The Verona High School football team recorded its second win in as many games with a 41-7 win over Marist High School.
The Hillbillies mounted a fast and furious offense, running up a 21-0 score by the end of the first quarter. Matt Intili got Verona on the scoreboard within seconds of the opening kickoff, laying down the first of two touchdowns by the senior on his home field. Intili rushed for 88 yards yards on the afternoon.
Shortly after Intili’s first score, junior Sean Crawford picked off a Marist play and ran it 20 yards to Verona’s zone. Marist, a Catholic prep school in Bayonne, seemed to struggle at times to control the ball: Junior Chris Valentine and sophomore Zack Zaccone would snag two more Marist passes before the afternoon was over.
But a Verona bobble put an end to a powerful second-quarter Hillbilly drive. Marist got its lone TD in the second, on a 54-yard run by Ibn Adrien. And Marist’s Keshawn Green led both teams in tackles with 10.
Quarterback Frank Ferrari carried the ball into the end zone twice, and showed off a strong throwing arm as well. The senior completed nine of 15 attempts for a total of 133 yards in the air. In the second quarter, sophomore Mike Stanisci would take a 16-yard throw from Ferrari into the end zone for his first varsity TD.
But the warm-ups with weaker teams may be over now. The Hillbillies will host Glen Ridge next Saturday. The Ridgers are 1-1 after a losing in overtime to Hudson Catholic on September 20.