From the opening kick-off, the Eagles showed that they had come to play as Nick Giuliano and P.J. Jordan crunched the Falcons kick returner at the 39-yard line of Hanover Park. The Falcons elected to go for it on 4th and 1, but ran into a wall named Pat McMurtrie and Matt Aldiero.
The Eagles O failed to capitalize on the good field position and turned the ball back to the Falcons. Facing a 3rd and 1, the Falcons again tried to run the ball, and this time Aldo would be joined by Brendan “The Erwinator” Erwin and Zach Balogh in stopping the runner cold. Hanover Park elected to punt on 4th down.
Quarterback Tom “Great White” Sharkey dropped back, and found a streaking Matthew Frungillo down the right sideline for a 55-yard touchdown. When the extra point snap was bobbled, Sharkey scrambled, and found Brian Hipp in the end zone for the conversion. With 2:31 remaining in the first quarter, it was 7-0 Eagles.
On the Falcons next possession, both Hipp and Balogh stepped up and pressured the quarterback, resulting in an incompletion and a 4th down punt.
The offense was starting to heat up for the Eagles. First Shark hit Pat “White Shoes” Haughney for 25 yards as the 1st quarter came to a close. Next it was Nick Riggio running for a first down at the Falcon 40 yard line. Then Sharkey found Haughney, who made a circus catch, all the way down to the 10 yard line. From the 10, Sharkey and Frungillo would hook up again, this time on a 10 yard scoring strike. The Eagles lead grew to 13-0 with 6:30 left in the half.
The defense quickly got the ball back in Sharkey’s hands, and he first passed for 15 yards to Zach Balogh. Shark then threw a swing pass to #2 Matthew Frung, who juked one tackler and then took off down the right sideline for a 30-yard gain down to the 10 yardline. Tommy “TK” Kellner ran a 22 blast through the hole created by Jack Gautieri and Brandon “Brando” Cariani for a touchdown run. Haughney blasted the extra points and as halftime arrived, the Eagles had a 21-0 lead.
It was more of the same in the second half. Cariani sprung Riggio on a 52-yard touchdown run with a devastating block. The lead stretched to 27-0 Eagles.
Matt Monroe got into the act making a diving tackle to prevent a first down and force a punt. Nick Riggio would receive that punt, and zig-zag his was down field for a 60-yard TD. Kellner ran in the point after and the bulge had swelled to 34-0.
The reserves would play the rest of the way for the Eagles. There were a few bright spots as Zander Zebrowski, Brady Swanstrom and Vincent Schwartz had some nice runs.
The final score of the game was 34-13. The Eagles will travel to Livingston on Sunday to take on the Junior Lancers. Good luck to Coach Steve Lupo’s squad in their quest for 5-0!
Photos copyright Deb Aldiero. Used by permission.
