Bulldogs edge Westfield on Rositano’s field goal block.
The first play of the game was not exactly what the Stone Bridge Bulldogs had in mind to start the season. The Westfield Bulldogs opened the game on a double pass to score the game’s first touchdown. On the first play from scrimmage, quarterback Danny Fenyak threw the ball to Mack Spees, who then threw a 69-yard pass to Gary Turner to give Westfield an early 6-0 lead. The score stayed the same after James Johnson blocked kicker James Crossett's extra point attempt.
With Stone Bridge in a rebuilding year after losing most of their last year starters to college, Spenser Rositano stepped in and had a breakout game, even if it didn’t start well.
“That first ball was kind of my fault,” Rositano said. “I should have dropped back. I came running up to fill in the screen, and then [Fenyak] threw the ball to [Turner] and they scored a touchdown.”
Even though Westfield had run the play once in practice, Rositano said that he hadn’t seen it, and didn’t know that Westfield had it in their repertoire.
Despite being down early, Stone Bridge kept their heads up. On the kickoff, Stone Bridge running back Marcus Harris took the ball 57 yards down the field to the Westfield 31-yard line. The drive was completed when Rositano scored a touchdown on a one-yard run, and kicker Abdul Shaban made the extra point to put Stone Bridge up 7-6.
The big drive of the night for Stone Bridge was an eight and a half minute march down the field that started in the first quarter, and went into the second. The 75-yard drive took 18 plays, and ended with Kyle Gouveia’s three-yard run to put Stone Bridge up 14-6 with 5:40 left in the first half.
Westfield’s next drive saw the team at Stone Bridge’s 29-yard line after a pass interference was called on Stone Bridge. Fenyak worked his way down the field to the Stone Bridge three-yard line, and called a time out with 29 seconds left on the clock. After coming back onto the field, Westfield’s Fenyak threw a touchdown to tight end Mitch Castleberry. Westfield then attempted a two-point conversion to tie the game, but failed, keeping Stone Bridge up by the score of 14-12.
The score remained the same going into half time after Stone Bridge quickly moved up the field at the end of the second quarter and attempted a 47-yard kick with one tenth of a second remaining on the scoreboard. Rositano’s kick was short, and no good.
Stone Bridge head coach Mickey Thompson said that half time was focused on defense.
“We talked about making defensive adjustments,” Coach Thompson said. “We barely got to talking about the offense.”
Each team’s first series in the third quarter ended in punts. Stone Bridge’s second drive was stopped after quarterback Brian Rody was intercepted by Westfield’s Bo Hartman. That set up Kendall Anderson’s 42-yard run for a touchdown. After Westfield attempted and missed another two-point conversion, the score was 18-14 in Westfield’s favor with just over five minutes left in the quarter.
On the next play from scrimmage, Stone Bridge answered back with a 66-yard double pass score of their own. According Rositano, the play was added just this week in practice.
“I acted like I was going to block. I was waiting for the corner and safety to move over when they saw the pass. Right when I saw them move, I just ran as fast as I could, and Kyle Gouveia threw a perfect ball.”
Coach Thompson knew that something as huge as that play would be important for Stone Bridge to come out the winners.
“We aren’t stable in one area that we can go to consistently, so we have to have a big play,” Coach Thompson said.
The touchdown ended up being the game winner, as Stone Bridge was able to eat up the clock to hold on to a 21-18 lead.
However, before the game was over, Westfield made it interesting. The fourth quarter had barely started when Westfield had a 4th and 12 on the Stone Bridge 32. Westfield decided to kick the field goal, but Crosset's kick wasn’t long enough, and Stone Bridge took over on downs. The home team’s series ate up eight minutes of quarter, but was stopped when Stone Bridge faced a 4th and 10 at Westfield’s 42 yard line. Coach Thompson went for it, but Rositano couldn’t gain any ground, and Stone Bridge turned the ball over to Westfield.
“We weren’t kicking very well anyways, so we decided to just run something we thought we could get,” Coach Thompson said.
Westfield had the ball with three minutes left in the game, and Dylan Doty found space to run and took the ball all the way to Stone Bridge’s 28-yard line. Fenyak then hit Castleberry with a 23-yard pass, and Westfield had the ball at the Stone Bridge seven with 1:11 to go. After Fenyak spiked the ball to stop the clock, he tried twice to hit Castleberry in the right corner of the end zone. Both attempts failed, and Westfield put the game in the foot of Crossett. Westfield attempted a 23 yard field goal that would have tied the game with around 58 seconds remaining. Rositano was able to get a hand on the ball, and blocked the kick to seal the game for Stone Bridge.
“I originally wasn’t supposed to blitz,” Rositano said. “I was just reading tight end, and since tight end sat, I just I saw this hole. Right when he sat I ran up and jumped up as high as I could get and just got a piece of the ball.”
Even though his team lost, Turner was pleased with how the game went.
“I thought we did pretty good,” Turner said. “Coach gave us assignments, we all ran it. We performed it. We just came up a little short in the end.”
Turner ended up with 119 receiving yards, including the 69 yard catch he had to score the first touchdown.
“We just have to continue to bring the intensity that we had in the first half,” Turner said. “We needed to have the drive, both mentally and physically through the whole game. We can’t let half time bring us down. We have to pick it up and have it throughout the whole game.”
After the game, Coach Thompson said that this game was the most intense that he has had since coming to Stone Bridge.
Even after the victory, the Stone Bridge head coach feels like the team can improve.
“We've got a lot of work to do on both sides, but just to win a game like this against an opponent like that and a tradition like that, that says a lot for our kids,” Coach Thompson said. “It's a great lift for us.”
