The last time Pascack Valley football started its season with a victory was three years ago. But on Friday night, the Indians made a statement, and now boast a 1-0 record for the first time since 2015.

Pascack Valley started off the 2018 season strong, as the Indians defeated Dwight Morrow of Englewood, by a final of 47-6 in front of raucous, green-wearing home crowd.

“Our kids took care of business tonight. That was the goal, to go 1-0 and just taking care of business,” said coach Len Cusumano.

PV led 21-0 after just one quarter of play, after a pair of rushing touchdowns from Jake WIlliams and another from James Allmers. PV’s rushing attack played a huge role offensively; both the offensive line and running backs had plenty of success powering through the Maroon Raider defense. Williams finished his night with 75 yards on the ground and 3 TD’s, while Allmers ran for 67 yards and 1 TD.

“[The offensive line] got off the ball really well,” said senior Andrew Demboski. “And [the backs] did an oustanding job running the ball.”

The passing game was also on-point for Valley, as Stephen Begen demonstrated clear growth in his second season as a starting quarterback. Begen threw for 53 yards while showing a rapport with senior wideout Joe Campagna, who finished with 3 catches for 47 yards.

“He put in a great offseason,” Cusmano said of his junior signal-caller. “He’s stronger, he’s faster, he’s developed great leadership.”

Defensively, the Indians were stout all game long, save for a 65 yard touchdown run by Dwight Morrow’s Joel Richardson. Otherwise, the Indians kept Dwight Morrow scoreless the rest of the game.

“Coach [Adam] Preciado does a great job of putting our guys in the right position.” Cusmano said. “I thought we made the plays when we needed to.”

With a large lead in the second half, PV went to its second string offense, and allowed some less experienced players to get reps. Sophomore running backs Mike Solazzo and Sean Cuffe both scored their first varsity TDs. Meanwhile, senior Gio DeGiglio, who was filling in for Begen as the backup quarterback, made a highlight play late in the contest, when he scrambled and avoided multiple defenders to get PV into the red-zone.

Next week, Pascack Valley will travel to Paramus to take on the Spartans. Paramus is 2-0 after defeating Parsippany Hills and Mahwah to open its season.