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Health & Fitness

Opening Night!

Let's go back. Saturday night...not Friday night...and not Thursday night (it's a long story). This past Saturday night at 8pm, in unusually cool tempertures, the Bridgewater Raitan Varsity Football team opened it's season versus Union High School in front of a packed house at John Basilone Memorial Field. There was a kind of tense energy in the air that every new season brings, mixed in with a moving tribute to a great BR fan who left us all too soon, Mark "Hawk" Hawkins. Many in the crowd wore special T-Shirts to honor this beloved man. The only thing missing was the BR Band...it's really not the same in the bleachers without them. And halftime, well halftime was just boring. Far from boring was the black shirted, face painted, loud and proud student section, known as "The Zoo Crew." These guys were great and they went above and beyond keeping the energy going. Combined with yet another outstanding, high energy BR Cheeerleading squad, the environment was quite festive to say the least. Now, as for the game. Talk all week centered on the Union running back, Jamauri Bogan. He was everything as advertised...for half the game. The other half, not so much. That's because the defense, led by Chris Carter, Jack Fanning, Dan Renna, Nate Muniz, Ryan Moran and quite frankly a gang tackling group of others made the necessary adjustments to shut him down. Keep in mind, BR was the underdog having lost to Union in a blow out last year. At halftime, both teams stood at 13 points. BR's scores came on the offense's first play of the season...a hot potato...you take it...no you take it, beautiful trick play pass from star of the game QB Michael Fair to Matthew Eichhorn, to Josh Robbins, back to Mike Fair and then to receiver Ethan Christensen. The same two connected for the second BR score after Fair did his best Fran Tarkenton impersonation of the night, finding Christensen in the back of the end zone. The crowd buzzed at halftime with a "hey, we're in this game" attitude and the Zoo Crew chanted "I believe that we will win" ad nauseum. It was actually very entertaining. Again, those kids bring a ton of fun and electricity to the bleachers. The second half was all BR. The defense pitched a shut out. Union's Bogan seemed to disappear and the play was dictated by strong offensive line play, power running from Matthew Eichhorn and pin point passing from Fair combined with outstanding receiver play by Josh Robbins. After a Matt Kaiteris TD run the score was 20-13 BR after 3 quarters. Specials teams were led by punter Mike Kolen, who had a great game consistently pinning the Farmer's deep in their own end. The final exclamation point was an interception returned for a TD by (who else?) Mike Fair making it a 27-13 score and a fantastic start to the season. Yes, the player of the game was Mike Fair, but the defensive unit shined brightly as well. They too should share the honor of MVP this past Saturday night...not Friday night...not Thursday night. Like I said, it's a long story.

Up next, an away game (on Friday 9/20 7pm) at Hunterdon Central. BR is again the underdog...but maybe the boys like it that way.    

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