Haddonfield youth football had four teams make it to the championship game last Saturday at Camden Catholic High school. All four teams faced Fleetwood (Mt. Laurel) as their opponent, which is an organization roughly twice the size of Haddonfield. Unfortunately, the Dawgs only came away with one victory but all the teams fought hard and had an awesome season finishing a combined 40–6 on the season.
The 60lb team also had an outstanding season under first year coach Pete LaBrie but the league does not have playoffs at that level. The 75lb team(coach Brad Bolletino), 90lb team(coach Bill Murray), 105lbteam(Gary Garstkiewicz) all succumbed to very good Fleetwood teams but the 125lb(coach Bill Dengler) team prevailed 22–8 in a very dominant performance.
Michael Alberto was brilliant at quarterback both throwing and running but the highlight came on Alberto’s dazzling 60-yard TD run cutting across field outrunning every one on the field and then breaking one last would be tackler for paydirt. The Dawgs started the game with an impressive 70-yard scoring drive with an impressive running attack highlighted by a bone-crushing block by FB Mark Walker. The O-line controlled the line of scrimmage with Brad Thompson at Center, Jon Bigelow and Crawford Oswald at Guard, Jake Walter and Frank Fortino at Tackle and Wes Dengler at TE. There was also another amazing play call by Coach Greg Precsott on the last play of the first half when Alberto threw to wideout Charlie Clarke who then lateraled the ball (the classic Hook and Ladder play), to Michael DeFeo who ran it in for the third TD. Charlie Clarke then booted the extra point through the uprights to make the score 22–0 at the half.
In the second half the Dawgs kept up their relentless defense giving up only one score to Fleetwood. The D-line was tenacious with tough play from Matt Gilbert playing solid, heads-up DE. Chris Bateman, Charlie Sherman, Connor Lambert, Michael Marchese and Charlie Miller came in like hungry Dawgs stuffing the line of scrimmage. Jake Klaus and Ryan Ciemny played tough in the defensive secondary like they did all season.
The 125 lb team was superbly coached all season by Bill Dengler, Doug Thompson, Greg Prescott and Kash Bhaya who have all coached for more than 10 years in the Haddonfield youth program!.
This all caps off an amazing year in football for Haddonfield as the High School claimed it’s first South Jersey Group 2 Championship crown by defeating West Deptford 16–8 Friday night. Many of the high school players played through the youth program and have now experienced the ultimate reward for all of their hard work and dedication over the years. High school head Coach Frank Delano has been the driving force behind this success.
