Since 1901, Scotch Plains and Westfield have battled it out on the gridiron every year. The rivalry renewed Friday night, as the Blue Devils beat the Raiders 31-0 on Perry Tyson Field.
To say the Raiders came into the game with a chip on their shoulder, is an understatement. The past five matchups between the two programs ended with Westfield on top. Every year Westfield put up towering numbers against SPF, especially last year with a 30-0 win at home.
This game was going to be different. New quarterback, new coach, new mentality.
The Raiders won the coin toss and decided to defer. Westfield came out hot with quarterback Maxwell Cho giving the ball to his main men Sebastian Magerhini, Enzo Ferraro, and Joshua Caramagno. This trio was Cho’s go to guys throughout the evening.
Caramagno ran the ball in for a 17 yard touchdown and the Blue Devils went up 7-0. On the next drive, Westfield followed up with a field goal to go up 10-0. The Westfield defense was strong, allowing no first downs to the Raiders in the first quarter.
At the start of the second quarter, SPF finally looked like themselves. Linebacker T.J. Rasberry put pressure in the backfield to force an incompletion and defensive back Jacob Handy broke up a long pass to cause a punt.
“[The game] has been hyped up. We all had a lot of energy. We expected a back and forth game and we already knew the rivalry was going to bring it,” junior Running Back and Linebacker T.J. Rasberry told The Fanscotian.
With a new coach, it would be expected the game plan would shift. This was evident as the Raiders showcased the wildcat formation with Raspberry taking the snap many times. Two back-to-back wildcats allowed the Raiders to get their first first down of the night. All this magic looked to be running out when SPF came up short on third down.
The Raiders set up to punt from the opposing 42 yard line, but tight end Noah Ricca took the snap and ran for the first down. The drive ended with a turnover on downs with an incomplete pass in the end zone to Handy. While it ended in failure, the drive gave the Raiders hope that they could make something happen.
Magerhini scored an eight yard touchdown to put the Blue Devils up 17-0 going into the half.
It was more of the same after the break with Westfield going up 31-0 early in the fourth quarter.
Rasberry gave the fans something to cheer about when he broke free for an electric 55 yard run that was just stopped short of the end zone by a shoestring tackle.
“I was trying to fight for my brothers, they shoe laced tackled me and I wasn’t expecting somebody would be behind me with the tempo we were playing with. I started cramping up at the end and came up short,” Rasberry, said.
While there were not many bright spots for this Raider team, Rasberry definitely provided some energy throughout the game.
“It’s never about me. Head Coach or assistant, I tried to prepare the exact same way,” Head Coach Bobby Swercheck, coaching his first official game as Head Coach, said.
Before the game, the SPFHS class of 1963 was honored. The football team during that year went undefeated and made it to New Jersey Central Group 4 sectional finals.
With the loss, Scotch Plains-Fanwood falls to 1-4 and will travel to Summit to play the Hilltoppers next week.
“Tip my hat to [Westfield]. They are a good team and we’ll try to get back next week,” Swercheck said. “We got to get back to basics. We got to work hard. It starts in the weight room tomorrow when we watch film, correct the mistakes and prepare for another very good team.”
Westfield goes to 2-2 and will face St. Joseph (Metuchen) away.
