DailyRecord.com Daily Record Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011 Page B3

good chance to get it.“There were about five of our play-

ers and five of theirs all going for theball,” Eric Fajardo said. “But somehowit got to me and I wasn’t about to let itsquirt out.”

After Josef Johnson blocked thepunt on the next series, the ball onceagain headed to the end zone. Then itwas Robert Fajardo’s chance to score.

“I really didn’t realize that we didthat back-to-back,” said the older Fajar-do, who scored his first career touch-down on the play. “I was just so hellbent on winning the game that I didn’trealize what we did. I wasn’t caringabout scoring a touchdown. But it’sreally awesome that we both scored.”

The elder Fajardo reflected on theunique series of events.

“It’s just so crazy, because everyoneknows just how close we are,” RobertFajardo said. “He’s my best friend andwe do everything together. It’s some-thing we can talk about forever.”

“It hit me right away that it was hisfirst touchdown,” Eric Fajardo said.“It’s his senior year and he finally getsone. It’s a real special feeling.”

And it was a day that certainly madeanother Fajardo very proud.

“I am pretty sure that Dad (RobertoFajardo) will never forget it,” EricFajardo said. “It was his best moment.”

Delbarton head coach Brian Bowersis happy to have both brothers on hisdefense.

“They’re both good football playersand playmakers,” Bowers said. “I feelso good about what those kids did.”

Lineman’s dream

Jefferson offensive guard DylanPickard had the lineman’s dream Fri-day night in the Falcons’ impressive 9-0whitewash of defending North 1, GroupIV state champion Randolph — butPickard was well prepared for his mo-ment.

In the middle of the third quarter,Randolph’s talented do-everythingplayer A.J. Garcia dropped back topunt, but the snap sailed way over hishead.

To Garcia’s credit, he raced back toscoop up the ball, avoided the rush andunleashed a punt that was a line drive.The ball didn’t get three feet off theground, but it did speed its way down-field.

Pickard, playing on the line, wasready for his moment. He snared theline drive as it hit him in the chest.

“On a punt like that, we usually yell‘poison’ to stay away from it,” saidPickard, a senior two-way lineman.“But I saw it coming right at me and Istarted thinking, ‘I’m going to takethis.’ ”

Pickard, who used to play fullback,didn’t hesitate.

“It came right at me, so I said, ‘Thisis my moment right here,’ ” Pickardsaid. “I think I was still in shock that Ihad the ball.”

Pickard took off and motored downthe right sideline, taking on tacklersand churning his legs like a formerfullback would do.

When he was done, Pickard had a35-yard punt return — yes, a guardwith that long of a punt return. It wasn’tDevin Hester-quality, but it’s still thelongest punt return by a Jefferson

football player this season.“I never even thought of that,” Pickard

said of owning the top punt return on histeam.

“I’m going to use that. It was an un-thinkable moment and felt good to do thatin a varsity game.”

Jefferson head coach Joe Mattessichwasn’t concerned that his lineman tookoff with a punt return.

“It looked like a natural for him,” Mat-tessich said. “Dylan is the kind of kid whowould do anything for the team. That wasdefinitely a weird play, but he was readyfor it. I wasn’t worried. He was good. Hehas good hands. It was like someonepassed the ball to him and he took off.”

Mattessich isn’t so sure he’ll put Pick-ard deep in punt return formation any-time soon.

“I don’t think we’re ready for that,” helaughed.

Committee performs

West Morris might not have a player ofthe quality of Michael Burton (the 2009All Daily Record Player of the Year) orTom Cabarle (the 2010 Player of the Yearhonoree), but they certainly had a com-mittee of backs who fared well in theWolfpack’s opening week 34-25 victoryover West Orange.

Three Wolfpack backs eclipsed the100-yard milestone in the win, namely JonCiccone (16 carries, 193 yards and twotouchdowns), Joe DiBiasse (14 carries, 114yards, 2 TDs) and Jason Mackewicz (19carries, 105 yards, one TD).

No other team in the state had threerunning backs to go over 100 yards duringthe first week of the season. It may be apositive sign of balance for the Wolfpackfor the future.

Mount Olive’s delayed win

Lost in the shuffle of the rainouts andpostponements was Mount Olive’s 33-22victory over Mendham on Sunday after-noon. The game was postponed fromFriday night due to poor field conditions.

New Marauder quarterback GarrettSchneider, a converted receiver, threwtwo touchdown passes to Justin Makis-mow and ran for a score himself in thewin.

For a team with just four returningstarters, it was a good confidence boosterfor the Marauders, who qualified for theGroup III playoffs last year, a year aftergoing 1-9.

Top rushing performances

Ciccone, West Morris (16-193, twoTDs); Zac Carter, Morristown (26-188yards, four TDs); Nick Patterson, MorrisHills (13-183, 3 TDs); Pablo Rodriguez,Dover (11-182, 1 TD); Michael Tenned,Butler (8-176, 3 TDs); Corey Hiederan,Chatham (13-171, 1 TD); Cory Bell, PopeJohn (17-132, 1 TD); Cody Greenhagen,Morris Knolls (18-137, 3 TDs); DeBiasse,West Morris (14-114, 2 TDs); Tyler Ba-tesko, Mountain Lakes (21-114, 2 TDs);Mackewicz, West Morris (19-105, 1 TD);Isaac Spann, Boonton (15-105, 2 TDs).

Player of the week

Zac Carter, Morristown, senior RB:One of the lone holdovers from last year’sNJSIAA North 2, Group III state champi-onship team, Carter established himselfas the Colonial’s go-to guy by rushing for188 yards and four touchdowns in Morris-town’s thrilling 45-42 win over Seton HallPrep Saturday.

FOOTBALLContinued from Page B1

SCHEDULE

TODAYCROSS COUNTRY

NJAC Race at Greys-tone................................4 p.m.

Newark Vocational atSussex Tech................4 p.m.FIELD HOCKEY

Mendham at Roxbury4p.m.

Montville at MorrisHills ..............................4 p.m.

Morris Knolls at Ran-dolph.............................4 p.m.

Morristown at Parsip-pany Hills....................4 p.m.

Mt. Olive at Jefferson 4p.m.

High Point at Sparta ...4p.m.

Vernon at Pope John ...4p.m.GIRLS GYMNASTICS

Butler at Clifton......5:30p.m.BOYS SOCCER

Kittatinny at WallkillValley......................3:45 p.m.

Boonton at Morris-town-Beard.................4 p.m.

Butler at Mountain

Pequannock at Madi-son .................................4 p.m.

St. Elizabeth at Dover4p.m.

Sussex Tech at Somer-set Tech........................4 p.m.

Wallkill Valley at Kitta-tinny..............................4 p.m.

Whippany Park atKinnelon......................4 p.m.GIRLS TENNIS

High Point at Newton..................................3:45 p.m.

Kinnelon at MorrisHills ..............................4 p.m.

Mendham at Living-ston................................4 p.m.

Morristown at Parsip-pany Hills....................4 p.m.

Parsippany at Ran-dolph.............................4 p.m.

Sparta at Vernon.4 p.m.St. Elizabeth at Lacor-

daire..............................4 p.m.GIRLS VOLLEYBALL

Dover at Essex CountyVocational (Newark).........4p.m.

Morris Hills at Whip-pany Park....................4 p.m.

Morris Tech at NewarkTech...............................4 p.m.

Lakes ............................4 p.m.Chatham at Hanover

Park...............................4 p.m.Hackettstown at Ho-

patcong ........................4 p.m.Kinnelon at Whippany

Park...............................4 p.m.Kittatinny at Wallkill

Valley ...........................4 p.m.Lenape Valley at New-

ton..................................4 p.m.Madisonat Pequannock.....4 p.m.Parsippany at Morris

Catholic........................4 p.m.Somerset Tech at Sus-

sex Tech.......................4 p.m.GIRLS SOCCER

Wallkill Valley at Kitta-tinny ........................3:45 p.m.

Hanover Park at Chat-ham ...............................4 p.m.

Hopatcong at Hackett-stown ............................4 p.m.

Morris Catholic atParsippany .................4 p.m.

Morristown-Beard atBoonton........................4 p.m.

Mountain Lakes atButler ...........................4 p.m.

Newton at LenapeValley ...........................4 p.m.

SUCCASUNNA — Be-fore every match, theRoxbury volleyball teamgathers together in ahuddle. The players ex-change words of encour-agement, put their handstogether in the center andseparate with a cry of“Nagy!”

The Gaels are hon-oring their coach, Aman-da Nagy. She died frommetastatic melanoma onAug. 19 at age 32.

Nagy had taught ac-counting at Roxbury forfive years, and had beenplanning to return toschool in the fall. Herhusband, Chris Nagy,posted a final message onher CaringBridge journal,which quickly spread viaFacebook through a com-munity which was alreadygrieving.

Nick Russo, a risingsenior at Roxbury, haddied the day before fromcomplications followingleukemia treatment.

“Everyone was still inshock from that,” seniorlibero Brianna Kroppsaid. “I was ready for herto come back on the side-lines. ... It was neverabout winning and losingwith her. It was alwaysabout doing your best andtrying your hardest.”

Roxbury opened itshome season on Mondaywith a difficult 25-15,26-24, 25-20 victory overPope John. All threeteams — varsity, juniorvarsity and freshmen —had matching blue andwhite uniforms and theyhad received gold shoe-laces with “NAGY” print-ed on them just before thematch. Many of the play-ers also wore thin pink-trimmed black hair rib-bons with the letters “A”and “N” in silver.

Beth Grasso, a guid-ance counselor at Black

River Middle School inChester, has taken overthe program, hoping vol-leyball can help the play-ers heal in the same wayit aided her during hermother's struggle withand eventual death fromcancer two years ago.Grasso founded the WestMorris volleyball teamand led it to eight MorrisCounty Tournament titlesand the 2009 Group IIIchampionship.

“They’re laughing andhaving fun,” Gaels athlet-ic director Alexis Korsaksaid, after watching thegirls diving onto the gymfloor during a preseasonpractice. “I need it to befun for them.”

Roxbury appeared tohave the match won whena Pope John serve atmatch point hit the line.But it was so difficult tomake a correct call, theofficials decided to replaythe point — and Lionsjunior Amy Kratzer putthe ball down. The Lionsseized the momentum andforced a decisive thirdgame.

The Gaels opened withanother cry of “1-2-3,Nagy!” to buoy their spir-its.

Said senior outsidehitter Julia Tobescu, “Anangel helped us out in thatthird game.”

Pope John was rallyingand pulled ahead by twopoints when a ball rico-cheted off the Roxburygym ceiling and out ofbounds. Junior middlehitter Taylor Kornmannfollowed up with a pair ofkills and the Gaels did nottrail again.

Kornmann led Rox-bury with five kills, twoblocks and seven aces.Kropp had nine digs, asdid Pope John junior AmyKratzer. Lions senior AlexRatyniak added four kills.

“It was pretty intense,”Tobescu said. “(Nagy)means the world to me.

She’s just the best personI ever met.”

Nagy was first diag-nosed with melanoma insitu in 2009, when shediscovered a mole on herchest which was changingcolors and shapes. A der-matologist removed thatmole and another in Au-gust 2010.

A few months later,Nagy’s right foot began togo numb. That numbnessspread to her entire rightside. An MRI in Decem-ber 2010 revealed twotumors on the parietallobe of her brain. A PETscan before Christmasrevealed five lesions:three brain tumors, atwo-millimeter lesion onher right chest and anoth-er in her mouth.

Nagy had a craniotomyon Jan. 12, 2011 to removetwo of the tumors and wasscheduled for cyberknifetreatment for the third,which was inoperable.She also had months ofchemotherapy, which shedocumented on Caring-Bridge. Though she losther hair, Nagy maintainedher bright smile andcheery attitude through-out the treatment.

The Roxbury volley-ball teams will host KillCancer Night on Oct. 20,when West Morris visits.The players from bothschools will be gatheringsponsors who will givemoney for every kill. TheGaels are planning todonate the proceeds inNagy’s name.

A memorial schol-arship has also been es-tablished at Roxbury.

“It’s already very dif-ferent, but it’s still good-,”senior opposite TiaThompson said. “She’d bevery proud of us.”

Jane Havsy: 973-428-6682;jhavsy@njpressmedia.com

GIRLS VOLLEYBALL

Before each game, Roxbury girls volleyball coach Beth Grasso and her players honorformer coach Amanda Nagy who died of cancer in August. RICH SCHULTZ/FOR NJ PRESS MEDIA

Fond farewellto a friendRoxbury continues to honorformer girls volleyball coachBy Jane HavsyStaff Writer

Sara Patterson of Roxbury sets a shot during a match against Pope John on Monday. RICH

SCHULTZ/FOR NJ PRESS MEDIA

BOYS SOCCER

Mendham 1, Roxbury 0

Mendham (1-0) 0 1 — 1Roxbury (0-1) 0 0 — 0

GOALS/Assists: WMMH - J. Cellitti (H.Spanier) 22:00. SAVES: (M) Robertiello5; (R) CASTANHEIRA 4. SHOTS: Mend-ham 6-5.

Mt. Olive 4, Jefferson 1Mt. Olive (1-0) 3 1 — 4Jefferson (0-1) 1 0 — 1

GOALS: (MO) Wank 1, Peterson 1, Usma-nov 1; (J) Johnson 1. ASSISTS: (MO)Cerda 1; (J) Montague 1.Vernon 6, Pope John 2

Vernon (1-0) 2 4 — 6Pope John (0-1) 1 1 — 2

GOALS: (V) Goetchius 2, Caballero 1,

Ciani 1, English 1, Montero 1; (PJ) Lagg 2.ASSISTS: (V) Baines 2, Canal 1, English1, Goetchius 1. SAVES: (V) Wiedmann 6;(PJ) Golembioski 4.

GIRLS VOLLEYBALL

Mendham 2, Jefferson 0

GAME SCORES: 25-14, 25-21

West Morris 2, Montville 0GAME SCORES: 25-12, 25-11

Parsippany 2, Dover 0RECORDS: Parsippany (2-0), Dover

(0-2).