Defense leads Watchung Hills football to comeback win against Plainfield
PLAINFIELD – The scouting reports are true. Plainfield High School’s football team is much better.
That was what Watchung Hills was prepared for Saturday afternoon as it took to the natural surface of Hub Stine Field for its final Big Central Football Conference Liberty Silver Division game.
That’s what they got too. The Cardinals led by four at halftime. But the second half is where the tenor changed when Watchung Hills turned turnovers and Cardinals mistakes into points and good field position.
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The Warriors (6-1, 2-1) rallied for a 20-10 victory to strengthen their bid for a North Group 5 playoff berth and home playoff game. They bounced back from a division title-deciding home loss to Montgomery last Saturday night.
“We came into this game with a chip on our shoulder,” Watchung Hills senior quarterback Aleks Sitkowski said. “We needed to redeem ourselves.”
Plainfield, chasing its first winning season in 18 years and a North 5 playoff spot, dropped to 4-2 overall and had a three-game win streak snapped. The Cardinals finished 1-2 in division play.
“They are a good football team, and so are we,” Watchung Hills coach Rich Seubert said. “We knew it would be a slugfest. Our defense played well and has all year. They had a couple of drives where we were on our heels, but we came on in the second half and shut them out.”
Senior defensive back Scott Drews (two picks) and junior defense back Jake Arakelian (one pick), junior defensive lineman Jack Martin, senior defensive linemen Cam Montague and John Ozgur and senior linebackers Sean Wahlers and Joe Oleske tightened the Cardinal run game and kept the pressure on junior quarterback Ala-Meen Watkins.
Drews picked off a pass to set up the Warriors' go-ahead TD in the third quarter. Sitkowski’s 9-yard TD pass to Brayden Kelly and Byron McCann’s PAT gave the Warriors a 13-10 lead with 4:50 left in the third.
“It was a play-action. We were running the ball so efficiently with (Lucas) Garcia and (David) Dubas and when you do that, I’m able to get the play-action and guys are wide open downfield," Sitkowski said. "It’s as simple as that.”
Sitkowski’s quarterback sneak and McCann’s PAT made it 20-10 early in the fourth quarter. That came after a poor snap on a punt gave Watchung Hills the ball at the Cardinals’ 12.
“Instead of taking it (Montgomery game) as a loss, we took it as a learning opportunity, the coaches made sure we came back stronger and we used it as extra energy,” said Drews, who now has three interceptions for the season.
Dubas’ 30-yard touchdown run gave Watchung Hills a 6-0 lead in the first quarter. McCann’s attempted point-after kick was blocked. The Cardinals took a 7-6 lead with 8:27 left in the half on Kamai Lowery’s 30-yard touchdown pass to Watkins and Armando Avril’s PAT. Avril’s 30-yard field goal made it 10-6 late in the half.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ football: Watchung Hills beat Plainfield
