Daily Record from Morristown, New Jersey • Page 21

Daily Record, Morris County, N.J., Sunday, December 8, 1991 WEATHER B1 2 A greati roller coaster ride' LENN ROBBINS Union ends; Ram streak! Early games are made for sadists As. By Christopher Shaw Daily Record UNION TWP, The most improbable run in the history of New Jersey football came to an end in a most improbable fashion yesterday. The second half has always belonged to the Randolph Rams. The endless hours of preparation and their superior conditioning became their greatest ally over the fi-' nal 24 minutes of seemingly every game. However, that wasn't enough to stop Union.

It wasn't enough to keep the longest unbeaten streak in state history alive. Union scored 24 second-half points, 17 in the fourth quarter, to defeat Randolph, 24-14, yesterday in the North Jersey Section 2, Group IV championship game in front of 10,000 fans at Harry R. Cooke Memorial Field at Union High School. The loss, which snapped the Rams' record 59-game unbeaten streak, was the first in more than five years for Randolph, the No. 1 team in the Daily Record area.

Randolph last lost a game, Oct 25, 1986, 14- See RAMS B2 Rumor has it the college basketball season has begun. In fact, a friend recently told me I had missed some great games. Really? In fairness, I started checking the paper for results. And there were some great games if you're a sadist, that is. Arkansas 128, Bethune-Cookman 46.

Only Bethune showed up for the game. North Carolina 109, Cornell 66. Game could have been closer but Cornell's starting five opted to remain home for an optional quantum physics lab. Ohio St. 116, Chicago St.

44. Ohio is a state. Chicago learned it isn't. Arkansas Tech 121, Ozark Bible 68. Ozark Bible followed the 11th commandment: Thou shalt not score or play defense.

Maryland 115, Maryland Eastern-Shore 60. Eastern-Shore misread the schedule, thought it was playing Maryland Western-Shore. Most of the good games were played in places like Hawaii or Alaska. In order to watch those, you had to take an afternoon nap and set you're alarm clock for 1 a.m. The Big East-Atlantic Coast Conference Challenge was played this week and finally it made sense to pay some attention to college basketball.

All the games were in the Eastern time zone and you could be fairly sure a team wouldn't win by 50. i i i i Playoff scoreboard SECTION 1 GROUP II Lenape Valley 28 21 PAROCHIAL Pope John 35 0 SECTION 2 GROUP IV Union 24 14 GROUP III Tr West Morris 0 GROUP II Caldwell 21 Dover 14 GROUP I Brearley 14 Mountain Lakes 13 4 Several coachetfnvolved in The CHRIS PEDOTA Daily Record Randolph's Mike Barrett (20) can only walk away as Union's Danny Taylor (29) celebrates after scoring the tying TD. Wtk A playoff record for Pope John West Morris triumphs 'J By John Rice Daily Record Challenge said they were looking forward to it because the game would serve as a barometer of their team's ability. After Maryland beat Providence, 76-66, Wednesday night in The Meadowlands, coach Gary Williams learned his Terrapins aren't half bad, which is more than he learned after they dusted Jersey Shore, uh, Eastern-Shore. Unfortunately, this is the final year of The Challenge.

The Challenge has been squeezed out, say some coaches, because the NCAA has reduced the number of regular season games a school can play from 30, in to 1988, to 27 next season. Yet you can bet the Bethune-Cook-man's and Ozark Bible's of the world will remain on the schedules of many Top 25 teams. Why? "I want balance in my schedule," said Williams. "I want to play some tough early games and some games that can help build our confidence." Does dusting a school with a hyphenated name really help build confidence for a Seton Hall or a Georgetown or a Maryland or a North Carolina? "Really, you just work on plays and experiment," said North Carolina guard Derrick Phelps. Work on plays and experiment? Sounds an awful lot like practice, to me.

See ROBBINS B6 coached." At Pope John, that's saying a lot. "I was very surprised," said Pope John senior Matt Pe-tronzio when questioned about the lopsided result. "We expected them to be tough. I knew we could do it, but I didn't know how tough it would be." Petronzio, along with junior Mike Johnston, spearheaded a powerful Pope John rushing attack that helped propel the Lions to a 35-0 halftime lead. Petronzio, who finished the season with 170 points and broke the barrier for his career, had 133 yards and two touchdowns.

Johnston, who broke the mark for See LIONS B3 By MATTGLASER Daily Record NUTLEV Pete Piccirillo had what you might call a gut feeling yesterday afternoon. Perhaps it was a "sixth sense," something that has come from coaching the West Morris football team for the last 30 years. "When the score was 0-0 at halftime, I just felt we would take over," Piccirillo said in reference to the Wolfpack's 14-0 North Jersey Section 2, Group III state championship victory over See PACK B2 SPARTA TWP. Pope John's latest state championship was one for the books. In routing Marist 35-0 yesterday, the Lions not only won another North Parochial title; they won it for the sixth straight year.

No New Jersey team has ever done that. "It was a true dream year, with dream coaches and dream players," said Paternostro. "We just came to play football, and the kids came prepared and ready to play and did a great job. "The shutout was a nice go-ing-away present for the seniors. To me, this is the best group of seniors I ever TlM FARREU Daily Record West Morris' Tobin Barkman breaks away for a big gain on a screen pass during yesterday's state playoff game.

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