Ridgewood Football Team Comes Out in Second Half for Big Win Over Ramapo

FRANKLIN LAKES − At halftime, Colin Burns and Ridgewood were challenged to look within themselves for answers rather than looking at their coaches.

Burns ran for three touchdowns in the second half and the Maroons’ defense scored in the final minute to seal Friday’s 29-17 victory over Ramapo in the Super Football Conference.

“We started the game pretty slow, but the talk in the locker room really changed our minds,” Burns said. “And that really meant a lot to me.”

“There wasn’t a lot of adjustments, other than a character check of our kids,” Ridgewood coach Torre Watson said. “We had a great game plan on both sides of the ball, and we just couldn’t execute it in the first half. They were playing harder than us and faster.”

Burns, a senior, scored on runs of 10, 67 and 62 yards to give Ridgewood (3-0) a 22-10 lead heading into the fourth quarter of this SFC Liberty Red Division matchup.

Maroons senior defensive end Max Caruso sealed the victory and the comeback from a 10-0 halftime deficit by returning a fumble 27 yards for a TD in the final seconds.

Ramapo, which reorganized after reaching the Group 4 state final last year, scored on its first two possessions to lead 10-0. Senior Charlie Wingfield kicked a 21-yard field goal, and junior Liam Hayward capped a 10-play, 60-yard drive with a 2-yard TD run.

“We tackled well in the first half. The second half, the tackles weren’t there,” said Nick Guttuso, who is in his first season as Ramapo’s coach after a long stint as an assistant with the Green Raiders and the previous two seasons under Demarest. “So we’ve got to focus on that again and we’ve got to execute the offense.”

What this means

Ridgewood is expected to enter the New Jersey Super 25 rankings after receiving votes last week following scoreless wins over Clifton and Montclair.

The Maroons are No. 5 in the Northern New Jersey Top 20, one spot ahead of Ramapo, and should do no worse than hold that spot.

“We started slow, we were down 10-0, and when we got into the locker room, there wasn’t a lot of adjustments to make,” Caruso said. “We found out who we were, and we kind of unlocked that. And now we know we’re here to compete.”

In figures

Ridgewood rushed for 256 total yards, including 189 in the second half and a turnover on his first possession. Burns’ three TDs all came on runs to the right, and he carried the ball 14 times for 164 yards, with nine carries in the second half for 151 yards.

“I love the quote, ‘Tough people get out of tough situations,’” Burns said. “We had our backs against the wall and our offense did exactly what we’ve done all season.”

Ramapo had 278 total yards, including 160 in the first half, and lost two possessions. The Green Raiders didn’t make any big plays, the longest being a 16-yard pass from junior Casey Grusser to junior receiver Sal Livoti on a fourth-and-9 to help set up Hayward’s fourth-quarter TD.

They said it

“I’m obviously disappointed with the result, but I give Ridgewood all the credit,” Guttuso said. “They played a great game, and we just have to get better.”

“Our guys didn’t give up, they didn’t give up,” Watson said. “In the first half, we didn’t play to our potential. We were fortunate to get close, and the challenge for them at halftime was to play our style of football and do what we were capable of doing.”

This article was originally published on NorthJersey.com: Ridgewood NJ football team powers into second half, beats Ramapo