By Andy Loigu

For the second year in a row, former Hackettstown assistant coach Marcus Gurdineer help guide Warren Hills to victory in the annual football battle for the Beater Board on October 29 at Morrison Field.

After underdog Hackettstown kept it close (the Tigers trailed 14-12 at halftime), the Streaks kept their usually balanced offense on the ground in the second half and pulled away to a 28-12 win. Warren Hills is now 6-3 on the season and looking forward to a first-round state sectional showdown at Sparta on Friday evening.

The Streaks’ narrow all-time lead in their 96-year series with Hackettstown grew to 47-43-6.

If there was a striking surprise in the game, it was Warren Hills throwing just three passes, although maybe not so surprising as rain and windy conditions were evident throughout the contest. As long as the running game kept the clock moving and the lead out of Hackettstown’s reach, the Streaks smartly stuck with ground and pound.

Jon Lainez toted the ball 16 times, gaining 111 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Jayden Aziz scored two more touchdowns, finishing drives via the rush.

Defensively, TJ Kachala intercepted two Hackettstown passes to help Warren Hills ice the win.

A bright spot for Hackettstown was 75 rushing yards by Evan Hatten, which included a 65-yard breakout touchdown run.

Tigers’ head coaching veteran CJ Robinson has repeatedly said he’s happy that Gurdineer got the Warren Hills job and has been successful in the Big Central Conference. Gurdineer worked on skills and techniques with defensive players at Hackettstown; the linemen, linebackers and secondary. Gurdineer can coach all the positions and get them to work together as a well-oiled unit.

Gurdineer added that he enjoys all the history of the rivalry and does not think his time at Tigertown gives him any sort of advantage against his former team. 

The triple option which the Tigers have run through good seasons and disappointments, is a standard system which is used by many collegiate teams, including Army and Navy. There are no mysteries to it. When players execute it skillfully, it is hard to stop.

Over the years, high school coaches who have tried to bring in a new system have told this columnist that the learning curve has been most frustrating. They’ve said they had to “dumb it down” when players had trouble with execution.

Other coaches who have stuck with a system, usually the Wing-T or a read-option approach, say that’s the way to build a tradition at the high school level.

Warren Hills moves on to the playoffs in North Jersey Section 2 Group 3 and a tough trip to Sparta, in Sussex County, on Friday evening. As the Beatles sang, the trip to Sparta is a long and winding road.

Sparta is the only place where this veteran sports scribe has ever seen a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct flag thrown against the student section.

And they deserved it.

At halftime of a good competitive game against West Morris, the Sparta students rushed to the door leading to the visitors’ locker room and confronted the West Morris team in an attempt to intimidate them. I would hope those students’ parents took stern disciplinary action when they learned of the incident!

This happened in pastoral and rural Sparta.

*****

Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.