Mustangs living up to their own standard
The word of the 2023 football season in the City of Clifton is “standard.”
That can refer to several aspects of a program that has reached the last seven NJSIAA tournaments contested, including a sectional-championship run in 2021.
“It’s a standard Clifton football team,” ninth-year coach Ralph Cinque said at the Aug. 7 Super Football Conference Media Day. “We’re going to block, we’re going to tackle, we’re going to execute well, we’re going to be physical – and then, we’ve got some wrinkles.”
Those come along with the return of starting quarterback Romelo Tables, who used the Word of the Season in a different sense.
“Anything less than a state championship is a bad year for Clifton, just because of the standard we’ve set,” the senior signal-caller said.
Tables is one of two sought-after college recruits hoping to push the Mustangs past last year’s 5-5 record. The other, two-way lineman Trumain Lawson, is what Cinque calls “a 10-offer kid.”
Lawson told Varsity Aces Live at SFC Media Day that he is still in the decision-making phase.
“I think there are a lot of schools that want to see what he does as a senior,” Cinque said. “He’s very young for his grade, he doesn’t turn 17 until the end of October. Last year he played at 220 [pounds], this year, he’s 240.”
The tradition
When it comes to offense, Clifton’s standard method of transmission is running the ball early and often. Especially when the team has a second-half lead, clock-grinding drives are the norm.
Yet in the Mustangs’ best seasons this century, quality quarterback play has tipped the championship scales in their favor. All-Passaic QBs Anthony Giordano (Kean University) and Kyle Vellis (Ithaca) led sectional-title drives in 2006 and 2021, respectively.
Tables has at his disposal an all-senior receiver corps this year, so taking to the air may be a slightly more common sight at Clifton Stadium this fall. Maybe.
“If we’re up early and we’ve just got to milk the clock, that’s what we’re going to do, because the goal’s obviously to win,” Tables said. “But if we need to take some shots, we’ll be prepared to, especially this season.”
The challenge
Cinque is 51-31-1 in his Clifton tenure, and he navigated the program through the COVID with relatively little drop-off.
Numbers are still strong, so the coach is emphasizing a focus on accountability to keep things moving in the right direction.
“That sense of, ‘Oh, it’s not my fault’ (when things go wrong) — it’s all our faults. It’s my fault,” the coach said.
“And if it’s my fault, it’s everybody’s fault, right?
“I think we got away from that a little bit during the pandemic… as coaches and mentors of young men, that’s our job, to teach them accountability.”
Expectations
With Lawson up front, the Mustangs’ pass rush is another reason they are optimistic about contending for another title. Tables calls it “our best defensive line in a while,” and Cinque noted, “our defense always is what keeps us in games. And I think when our offense clicks, that’s what puts us over the top.”
The program also is enjoying the use of a new weight room in preparation for the season. Again, though, consistency at Clifton is king.
“The weight room does help,” senior captain Kyano Jimenez said, “but I feel like, we’re still going to grind the same way we did without it.”
2023 schedule
Aug. 26: Montclair at Overpeck Park (Jim Grasso Classic)
Sept. 2: East Orange Campus at Newark Schools Stadium
Sept. 8: at Ridgewood
Sept. 15: vs. Eastside
Sept. 22: vs. Delbarton
Sept. 29: at Passaic
Oct. 6: at Passaic Tech
Oct. 13: vs. Northern Highlands
Oct. 20: vs. Union City