By Mike Drake
The Morristown Colonials came through when it mattered the most by running over the Mendham Minuteman squad, 17-14, this past Saturday in Mendham.
In a must-win situation to make the playoffs, the Colonials had their finest offensive performance of the season. Danny Supple, the undersized-but-tough-as-nails senior halfback, ran 40 times for 187 yards. Supple followed his offensive line’s dominating performance and ran over, around and through the Minuteman defense all afternoon.
In the end, though, the game came down to a 42-yard field goal by sophomore Ethan Bolson. With the season on the line, Bolson calmly drilled the kick through the uprights with 6:16 left in the fourth quarter.
“When I hit it, I first thought it was going to miss, but then it curved to the left and went in,” Bolson said. “I work on those kicks every day. I went out there confident, and I hit it through.”
With their record improving to 3-5, the Colonials are now assured of a playoff spot. “We are in playoff mode now, we knew that we needed to win to get in, so everything was sudden death for us,” said Coach Chris Hull.
After a scoreless first quarter, Morristown got on the board first with an 87-yard, 17-play drive that ate up over eight minutes. Supple, the Golden Gloves boxer, accounted for 60 of those yards, blasting through some impressive holes opened by the Colonials’ offensive line. Supple finally plowed into the end zone behind a Freddy Ruiz block. The extra point put Morristown up, 7-0.
Mendham fought back to tie the game on a pass from quarterback Jack Horan to David Berkinsky, and then took the lead midway through the third quarter after a routine snap sailed over punter Ethan Bolson’s head, giving the ball to the Minutemen on the Colonials’ 15 yard line.
With excellent field position, Horan scored on a 5-yard bootleg.
The Colonials charged back to tie the game, with Supple supplying most of the yardage up the middle before breaking a 28-yard sprint to the 1 yard line. Junior fullback Trey Gwynn bulldozed his way into the end zone, and a Bolson point-after evened the score at 14.
Once again, the Colonials’ “Stonewall Defense” forced the Minutemen to punt. Starting on its own 48 yard line, Morristown drove to Mendham’s 11 yard line on five consecutive runs by Supple. The highlight of the drive came on a fourth down, when Justin Contreras broke through the line and sprinted 11 yards up the right sideline.
Despite being moved back to the 25 yard line by a pass interference and holding call, Bolson kicked the field goal that would cement the Colonials’ place in the playoffs. It was his longest and most impressive kick of the season.
The Colonials’ defense shut down the Mendham offense two more times to preserve the 17-14 victory.
Next up: A road game in Sparta (7-1) on Nov. 9, 2013. This will be a test for the Colonials defense; the Spartans have exceed 40 points six times, and topped 50 points four times. And Sparta’s defense is outstanding, too, registering three shutouts so far this season.
Mike Drake is a member of the MHS Football Boosters Club and the parent of two Colonials football players. In his day, he quarterbacked the Queen of Peace High School team in North Arlington.
