Westwood grounds it out with Dugan, Klein to overpower Weequahic

They have a beautiful new turf field at Untermann Field in Newark, though it was marked by some mighty big holes Saturday night.

But no need to alert the grounds crew about this development unless they can offer some useful tips for Weequahic's defensive front.

These holes were generated by Westwood's steadily progressing offensive line and a backfield that capitalized on their work by eating up large chunks of yardage throughout the telling first half.

"I think Mickey Mouse could have scored a couple of those touchdowns the way they were blocking," senior running back Aidan Dugan said of Luke Biello, Dante Downey, Charles Sarlo, Andrew Myles and Mark Minas.

With Mickey presumably unavailable, senior Steve Klein rushed 17 times for 104 yards and one touchdown, and Dugan carried 14 times for for 81 yards and two TDs to direct Westwood to a 28-14 victory in a cross-divisional Super Football Conference battle.

Klein and Dugan each carried for a score, and senior QB Sean Morrison hit senior Michael Rinaldi with a 5-yard TD pass in the final seconds of the first half to lift the Cardinals (5-1) to a 21-0 lead on the way to their fourth consecutive victory.

"We were glad to come here and get a dominant win like that," Klein said. "It's all about our run game; it's been dominant the entire year."

Or at least that has been so since Westwood launched its current streak with a 27-7 win over Pascack Hills Sept. 13, followed up by an even more impressive 35-13 decision over Caldwell the following week.

"The first two weeks we were kind of finding ourselves out as an offense. Then we had that dominant win against Caldwell. I think we identified ourselves on the line and at the skill positions," Klein said.

"Now it's time to continue to dominate, continue to get better. We're only going to take steps in the right direction from here on out," he said.

That wasn't a comforting notion for Weequahic, and can't be for all the teams situated in Group 2. The Cardinals finished 13-0 to win the Group 2 state title last year.

They did graduate star QB Robbie Carcich from that team, though, along with several quality receivers and both starting offensive tackles. Myles, a senior, and Minas, a junior, have stepped into those roles.

Weequahic also lost numerous standouts from a 10-1 squad to graduation, most notably All-State running back Rashawn "Shady" Marshall, who is now at Maine.

As a result, the Indians (3-3) have been a little up-and-down this season, and that was also true Saturday night.

After being limited to 71 total yards in the first half, Weequahic fought its way back into the game behind senior QB Paul Jones III, who passed for 104 of his 132 yards and hit Adonis Akanda and Tyshaun Boyd with a TD pass in the second half.

With Jones' first completion of the game, a 28-yarder to Boyd in the first half, he scaled 2,000 yards for his career.

But his throwing could not trump the balanced ground attack waged by Westwood, starting with Dugan's 11-yard gain on the opening play of the night. He added runs of 11 and 21 yards in that series, though Klein finished things off with a 10-yard charge through the middle to cap the nine-play, 80-yard drive with 5:58 to go in the first quarter.

"From the beginning of the season to now, there's been a lot if improvement," Dugan said. "We had a lot of new guys coming in."

The Cardinals defeated Mahwah, 28-7, on opening night, but had trouble sustaining offensive drives the next week and fell to Pascack Valley, 21-7, on Sept. 7, to snap a 14-game win streak.

"The loss was a big wakeup. We hadn't lost in awhile," Dugan said. "We definitely worked harder during practices.

"We had some awesome Tuesday, Wednesday practices. We say we win the game during the week, and Tuesday, Wednesday is where you do that," he said.

Westwood grabbed a 14-0 lead on a 5-yard pass from senior QB Sean Morrison to senior Michael Rinaldi to cap a four-play, 41-yard drive with 10:34 to go in the first half.

Morrison was a tidy 7 of 8 in the air for 62 yards, and he rushed nine times for 59 to aid that balanced running game.

"He can run, he can throw, he's just a dude," Klein said of Morrison. "Not a lot of quarterbacks can put their shoulder down and run like that."