The Ridgewood football team returns seven out of 11 starters on defense from last year’s squad and the experience showed on Friday, Sept. 4, in Ridgewood’s 49-0 victory over Urban Prep West in the Rebels’ home opener in Norridge.
The first three scores for Ridgewood came from its defense and special teams. Rebels junior Cody Frerking put his squad on the board when he picked off an Urban Prep West pass and went 48 yards for a touchdown.
Ridgewood extended its lead to 14-0 with 11:51 remaining in the first half when Ridgewood’s Theo Manaves caused Urban Prep West (0-2) to fumble at its own 17-yard line and the ball traveled into the end zone where he picked it up for a touchdown. Senior cornerback Mike Ortiz scored again on a 70-yard punt return to give Ridgewood a 21-0 lead with 10:37 left in the second quarter.
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“Our offense came out flat and we know when our offense comes out flat that the defense has to come out ready to play,” Ortiz said. “The defense has been good since last year. We just work hard every day and try to stop the other team’s offense and help our offense when they’re not having a good day.”
The offense joined the party with a 38-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Chris Jacobsen to sophomore Marco Vitale to extend the Rebels’ advantage to 28-0 with 7:56 remaining in the first half. Jacobsen’s 4-yard touchdown run and second touchdown pass to Vitale, this time from 26 yards out, propelled the Rebels (1-1) to a 42-0 halftime lead and sent the contest into a running clock for the remainder of the game. Senior Erick Mangal’s 55-yard touchdown run concluded the evening’s scoring for the Rebels.
“We pulled the offense aside probably halfway through the second quarter and said, ‘Listen guys. We’ve got to pick it up. We can’t expect the defense to keep playing like this,’ ” Ridgewood coach Chris Zack said. “Chris Jacobsen stepped up and said, ‘I’ve got to play better.’ The offensive line started making some holes for us and our running backs were running hard. A couple receivers made some really nice catches for us down the field. Chris got that touchdown in there and it just sparked us going into the half. Once the offense saw the defense was playing so well, it let them take a deep breath and we were able to start clicking on all cylinders moving forward.”
Zack was pleased with how his team bounced back from its tough 28-21 Week 1 loss to Solorio in Chicago.
“The team knew how well they played last week against a good team,” Zack said. “They looked at it as a moral victory and they knew they could play and hang with some good teams and teams with speed. So going forward, they knew they would use that to build and use that as motivation to prove that we’re a good team and we can play some tough football against some tough teams.”
Ridgewood travels to Bensenville to take on Fenton (0-1) in its first of two crossover games against Metro Suburban West opponents on Friday, Sept. 11. The game is slated to begin at 7:15 p.m.
Todd Marver is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.