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Sophomore quarterback Zach Miceli was a bit piece in Old Tappan’s playoff run to the sectional finals as a freshman in 2023, but the young signal caller has made his mark in 2024.
Miceli ran for two touchdowns and connected with sophomore Shane Small for a passing score as top-seeded Old Tappan held off a late rally from fourth-seeded Cranford in the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 2, Group 3 semifinals at Northern Valley Regional High School in Old Tappan on a windy Friday night and advanced to the sectional final with a 22-14 victory.
Old Tappan’s (9-1) victory sets the stage for a rematch of the season-opening game against second-seeded West Essex, (a 19-7 Old Tappan victory) who defeated third-seeded West Morris 28-14 in its semifinal matchup.
“They’re a great team but we want all the smoke,” Miceli said of the upcoming rematch with West Essex.
“We‘re happy that they’re coming back here because we love that level of competition.”
The level of competition that comes from a sectional final opponent is something Old Tappan has gotten used to, as 2024 will mark a third consecutive season hosting a sectional final game for the Golden Knights.
Old Tappan was in command for the majority of the matchup against Cranford, scoring touchdowns in each of the first three quarters and holding a 22-0 lead thank‘s to Miceli’s trio of touchdowns.
Miceli cedes some snaps at quarterback to senior Alex Orrechio in the Old Tappan offense, but Orrechio’s biggest contributions of the night came in other facets of the game. Orrechio led Old Tappan in receiving yards, recorded two interceptions on defense, and accounted for all of the scoring Miceli did not with a pair of extra points and a two point conversion.
Injuries in the receiving corps pressed Orrechio into action away from quarterback more than weeks past, and Miceli detailed how the available personnel, as well as the defensive looks Cranford gave Old Tappan, played a key role in how the Old Tappan offense approached the matchup.
“Earlier in the week we had two receivers that went down with injuries and Alex helped fill those spots,” Miceli said of Orrechio’s contributions to the victory.
“We knew we had to also run it some more because we were going through the air more when (Cranford) was loading up the box and that opened up some holes. Once they started backing up we knew it was time to run the ball in the second half. That’s what we did and I think the blocking was great and we did a great job overall.”
While Miceli focused primarily on the X‘s and O’s of how Old Tappan‘s offense attacked Cranford’s defense, head coach Brian Dunn pointed to the heavy winds blowing from left to right on the field as an external factor that needed to be accounted for as the game progressed.
Old Tappan had that wind at its back in the third quarter when Miceli scored his second rushing touchdown and third overall of the game, but had to fend off both the Cranford defense and the excessive gusts of wind over the final 12 minutes of play.
“Other than that, we played great defense and did enough to win”, Dunn said of dealing with the elements.
Old Tappan’s defensive effort held Cranford off the scoreboard until the 1:26 mark of the fourth quarter when senior Amari Petgrave scored what looked to be nothing more than a shutout-breaking touchdown after Old Tappan recovered the ensuing onside kick and held a 22-7 lead.
Looking to secure a first down that would run out the remainder of the clock, an Old Tappan fumble was recovered by senior Brandon Dipaolo and taken all the way to the end zone for a scoop and score with only 22 seconds of game time having elapsed since Petgrave’s touchdown.
After recovering a second onside kick, Old Tappan was still in the position of needing to move the chains one final time or run out the clock in some other fashion, the Golden Knights opted for some other fashion on their second attempt.
Kneeling out the clock out of victory formation, combined with Cranford’s two remaining timeouts, would not have used up enough time for Old Tappan to keep hold the ball without needing to punt on a fourth down. Dunn opted to deploy the veteran Orecchio at quarterback to run around the backfield for a few seconds at a time before sliding down.
Orecchio‘s stat sheet may have taken a hit to the tune of 20 rushing yards lost over three scrambles and slides to run out the clock, but that’s a trade any team will make to wrap up a playoff victory.
With Cranford in the rear view mirror and West Essex up next, Dunn acknowledged the quality of any opponent still playing football at this point of the season, and last season’s North Jersey representative in the Group 3 Final is one of the highest quality opponents one can run into.
“It‘s the same teams that are in the mix every year, and we’ve just got to beat them to move on,” Dunn said.
Cranford concludes its 2024 campaign with a 7-3 record, an improvement on its 4-5 showing in 2023.
While the furious comeback effort fell short at the end, Cranford head coach Erik Rosenmeier, was proud of the heart his team showed in fighting until the clock showed 0:00 in the fourth quarter.
Rosenmeier lamented the team’s self-inflicted wounds that created the 22 point deficit initially, but pointed to the compete level that the desperation of a fourth quarter deficit brought out in his players.
“You play with desperation when you think the season is going to end, but the key for the coaches is to try and get them to play like that all season long,” Rosenmeier said.
“Sometimes we were successful at doing that, sometimes we weren‘t. We didn‘t play with that same desperation in the first half. It should have been a 7-0 game and that’s the tough part of it. There’s no do overs, we just came up short.”
Shane Small had a touchdown catch in the second quarter.
