Tough Season Leaves Raider Football Team Hoping for Better Next Year

As he looked ahead in August to the 2009 season, Scotch Plains-Fanwood football coach Steve Ciccotelli saw trouble on the horizon.

The Raiders were young, the offensive and defensive lines inexperienced, and the team was facing a brutal schedule with the likes of defending sectional champion Phillipsburg and perennial winner Immaculata.

His forecast turned out to be true. After holding on to beat Cranford in their first game, the Raiders have lost eight straight. They finish the season Saturday afternoon by playing host to Belleville. Game time is 1 p.m.

“We were sitting around talking with our coaches recently and we used the phrase 'perfect storm,'"Ciccotelli said.

The Raiders wrap up their season with a consolation game. Those games are played between teams that don’t make the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association playoffs. The Raiders have made the sectional playoffs 13 times with a championship in 1990. It was only two years ago that the Raiders came very close to making the sectional final at Giants Stadium, long in the sectional semifinals to South Plainfield.

Ciccotelli believes the Raiders need to get more physical if they want to return soon.

“We have to get stronger," he said. “I’ve told the kids that that’s really what we need to do."

During Scotch Plains-Fanwood’s boys playoff soccer game Tuesday afternoon, several football players met with trainer Laura Friedman and assistants to get taped. One of them was senior lineman Mitch McNamara.

“It’s been a tough year," McNamara said. ”Hopefully it’ll be much better for them next year."

The Raiders should see some schedule relief in the second year of Scotch Plains-Fanwood’s membership in the Mid State 39 Conference. Of the Raiders’ nine opponents, five will be playing playoff games this weekend and North Hunterdon – who the Raiders lost to 39-19 last week – beat one playoff participants - Ridge - and lost close games to playoff qualifiers Hunterdon Central (13-7), Westfield (3-0) and Montgomery (16-14). Scotch Plains-Fanwood can take some solace that it played some outstanding clubs.

Junior running back Quintin Blackwell figures to be a very big part of next year’s team. He ran for 136 yards and three touchdowns against North Hunterdon.

Sophomore quarterback Steve Alleman, filling in for injured senior Gary Binkiewicz, completed 9 of 15 passes for 73 yards. Junior inside linebacker Kyle Berwick had eight tackles, and junior safety J.C. Davidson and junior defensive back Sean Coloney had six. Binkiewicz has missed the last few games with a high ankle sprain and one of the team's best receivers — Mike Marsan — missed the game with an injury.

A good part of the lineup that was on the field in Clinton was underclassmen. So that’s something for the team to be encouraged about.