By Andy Loigu

Like the Beatles, the Hackettstown Tigers took the long and winding road on Friday night. 

Led by running back Jason Kuehner’s three rushing touchdowns, the Tigers returned home from Vernon with their first victory of the football season, a wild 51-36 scoring fest.

Meanwhile, the Warren Hills Blue Streaks were at home, and evened their football record in a defensive battle, a 14-7 win over visiting North Plainfield.

Up in Vernon, in the rarefied air of Sussex County ski country, Kuehner was a hard man to catch and bring down, as he carried the ball 10 times for 247 yards. Using simple math, we see that he averaged 24.7 yards per carry, which is an amazing night’s production. Running out of the Tigers’ triple-option system behind solid blocking, he scored touchdowns of 24 and 44 yards late in the game, to enable the Tigers to pull away.

Quarterback Nick Gagliardi made the right decisions all night long and kept the scoring drives coming. He kept the ball six times, scurrying for 89 yards and two touchdowns, one of which went for 30 yards.

Two-way dynamo Zeb Burke made contributions on offense and defense, rushing for a 28-yard touchdown and leading the team with 13 tackles.
Next on the Tigers’ schedule is a battle at home, at Morrison Field, against the Vikings of Parsippany Hills on Friday evening October 4, kicking off at 7 p.m.

The Blue Streaks will also be taking on a team named the Vikings, as they make the short trip to Voorhees for a battle of 2-2 teams in the Glen Gardner area on Friday evening.

Last Friday they defeated the Canucks of North Plainfield with a 62-yard touchdown pass making the difference. Ricky Lewis pulled down a pass from quarterback Geir Nemeth and outran the defenders into the end zone.

A few years ago the Streaks had a quarterback named Martin. Had the pair been together back then, they would have been Martin and Lewis, but I digress. The Warren Hills students are too young to remember that comical duo from the 1950s anyway, but like anything else these days, you can find them on a Google search.

Also, Cooper Gabrich plowed in for a one-yard touchdown for the Streaks, and that is the long and short of the story.

…Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.