The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 57

DECEMBER 5, 1375 Business Sports. Racing C-21-23 C-1-2D SCO Four Be teaim S7 its State champs Group 1: Heights trims Mahwah, 24-6 Ridgefield Park nips Highlands in Group 3, 7-6 '-Vs. Y''A A -v Jtl I I 'J Mi'- i I I 1 1 1 I -r -MhPm By Ron Drogo Start Wnter EAST RUTHERFORD Both Ridge-field Park coach Pete Natale and Northern Highlands coach Fred Conrad spoke of frustration yesterday. But while Natale' frustration lasted for only one half of one football game, Conrad's is entering its second year. Frustration for Natale was seeing his team drive deep into Highland territory four times in the first half and come away with no points.

Frustration for Conrad was seeing the Scarlets score with 18 seconds left in the third quarter and having Tom Dougherty's extra-point kick give Ridgefield Park a 7-6 victory over the Highlanders in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Associations Group 3, North Jersey Section 1 championship playoff. "I thought we played a great game-especially defensively," said Conrad after his team suffered its second straight close loss to Ridgefield Park in sectional finals. "We gave up a lot of yards in the first half, but we hung in there. I really have to hand it to them, they did another great job stopping us. I don't know what we have to do to beat them." Through the first half, it looked as though Ridgefield Park would be totally dominant and the score still would be close as happened in the Scarlets 10-8 win over the Highlanders last year.

But, ironically, Ridgefield Park didn't domi-See RIDGEFIELD PARK, Page C-7 Parochial St. avenges '75 loss, By John Rowe Staff Wnter RUTHERFORD St. Mary's offensive linemen have spent a season in anonymity. Only the most rabid Gaels' fan can name the interior five linemen. While the backs received all the headlines and cheers, the linemen had to be content with a slap on the back from coach Bruce Bartlett.

Joe O'Connor, Bill Furrek and Mark Chiavcllo suffered the lot of a lineman, doing their jobs well and getting little attention. But the St. Mary's line was in the spotlight yesterday. The Gaels controlled the line of scrimmage like it was a beachhead in World War II. The offen star Brian Wexlcr (22) exult as clock ticks off final seconds in Group 4 playoff tiart pnoto Dy W.

Peter Monse unn over Bayonne. Group 2: Tenaf ly crushed by Sparta, 34-7 Group 4: Bergenfield topples Bayonne, 19-8 4 sectional playoff victory before 10.416. DeMarinis forced a Bayonne fumble with a vicious tackle on ihe final play of the third period, giving the Bears the ball on the Bayonne 15-yard line. And in the game's final minute, he threw a crushing downfield block to spring Brian Wcxler on his 50-yard touchdown run. But it was team defense that carried the Bears to the Group 4 sectional final, and team defense that carried the Bears to their second title in four years yesterday.

Bergenfield allowed Bayonne just 12 yards total offense in the second half and 153 in the game, 71 coming on a See DEFENSE; Page C-8 By Marty Noble Staff Wnter MAHWAH Having scouted Has-brouck Heights' football team thoroughly, Mahwah coach Ed Caporale was concerned most about the Aviators' team speed and their passing game. The cold weather predicted for yesterday's Group 1, North Jersey Section 1 playoff final also was a major concern. Caporale didn't discount Heights' fullback Bob Fioravanti or the Aviators' running attack, but in the aftermath of Heights' 24-6 victory he realized he had underestimated both. It was the ground game in general and Fioravanti's power running in particular that carried Heights to its second straight sectional championship in the New Jersey State Interschnlestic Athletic Association tournament. Fioravanti scored three touchdowns and all but two of his team's points as Heights won the battle of unbeatens and finished its second straight unbeaten season with an 11-0 record.

He gained 178 yards, carrying 30 times. "We didn't stop their running game, and Fioravanti was spectacular. It was as simple as that," Caporale said. "There are no excuses." Mahwah fell behind, 16-0, in the first seven minutes and never was able to recover. The Thunderbirds lost two key players in the first half.

Linebacker-guard Tom Kort suffered a separated See FIORAVANTI, Page C-7 ing the ball four times three on fumblesthe Spartans executed like a well-oiled machine. "I was surprised at the way they handled our defense," said Firkser. "Nobody ever scored that many points on us before." The interior line of Gary Dellavec-chia, Vito Trapasso. Chris Newcombe and John Sharpe helped Spartan backs Ernie Logsdon and Doug Moran run ta better their 100-yard days to pace the Spartans. The Tigers started quickly, stopping Sparta the first time it had possession and moving to the Sparta 33.

But an offensive pass interference penalty See TENAFLY, Page C-9 Capitalizing on a' opening" -kickoff fumble, St. Louis scored in the game's opening four minutes on Hart's five-yard pass to tight end J. V. Cain. Baltimore rebounded to a 7-7 tie, but the Cards surged to their 21-10 lead on a 41-yard Hart pass to Terry Metcalf and Steve Jones' four-yard touchdown run.

A 22-yard field goal by Toni Linhart represented Baltimore's additional scoring through the opening half, and the Colts pulled to 21-17 midway through the third quarter on Bert Jones' 30-yard pass to Raymond Chester. A fumble by Don McCauley thwarted a later Baltimore bid, however, and the Cards converted Jones' bobble in the final period into a 22-yard Jim Bakken field goal in the final three minutes. See CARDS, Page C-4 and the Sonics were called for a 24-second violation. However, Frazier missed three foul shots in a row at 3:43 remaining to prevent the Knicks from taking the lead. But baskets by Spencer Haywood and Frazier put the Knicks ahead, 96-94, with 2:09 left.

Monroe hit a jumper with 1:31 remaining and Lonnie Shelton, who had 19 points, made four foul shots in a row to clinch the win. The Knicks had a run of 11 straight points and a 103-94 lead before Slick Watts scored for Seattle with 30 seconds left, ending a four-minute drought in which the Sonics didn't score a field goal. See KNICKS, Page C-2 Cards stay alive Bergenjield coach Bob Tagheri and Mary's 49-14 sive line was superb as the Gaels routed Pope John of Sparta, 49-14, to win the North Jersey Parochial title in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association playoffs. Center O'Connor, guards Furrer and Mike Formisano and tackles Tom Brown, Chiavcllo and Sean Moran all should have received game balls. Their superior blocking opened up a ground game which rolled up 351 yards rushing.

The Gaels didn't throw a pass, didn't have to punt and turned an expected close game into a rout. St. Mary's had eight offensive possessions and scored on seven. St. Mary's thus avenged last year's See ST.

MARY'S, Page'C-8 David Thompson 1 i I By Mike Farber Start Writer EAST RUTHERFORD Bergenfield coach Bob Taglieri's heart, which was already thumping double time, skipped a beat when he saw linebacker Vin De-Marinis holding his leg on the Giants Stadium floor early in the third period. "I ran out there and he said. 'Coach, tape me Taglieri said. "We taped him and he played the whole second half on one leg. He was amazing." Amazing is not the only adjective Taglieri or the Bayonne players used to describe DeMarini's second-half heroics in the Bears' 19-8 New Jersey State interscholastic Athletic Association Group AP Ptioto Suddenly, David is discovered By Paul Schwartz Correspondent TENAFLYNeither Sparta nor Tena-fly was cspeded to do anything fancy in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association North Jersey Group 2 Section 1 championship football game yesterday and neither did.

But Sparta did the basics better than Tenafly and walked off with a 34-7 victory over the Tigers to take the title. "We just made too many mistakes," said Tenafly coach Buzz Firkser. "We're a bread-and-butter team, but you can't have bread and butter unless you execute." While Tenaflv didn't execute well, los ances to keep it from happening." While boosting its record to 9-4, St. Louis moved a half-game ahead of the Washington Redskins, 8-4, in the scramble for a National Conference wild-card berth in NFL playoffs. Meanwhile, Baltimore, the league's top offensive club, dipped to 10-3 and watched its division lead in the American Conference East shrink to a half-game over the New England Patriots, 9-3.

Colts Coach Ted Marchibroda saluted St. Louis for an explosive start which sent the Cards to a 21-10 halftime lead. "But the real story of the game was our turnovers." said Marchibroda, whose team lost four fumbles and suffered a last-minute interception. "Any time you turn the ball over to a team like St. Louis that often, you can't expect to win.

We just didn't have a good day and they had an exceptional first half." has angrily denied reports that the Knicks are considering replacing coach RedHolzman with former star Willis Reed. The Knicks looked ready to lose their seventh game in a row when they fell behind by 13 points in the third quarter. However, Seattle, which had snapped a 15-game road losing streak by winning in Philadelphia Friday night, couldn't stand prosperity. The Sonics started taking poor shots and the Knicks got back in the game. Monroe, who had 10 of his 18 points in the last quarter, hit two jump shots in a row to cut Seattle's lead to 91-90 with 5:05 left.

Leonard Gray then scored for Seattle, but Walt Frazier scored for the Knicks ST. LOUIS (AP) Jim Hart threw two touchdown passes, Jim Otis ran for 107 yards, but a beleagured St. Louis defense basked equally in the euphoria of a 24-17 Cardinals victory over the Baltimore Colts yesterday. "I don't think we've played any better all year long." said John Zook, a Cards stalwart at defensive end. "Considering the field position they (Colts) had all day and the kind of offense they have, I know it was," Zook exalted of labors restricting Baltimore to touchdowns in the first and third quarters plus a field goal.

"It had to be one of our better efforts. We needed desparately to win," Coach Don Coryell acknowledged of a St. Louis triumph which kept Cards playoff hopes alive. "At any time they could have exploded and blown us right off the field. It just took some super perform 1 v- I i 'v Jt Knicks end slump, 103-98 By Larry Schwartz Stat) Wnter UNIONDALE, N.Y.

It was as though the Denver Nuggets had played in a vacuum, that all those victories the past two years were just a figment of the imagination of something called the American Basketball Association. Yes, David Thompson had been an outstanding player at North Carolina State, but didn't he retire rather than go into professional basketball? Yes. it had been rumored Bobby Jones was a superb all-around player, but almost everybody thought that meant Jones was a great putter, great driver and had great iron shots when he was winning all those golf tournaments in the 1920s. But now the public is discovering the Nuggets are golden, not pyrite. Playing their first season in the National Basketball Association after the merger of the NBA and ABA, the Nuggets are doing better than the struggling Golden State Warriors, the tradition-rich Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers, supposedly the best team money could buy.

Led by Thompson. Jones, Dan Issel and a solid bench, the fastbreaking Nuggets have won 70 per cent of their first 20 games. Only two clubs in the 22-team league have a better record. "It was like we never existed before," says 5-foot-7 guard Monte Towe, the smallest player in the league. "Now that we have the title of NBA it means a lot more for the Denver Nuggets.

But right now we're still kind of a side show." The side show crosses the country much in the manner of a Barnum Bailey circus. Sellout crowds are the rule when the Nuggets play, not the exception (such as when they play at Nassau Coliseum). The general public, which had never been exposed to the ABA because of the league's failure to obtain a national TV contract, gapes at the newest wonder. By John Rowe Staff Wnter NEW YORK The Knicks finally made some news on the court, instead of off it. last night.

They won a basketball game. Earl Monroe supplied the fourth-quarter offense and the Knicks at long last played some tight defense to beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 103-96. The win snapped New York's five-game losing streak and the six-game winning streak Seattle had over the Knicks. Off the court, the Knicks admitted they, like many other teams, are interested in Buffalo star Bob McAdoo if and when he's available to the highest bidder. And team president Michael Burke "It's like we're playing basketball without trunks," says coach Larry Brown.

As the Nuggets journey, they are besieged by the media in every city that knew nothing about a red, white and blue basketball. Television cameras are in the locker room until just before the opening tap. Notebooks and tape recorders are thrust into players' faces. The Nets, who upset the Nuggets for the last ABA championship in May, would be undergoing the same treatment by the media and playing before the same full houses, but they lost their star attraction. Julius Erving, See NBA FAN'S, Page C-2.