Phillipsburg football capitalizes on turnovers for North 2 Group 5 final berth
PHILLIPSBURG – Westfield High School’s football team did pretty much all it could to beat Phillipsburg on Friday night in the North 2 Group 5 semifinals.
Senior quarterback Max Cho threw for three touchdowns and 256 yards. In one stretch he completed 17 straight. Junior split end Enzo Ferrero caught all three TDs and finished with 190 yards on 13 receptions.
But the most important number was four – as in four turnovers – three of them in the first half that led to touchdowns and ultimately a 42-24 Phillipsburg win.
The fourth was a fourth-quarter interception by Cam Bohal that sealed the outcome.
“Fortunately, we buckled down,” said Liners coach Frank Duffy.
Next up is the section final Friday night against No. 2 Union City. City (9-1) beat No. 4 West Orange in the other semifinal.
Phillipsburg (9-1) will play in its second straight section final. Last year it lost to West Orange at home. Westfield, 5-5, will finish its season Thanksgiving Day morning at Plainfield.
The Blue Devils had six turnovers in their previous nine games. But four in one game – four at Phillipsburg - was deadly. The Liners score off them – sometimes very, very quickly.
“We preach it, if we talk about it enough, the idea is that it’s going to happen,” said Duffy.
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A fumble on the opening kickoff was recovered by the Liners and two plays later big senior fullback John Wargo went 14 yards and Phillipsburg led 7-0.
That set the trend for the night – Westfield would answer with Nikolas Lukis’ 22-yard field goal, but another fumble on the next Westfield possession – as the Blue Devils were driving –
led to Jett Genovese’s 16-yard TD pass to Kevin Burgess and it was 14-3 with 8:26 left in the half.
“The turnovers hurt us; I think we are a little better than that,” said Westfield coach Jim DeSarno. “We haven’t really made turnovers like that. Unfortunately, it happened at the wrong stage.
“We gave it all we could, but too many mistakes,” added the coach.
Too much Wargo too. He ran for 185 yards on 19 carries and a 47-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
“He’s the man, he’s a pretty special player, I’m always amazed someone that big can run that well,” said Duffy.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Phillipsburg football beats Westfield in North 2 Group 5 semifinals
