Roxbury celebrates their second State Championship in school history.

By Will Harrigan

The night is September 7, 2007. Roxbury is about to open up its season on the road at East Orange on a sweltering hot night. Seven sophomores and a freshman are walking through the tunnel about to play their first varsity game. Before it seemed like you could blink, Jaguars QB Quadir Pendleton had hooked up with Nadir Brown three times (including once from 99 yards away) and it was 35-0 East Orange at the half. The Jags won handily, 35-7.

Roxbury would be on its way to its worst season in five years finishing 4-6, and the program was in shambles. Fast forward to December 5, 2009. Those sophomores are now seniors playing in their final game. That freshman I just mentioned is a junior All-State lineman. Two years, two months, and 29 days later, the program has come full circle. Its only fitting that the Gaels defeated those same Jaguars 14-6 at Giants Stadium to cap an incredible State Championship year.

You knew Roxbury's defense would come ready to play right from the start. Linebackers Shaun O'Donnell, Nick Kaijala and Rob Wallace were dominating E.O.'s running game all day. Wallace sacked Jags QB Justin Laroda twice, O'Donnell made key tackles all over the place and Kaijala may have played the best game of his career. The junior backer has an incredible nose for the football, and was making open field tackles on Tamir Turpin seemingly every other play. Roxbury was able to get on the board when Chris Biank punched in a run from 3 yards  ...Read More

The game that was supposed to happen is now going to happen. Until West Orange was disqualified from the North I, Group IV playoffs, Roxbury was supposed to meet then 5-4 East Orange in the opening round. Now, they will meet on the big stage in the State Finals. Chris Biank ran for three touchdowns and caught another en route to Roxbury's 42-7 trouncing of overwhelmed Fair Lawn Friday night in Roxbury. The Gaels have reached only their 5th State Final in school history and look to be the second team to win it all in two weeks.
The first quarter saw another fast start for Roxbury. Fair Lawn almost instantly went three and out giving the Gaels the ball. Biank and Kevin Baker single handedly ran the Gaels into the endzone on three plays capped by Biank's 3-yard touchdown run making it 7-0 Gaels with 8:13 left in the first. Fair Lawn again went three and out punting to Roxbury. On Roxbury's next possession, a botched snap would lead to the Gaels only turnover of the night when the Cutters' Sam Vovsi recovered a fumble at the Roxbury 34. Fair Lawn would be stopped on 4th down giving Roxbury the ball back. This led to another Biank run this time from 11 yards out and it was 14-0 Roxbury at the end of one.
It was more Roxbury in the second quarter. Baker would get in on the scoring with a 15-yard run. Fair Lawn would have yet another 3 and out and were forced to punt. Ryan Roumes fielded the punt on a bounce at his own 42, cut left beating 2 Fair Lawn would be tacklers  ...Read More

After a disappointing 20-13 setback to Sparta, many questions were asked on how the Gaels would fare in the State Playoffs. They answered many of those questions in Round 1. Within 16 minutes of play, Roxbury already had a 35-0 lead on the North Bergen Bruins from Hudson County. Roxbury's defense was stellar and stingy in this one. Everyone from the starters to third string sophomore reserves were doing some heavy hitting holding North Bergen's dynamic spread offense to just 7 points en route to a 42-7 win in the first round of the North I, Group IV play-offs.

North Bergen received the opening kickoff and went 3 and out before 2 minutes had even passed on the clock. It took two plays for Roxbury to get on the board. Kevin Baker took a pitch, ran it around the corner, and weaved his way 35 yards to the endzone, making it 7-0 Roxbury before the blink of an eye. Bruins QB Peter Ramanand left the ball on the grass on the next possession, making way for Eric Guerci to dive on the loose ball. Guerci would finish his drive with a run from 1 yard out at the 5:12 mark of the first quarter, making it 14-0 Roxbury.

It was more Roxbury in the second quarter; Guerci would score his second TD of the night with a run of 23 yards. After yet another stop, Baker would finish off the next drive with a run from 3 yards out. On the ensuing kickoff, Rob Wallace forced a fumble, which was scooped up and ran 20 yards to the endzone by junior Ryan Roumes, making it 35-0 with  ...Read More

Sparta was able to hold off a tremendous comeback effort by Roxbury in the final four minutes to preserve the 20-13 win for the Spartans. Since conference and state play-off implications had already been decided, the only thing at stake here was if the Gaels could continue their path to only the second undefeated team in school history, the last (and only) being 75 years ago in 1934. Julian Farinola and Doug D'Angelo played phenomenal games for Sparta, eventually giving them the edge in the end. The Gaels pulled to within a single point with five seconds remaining, but a missed extra point and a turnover ended Roxbury's undefeated season.

The first quarter was started out humdrum, the teams combined for only 39 yards of total offense and neither team could run the ball on each other. On the third play of the second quarter however, D'Angelo found Farinola across the middle of the field open. Farinola cut the ball up field and bolted up the sideline to the endzone for 63 yards, making it 7-0 Spartans. That would wind up being the score at halftime.

In the third quarter, D'Angelo was picked off by Kevin Baker and taken back to the Sparta 39. It took Roxbury just 10 plays to score when Connor Rich took it in from 3 yards out to even the score.

Sparta's next possession would prove to be critical. On 3rd and 21 from the 45 yard line, D'Angelo avoided heavy pressure in the backfield from four different Gaels. He found enough time and enough room to  ...Read More

The fans at John F. Bauer Memorial Stadium were treated to a thrilling double overtime victory by the Randolph Rams over the Mendham Minutemen 20-14.

To cap it off, it was Randolph High School’s Senior Night as well, and senior quarterback Kevin Farrell took matters into his own hands. During the second overtime period, he pulled off a 20 yard run on a keeper to set up the winning touchdown and uplifting ending to the Randolph football season. Although the temperature was near freezing, the fans stayed until the bitter end and basked in the warm glow of a hard fought seesaw victory.

At first things went smoothly for the Rams. Their first possession set the theme for the night, with plenty of rushes supplied by the Ram’s triple threat runningbacks, juniors Mike Mastrangelo and John Yachmetz, and sophomore AJ Garcia. Then Farrell mixed things up and hit Garcia on a 13 yard touchdown pass, to culminate the 9 play drive. Colin Bahor’s kick put Randolph ahead 7-0 with 6:03 on the clock.

But it was here where the Mendham Minutemen’s defense stiffened, allowing no more scoring for the rest of the half. Noteworthy contributions by Adam Agree, Ryan Harrington, Kevin Staley, Tyler Purdue, and Adam Papa stifled the Rams’ offensive drives.

The Rams played tenacious defense as well. Great plays by Todd Nigro, Mike Rampone, Matt Lade, Tyler Healey, Peter Wolmart, Nick Gangemi, Darren Cimbal, AJ Garcia, Andrew Gorol, and the entire defensive crew shutout  ...Read More