Westwood football picks up where it left off with decisive win over Mahwah

WASHINGTON TWP. − Sean Morrison's first pass was a touchdown. His second throw also went for a score.

Morrison and Westwood began a new season and new era with a fast start and 28-7 victory over Mahwah on Thursday night in the Super Football Conference American Red Division.

Morrison, among the few veteran returnees from last season's unbeaten Group 2 state title team, threw TD passes of 12 and 40 yards to a fellow senior, receiver Michael Rinaldi.

“I was just excited,” Morrison said of his two TD passes. “I got to throw to one of my lifelong best friends, and it’s a great feeling just scoring and putting points on the board.”

Morrison is best remembered for kicking last year's title-winning extra point in overtime in the 21-20 win over Rumson-Fair Haven, and he's in his first season as the quarterback. He went 4-for-9 for 73 yards, two TDs and no turnovers.

Westwood scored on its first four possessions. Junior running back Steve Klein opened the scoring on a 25-yard run, and his 1-yard score midway through the second quarter provided the 28-7 lead.

Mahwah, shut out in its previous three meetings against Westwood, used a trick play for its score. Sophomore Mikey Branagh took a pitch, ran right and threw a 76-yard TD to wide-open junior Elijah Dickson to cut the deficit to 21-7.

“We’re young and we didn’t tackle very well in the first half,” Mahwah coach Adam Szuch said. “Our kids bought in on the game plan, and they were in the right spots, but you’ve got a defending Group 2 state champion. ... But we shut them out in the second half. We haven’t done that in a very long time, so there’s a lot of positives from it.”

What it means

Westwood’s connection with last year is it now has a 14-game winning streak dating back to last year's season-opening, 44-12 win over South Plainfield.

Other than that, the Cardinals know thoughts of last season matter little for all these new faces, and a big showdown awaits Sept. 7 at Pascack Valley.

“Like we said from Day 1, we’re not asking them to be anyone but themselves,” Westwood coach Bobby Guy said. “We’re not expecting them to be last year’s team. There’s obviously some tradition and pride that comes with it, but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

By the numbers

Westwood had 288 total yards, including 215 on the ground.

Klein rushed 10 times for 102 yards and two TDs, almost all of it in the first half. Morrison, who had his team’s first tackle at cornerback and converted all four extra points, also showed stellar speed and carried 12 times for 50 yards, including taking a knee for a loss on the final play of the game.

“He threw the ball great, had great reads, ran the ball effectively,” Guy said of Morrison. “He’s only going to get better.”

With Branagh at quarterback, Mahwah was able to move the ball in the first half, collecting 167 of its 196 yards in the first two quarters. In the second half, the Thunderbirds only managed two first downs.

They said it

“We came out firing on all cylinders,” Guy said. “The offense looked really great at the beginning. Sean threw a couple of nice passes downfield. They got us on a trick play, but I thought we played great defense tonight. When we got the ball down in the red zone [in the second half], we got a little stagnant, which is something we can definitely work on.”

“It can be better, it can always be better,” Morrison said. “We came out firing in the first half, and in the second half we kind of came out dead. We’ve got to be better and fly around all day.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Westwood football picks up where it left off with decisive win over Mahwah