Old Tappan football shows no signs of slowing down in win over Eastside

OLD TAPPAN − Midway through the season, there is little doubt that the No. 1 public school football team in North Jersey is Old Tappan.

The Golden Knights lived up to their billing as the new No. 1 in the North Jersey Public Top 20 rankings with a 35-13 victory Friday night over No. 10 Eastside in the Super Football Conference.

Senior Tommy Caracciolo threw two touchdown passes to help Old Tappan (6-0) build a 35-0 lead and trigger a running clock, one year after a young roster endured a 5-6 season.

“It’s the same kids playing, they got a year older, a year tougher, a year bigger, so I’m not surprised we’re doing well,” said Brian Dunn, Old Tappan's longtime coach.

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Caracciolo threw a 12-yard TD pass to junior Evan Brooks in the second quarter for a 14-0 lead and a 37-yard score to junior Christian Greaney for the 35-0 lead at 7:02 of the third.

Senior Jack Diggins, stepping in for injured senior Aidan Heaney, scored on a pair of 3-yard runs to help forge a 28-0 halftime lead.

Old Tappan senior offensive lineman Dylan Plescia scored a TD in the second quarter by recovering a fumble in the end zone for a 21-0 lead.

Eastside (3-3) scored on senior Carnell Goodwin's 12-yard screen pass to junior Romandon Adams late in the third and on a 19-yard run in the fourth by senior Elijah Carroll.

“I’m not really surprised,” Caracciolo said of a 6-0 start in which Old Tappan has outscored opponents, 221-25. “I know what we were capable of. I know how good our team is, and how many people we had coming back that started. So I know we were a pretty confident, athletic team.”

What it means

Old Tappan is ranked No. 17 in the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey Top 25 and could climb when the next rankings are released Tuesday.

Old Tappan is the third team in three weeks to be ranked No. 1 in the North Jersey Public Top 20, because the other two lost, including then-No. 1 Ridgewood losing last week at Eastside, 12-10. Two weeks ago, Ridgewood became No. 1 after knocking off then-No. 1 Passaic Tech, 12-7.

“No disrespect to anybody that we played – that’s the best team we played thus far,” Eastside coach James Magazine said of Old Tappan. “They’re a really good team.”

Key drive

Old Tappan took the opening drive and set a tone with a seven-play, 54-yard TD march in which 52 yards came on the ground. The Golden Knights ran inside to Diggins, who carried four times for 29 yards on the drive that was capped by his 3-yard TD at 8:57.

“Our starting running back was out, Aidan Heaney, and Jack Diggins stepped up to the plate and put up some good rushing yards,” Caracciolo said. “He’s a power back, and Aidan’s more of an elusive back, and we knew we had to come with a different game plan.”

Dunn said Heaney sat out after, “tweaking his knee” in last week’s 45-6 win at River Dell. Asked when Heaney will be back in action, Dunn said, “Don’t know yet.” The Golden Knights host Ramapo next week.

SCOREBOARD:Week 6 high school football scores across North Jersey

By the numbers

Old Tappan outgained Eastside, 293-170. The Golden Knights outgained the Ghosts in the first half, 214-22, and did not allow them inside their 40-yard line.

“I thought we did a great job, especially in the first half, against a real good football team,” Dunn said. “They’ve got some good players, and they play great defense, and I thought the way we ran the ball early on was impressive.”

They said it

“We didn’t play our brand of football,” Magazine said. “We’re usually a very physical team, and they kicked our behinds up and down. Hats off to them.”

“We’ve been playing good defense all year, and I thought we did a great job bottling up their good players,” Dunn said. “They do some really good things on offense, and I thought we did a good job of keeping everybody in front of us. They had a couple of breakouts, but other than that, I thought we did a really good job.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Old Tappan NJ football shows no signs of slowing down, tops Eastside