Canucks Off to Best Start Since 2010 with win over Chargers
SPOTSWOOD, NJ—After taking it on the chin against the likes of Somerville, Rahway, Summit, Delaware Valley, Warren Hills, and Governor Livingston for a number of years in the Mid-State 38, the Canucks of North Plainfield have been able to take advantage of a realignment within the Big Central Football Conference to take on the likes of teams that comprised of the Greater Middlesex Conference’s Gold Division last season.
The result has been the best start for the Canucks since 2010 when the team won its first 8 games before losing to Carteret in the opening round of the Central Jersey Group 2 playoffs at Krausche Field (27-20). North Plainfield finished that season at 9-1 after defeating South Plainfield (36-28) on Thanksgiving Day. North Plainfield traveled down to Spotswood on Saturday afternoon, and put together another solid offensive performance en route to a 53-7 victory over the Chargers.
Scoring the first 41 points of the game, and taking a 47-7 lead at the intermission, North Plainfield had 7 different rushers run the ball including three carries for touchdowns, and Michael Knight had 80 percent of his 5 completions go for touchdowns. Knight completed 71 percent of his passes for a total of 169 yards while Ahmaad Murkey compiled 3 receptions for touchdowns and 144 yards, or an average of 48 yards per catch. Four Canuck players: Adam Elsais (16 tackles), Michael Tales (12 tackles), Jason Ageymang (10 tackles), and Jihad Dudley (10 tackles) each recorded double digit tackles for the winners.
Spotswood, which got its only score of the contest in the second quarter, was led by QB Shane Dwyer, who completed 60 percent of his passes for 82 yards and a touchdown. Jason Prasch led the Chargers in receiving with 3 catches for 33 yards including Spotswood’s only score. Adrian Lamberty led Spotswood with 59 yards rushing on 19 carries, or a little more than 3 yards per carry. Nasir McGlone (4 carries for 56 yards) and Khan-Yae Stevens (2 carries for 57 yards) combined for an average of 18.8 yards per carry and two of the Canucks rushing touchdowns.
The victory lifted North Plainfield to 4-0 on the season. Over those four games, the Canucks have averaged 40.5 points per game including 138 points over the last 10.5 quarters of action, and 53.5 points per game over their last two contests. North Plainfield have outscored their opponents by a margin of 162 to 50, or an average of 28 points per contest. With the loss, Spotswood dropped its third straight to fall to 1-3 on the season.
After defeating Metuchen in its season opener on October 3rd (20-7), the Chargers have been outscored 142-35, or by an average of 47 to 12. This game marked only the third time that these two schools played against each other. The last meeting between the Canucks and Chargers was back in 1980 when Spotswood defeated North Plainfield (26-6). The year before, in 1979, the Canucks won the first ever meeting between the two schools (35-19). North Plainfield leads the series now 2-1, and have now outscored Spotswood 94 to 52, or an average of 31 to 17.
Both teams will be back in action for Week 5 next weekend as North Plainfield will host South River in another Big Central Football Division 2A match-up on Friday night at 7:00 PM at Krausche Field. Spotswood returns to action on Sunday morning, November 1st when it travels to Middlesex to take on a Blue Jays team that will be playing its first game after its program was shut down for two weeks due to COVID-19. The game between the Blue Jays and the Chargers will kick-off at 11:00 AM.
