Diontae Nicholson powered the Northstar Football running game with 4 touchdowns including this 90 yarder. Photo by Dan Danko III
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
Oct. 7: It was, for lack of a better term, a fun day for the football teams who call Klockner Road home.
Steinert and Nottingham both rolled to their fourth straight victories by defeating winless teams, as the Spartans took a 49-6 win at Princeton, while Nottingham defeated visiting West Windsor-Plainsboro South, 49-0.
Let’s start with the Northstars, only because their game started an hour earlier.
Nottingham (4-1) wasted little time taking control of the game as it opened a 35-0 lead with 8:50 to go in the half and led 42-0 at intermission.
Sophomore Diontae Nicholson experienced the long and short of it as he had four touchdown runs ranging from 1 yard to 90 yards. In between he had scoring jaunts of 6 and 25 yards. Nicholson had a vintage Diontae performance, rushing for 203 yards on a mere 9 carries.
Eric D’Herron scored on a 14-yard run and sophomore Louis Akpadago, who ran for a career-high 163 yards, added a TD prior to halftime. Joe Schiano completed the scoring in the second half with his first varsity touchdown. Alix Oge, who has been outstanding this year, was 7-for-7 on PATs.
Justin Duarte and Kier Jenkins had interceptions for a Northstar defense that held West Windsor to just 83 yards.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”18″ gal_title=”Nottingham vs WWPS October 7,2017. Photos by Dan Dank III”]
Next up for the Northstars is a home game with Notre Dame (2-3) in a contest that will feature two of Mercer County’s best young running backs in Nicholson and the Irish’s Cortaz Williams.
Steinert has a pretty good back as well, by the name of Jordan Morrison.
The UConn-bound senior probably knew he was not going to play much today as it was a chance for Dan Caruso to get his reserves some time, so Jordan took advantage of what he could by bringing the opening kickoff back 86 yards to give Steinert a 7-0 lead. Morrison scored later on a 37-yard run.
Xavier Thompson was the game’s offensive star, rushing for 108 yards and two touchdowns, while Spencer Conti ran for 46 yards and a TD.
But the game’s most exciting player had to be defensive back Miles Smith, who scored two consecutive TDs on interception returns to give the Spartans a 28-0 lead. Smith took his first back 47 yards, and ran the second one back 41 yards.
Another bright spot for the Spartans was place-kicker Angelo Falvo, who was 6-for-6 on PATs after struggling in that area prior to Steinert’s bye week.
The Spartans (4-1) host Hopewell Valley next week. Steinert is the lone Group III opponent for the Group III Bulldogs this year, as HoVal plays four Group IV and four Group V teams.
Rick “The Voice” Taylor and Nicole “The Expectant One” Caruso contributed to this story
Hamilton falls to a Hightstown team better than its record
Hamilton visited one-win Hightstown on Friday night and discovered the Rams were better than a one-win team.
Playing without quarterback Liam Monahan, Hightstown provided a steady dose of Johnny Andre and Michael Quigg to take a 32-15 win over the Hornets (3-2).
Both players ran for two touchdowns and Quigg threw a TD pass to offset some nice efforts by the Hornets. Hezekiah Patterson threw for 109 yards and 2 touchdowns while Chris Charles caught 3 passes for 90 yards and 2 TDs. Tolu Adeaga rushed for 106 yards on just four carries.
Trailing 14-6, West took a 15-14 lead on Charles 39-yard TD catch and Rosman Reyes 26-year field goal. Andre scored on a 2-yard run at the end of the half to start Hightstown on a binge of 18 unanswered points and the Hornets did not score after intermission.
Hamilton is on the road again next week at Northern Burlington.
