Jon Jacobs takes off against Steinert. Jacobs had over 200 yards Rushing. Photo by Michael A. Sabo
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
Oct. 29: Each team had to replace a talented skill player.
But when Nottingham plugged in Jon Jacobs for Dionte Nicholson (ankle) at running back, it didn’t lose anything. When Steinert had to move Jordan Morrison from tailback to quarterback for Kyle Gankiewicz (concussion), the Spartans were left without a talented piece of the puzzle at running back.
Thus, the Northstars took a 28-14 Senior Day victory over the Spartans to improve to 6-2 and lock up a first-round Central Jersey Group IV playoff game.
Jacobs didn’t just fill in. He filled up the stat sheet.
Coming off a 100-plus-yard rushing game against Lawrence, Jacobs went for 218 on 31 carries as Nottingham’s offensive line continued to be dominant. Morrison rushed for 129 yards but had to do pretty much everything as the Spartans weren’t as multi-dimensional as usual.
It’s a different game if number eight (Gankiewicz) is in there because now you can put Jordan in a lot of different areas and Jordan can hurt you, but I thought he still played very, very well today,” Nottingham coach Jon “Big Dawg” Adams said. “Number 15 (Tim Brown) is a good ballplayer too. He had some nice plays.”
Brown rushed for 43 yards on nine carries, but none of that was enough to slow down Nottingham, which finally got to play with the lead after having to come back in most of their wins this season.
Asked if the Northstars talked about getting the lead for a change, offensive lineman Bryce Fremgen said, “All the time. Our common goal is to come out strong for once and put some points on the board.”
Nottingham did exactly that on its first series, churning out a 16-play, 57-yard drive that was capped by a fourth-down, 1-yard touchdown run by Jacobs. Every play was on the ground and the clock only stopped on first downs to move the chains.
“We found a lot of holes, we had some great blocks up front,” Fremgen said. “Our fullback (Malachi Smith) had some great blocks going through, and Jon Jacobs was just running through holes, running over people.”
Fremgen feels Jacobs and Nicholson are similar runners to block for, as both combine strength and quickness.
“Dionte (sprained ankle) didn’t really practice all week so we were kind of getting used to Jon and the rest of our backs,” Fremgen said. “We have a good rotation of runners.”
And the runners have a good line blocking for them. Adams continued to call Fremgen and All-State caliber lineman and also praised senior tight ends Glenn Dobron and Dylan Adams, along with the rest of a line that features Paschal Mady, Joe Csillan, Sylvester Freeman, Alex Luongo and Frank Hall. Csillan and Hall are the lone seniors of the group.
“Four of us played together last year and we played together freshman year,” Fremgen noted. “We know how to get in each other’s heads and motivate each other. We’ve been brothers since our freshman year.”
Adams praised offensive coordinator/line coach Ross Maddalon and Ryan McDermott for their work with the line. Even defensive back Darry Felix notices how good they are from the sidelines.
“That offensive line, they shocked me,” Felix said. “They do a great job and they work very hard in practice, it really helps us out.”
Felix just missed getting his seventh interception on several occasions, but made one of the game’s biggest defensive plays. After Nottingham’s first touchdown, Steinert came back immediately and drove from its 21 to the Northstars 4. But a fumble was recovered by Felix the ball hawk and the Spartans would never again be in position to take the lead.
“Darry’s been coming up with some key turnovers,” Adams said. “I was real proud. Our defense hung in there, defending a great player like Jordan is not an easy thing to do.”
The score remained 6-0 at halftime but both offenses seemed revitalized after intermission. Nottingham got a 40-yard touchdown pass from Deonte West to Jeffrey Davis, and a conversion run by West to make it 14-0 after their first possession. Steinert came right back and, after having a touchdown run called back on a holding call, still scored on Morrison’s 1-yard run.
The TD catch was a beauty as Nottingham had established the run and struck with a pass that was fairly well defended. But Davis bobbled the ball, tipped it up in the air and came down with it in the endzone.
“Deonte is a work in progress,” Adams said. “He threw a great ball. He made a nice play where he slid to his right, reloaded, looked downfield, saw Jeff and threw it up. Jeff went up and made a great play, stayed with the catch. That was another key play.”
One of the biggest plays came after Morrison’s TD made it 14-7. On Nottingham’s ensuing possession, Jacobs got to the outside and went 80-yards down the right sideline to regain a 14-point cushion for Nottingham.
“That kind of took the pressure off our shoulders in a close game; kind of popped it open, gave us some breathing room,” Adams said. “ Our defense responded, we got another score, went up three scores and we were playing the clock game at the end.”
West tallied on a 6-yard quarterback keeper with 7:25 left to play, and Steinert got a late touchdown from Morrison, who did what he could.
“We had heard (Gankiewicz) had a concussion, but people talk all the time,” Felix said. “We just got ready for him and got ready for Jordan. We were prepared, regardless. Jordan is good on his feet and with his arm, he can go put the jets on us.”
It was Jacobs who showed some jets on his long TD run.
“Jon Jacobs doesn’t surprise me,” Adams said. “Jon’s in tremendous shape, he’s a wrestler, one of the Swamprats. He works real hard in the weight room. I told him in the off-season there was a good chance he would be our featured back but the freshman (Nicholson) started rolling. Now he’s banged up, we kept him out and Jon answered the bell.”
“It’s admirable what he did,” Steinert coach Dan Caruso said. “The kid’s a good player. With Nicholson being hurt and the way they kind of rallied, it shows they’re a good team. Jon always has his teams ready to go.”
