Photo, RJF Rutherford Junior Football Seniors

RUTHERFORD (Nov. 13, 2008) — In its 40th anniversary year, Rutherford Junior Football will be playing and hosting the Meadowlands Super Bowl. RJF has two teams playing for the championship this weekend [Nov. 15] at Memorial Field.

The PeeWees (7-, 8- and 9-year-olds) and Seniors (12- and 13-year-olds) have made it to the finals after two exciting semi-final games this past weekend. The Rutherford Junior Football PeeWees took on the Saddle Brook PeeWees in a defensive slugfest.

The Bulldogs kicked off to the Falcons and immediately set the tone of the game with some bruising hits. On the second play from scrimmage, the Falcons fumbled the ball, and it was recovered by John McAndrew. The Bulldogs started their first drive from the Falcons’ 40-yard line. The Bulldogs were able to gain about 19 yards behind the running of Sebastian Medina. The Bulldogs’ drive stalled on the Falcons’ 21-yard line where they gave the ball up on downs.

The Falcons took over at their own 21-yard line, and once again, the Bulldogs’ smothering defense held the Falcons to negative yardage and forced another Falcon punt. After the Falcon punt, the Bulldogs started on the Falcons’ 27-yard line. The Bulldogs attacked the heart of the Falcons defense, and after a couple of attempts, Medina broke through for a 19-yard TD run. The PAT attempt by Thomas Reid was called back because of a holding call: Bulldogs 6, Falcons 0.  

The rest of the half saw some great defense by both units. The Bulldogs took the second half kick and drove it down to the Falcons’ 30-yard line before some costly holding penalties killed the drive and forced a Bulldog punt. Thomas Reid pulled off an 18-yard punt, and the Falcons were forced to start on their own 28-yard line. Once again, the Rutherford defense yielded negative yardage and forced another Falcon punt; end of the third quarter: Bulldogs 6, Falcons 0.

The Bulldogs started this drive on the Falcons 35-yard line, but once again shot themselves in the foot with some uncharacteristic penalties, ending another drive. The Bulldogs were forced to punt again. This time, Reid booted a 25-yard punt to force the Falcons to start from their own 8-yard line. The Bulldogs defense went back out, and feeling the Falcons’ urgency, buckled down. On third down from their own 8-yard line, the Falcons tried a pass to their TE when Medina jumped up and snatched it from the air and brought it back to the Falcons’ 3-yard line.  

The Bulldogs went back to work on offense, but the Falcons defense dug down and held the Bulldogs out of the end zone. The Falcons started their final drive on their own 1-yard line with less than a minute left. Once again, the Bulldogs defense rose to the occasion and stopped the Falcons until time ran out; final score: Bulldogs 6, Falcons 0.  

The Bulldogs defense was dominant in the win (Sebastian Medina, Thomas Reid, John McAndrew, Jesse Madden, Andrew Brito, Anthony Avoletta, Brandon Sarnowski, Richard (Hollywood) Marques, Billy Finn, Jacob Munoz, John Kelly and Omar Abdedlhamid.

With the win, the Rutherford PeeWees move on to the Meadowlands Football League PeeWee Super Bowl game next Saturday [Nov. 15].

The Rutherford Senior Bulldogs came out on a mission Sunday night [Nov. 9]. The Ridgefield Park Scarlet Knights defeated the Bulldogs in the regular season, but the Bulldogs came ready to play. It was a defensive battle, and each team knew the winner would go to the Super Bowl. Both teams came ready to play and wanted to continue the season. The Bulldogs had a stellar performance on defense as they stopped the Scarlets all game.

The defensive play of the game came at the end of the half. The Bulldogs led 6-0 after an Anthony Ippolito TD, but R.P. was on the 1-yard line with 2 seconds left in the half. R.P. tried a QB sneak up the middle, but the entire defense made up of Patrick Landrigan., A.J. Godsil, Jake Regina, Liam Gardner, Anthony Ippolito, Anthony Appolito, Nick Ricciardi, David choi, J.J. Watt, Rex MacMillan and Manny Medina stuffed the QB for no gain, ending the half with the Bulldogs in the lead 6-0.

The second half was pretty much the same as Ippolito and Landrigan blasted right and left controlling the clock. Ippolito punched it in for his second score of the night and also kicking the extra point, making it 14-0 Rutherford.

The defense then held R.P. the rest of the game with a “bending, but not breaking” system as they denied R.P. a score. The drive ended as safety MacMillan caught an interception. The Bulldogs then took a knee on offense, ending the game with a final of 14-0.  

Rutherford Junior Football looks forward to the town support this upcoming weekend and hopes all come out Saturday, Nov. 15, at 4:30 p.m. at Memorial Field. Come out and root on our players and cheerleaders as they play Hasbrouck Heights and East Rutherford/Carlstadt. Get updated information from the Web site: www.leaguelineup.com/rjfbulldogs.

— Submitted by Michael Paskas