”

Adams agreed, saying that, “If we could have scored on the first drive of the second half or at least held them and then got a score, yeah, we had a shot. But we didn’t. That was the ballgame. That’s when things went south on us.

“We just didn’t do enough. It was more what they did and what we didn’t. A lot of that had to do with the fact they’re a very good football team.”

Gawlik, the school’s all-time leader in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns, ran for 206 yards and three TDs to give him over 1,800 yards this season. Barker threw for 164 yards and a TD and ran for 42 yards and a touchdown.

The defense held Nottingham to just 69 yards of total offense.

“We didn’t play well, we didn’t help ourselves at times,” Adams said. “That’s why we’re going home. It’s a shame; this was a good group of kids. It’s disappointing that we didn’t play better. We thought we would play better but we didn’t. We made too many mistakes, that’s the bottom line.”

With numerous skill players and nearly the entire offensive line returning, the future is bright for Nottingham. Here in the present, Adams was as upset with Jackson throwing a 58-yard touchdown pass with a 26-point lead in the middle of the fourth quarter, as he was with the loss itself.

“ We’ll be back, and we will not forget,” Adams said. “I promise you, I will not forget. . .WILL not forget. . .that pass.”

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.