Section 1 football: Fourth-down D and Jaquan Johnson's running lift North Rockland to win

SUFFERN — The saying has been around in one form or another for decades. Actually, centuries.

George Washington, in the late 1700s, even said something to the effect that the best offense is a good defense. He, of course, wasn't talking about football.

Judging from what occurred during Friday night's rivalry game between North Rockland and Suffern, it would be hard to find fault with the logic.

North Rockland scored four touchdowns in routing the host Mounties 30-0 at Suffern Middle School.

Three of those touchdowns occurred after North Rockland got the ball by stopping Suffern on fourth down.

North Rockland won the battle of the trenches on both sides of the ball.

The Red Raiders limited Suffern star running back Jeph Joseph to just 43 yards on 11 carries, sometimes nailing him in the backfield the second he got the handoff.

And on offense, the North Rockland line created holes that allowed its own star running back,, Jaquan Johnson, to run amok.

Johnson never seems to need much of a hole to do that. Given his speed and side-to-side quickness, a small opening usually suffices.

And Friday he moved through holes both big and small while raising his season touchdown total to 17.

Johnson, a sprinter on North Rockland's track team, ran for touchdowns of 53, 14 and 50 yards as North Rockland won its fifth straight game to increase its season mark to 6-2.

Play of the game

The tone of the game was set early.

Suffern, now 3-5, started out strong. Noah Hahn recovered a Mounties' opening squib kickoff that kangarooed high off the turf and then off the hands of a North Rockland player on the North Rockland 38. Suffern couldn't muster much from there and ended up punting.

It was Suffern's failure to convert on fourth down that led to much of its misery.

North Rockland scored after Suffern turned the ball over on fourth down on the North Rockland 7 and Suffern's 44- and 46-yard line.

The biggest sting came when, with the game scoreless, the Mounties had a third-and-goal from the North Rockland 1. A poor snap and then a fourth-down fumbled snap gave the ball to North Rockland on its own 7. A blink later, Johnson was galloping 53 yards for the score to put the Red Raiders up 6-0 with 5:51 left in the second quarter. (The kick was wide.)

By the numbers

North Rockland's scored again before the first half ended. Again, its defense played a huge role.

After Johnson's initial score, Suffern went to work from its own 36 after getting the kickoff.

It got to its own 45, where on fourth-and-one it went for it. But North Rockland got penetration and a rush lost a yard, resulting in Suffern turning over the ball.

North Rockland made it a two-touchdown advantage when, after quarterback Chase Perini found wide receiver Ryan Jaslow open for a 29-yard pickup, he found him again with an 18-yard scoring strike. Perini threw the ball perfectly over a defensive back's hands and into the hands of Jaslow, who was a step behind the back. That occurred with just 13.7 seconds left in the half. Johnson then ran in a two-point conversion.

An early Suffern second-half drive quickly fizzled after quarterback Mason Polombo hit Finnegan Mitchell with a quick pass over the middle for a 12-yard gain to the Suffern 44. A few plays later, on a fourth-and-one from the North Rocland 48, Suffern was guilty of a false start, putting it back to its own 47, where it had a fourth-and-six.

It lined up to punt but instead Collin Pringle took the snap and broke for the right sideline. But he was taken down at the Mounties' 46.

North Rockland subsequently had a 46-yard touchdown called back for a hold but didn't seem fazed, immediately starting a drive that was helped out by unsportsmanlike conduct call on Suffern.

Several plays later, on a third-and-10 from the Suffern 14, Johnson ran up the middle and into the end zone, barely, if at all, touched.

After Suffern's next possession ended in a punt a couple of plays after a huge sack by Michael Garofal-Heavner, Johnson again broke free, this time on his 50-yard TD run. That came with 2:44 left in the third quarter.

Before the game ended, North Rockland stopped Suffern on another fourth down. It later got its final two points via a safety off a short pass.

Suffern had some offense, just not a lot. Polumbo threw for 66 yards and rushed for 29. Jake Tarrant had 34 yards receiving and Mitchell had 32. Michael Cromwell picked up 31 yards rushing for the Mounties..

Jamar Aguillard led Suffern's defense with four tackles.

They said it

Of his squad's fourth-down failures, Suffern coach Dan Muller simply said, "They executed. We didn't."

North Rockland coach James Hickey pointed to his team's "physicality" as being a big part of its win.

"The game is won up front," he said. "If we do that, it allows our speed to show. We have elite speed on offense and defense."

Johnson pointed to both the work of his offensive line and his speed when talking about his scores.

"With my track speed, if you give me a little space, I'm gone," he said.

Nancy Haggerty covers cross-country, track & field, field hockey, skiing, basketball, girls lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at both @HaggertyNancy and at @LoHudHockey.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Section 1 football: Fourth-down D and Jaquan Johnson's running lift North Rockland to win