West Milford Highlanders football season was filled with questionable refereeing and amazing effort by the team. Each of the boys on the field played his heart out for the black and gold on each and every down. Our captains this year were Dylan Connors, Seamus McGuiness, Ralph Turre, Zander Masanko, and Joseph Palmenteri. Covid affected the team greatly with by taking out multiple key starters for two weeks at the beginning of the season, which meant the younger players had to step up and fill in some big shoes. By helping out in practice by going full out and giving the starters the best look for each and every game.

Week one was a rival matchup versus Lakeland, which ended up being a very questionable game with multiple poor refereeing calls. Two of the calls led to two of Lakeland’s touchdowns and changed the game completely.  One terrible call was a questionable catch where the ball was in the hands of the receiver, but he never had possession, then the ball was smacked to the ground, yet was still called a touchdown. The second call was also very sketchy. The Lakeland running back was tackled, and the referee told everyone to back up and stop, and blew the whistle.  Then  the player got back up and ran in for a touchdown and the refs still called it. Sadly, these miscalls ended up a loss for the Highlanders 21-14.The team played amazing all around after the first quarter, but still couldn’t pull ahead. 

Next was a game versus Northern Valley Demarest which was an edge-of-your-seat game with a great deal of hard work by the Highlanders to keep marching forward to secure a win. With a final score of 22-21,  Dylan Connors sealed the game with a run for over 60 yards to put it away, then, with two kneels, the game was over. A kneel being when the QB takes a knee to run the clock out. 

Week three was a tough matchup versus Ridgefield Park, where the team did not look together and did not play as one. The Highlanders were also missing starters like Dylan Connors, so the second strings like Jake Schwarzlow had to step up and play. All the kids who stepped up played amazingly, but since they do not normally play as a team, they didn’t come together as a unit.  The stupid penalties didn’t help the team at all. Schwarzlow played very well  for his first time in as QB at a varsity level, controlling the offense like he has done it before.

Week four was a close game versus Ramsey that came down to overtime, but, sadly, the Highlanders came up short 41-35. They put forth a valiant effort against a top team in the division and they went from being down by two scores, to being tied 35 all at the end of the 4th, but couldn’t quite clinch it.

Week five was matchup vs Vernon which ended in a victory 33-20. 

Week six was a blow out game vs Mahwah winning the game 33-7. Everything looked good on the team, clicking on all cylinders and the game went smoothly. With Dylan Connors doing some amazing runs and passes and with some amazing performances by everyone.

Week seven was a heartbreaking loss against Westwood after starting off sluggish in the beginning and being down 14-0 and ended up being tied 28-28 at the end of the forth going into overtime. Where the highlanders got the ball first and scored then kicked a field goal. But Westwood ended up scoring then went for 2 point conversion and unfortunately got it.