Marco Soto has made it a point to challenge his young Irvington Blue Knights, which is why he had scheduled teams such as Ramapo last fall during what turned out to be a tough 3-7 campaign for the team from ‘Camptown.’
And, the trend continued this fall as in addition to formidable tasks against fellow Super Football Conference-American Red Division members such as Passaic Tech, Bayonne and Union City, Irvington has faced state-ranked teams such as West Orange and Shabazz along with other Top 10 Essex County teams such as East Orange Campus and Seton Hall Prep.
The results have not always gone the way of the Blue Knights (7-4 overall, 4-0 in the SFC-American Red); however, what definitely ensued was a fortifying of the team after facing as rigorous a schedule as any public school has faced this fall.
Plus, the up-and-coming team, which may have flown under the radar before last weekend while being a No. 4 seed in North 1, Group 5, is no longer going unnoticed by anyone who follows the SFC or North Jersey state playoff football as Soto’s squad is coming off a huge 28-21 road victory at top-seeded Ramapo (6-4) and is now preparing to hit the road once again for what will be another challenging contest at third-seeded Piscataway (9-2) in this Saturday afternoon’s N1G5 sectional final.
“Winning at Ramapo was a big win for our program -no doubt about that – and especially after losing to them 35-0 in week zero last year,” said Soto, who served a season as Ashley ‘Smoke’ Pierre’s defensive line coach in 2023 before taking the reins of the Blue Knights in 2024. “We made our schedule the way it is for a reason and that is to prepare our players for this time of the year.
“I threw some of our younger guys into the fire last year when they were sophomores, and we wanted to see how quick they would respond to that challenge and – thankfully – this year’s juniors have continued to mature both on and off the field, and our seniors have shown some real good leadership.
“We had even had Immaculata as our game scrimmage so regardless of when it’s been we haven’t tried to dodge any bullets with this group as far as who we schedule, and I’m proud of the way they’ve responded in these playoffs.
“Piscataway has a terrific QB (Landon Pernell) and running back (Zaine Young) and will be very tough to deal with, but I know that our kids are excited about facing the challenges on Saturday and we’ll see how they respond.
“I do know that we’ll be ready to play and then it’s a matter of executing the game plan for the full 48 minutes and limiting our mistakes.”
Piscataway, guided by veteran coach Dan Higgins, is fresh off a pulsating 38-35 win at second-seeded and then 10th-ranked West Orange, also last Friday night (Nov. 6) as the Chiefs’ backup placekicker Patrick Novak delivered a knuckle-ball-like.
QB Pernell, a 3-year starter, has thrown for 1,726 yards and 19 TDs with 4 Int. for the Chiefs, while RB Young has rushed for 1,594 yards and 23 TDs.
A fast start at Piscataway would certainly help Irvington. The Blue Knights exploded to a 28-3 halftime lead and then held off a late Ramapo comeback effort. Junior QB Justin Spellman, a 3-year starter behind center, completed 7 of 17 passes for 134 yards and second quarter TD aerials to Jamir Howard (15 yards for a 14-3 lead) and then Sinaj Thomas-Williams (19 yards for a 28-3 lead).
“Justin threw for 1,800 yards last year and may have started out a little slow this season, but he has continued to improve and raise his game while getting a full grasp of our offense,” said Soto. “We have three or four different running backs he can hand off to as we try not to lean on any one individual, and we have a number of really talented receivers, including Thomas-Williams (16 receptions for 330 yards and 5 TDs on the season).
“Plus, our defense, which has a number of really good athletes who get after it, has really been playing well.”
