Phillipsburg High School football team defeats Perth Amboy High School 41-24

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

Phillipsburg High School's football team unleashed its version of the Wildcat on Friday night.

Alex Martin and Mike Diamond executed it with staggering results.

Martin rushed for 162 yards and two touchdowns and Diamond added another 107 yards on 14 carries to spark the Stateliners to a 41-24 victory over Perth Amboy in a NJSIAA consolation game at Maloney Stadium.

Diamond also passed 19 yards to Martin for a touchdown. Freshman Joe Maso ran for two scores and senior Robin Custodio ran for a touchdown for the Stateliners.

Phillipsburg (7-2), which has won three straight, rushed for 468 yards and had 521 yards of total offense.

"We came out really low and hard," Phillipsburg guard Ed Heffner said. "When we watched film of them we noticed they stayed up. We blew them off the ball and gave our running backs places to run."

The Stateliners received a superb effort from the offensive line of tackles Jarrett Williams and Cody Crouse, center Chris Chioffe, rotating guards Nick Kaulius, Dylan George and Heffner, and tight end Robert Waterson.

"The line really played a great game," Ditze said. "They commanded the line of scrimmage."

"It starts with the line," said Martin, who has nine touchdowns in his last three games. "If the line doesn't click, nothing clicks."

Martin and Diamond rotated taking snaps out of the Wildcat. The duo kept finding gaping holes up the middle and consistently picked up big chunks of yardage.

"We used it (Wildcat) against Hillsborough (two weeks ago)," Ditze said, "but we didn't use it last week (against Bridgewater) because Chioffe was out (with an injury)."

"We were going to mix it up but once (the Wildcat) started clicking we stayed with it," Martin said. "Mike can run it as well as I. You have to pick your poison. This offense has really expanded since the beginning of the season."

Perth Amboy (5-4) led 18-14 at halftime mainly on the passing of quarterback Fonzi Saucedo, who finished 19-for-41 for 259 yards.

"The second half was much better," Ditze said. "Our coverage was too loose in the first half and we didn't pressure the quarterback. We made some adjustments at haftime."

"That was P'burg football," Heffner said. "We're not scared. We just went at them."

The game was the Stateliners' final tune-up before the annual Thanksgiving Day showdown against Easton on Nov. 24.

"Now we go back to the drawing board to get ready for what is obviously the game of our lives," Ditze said. "We're going to be playing a very different ball club in a week-and-a-half. We have to get better in a variety of ways."

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