Ravens score, but Scotties get win

ROBBINSVILLE » The Robbinsville High football team may not have a win yet, but at least they finished Friday night’s Homecoming Game with something to feel good about.

The Ravens scored their first points of the season and then outplayed visiting Bordentown in the second half.

Robbinsville had been shut out in its first two games.

The Scotties, however, were the superior team in the opening 24 minutes and ended up winning the game, 35-14, in front of a large crowd at the Steven J. Mayer Athletic Complex.

Bordentown (2-1) scored on its opening possession when Noah Jackson hooked up with Jacquey Mendez for a 41-yard touchdown.

That turned out to be a theme throughout the night as Mendez hauled in four passes for 138 yards. The senior also had two huge fourth quarter interceptions to halt Robbinsville drive.

Jayden Bryant added touchdown runs of seven and five yards sandwiched around an 11yard plunge by fullback Andrew Baranowski as the Scotties built a 28-0 advantage.

Dan Surtz tossed a four-yard touchdown pass to Jack Shea as time expired in the first half to cap a 65-yard drive in less than a minute.

That seemed to fire the Ravens (0-3) up for the second half and they turned in easily their best 24 minutes of the season.

“We kept the offense on the field and their defense started getting gassed,” Robbinsville coach Andrew Patterson said. “Our key the first couple games is our offense is always three and out and we’re playing fresh defenses. We finally got a couple drives going, a couple first downs and they got as many kids as we do and have nobody to sub in either. We finally flipped the table on that.”

Led by Branford Kanagawa, Robbinsville’s defense started stuffing the run and put the Scotties in 3rd-and-long.

When Surtz capped an 85yard drive on the first play of the fourth quarter with a one-yard touchdown run on 4th-and-goal, the Ravens trailed 28-14.

Down two scores, they drove the ball inside the Bordentown 20 before Mendez picked off Surtz at the 3-yard line.

But Matt Giordano intercepted Jackson on the ensuing possession and the Ravens again drove inside the 20 before Mendez steppe in front of receiver and picked off Surtz at the 10.

Surtz, a sophomore in his first varsity start, finished 12-for-23 for 153 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions.

“He grew exponentially today,” Patterson said. “He’s a gamer. He’s very critical of himself and always wants to get better, which is good. He’s probably going to think about a couple of those interceptions, but he’s going to see exactly how far he came tonight.”

Bryant, on his 28th carry of the night, burst 50 yards against a worn down defense to ice the game. Bryant ended up with 149 yards on the ground.

Bordentown was penalized 12 times for 106 yards, while Robbinsville was hit with nine for 75 yards.

Bordentown (2-1) 7 Robbinsville (0-3) 0 First Quarter B—

Mendez 41 pass from Jackson (Schroeder kick)

Second Quarter B— B— B— R—

Bryant 7 run (Schroeder kick) Baranowski 11 run (Schroeder kick) Bryant 5 run (Schoreder kick) Shea 4 pass from Surtz (Lake kick)

Fourth Quarter R— B— 21 7 0 0 7 — 7 —

Surtz 1 run (Lake kick) Bryant 50 run (Schroeder kick)

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