VIDEO: Mountain Lakes returns to the top with finals win over Caldwell | ||
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All the Mountain Lakes football program seems to do is win. But it had been four long years since the Herd won the biggest game of the season. Behind a huge effort by Christian Cuccinello and a stout defensive performance, Mountain Lakes ended that drought. The Herd beat Caldwell 26-6 to capture the North 2, Group II sectional final at Kean University.
Cuccinello, a senior fullback had 240 yards rushing and scored three touchdowns. He also made two of the Herd's four interceptions on defense in the contest. Mountain Lakes piled up nearly 400 rushing yards on the day, but the game was still only 6-0 midway through the third quarter when the Herd made a huge play via the pass. On a fourth down, Brad Smith hit Zach Lesko for a 20-yard touchdown to give Mountain Lakes some breathing room. Cuccinello capped off the Mountain Lakes scoring with a 93-yard touchdown run. Caldwell averaged 46 points in its first two playoff wins, but was limited to 151 total yards on offense. Joe Salter threw a late TD pass to Jack Kinney for the Chiefs' only score. Top-seeded Caldwell finishes the season 10-2. Mountain Lakes, which was the #2 seed despite its perfect record, wins its first section title since 2009. That victory, in the snow at the old Giants Stadium, ended up being the last game for legendary coach Doug Wilkins. His successor, Darrell Fusco, had a 41-4 record coming into this game with four league titles, but this was his first state championship as a head coach. The Herd finishes at 12-0. For sports video highlights of this New Jersey high school football state final game, click play in the box at left. |