Ramapo defeats Valley by a score of 40-13

Noah Silver, Sports Editor|September 10, 2021

Nick+Savariego+fumbled+the+ball+off+of+a+kick+return.+This+lead+him+to+be+upset+after+the+hard+defeat+to+Ramapo.+

Matt Austin

Nick Savariego fumbled the ball off of a kick return. This lead him to be upset after the hard defeat to Ramapo.

Friday night at 6 P.M Valley faced one of its top rivals in Ramapo at Pascack Valley. The final score of the game was 40-13 Ramapo. Due to a high scoring game in Ramapo’s home opener and Valley’s high scoring game in its opener, expectations were high for an enthralling offensive battle.  

Make no mistake Ramapo was on board  with this analysis, but not so much on the Valley end. Ramapo held both running back Nick Messina and quarterback Ethan Silcher in check as Messina had less than a third of his total yards in their home opener.

Silcher finished the game with 130 passing yards and Messina ended with 37 rushing yards.   

The Raider’s offense started right where they left off by zooming down the field in their first possession and finishing it with a touchdown. 

Valley had no response as they went 4 and out. Valley’s defense had other ideas as Silcher makes a play to force a fumble which is recovered by Dylan Hutchinson. 

This wasn’t Valley’s only forced turnover of the game as Nick Savariego recovered another fumble later on in the game. 

Quarterback Jack Grusser wasn’t held in check today as he threw for 316 passing yards to go along with 5 touchdowns. He wasn’t the only workhorse on the Raiders for today as running back Ethan Moran rushed for 66 yards to go along with a touchdown. 

Valley didn’t give up as Hutchinson still managed to catch a 40 yard touchdown and a 31 yard touchdown. Hutchinson closed out the game with 7 receptions and 109 receiving yards to go along with 2 touchdowns. 

Despite the unfortunate outcome of the game for Valley, Coach Cusumano realizes that there were positives in the game, but several mistakes that need to be improved upon. 

“A lot of busted plays here and there and we could have executed a lot better,” Cusumano said.  “Defensively a couple missed coverages [and] offensively we just got to play better, [starting with] getting off the ball better upfront.”

Valley looks ahead as they start to prepare for its next game which is away at Teaneck at 6 P.M. 

Cusumano isn’t worried about their mentality coming into next week as it’s only week 2 and there are many more games to come. 

“We have a long way to go,” Cusumano said. “It’s only week 2 here, a long season is ahead of us. We are going to get back to work tomorrow [by] lifting and running and taking a look at the film.”