CLARK, NJ- The Johnson Crusaders varsity football team defeated the New Providence Pioneers by a final score of 41-3 Friday night in their home opener. The game featured a strong second half offensive outburst that helped Johnson seal the game and come through with the win.
Senior fullback and co-captain Joe Turek fueled the offense with three rushing touchdowns and 150 rushing yards on 14 carries. Senior quarterback Mike Bruno ran in for a 20-yard rushing touchdown and the defense held New Providence to only a field goal earlier in the game.
Here Are 3 Things We Learned from the Home Opener Win:
1.) The Running Game Excelled and Took Over the Second Half
The Johnson Crusaders have always produced a strong rushing game and a familiar face has taken the unit of it by control. Senior fullback and co-captain Joe Turek scored three touchdowns, picking up right where he left off last year. His first major chance came following a season-ending injury to Eddie Bergin in November 2015. Turek has only excelled and has gotten better at the role.
His sophomore year featured 18 TD’s and 975 rushing yards, followed by 14 TD’s and 1,045 yards his junior year. He will continue to have a breakout season with all the hard work he’s put out there on the practice field and in the weight room.
First, senior quarterback Mike Bruno got the scoring started for Johnson. He ran far to the left side and never looked back as he went all the way for a 20-yard rushing touchdown that gave Johnson the 7-3 lead. Bruno finished the night with
Despite a shaky start to the first half, featuring only one touchdown, Turek credited the coaches for making the adjustments, to which the players made the corrections and locked down on the Pioneers, overwhelming them and crushing through their defense en route to a dominating performance and win.
Turek was noticeably fired up on the sidelines following his third touchdown of the game, which made the score 34-3 Johnson. The Crusaders ran the ball 30 times and recorded 274 yards on the ground to win their home opener, never punting or passing as much.
Junior Sebastian Iakouchvitech had a 39-yard rushing touchdown that would be the final score of the night for Johnson.
The running game chewed up clock last year and led to most of the scoring opportunities for Johnson, it really showed that way tonight. The momentum kept along the side of the Crusaders as the running game continued to work as hard as they have all summer, scrimmages and the home opener. This will serve as major for Johnson as the season rolls along.
2.) The Defense Came Ready to Play
Following the lost fumble on the kickoff, the defense stepped up and picked up the special teams when the mistake was made. They held New Providence to a field goal and did not allow them to get close to the end zone. Patrick Trezza would get closer within Johnson territory, but sophomore quarterback Owen Kovacs, who is stepping into the shoes of Jack Barletta, who transferred to the Hun School, got rushed.
New Providence hung around for the first 24 minutes before the Johnson defense came ready to play in overwhelming fashion in the second half.
A heavy hit in the second quarter popped the football loose and the Johnson defense picked it up.
Another dose of trouble came when Johnson forced New Providence to punt, but were called for roughing the kicker, a penalty that carried 15 yards and an automatic first down. The Pioneers would continue driving before the Crusaders hit Kovacs and jarred the football loose.
It’s a defense that played very hard and very physical under new defensive coordinator Chris Di Nucci, who was an assistant coach at Johnson from 2012-2013 and coached at Bridgewater-Raritan High School from 2014-2016 and serving there as defensive coordinator.
That drive would end with a missed field goal from Trezza, giving the ball back to the Crusaders with under two minutes until halftime.
Once the second half started, New Providence couldn’t even move the ball and were left at bay by the Crusaders defense. Trezza and Chris Vass led the team that night, but they were considerably slowed down to a point where nothing was going their way.
Joe D’Anna had a 20-yard reception from Kovacs, but that was the only real major passing play New Providence succeeded with. The Pioneers would fail on a fake punt when trailing by 17 points, stopped by the Crusaders defense. It would set up a score the Crusaders would get, which would be Joe Turek’s second touchdown of the game.
Vass had eight carries for 13 yards for New Providence in the loss.
3.) Field Goals and Extra Points Always Count When the Drives Don’t
They say that sometimes, offense can be essential for the special teams ad it really did show it in the second half. Senior Brandon Rapp fueled the Crusaders drive following Trezza’s missed field goal with a 47-yard rush that put Johnson deep into New Providence territory. After the drive stalled, the story turns to the team’s kicker, Mike Casalino.
Casalino has been embracing his role as the team’s kicker and he did fantastic when called upon Friday night. He did drain a 23-yard goal to extend Johnson’s lead to 10-3, but it was right before halftime when he really stepped up to the plate.
With seconds left in the second quarter, Casalino gave the football a hard kick when it was a 40-yard field goal. He gave it quite a ride and it went through the middle and good to put Johnson ahead 13-3.
He matched his total in field goals from all of 2016, when he was 2-for-2. He also successfully made 28 extra points in his junior year. He was 5-for-5 for the PAT’s, an area where he’s continued to excel, after also knocking down longer field goal attempts during practice. Casalino is going to be play a huge role for Johnson in games where field goals might be needed, along with needing to go for points at crucial parts of a football game.
What’s Next?
Johnson (1-0) will travel on the road to play at Bernards HS (0-2) on Friday, September 15 at 7:00 p.m.
The Mountaineers, the Central, Group 2 runners-up, dropped their home opener to Shabazz HS on Friday, September 1 by a final score of 35-7 and lost this past Friday to Roselle-Abraham Clark HS at Rahway River Park by a final score of 34-17.
Bernards is led by Lofton Hoover, who is filling in the shoes at QB for Stephen Gribben, who graduated in 2016. Other players on Bernards for Johnson to watch on Friday night include receivers Joey Bilotti and Max Kaul, who made catches in the home opener against Shabazz.
If the Johnson Crusaders continue to play the way they’ve always been playing, hard, fast, physical and going at the football and charging through other team’s defenses on offense and drawing up good game plans, they will compete on Friday night. Bernards is a football program that’s always been good in year’s past, so we will see what develops Friday night.
