EASTON, Pa. – The Easton Red Rovers are loaded with underclassmen – many sophomores and juniors grace the roster – and even some freshmen are starters.
Like wide receiver Shane Simpson. But you’d never know that No. 18 was only a frosh by the way he plays on the field.
“He hasn’t played (like a freshman) all season long,” Easton head coach Steve Shiffert said of Simpson. “Ever since the Pennsbury game, he’s stepped up for us.”
Simpson was named offensive MVP for a six-catch, 107-yard performance as Easton (11-2) dominated its cross-river rival Phillipsburg (7-3), 24-8, in the 105th installment of the two school’s Thanksgiving Day rivalry game played Thursday morning at Fisher Field on the campus of Lafayette College.
“It’s my second or third 100-yard receiving game this season,” Simpson said.
But what did it mean to put up 100 yards against a rival like Phillipsburg?
“It feels great,” Simpson said.
The Red Rovers will play for the District 11 AAAA championship opposite Nazareth in less than 48 hours. But in the meantime the Rovers showed they were ready to flex their muscles this day and avenge a 3-0 overtime defeat to the Stateliners in last year’s game.
“We heard about that (3-0) defeat all this week,” said junior defensive lineman Tyler Green, who posted three sacks as part of a dominant defensive performance that notched five sacks of Phillipsburg quarterbacks Michael Diamond and Jason Bohem. The Rovers’ unrelenting defense also forced an interception and two turnovers on downs.
“The defensive line was exceptional today,” Shiffert said.
Exceptional would be most appropos in describing Easton’s performance in the trenches.
In all, the Rovers’ defense posted nine total tackles for loss and dominated the Stateliners on the line of scrimmage all game. In fact, Green, Matthew Mowad (seven tackles, 1.5 sacks, 2.5 tackles for loss), Jeremy Swick (five tackles, half a sack, two TFL) and company spent so much time in the Phillipsburg defensive backfield, they probably could have been charged rent.
With all the defensive pressure, the Stateliners couldn’t mount much of a ground attack. Limited to minus-16 yards in the first half alone, the maroon-clad visiting team finished with just 29 yards on 33 carries.
Easton, though, faced little resistance.
Kevin Griffin broke a scoreless tie with 9:27 left in the first quarter on a 36-yard touchdown run on the Rovers’ sixth play from scrimmage. It remained 7-0 until Mowad caught an eight-yard touchdown pass from Ian Hayden (9-of-18, 166 yards) to push the lead to 14-0 with 5:21 left in the first half.
A 35-yard field goal by Chris Roubik widened the Phillipsburg deficit to 17-0 before fullback Austin Brown bulled his way into the end zone on a 4th-and-1 from the Stateliner 2 with 32 seconds left in the third quarter to cap Easton’s scoring.
The Stateliners countered Brown’s touchdown run with a 70-yard drive for its only points of the day, which came when Diamond (170 pass yards, TD) hooked up with senior Robert Waterson for a 30-yard scoring pass with 9:02 left in the game.
Diamond’s day would come to an end soon after. He was knocked out of the game following a 15-yard keeper with about six minutes left in the game, and Bohem came in as the replacement. No. 10 was promptly greeted with a sack for a seven-yard loss. Bohem did connect on a 27-yard pass to Robert Howell to give Phillipsburg a 1st-and-goal at the Easton 8 yard line, but the Stateliners turned the ball over on downs four plays later.
Phillipsburg finished with 231 yards of total offense (202 passing, 29 rushing) and 12 first downs. While Diamond did throw for 170 yards, he didn’t find much room to run the ball, finishing with zero yards on 12 carries. Joseph Moyer posted 31 yards on seven carries; Alexander Martin had 14 yards on seven totes and Robin Custido had nine yards on five carries. Martin finished as the leading receiver for the game, posting seven catches for 125 yards.
Griffin finished with 98 yards on 17 carries. Simpson was easily the featured receiver with the six catches, but also registered a 44-yard run in the game. Brown had six carries for 22 yards and caught two passes for 40 yards. In addition to his 166 passing yards, Hayden, who has thrown 16 touchdown passes and has more than 1,600 yards through the air, added 16 yards on seven keepers.
“He’s not really a first-year starter (on varsity),” Shiffert said of Hayden. “He was a scout team quarterback the last two years going up against the first string defense every day in practice. He’s a pretty good one.”
Easton ran for 164 yards in the game and finished with 330 yards of offense and 14 first downs.
