Football: Wayne Valley 35, Passaic 34

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Wayne Valley's playoffs hopes remain alive. Valley is just 3-4. Teams have to be at least .500 by the eight-game cutoff date to qualify for the playoffs. Most of the time, 4-4 teams do not qualify. Wayne Valley’s 2009 team, for example, was 4-4 on the cutoff date and did not make it to the dance. This year, though, things could conceivably be different. Wayne Valley coach Brian O’Connor says that Valley can still make the playoffs if they win out, thanks to the new power point system that weighs heavily on strength of schedule.

Valley trailed Passaic, 26-13, when star defensive linemen Kyle Fant was carted off the field on a stretcher. Initially reports are that it's a pinched nerve in his neck. At the time, though, it looked a lot worse. With tears in their eyes, Valley took on a "let's win for Kyle" attitude. It worked. Valley outscored Passaic from that point on, 22-8. Mike Fusco scored all three third quarter touchdowns (1, 25 and 4 yards). Greg LaNeve scored Valley's first touchdown of the game, a 13 yard rush. Andrew Fournier threw a 31 yard touchdown to Anthony Verrilli in the first half. Fournier ran for a two points conversion and threw one to LaNeve.

Fournier finished with 149 passing yards. Fusco ran for 145 yards. LaNeve added 79 ground yards. Andrew DeFilippis led the defense with 9 tackles. Nick Billy had 8 spills, including a sack. Joe Brady had 8 tackles, including 2 sacks. Fusco had 6 tackles.

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