How Wayne Valley football used clutch defensive stops for win over Wayne Hills

WAYNE − A series of defensive stands guided Wayne Valley to its first win of the season, defeating rival Wayne Hills, 14-6, on Friday night.

The Indians forced a fumble, recovered by Caden DuVal, that set up Wayne Valley with its best field position of the night. A 36-yard touchdown grab by Darrius Rivers gave Wayne Valley a 7-0 lead after one quarter.

In the second, Wayne Hills responded with a touchdown drive of its own. Andrew Pierce’s 6-yard touchdown run pulled the Patriots within a point but the extra point clanged off the right goal post.

The Indians took that one point lead into halftime and came out with another touchdown drive to open up the second half. Justin Mondestin’s 21-yard touchdown grab extended the lead to 14-6 with 6:15 left in the third quarter.

What it means

Friday night was as close to a must-win situation for both schools as you could see in late September.

With a combined record of 1-7 entering the game, postseason chances looked slim for both schools as they came onto the field. Now, the glimmer of hope for the Indians gets a little bit brighter heading to the halfway point of the regular season.

"The reality is that it was [a must-win game]," Wayne Valley coach Roger Kotlarz said. "The truth is that we still need to get better. I thought we did some good things in the second half adjusting to the beginning of the game. I thought we played a much cleaner second half."

Rivalry renewed

The rivalry between Wayne Hills and Wayne Valley always exists regardless of the records of the two teams. One of North Jersey's top rivalries, the dueling schools did not split until Wayne Hills opened in 1966. It still took a quarter century for the two teams to play for the first time, which came in a championship game to end the 1991 season.

Friday night marked the 21st time the Indians and the Patriots faced one another, and Wayne Hills has the upper-hand historically with 15 victories. However, recent history has favored Wayne Valley as Friday's victory gave the Indians a third straight win over their rivals for the first time in the history of the series.

One town, one heart

Rivalries aside, the look of the Wayne Hills-Wayne Valley football game has changed in recent years. Instead of dueling fanbases in maroon and blue, nearly everyone in the stands on Friday night wore orange.

For the second straight season, the night was used to honor Rocco Sivolella, who was a freshman on the Wayne Valley football team when a battle with acute myeloid leukemia took his life at 15 years old.

More: 'Always a part of us': Wayne community mourns death of 15-year-old Rocco Sivolella

"The rivalry is big, it's always there, but the unity being there is huge," senior Justin Mondestin said. "Unfortunately, both teams lost a player. He had a lot of friends on both sidelines and we share his loss."

Sivolella's jersey No. 78 was all over Wayne Valley High School on Friday, the first time the rivalry game had been played there since his passing. He would have been a junior this year.

Key play

Wayne Valley had a pair of interceptions in the fourth quarter to seal the deal. One of them, hauled in by senior Brenden Immediato, allowed the Indians to head back on offense and drain precious minutes off the clock late in the game.

"Early on in the season, we were tired on defense and things weren't going our way," he said. "Today, we were able to step it up. Everyone was good and everyone was healthy. We were able to make some stops on defense and that was a huge part of the game."

They said it

"That's where we've fallen short this year. We've been in every game heading into the fourth quarter and then we've kind of unraveled, so it was great tonight to see us step up on both sides of the ball." − Kotlarz

"We can't look ahead. Coach tells us to win the day and that's all we can control. We can't look too far ahead and just have to try and be 1-0 every week." − Mondestin.

Up next

Wayne Valley (1-4) heads to West Milford (3-2) on Friday.

Wayne Hills (1-4) hosts Hackensack (2-1) on Friday.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Wayne Valley NJ football squeaks out win over Wayne Hills