Bernards wins

Saturday's rain forced the move of the Bernards-South Hunterdon game at Olcott Field in Bernardsville to Sunday.

Both South Hunterdon and Bernards came into the game winless. South Hunterdon at 0-6 and Bernards at 0-7.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Mountaineers struck when senior Joe Travaglini returned a punt 55 yards for a score early in the second quarter. That play kind of took the air out of the Eagles' sails. Bernards and Travaglini scored again late in the half, Travaglini scoring on an 8-yard run before senior Ryan Anderson extended the lead to 18-0 to cap the second half's opening drive.

It's funny when you see a winless team look so good, and you wonder how in the world why didn't they win before. Several Bernards' players told me that coach Joe Milde had informed them that they had underachieved.

The Mountaineers lost quite a bit from last year's Colonial Hills Conference division title team. They also made the North Jersey, Section 2, Group I playoffs.

As Jim Meert, the South Hunterdon coach told me after the game, "nobody should have to go through," this kind of season. Bernards has its win. Maybe South Hunterdon will follow. The Eagles have a tough game Saturday at Dunellen before playing a consolation game, then its annual Thanksgiving Day game with Delaware Valley. Talk about tough.

Bernards plays at Somerville Friday night, then finish the season with a consolation game the weekend of Nov. 11-12.

FridayNightRainySaturday

It was wonderful to see a big crowd at Manville High School's football field Friday night to see the Mustangs (6-1) go at it with unbeaten Belvidere.

More than 1,000 braved the miserable weather. The rain fell in one pace or another throughout. It just proved once again what we've known for decades: you win games, the crowds will follow.

If you're a Manville fan, you may feel like this after witnessing the 35-10 Belvidere victory: "We made five turnovers. We held our own for a good part of the first half, and we made some big plays. If we don't turn the ball over, it's a different game."

If you're a Belvidere fan you say: "Manville was never really a threat. They had one field goal and a 'Hail Mary' at the end of the first half."

Belvidere is the class of the Skyland Conference Valley Division. Plain and simple.

By the way, several folks asked my opinion on who did a better job against Belvidere (8-0) -- Bound Brook or Manville. Two different teams. Two different nights.

Belvidere routed Bound Brook 49-12 on a beautiful early October night in Belvidere. Belvidere beat Manville 35-10 on a rainy, cold night at the end of October.

Manville did accomplish something Bound Brook didn't against Belvidere. The Crusaders didn't score on a play from scrimmage. Chris Jeskie returned an interception for a touchdown and Deven Baker returned a kickoff for a score long after the game was decided.

Manville can say it scored a field goal and that 30-yard pass that quarterback Mike Knitowski threw to Kyle Sopko on the last play of the first half.

Another thought about the experience at Manville. It took just over 20 minutes for the Manville rescue squad ambulance to arrive after Manville star Tom Rock was hurt late in the third quarter. Manville coach Brett Stibitz said Rock was unconcious after being hit hard after making an interception at the Mustang 1-yard line. Fortunately, Tom is OK and was alert as he was taken from the field. But that was one, very long wait. I can't imagine how Rock felt.

Governor Livingston oversight

We omitted Governor Livingston from our weekly Top 10, which appeared in the paper Monday. The Highlanders, who raised their record to 5-1 with a 21-6 win at Rahway Saturday, should have been listed as 10th in The Courier News Top 10 poll. We incorrectly listed North Plainfield and its 4-3 record as our 10th team. Incidently, Governor Livingston plays at North Plainfield a week from Friday night at Krausche Field in a game that could decide who makes the Central Jersey Group II playoffs. We have corrected it so GL is in our Top 10 on our website.

CJI

Three weeks to go until the state playoff precints close, and Manville is sixth and would make the Central Jersey Group I playoffs for the first time if the season ended today. The Mustangs are 5-0 and should be 6-0 after Friday night's game at South Hunterdon. Manville needs to keep winning. Because -- unlike many years in the past -- a 6-2 record may not be enough in CJ Group I. Hey, maybe the Mustangs will run the table and be 8-0 at the Nov. 3-4 cutoff break. That would automatically get them in -- an unbeaten record. But. Shore (3-3), Burlington City (4-2), Middlesex (4-1) and Keansburg (3-2) trail the Mustangs. Manville is three points ahead of Shore and five ahead of Burlington City and Middlesex. Keansburg is also still alive in 10th place with a 3-2 record and 11 points. The Mustangs will probably need to beat Belvidere at home next Friday or North Warren in Blairstown the week after just to be safe. One of the two. Middlesex has a huge game Friday night when it play hosts to Metuchen. Metuchen is currently fifth in the group with 21 points and a 5-1 record. The Bulldogs scored a major triumph last Saturday by beating South River, which is atop the field with 31 points and a 4-2 record.

Venting and noting on a rainy day

Has anyone out there been disappointed with the football programs they are handed as they walk between the gates at the field this season? It seems to me that they are often times highly priced, have a load of information that is really useless and are really just a tool to raise money. I don't mind pitching in, but at least put the numbers (in numerical order -- not by alphabetical order) of the players for both teams in the program. Last Friday night, I was handed what I believed was roster sheets for Ridge and North Hunterdon. What I got were the lists of the homecoming candidates for North Hunterdon. North Hunterdon won the football game; I'm not sure who won the homecoming queen and king. I heard over the weekend that South Plainfield High School's wrestling team will be competing in a tournament in Minnesota during Christmas week. The Tigers also have scheduled a dual meet with Southern Regional. What school will be the next to install FieldTurf? North Plainfield and Scotch Plains-Fanwood are in the process of raising money to get it done and we also hear that New Providence is about to do the same. Of course, Somerville High School's Brooks Field is also scheduled to go from natural grass to a synthetic surface sometime in this century.

Game of the week

The last few weeks have presented several games that I've found very difficult to figure. Last week, Ridge beat Voorhees in overtime in a game we figured would be very close. Two weeks ago, Somerville played Voorhees at Voorhees in a game I figured would go down to the final minutes. Somerville won that one 28-21. There's another matchup this week -- which is very much like the Voorhees-Ridge contest. Ridge travels to North Hunterdon Friday night for a 7 p.m. Skyland Conference West Division game. North Hunterdon, coming off a 27-10 loss at Phillipsburg, is 2-2 after finishing last year at 1-9. Ridge, 4-6 a year ago, is 3-1. Both teams can throw the ball well with Ridge quarterback Rob Monastero and North Hunterdon's Ryan Reed very capable. Ridge runs the ball well with halfback Ben Sciambi and fullback Nick Wilson. North has been getting good games from sophomore Ted Delia and Chris Johns. Johns had a respiratory illness and didn't play last week, North Hunterdon coach Dennis Haughey said. Senior back Blake Robinson, expected to be the team's top runner this year, has been plagued by back spasms all season and hasn't played. He may be back this week along with Johns. How healthy will they be? And lastly, both teams have very good kickers. North's Kyle Van Nostrand boomed a 35-yard field goal last week, his third and longest of the season. Lions' linebacker John Pearson has been outstanding. This is a flip the coin type of game. High scoring? Probably? Will it go into overtime? Maybe. And that would mean Ridge would have played three overtime games in a row. I like Ridge -- barely.

A Yankee doodle disaster

If you are a Yankee fan of any ilk, and I consider myself one, Saturday, October 7, was one of the worst days of your New York (A) rooting experience. I go back to the days of Horace Clarke, Jerry Kenney and Bill Burbach. I'm finding myself believing it was much better rooting for those guys back in the mid 1960s. The Yankees were bad, real bad, but at least I was thrilled when they earned a rare win against then powerful Minnesota and the Orioles and the Tigers. But the Yankess are no longer fun to root for --and I felt that way throughout the game Saturday before they gradually slipped from the state in game four of the American League Divisional Series. The Tigers wrapped it up in four games with a 8-3 win. Yankee pitchers had a 5.56 earned run average. The hitters went 2-for-21 with runners in scoring position in the three losses. The Tigers won twice by a combined score of 14-3. Alex Rodriguez was 1-for-14 in the series and has 5 hits in 46 post-season at bats since the Yankees took a three-games-to-none lead over Boston in the 2004 American League Championship Series. He has no RBIs in his past 12 playoff games. A-Rod is the poster boy for all that is wrong with our Yankees, but he's just one of the reasons the Yankees failed so miserably. What will they do next? Get younger George, get younger.

Belvidere rolls

What a great place Belvidere is to watch a football game. The County Seaters had a big homecoming crowd along for the ride as they pounded Bound Brook 49-12 Friday night to take the lead in the Skyland Conference Valley Division race. Bound Brook is clearly improved and it should finish its eight-game playoff qualification period with a 7-1 record to grab its first Central Jersey Group I playoff berth since 1978. But the Crusaders have to get stronger if they are to continue their improvement. The Brook didn't run the ball well Friday night. They did play for the second straight week without their top running back Eduardo Rosario, who's been out with an ankle injury. That hurt. The Crusaders scored on Chris Jeskie's 78-yard return of an interception and Deven Baker's 83-yard kickoff return when the game was long decided.