The West Morris Central football team are back-to- back-to- back group 3 champions. Winning a sectional title is an accomplishment that just gets more and more impressive after each season; however, this year’s title run might be the best out of any of them. After a 2-0 start to the season, The Wolfpack went on to lose five of their next seven games to close out the season, squeaking into the playoffs as the sixth seed with a 4-5 record.

In their first matchup they took on the favored third seed Pascack Valley in their stadium. Before the game started, six analysts from NJ.com predicted every game from the New Jersey playoffs, and only 1 picked West Morris to win. There was no scoring in the first quarter but in the second quarter, Tyler Wu caught a 17 yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jacob Morris. Later, a 30 yard field goal from Johnny Vieira put WMC up 10-0. Before the half Pascack Valley kicked a 21 yard field goal to make the score 10-3. In the third quarter,Pascack Valley scored a 56 yard touchdown to tie the game. The tie wouldn’t be broken until the fourth when Garrett Crisp scored an eight yard touchdown run. The extra point was blocked and Pascack Valley scored again making the score 17-16. West Morris started on their own 34 yard line with only 50 seconds left in the game.Jacob Morris made two incredible passes of 26 and 18 yards to set up a game winning 28 yard field goal as time expired to send WMC into the next round. Morris finished with a 110.42 passer rating, his highest since their first matchup vs West Essex where he had a 110.76 passer rating. Garrett Crisp led the team in rushing yards with 52 and a score, Tyler Wu led the team in receiving yards with three catches for 52 and a touchdown. On defense, Tyler Wu had an interception, Sam Rizzuto led the team with 4 solo tackles and 10 total tackles, Bryce Cammarata and Tom Borgia both had crucial blocked punts which set up 2 West Morris scores. After the game Coach Hennely told The Daily Record “The kids played a phenomenal game. We had a tough season, and when the chips were down, they came back and did what they had to do to win the game.”

In their next matchup, West Morris returned to their home field where they won all of their games except their playoff wins this year to to face Sparta . The Wolfpack had also won 18 straight at home until they lost by one point to Randolph earlier this year. This season WMC was known to be reliant on the run first offense and that showed in this game especially with only 4 completions the whole game. However, as a group West Morris rushed the ball 43 times for 230 yards and 4 touchdowns. The rushing attack was surprisingly led by Junior Peter Miragliotta who had 40% of his rushing yards on the season in this game alone with 152, and he added two touchdowns on top of that. Defense stepped up in a big way this game, only allowing 196 total yards. The defense this week was led by Jack Defusco who had 11 total tackles and an interception. Sam Rizzuto once again led the team in total tackles with 14 and Colin Cronin and Luke Gouse both had a sack. The Wolfpack dominated this one with a score of 30-9

In the group final, West Morris played the 11th ranked, number one seeded Old Tappan. Old Tappan is a familiar foe to WMC as they played each other in the sectional semifinals in 2019 which resulted in Old Tappan winning 21-14 and in 2021 West Morris won 21-0. However, last season West Morris was eliminated by this Old Tappan Team in the NJSIAA Group 3 Tournament, Semifinal Round. The Wolfpack came into this game as the underdogs looking to avenge last year’s loss. The first score came in the first quarter when Old Tappan Qb Alex Orecchio threw a 16 yard pass to Michael Miceli for a touchdown. Old Tappan wouldn’t hold the lead for long as Sam Rizzuto scored an 8 yard touchdown run. Old Tappan broke the tie with a two yard touchdown run from Alex Orecchio. Then before halftime Nico Ottomanelli kicked a 31 yard field goal to make the score 17-7 for Old Tappan.

Going out of halftime, West Morris knew if they were going to win they would have to control the pace of the game like they have all year and that’s exactly what they did. On their first touchdown drive, it took 19 plays over 11 minutes to go 80 yards. Eventually QB Jacob Morris ran it in for a two yard touchdown but this set the pace for the rest of the game. West Morris then forced a punt on the next Old Tappan possession and had the ball within the final minutes of the 4th quarter. WMC was held to 4th and 14 on their own 31 yard line where they needed a big play to extend the drive. Jacob Morris stepped up in the pocket to evade two defenders, one of them being Duke commit Jack Small and launched a 39 yard bomb to Junior Brady Bentrewicz for the first down. When asked about the crucial play, Senior offensive lineman Owen Meiners said “It felt a little bit surreal before the ball was snapped. Knowing that it could have been my last play in high school football was really weird. But once the ball was snapped I wasn’t even focused on that anymore. As soon as I saw Morris step up in the pocket I knew we had something. I tracked the ball and saw Brady and the rest is history”

West Morris continued running the ball from this point on, ending the drive with an outstanding 26 yard touchdown run from Garett Crisp. Old Tappan got the ball with 1:36 left to go in the 4th quarter. They started their own comeback drive, converting on 4th and long themselves. Old Tappan had a chance to score to take the lead with 24 seconds left when the defensive line got into Alex Orecchio’s face causing him to overthrow an open Evan Brooks in the endzone. On the following play they threw the ball over the middle where the ball was tipped into the air by Gavin Drown and intercepted by Garrett Crisp to end the game. “West Morris football is about believing in our guys up front and believing in everything we’ve got,” Crisp said to Nj.com after the game.

Although the Wolfpacks season would end the following week in the state semi finals, Their Group 3 Championship run will be forever remembered as the year they were not expected to win it but still did. When asked about the difference of this years team compared to the previous two championship rosters, Coach Frayne stated “This years team was the most resilient team i’ve coached, never quit and had a lot of first year starters step up, a lot of bumps in the road but always persevered”