The Carteret Ramblers pulled out all the stops to slow down the fast-paced offense of Summit, but thanks to the efforts of Oscar Marx and Alex Schwark, the Hilltoppers remained undefeated with a 33-12 win.
Marx and Schwark Lead the Hilltoppers Past Ramblers, 33-12
SUMMIT, NJ – One of the reasons that the Summit Hilltoppers football team has been so tough to beat the past couple of seasons has been their up-tempo, no-huddle offense. Against a very talented football program in Hillside last week, Summit scored 41 points and defeated the Comets by four touchdowns. The Carteret Ramblers did their best to slow the Hilltoppers down, but they still managed to pull away.
Led by the combined efforts of senior Oscar Marx and junior Max Schwark, Summit pulled away from a 6-6 first-quarter tie to defeat Carteret, 33-12. Marx and Schwark each scored two touchdowns in the victory but by different means. Marx performed his magic on defense and special teams. A senior wideout on offense, Marx returned a Carteret kickoff for 81 yards to put Summit ahead 13- 6.
A short time later, Marx struck again by intercepting a Carteret pass and taking it 31 yards up the Ramblers sideline for another score and a 19-6 Summit lead. Schwark did most of his work on the ground by rushing 10 times for 117 yards and 2 TDs. Schwark capped the Hilltoppers opening scoring drive with a 34-yard TD run for a 6-0 lead with 9:20 left in the first quarter. He wrapped up the win with another big gain of 45 yards that set up a short TD run a play later in the fourth.
Ja’kir Thomas was a bright spot in defeat for Carteret. Thomas made plays on both sides of the ball. He collected two long TD runs of 52 and 81 yards en route to 230 yards rushing in the game. Thomas averaged 15.3 yards per carry on the day. He also completed a pass for another 18 yards and denied Summit a third-quarter score by intercepting a pass right at the goal line and returning to near the Ramblers 20-yard line.
Thomas’ first TD run was a 52-yard jaunt to the Summit end zone to tie the score at 6-6 on the Ramblers’ second drive late in the first period. His second TD run came a couple of plays after his interception when he took the ball, ran left, and then scampered down the Carteret sideline for an 81-yard TD to make the game interesting again at 26-12. Thomas had another electrifying third-quarter run where he broke outside toward the Carteret sideline and completely hurdled a Summit player in the first quarter.
Summit QB, Cole Sabol completed 6 of 8 passes for 121 yards, or about 20.2 yards per completion. Sabol hooked up with Connor Gawronski on a screen pass for about a 12-yard score that put the Hilltoppers up 26-6 late in the second quarter. Matt McKeever and Minjoon King anchored the Summit defense with a combined 13 total tackles including four for loss. Chris Prosser stood out on Carteret’s defense with 10 total tackles including four for loss.
Carteret did what it could to slow Summit down. Entering the game, the Hilltoppers had been averaging 43.5 points per game. The Ramblers managed to keep Summit ten points below that scoring average. The Ramblers tried to control the pace by taking as much time between snaps on offense and keeping its defense off the field as much as possible. However, Carteret still wasn’t able to slow down the Hilltoppers completely.
With the win, Summit improved to 3-0 overall on the season and 2-0 in the Big Central Conference’s United Gold Division. Meanwhile, Carteret dropped to 1-3 overall and 0-2 in divisional play. Both teams will be back in action next week with another round of divisional games in the BCC’s United Gold. The Ramblers will be hosting Scotch Plains-Fanwood at The Pit on Friday while Summit will host Cranford at Investors Bank Field at Tatlock Park on Saturday afternoon.
