Football: New Providence Holds Off Gov. Livingston, 13-12

NEW PROVIDENCE, NJ -- New Providence came up with two big defensive stops in the final minute to hold on for a 13-12 football victory over Gov. Livingston on Friday night.

The visiting Highlanders, trailing by one point, had driven from their own 6-yard line inside the Pioneers' 35 with a minute to go.

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On third down and seven, GL quarterback Lucciano Santamaria was stopped by New Providence's Mike Petses after a 1-yard gain. Gov. Livingston was whistled for a pre-snap five-yard penalty to set up fourth-and-11 from the 36 with the clock running. Santamaria dropped back to pass, couldn't find anyone open and started sprinting out to his left, but Pioneer lineman Jameson Moore stepped up, filled the gap and dropped the GL QB for a 2-yard loss to return possession to New Providence with 5.7 seconds left, sealing the game.

"I got extention there and I knew he was gonna scramble," Moore said. "I saw that he was taking off (to run out of the pocket), and I just knew that I was making that tackle."

T.J. Munn, New Providence's senior quarterback and safety, said, "My friend Jameson Moore had the best game of his life tonight."

New Providence improved its record to 2-0, but both of the Pioneers' victories have been earned with grit far more than with style points. Indeed, Gov. Livingston (0-2) had the home team on its heels with the rugged running of senior halfback Jack Dally providing the thrust.

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Dally scored both of the Highlanders' TDs, a 2-yard run with 5:31 left in the second quarter and a 21-yard run wuth 2:49 to go in the third quarter. GL had taken possession after a punt on the New Providence 37-yard line with 3:25 left in the third quarter. Dally gained 22 yards on a first-down run and then, after a 5-yard Highlander procedure penalty, he took a handoff was hit at the line of scrimmage, but spun out, kept his legs moving and broke free for a 21-yard TD run that gave GL a 12-7 lead.

"He was a bull tonight," New Providence coach Chet Parlavecchio Jr. said of Dally. "He might have been the best kid on the field out there tonight."

But GL's attempt at a two-point conversion run was snuffed out when Dally was stopped short of the goal line on a run. Dally gained 111 yards on 10 carries in the second half alone.

But as quick as GL had grabbed the momentum, New Providence seized it back thanks to Owen Silver, who took the ensuing kickoff at his 5-yard line, took off straight down the field and returned the kick 95 yards for a touchdown with 2:36 left in the third quarter for a 13-12 lead. Silver stayed straight as an arrow on his run and never veered outside the hash marks on either side as he took the kick back to the house.

"I don't know if I even made one cut on that return," Silver said. "I got a cross and then a wedge up the middle. I got the blocks. We were getting it taken to us before that, but we toughed down and stepped up. I was thinking, 'If I return this kick, it changes the whole game'."

Munn had given New Providence a lead with a 15-yard TD run on fourth-and-11 with 10:52 left in the second quarter followed by Jack Fitzgerald to make the score 7-0. But, after that, the Pioneers had only one more first down until midway through the fourth quarter.

"I thought defensively we played a decent game," Parlavecchio said. “We usually managed to keep everything in front of us, and when we had to, we bowed up and got the job done.”

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