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As the Wayne Valley football team marched toward the Wayne Valley football field for its game with Wayne Hills, it may have appeared to some that the wrong team showed up. Valley, ordinarily, wears dark blue uniforms, with light blue trim. But the team marching toward the field wore light blue uniforms, with dark blue trim.
"We're going with three uniforms this year (dark blue, light blue and white)," head coach Brian O'Connor said. "These (light blue) are our 'Big Game' uniforms."
And for Wayne Valley, it doesn't get anymore 'Big Game' then it does when they take on Wayne Hills. The two schools have only played each other seven times previously. Valley beat Hills in the first ever meeting (the 1991 State Sectional Finals), but hasn't beaten Hills since (the entire series is listed below). Until now!
Valley (2-0) defeated Hills (1-1) Friday in front of 10,000 spectators, 23-17. It was Hills' first loss to a public school team since they lost to Ramapo in the 2009 final. It was Hills' first loss to a public school team, other than Ramapo, since 2004. That year, Hills lost Demarest and Ramapo.
"This was a huge game on our schedule and Hills played great, as we expected," said junior running back/linebacker Anthony Landberg. "Last year's loss to Hills broke our season. Now we're going in the right direction. It's all good things from here."
Valley surged to a 23-0 advantage by halftime, and then staved off a furious Hills rally to secure the victory. Landberg grinded out 74 rushing yards, scoring on a one yard plunge to start off the scoring. James Clarke recovered a muffed punt on the one yard line to set up Landberg's TD. Luke Primerano ran for a 6-yard touchdown and threw a 38-yard scoring strike to Anthony Biondi. Primerano finished with 97 yards passing and 32 yards rushing. Christian Gilberti drilled a 31 yard field goal.
Frank Law and Elvis Romero had 8 tackles and a 1 sack each. Gilberti and John Rondi had 7 tackles and 1 fumble recovery each. Primerano also had 7 tackles. Hills did not register a single first down in the first half.
Hills comeback bid featured touchdown rushes from Christian Rodriguez (3 yards) and Robby Schiller (19 yards). Erik Martinez drilled a 31 yard field goal.
"We'll enjoy this one, but not for long," O'Connor said. "We're 2-0. And this win in particular shows our remaining opponents that Wayne Valley is for real."
"We didn't deserve to win. We were just outplayed and we made too many mistakes and that had nothing to do with our quarterback," Hills coach Chris Olsen said in reference to the broken foot suffered by his son Kevin Olsen last week. Junior Justin DeGroat started in Kevin Olsen's stead. "You've got to play a whole game and we didn't do it. Wayne Valley played a better game. They deserved to win and we deserved to lose."
The Series (Hills leads 6-2)
1991: State Sectional Final: Valley 7, Hills 0 (at Valley)
2001: State Sectional Semifinal: Hills 41, Valley 6 (at Hills)
2007: State Sectional Final: Hills 27, Valley 7 (at the Meadowlands)
2009: Regular Season: Hills 7, Valley 0 (at Valley)
2010: Regular Season: Hills 21, Valley 16 (at Hills)
2010: State Sectional Quarterfinals: Hills 48, Valley 0 (at Hills)
2011: Regular Season: Hills 41, Valley 0 (at Valley)
2012: Regular Season: Valley 23, Hills 17 (at Valley)
More Details, Photos And Quotes To Come
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