Even old football tropes are accurate sometimes. North Warren’s 42-32 loss to Hackettstown September 10 was closer than it looked. Patriot Head Coach Eugene Fluri agreed—to a point.
“The game was closer than the score indicated,” Fluri said. “But we didn’t play well. Too many penalties.”
The Pats played their home opener Sunday morning, shoehorned in between thunderstorms that rocked the area all weekend and forced the game to be moved from Friday night. Rain, snow, mud, yes. Lightning, no.
The loss sets the Patriots—last year’s league champions—back to an 0-2 start to the season after last week’s loss to Whippany Park.
While they stumbled in the first half, North Warren pulled their game together for the second half, scoring touchdowns on all their possessions. They went into the locker room behind 21-6 and came back to outscore Hackettstown 26-21 in the second half. But it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit.
The Pats had a hard time executing points for most of the game until quarterback Luke Stefankiewicz connected with Lucas Csezmadia for two points following a touchdown by Landon White in the third quarter.
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Fluri said overall he was pleased with the game Stefankiewicz played Sunday. He was also happy with progress the front lines made since the previous week.
“I thought the line did better this week,” Fluri said. “They picked up their signs better.”
North Warren’s next game will be at Parsippany September 15 at 2:00 p.m.
Joe Phalon, Contributing Writer
Joe was lured out of retirement by the opportunity to be a part of the Ridge View Echo. During a decades-long career in publishing and journalism, he has covered government on many levels from local school boards to the United States Supreme Court.
Along the way, Joe has worked at American Lawyer Magazine, The National Law Journal and The Record among other publications, and as the Press Officer of Columbia Law School. His work has been recognized with several first place awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the New Jersey Press Association.
Being part of the Ridge View Echo brings Joe back to his roots and the kind of news coverage he loves: Telling the stories of people and local communities as well as keeping an eye on how their money is spent by their government officials.
Joe lives in Blairstown with his wife Rose, the founder of Quilting for a Cause, and their two wiener dogs. He is an artist in his spare time.
