Football: Hunterdon Central Edges Union, 10-7

UNION, NJ -- When Mike Lukaszewski kicked a 25-yard field goal with 1:36 to go in the second quarter to break a tie, little did anyone at Cooke Field in Union realize that the boot would hold up as the points that decided the game.

But both teams bore down and neutralized each other defensively throughout a second half devoid of big plays, and that left Hunterdon Central with a 10-7 football victory over Union on Friday night.

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Lukaszewski's tiebreaking field goal came after Hunterdon Central (3-2) had driven from the Union 48-yard line to the 9-yard line, where Red Devils coach Casey Ransone opted to send in one of his two placekickers rather than go for it on fourth down. Lukaszewski split the uprights with plenty to spare, a nice outcome for a kid who was playing soccer a year ago.

"Michael was a soccer player until he got cut. Now he plays football," Ransone said. "He was coming off an injury last week, so it was good to see him kick as well as he did."

Hunterdon Central took a 7-0 lead with 3:13 to go in the first quarter. The Red Devils faced a nearly impossible fourth-and-21 from the Union 32-yard line and not only converted the first down, but scored their only touchdown of the night, when quarterback Andrew Cella threw a pass that James Mongno down the right sideline for a 32-yard TD. The Red Devils' other kicker, Leo Paniagua, made the extra point.

Mogngo just made it into the end zone, getting dragged down around the 1-yard line, but being ruled to have crossed the goal line before he hit the ground.

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"It was a wide wheel route, and he got behind (his man)," Ransone said of Mongno's catch. "Andrew Cella is a gutty dude. He had tough brothers who played here, he's only a junior and he is getting better every week."

Union (0-5) came back to tie the game, 7-7, with a 12-play, 80-yard drive capped by David Gardner's 5-yard TD run up the middle and Jordan Brady's extra point kick with 6:59 left in the second quarter. On the sixth play of that drive, Union quarterback O'Malley King completed a 51-yard bomb down to the Hunterdon Central 2-yard line, but the receiver who made the catch came up visibly taunting the Red Devils' defensive back, and the officials penalized Union 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct, moving the ball back to the 17-yard line.

On fourth down and four from the 11, Hunterdon Central lineman Quinten Fisher sacked King for an 11-yard loss, but he was called for a horse collar on the play. Officials did not give Hunterdon Central possession, instead penalizing the Red Devils half the distance to the goal and giving Union another fourth-down try from the 12. King completed a 7-yard pass to Zaire Nash for a first down. Gardner scored on the next play. Gardner finished with 10 carries for 62 yards, and may have been able to gain more, but the Farmers chose to pass the ball on almost every down in the fourth quarter.

"That is not an 0-5 football team over there," Ransone said of Union. "That quarterback of theirs is something else, and they are a classy football team that plays a lot better than the record they have."

In a second half dominated by both defenses, neither team had a gain of more than 14 yards. Union got standout efforts up front on defense from Kervin Desir and Christian Bernal. Hunterdon Central's defense kept the pressure on King with strong performances from Kyle Ettere, A.J. Melo, Oliver Selquist and Fisher.

Hunterdon Central was missing its best lineman, Tyler Suk, who will be out the rest of the season.

"Tyler Suk tore his ACL against Bridgewater-Raritan last week, and that's after we lost our running back, Xavier Arteaga, a very explosive runner, before the season," Ransone said. "I couldn't be more proud of us the way we overcame adversity this week to win tonight. We could have felt sorry for ourselves, and we didn't. I'm really proud of our defense and the way we dug in. I just wish we could have put one more in the end zone. It would have been good for my heart."

Hunterdon Central will host East Brunswick next Saturday. Union, which lost, 14-6, to Westfield last week, will travel to Ridge next Friday night.

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