Saturday, September 8, 2007

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Old Tappan QB Kyle Jensen surging ahead for positive yardage during the Golden Knights' 40-14 win over Ramapo on Friday night.

FRANKLIN LAKES – The title is the same, it is the job description that has changed for Old Tappan’s Jamie Rowe. Rowe was a starting running back for the Knights last season, but he shared the backfield with all-county tailback Mo Ghotok. With Ghotok now graduated, the job of running behind a big and physical offensive line has been inherited by Rowe and he has, literally, taken the ball and run with it.

Facing rival Ramapo on Friday night in the season opener, Rowe went off. He scored all three of Old Tappan’s second-quarter touchdowns, tacked on another early in the third quarter and finished with 226 yards on just 13 carries as the Golden Knights cruised to a 40-14 triumph at Ramapo High School.

“It’s always important to open the season playing well,” said Rowe. “I thought we were a little too excited early on, but we tried to stay calm. Once we got going, we knew we were in good shape to come out of here with a win.”

Ramapo controlled the possession throughout most of the first quarter and then into the second and had a chance to take the lead on a Ross Krautman 32-yard field goal try, but it went wide left.

Andrew Imperatore scored one of Ramapo's two TDs.

One play later, Rowe turned the momentum Old Tappan’s way for good when he went 67 yards to get deep into Green Raiders’ territory. He opened the scoring one play later when he went off tackle from 13 yards out. Rowe added touchdown runs of 14 and 8 yards late in the half as the Golden Knights opened up a 21-0 lead.

“With the way my offensive line played, my job was easy,” added Rowe. “All I had to do was hit the holes and get into the secondary. Once I got there, I didn’t have too much trouble breaking tackles.”

Old Tappan put the game out of reach when it scored on its first two possessions of the second half. Kyle Jansen hit Sean Wiggers on an out route for a 3-yard touchdown, and Rowe busted through a hole and went 40 yards to paydirt on his final carry of the evening to make it 33-0.

“Them scoring right out of halftime really took the wind out of our sails,” said Ramapo head coach Drew Gibbs. “We needed to get a stop late in the half and one coming out of halftime and we didn’t get either of them. The big play hurt us and we never responded after they got one on us. It was a struggle out there, especially with (21) new starters on the field. We hope that we can learn from this and get better for next week.”

Old Tappan's Jamie Rowe rolled up 226 yards and four scores on just 13 carries.

Ramapo actually had a chance, however slim, to get back in the game early in the fourth quarter. After a pair of touchdowns -- one on a quarterback sneak by Andrew Weiss and another on a 74-yard jaunt by Andrew Imperatore -- the Green Raiders recovered a fumble deep in Golden Knights’ territory trailing by 33-14.

That glimmer of hope was quickly dashed on the very next play when Jordan Scaduto stepped in front of a Weiss pass and picked it off. He raced untouched 89 yards for the final score of the contest.

“We made mistakes, but overall we had a pretty good effort out there tonight,” said Northern Valley/Old Tappan head coach Brian Dunn. “I thought we did a good job on the line of scrimmage and our halfbacks did a job of running the football and blocking as well. We tried to stay even-keeled throughout the whole day and we started to play much better in the second quarter. Once we got into a rhythm, we were playing good football and we were tough to stop.”

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