Seldom Do We Think of the Sacrifices, Risks and Hard Work the Football Squad Has to Endure

1935 Seldom do we think of the sacrifices, risks and hard work the football squad has to endure. When the boys answered the call in September that meant the end of late hours and wild times for three months. They showed their willingness to give up almost everything for the benefit of the team. These boys were out on the field from 2:30 to 5:30 every afternoon. The results of the week’s work were thrown against the opponents’ every Saturday. The going was tough, but win, lose, or draw, there’s not one of the bunch that quit. Cooperation, not disagreement, made a smooth running machine. On the line, Bruett ably covered one end, while DeMaio took care of the other wing between kickoffs and conversions. Miscia and Archibald would be even stronger next year after their rough experience in the tackle positions. The center of the line was really the pivot post of the team with a mountain of strength in Russo, Capt. McMullen, and all-star P. Caggiano. Clark, Venner, Stiff, Bob Caggiano, Ferraro and Hirsch were tough nuts to crack in their support of the Blue and White. All Metropolitan quarterback, Angelo Fortunato, led the team in scoring with fifty-four points. Reserve linemen Melin, Pauly, Greenman, Scillia, Paine, and Raymond did yeomen work when the regulars were injured, but the unsung heroes of Montclair’s success were the Suicide Boys who scrapped, fought, and then bit the dust that the varsity might rise to greater heights. Though the Montclair gridders may not have won every game, they gave a good amount of themselves with a total of 87 points against 42 for the combined opponents. Kearny – In the opening game, the Blue and White passed its way to a 12-7 victory over Kearny. Superb defensive play by P. Caggiano kept Montclair from being completely subdued in a very loosely played first half. Though two long passes won the game, with Fortunato’s nine-yard touchdown run, Montclair power was not disclosed until the fourth quarter. Then hard tackling and blocking provided real football thrills. Plainfield – Montclair opened against Plainfield by losing two chances to score from the twenty-yard line. The scoring punch was missing. Four pass interceptions provided plenty of thrills at the end of the half. Clark crashed through for one first down after another in a sixty-yard march that terminated with Fortunato’s touchdown from the three-yard stripe. DeMaio converted and the Blue and White chalked up a 7-0 victory. Nutley – The power of the Montclair offense was shown for the first time in a sweeping 27-0 victory over Nutley. Straight power was mixed with a few perfectly executed trick plays. Three times Fortunato crossed the last stripe, twice through the line and once on the end of a perfect forward, lateral pass. Clark made the scoring complete by crossing the goal line in the last quarter after a long sustained march. East Orange – East Orange won a wide-open game on their home grounds, 14- 15. Stevenson led an East Orange aerial attack that split the Blue and White defense and ground Montclair into a defeat that was far worse than it seemed. The only bright spots were Fortunato’s sixty-yard touchdown runback off a kick, and Miscia’ s conversion of an East Orange fumble into a Montclair touchdown. Columbia – Up against Columbia, Montclair played wide-awake ball, converting three breaks into a 20-0 victory. On the first play, Russo blocked a kick to score a touchdown. Fortunato made an eighty-yard touchdown run from punt formation. Bruett intercepted a lateral pass and ran sixty yards to put Montclair in 35 36 37 position for its third touchdown. Meanwhile, the line held up under the terrific battering of Rainwater from Columbia. West Orange – In a rough, hard fought game, the West Orange Red Wave swept Montclair to a miserly 2-0 defeat. The break came in the second quarter when the West Orange offense was stopped on the three-yard line. The Big Red team swept through the Montclair line to nail the ball carrier behind the goal for the fatal two points. Throughout the rest of the game the Blue and White were superior, but could not score. Glen Ridge – With five regulars out, the Montclair offense tore into Glen Ridge for a 7-0 lead, only to be tied 7-7, due largely to the long booming punts of the visiting ace, Murphy. The game seesawed all the way and showed the great Montclair weakness, a man who could concentrate on kicking, a safety measure that the Blue and White sorely needed. However, Montclair subs must be praised for their valiant work in helping to hold the strong Glen Ridgers to a tie. Fortunato scored for Montclair, while Murphy pulled the old sandlot sure-fire scoring play, the wide end run sweep. In the last quarter Montclair let loose with a barrage of passes that might have won the game had not the ones that were completed been called back for offside penalties. About all we can do now is to wait until next year. Bloomfield – In the big game against Bloomfield the team displayed, in the second quarter, the type of football of which it was capable – a hard, fast driving line and good strategy, but the powerful maroon machine overdrove them in the rest of the game to win 12-0. A crowd of approximately 15,000 viewed this annual Thanksgiving Day tilt. Otterbein, Bloomfield’s All State center, kicked off. Unsuccessful line plunging and a kick left the ball on the Bloomfield 45. A seventeen- yard run, then the Zergiegal-Morgan touchdown pass, and Montclair trailed 6-0 at the half. Still the Blue and White offense yielded two runs by Fortunato, eighteen and twenty yards respectively, the later a perfectly executed Statue of Liberty play. In the last period the Maroon backs lived up to their reputations, for after a short kick they piled through to a final counter to bring the score up to 12-0. However, the team is to be highly commended for during the better part of the game, the Montclair forward wall equaled, if not outcharged, the best line in the state. Capt. McMullen, P. Caggiano, Bill Bruett, Jack Clark, Butch Fortunato, and Herb Melin all played their last game for Montclair High School, as they would be graduating in June. 38 1936 In spite of injuries, which hit the team throughout the season, Montclair emerged from the 1936 football season with four wins, three ties, and only one defeat. The defensive strength was the outstanding feature of the team. Kearny scored in the first game and after that no one crossed our goal line until the last period of our last game with Bloomfield. A note of appreciation should be given to the boys on the squad who did not see much action but nevertheless without whose willingness to work, the first team would not have risen to such heights. The Season: The Blue and White got under way with a 7-6 victory over a strong Kearny team at Essex Field on October 3rd. Montclair scored in the second period when DeMaio threw a pass to Ferrara. DeMaio then converted for what proved to be the winning point. Kearny battled over the goal line in the third period, but Venner blocked the attempt for the extra point. The last period was fought mostly near mid- field with neither team able to gain much ground. The weather was so unfavorable that our next game was postponed until the following Monday when Montclair drubbed a game Plainfield eleven, 26-0. Montclair took the ball on the kick off and started an unbroken march for a touchdown, in the third period DeMaio passed to Fortunato for sixty yards and another touchdown. After Stiff had scored a third touchdown, substitutions became numerous. Near the end of the game, Venner intercepted a pass and raced sixty yards for the final score. Another postponement brought the Nutley game to the following Monday. There were few scoring threats, with Montclair having the advantage during the first half and Nutley during the second. DeMaio made an attempt at a field goal in the fourth period, but it was from a difficult angle and the ball fell just short. This was the last scoring threat of the game and the rest of the play turned into a punting duel. 0-0 tie. For the second time this year, this time with East Orange, the game ended in a 0-0 tie. Montclair’s defensive ability was predominant as usual with Venner and Hansen engaging in a spectacular kicking duel. The only scoring threat in the game came when DeMaio attempted a field goal from the ten-yard line to which it had been carried by Stiff on a long run but the kick just failed. For the third time in a row, Montclair and their opponents went off the field at the end of the game with nothing better to show than a 0-0 tie. Montclair was forced to their limit to prevent a score, but their defensive power was enough to pull them through. The game was marked by many fumbles and Montclair was hit severely by the loss of John Miscia for the remainder of the schedule. Resuming a rivalry dropped several years ago, Montclair broke a string of unpleasant scoreless ties and emerged with a 6-0 victory over Morristown. Stedman, scoring the lone tally, showed his ability by making several spectacular runs.

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