Cranford football hands North Brunswick its first loss of the season
CRANFORD — For the second time in three years North Brunswick visited Cranford sporting a gaudy 7-0 record on Friday evening.
And for the second time in three years, the Raiders headed for home at 7-1.
Like their first meeting, a 24-point rout in the playoff-less, COVID-inflicted, 2020 campaign, this wasn’t close, either, as quarterback Liam Godwin ran for three scores and passed for another as the Cougars, ranked 11th in the mycentraljersey.com Big Central Conference ratings, pinned a 34-14 setback on the second-ranked Raiders.
Cranford (6-2) dominated both lines of scrimmage, amassing 236 rushing yards while limiting North Brunswick (7-1) to minus-6 yards on the ground in winning its fourth game in a row.
Godwin led the way, running 26 times for a game-high 132 yards, with 16 carries for 92 yards after halftime as the Cougars were able to sustain their run game in an attempt to keep the ball away from the dangerous Raiders attack.
Shane Kanterman (15-69 rushing) delivered Cranford’s first score on a 1-yard run midway through the opening stanza. The Cougars never trailed and crossed the goal line on four of their first five possessions against a defense that hadn’t yielded more than 14 points in a game this season.
Frankie Garbolino ran for both North Brunswick scores, a 2-yard keeper that tied the score at 7-7 in the first quarter, and a 3-yard burst that reduced the deficit to 27-14 early in the fourth. He also completed 15 of 24 passes for 253 yards.
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What it means
Both schools can expect to be home when the playoffs begin next weekend. Cranford entered as the fourth-seed in North Group 3 and can expect a big bump from this victory. North Brunswick, which began the evening as the top seed in South Jersey Group 5, should begin its playoff hunt with a home game as well.
Key play
North Brunswick trailed, 20-7, and had a second-and-goal at the Cranford 8 for the final play of the first half. A touchdown would have reduced the margin and possibly, altered the momentum. Cranford linebacker Ryan Carracino burst through the line and sacked Garbolino for a loss. With Cranford due to receive the second-half kickoff, the play loomed large.
“With three seconds left on the clock what else are you going to do, what else do you want,”Carracino said. “They’re in the red zone, we had to make a big play there.”
By the numbers
Cranford relied on the troika of Godwin, Kanterman and Ryan Lynskey to run 53 times for 236 yards and keep the ball away from North Brunswick. The Raiders rushed 11 times for net minus-6 yards.
Cranford did not attempt a pass after the break, running on all 30 of its second-half plays.
North Brunswick was penalized seven times for 65 yards while Cranford was a flagged twice for 20 yards.
Game balls
Have to start with Godwin, who handled the ball 33 times (25 runs, eight first-half passes) without turning the ball over.
Carracino had the big sack at the end of the first half, recovered a fumble, and made four of five extra points, the fifth being blocked.
Garbolino completed 15 of 24 passes for 253 yards and ran for two touchdowns.
North Brunswick’s Debah Conteh caught seven passes for 87 yards and Zaharia Dawud had four catches for 116 yards.
They said it
“We have three running backs and when you have three people that can run the ball you can set the tempo of the game, you can control the clock and just keep running and running and running,” Goodwin explained. “A big game plan for us was keeping their offense off the field. When you do that, they can’t score if they’re not on the field.”
“We try to run all three of those guys, but we can throw the ball, also,” Cranford coach Erik Rosenmeier said. “We’ve been playing very good defense this year, especially the last three weeks (all shutout victories) and I told them this was an excellent, excellent offense. The kids rose to the challenge. I’m not going to lie, they kept us up late trying to scheme for them.”
“Two years they did it to us and they did it to us again,” North Brunswick coach Michael Cipot said. “There made more plays than us, that’s just what it is. Whatever happened in the first seven games didn’t happen tonight.”
Up next
Both teams expect to open the playoffs next weekend at home, Cranford in North Group 3, North Brunswick in South Group 5.`
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Cranford NJ football hands North Brunswick first loss of season
