HS Football: Rutherford Wears Down Wood-Ridge, 28-7

WOOD-RIDGE, NJ - Rutherford defeated Wood-Ridge 28-7 off the back of four Chris Gioia touchdowns on Friday night in a NJIC crossover football game at Donna Ricker Memorial Field. Rutherford moves to 4-2 on the season, as the Blue Devils fell to 4-2-1.

After the Wood-Ridge offense stalled out on their first two drives of the game, the defense came up with a big interception off a deep pass by Bulldogs quarterback Myles Balchan. Jaydin Punt made an over-the-shoulder catch to give the ball back to the Blue Devils on their own 12-yard line.

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On the very next play, Wood-Ridge quarterback Chris Rios ran 47 yards to bring the ball to the Bulldogs 41-yard line.

A few plays later, Benjamin Lopez came up with a huge five-yard run on fourth down to bring the ball to the Rutherford 26-yard line. Rios would then find Melvin Zabaleta on a hitch route, taking the ball 26 yards into the end zone for the score.

Matthew Macchia converted the extra point, making it 7-0 Blue Devils with 11 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

The Bulldogs started the following drive with a screen pass by Balchan to Nick Lora, who would take the ball 15 yards to the Wood-Ridge 48-yard line. Gioia would take over from there, taking the next five carries for Rutherford, topping it off with a six-yard touchdown run.

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Drew Carney would convert the point after, making it a 7-7 ballgame with just under 10 minutes to play in the half.

Carney would set up for a long 49-yard field goal with just two seconds remaining in the half, but the ball fell short of the goal post and would be returned by Chance Iacovino.

Iacovino looked to have some room on the return, but was ultimately stopped on the Blue Devils 47-yard line as both sides left the field for halftime.

Rutherford would once again lean on Gioia as they came out for the second half. After a series of runs to get the Bulldogs down to the Blue Devils redzone, he would take the direct snap on third down nine yards for the touchdown.

Carney would once again convert the extra point, giving Rutherford a 14-7 lead with 6:39 remaining in the third quarter.

The Wood-Ridge offense would come back out with a bang, as Rios found Punt on a second down deep ball, with Punt slipping his way past some Bulldogs defenders to get the ball to the Rutherford six-yard line for the 62-yard completion.

The Blue Devils drive would get stopped here, however, as three consecutive plays for negative yards led to a fourth down attempt where Rios passed to Nicholas Scalera for no gain, giving Rutherford the ball back on their own 14-yard line.

The Bulldogs would let Lora lead the way this time around. After three runs to get the ball into Blue Devils territory, Lora would take the second down run 18 yards into the Wood-Ridge redzone.

Gioia would take it from there, taking the direct snap 13 yards for the touchdown on the next play for his third touchdown of the game. Carney would convert the extra point, making it 21-7 in favor of Rutherford with just over 10 minutes left to play.

After the Wood-Ridge offense went three-and-out on the next drive, Lora and Gioia would take three carries each to get the ball down the field, with the drive being capped off by a 28-yard run from Gioia to give the senior his fourth touchdown of the game.

Carney would convert the point after to make the final score 28-7.

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