Football team makes state sectional final for first time in 35 years

Dec. 11, 2018

By Nick Zaino
Editor

The year was 1983. Seventeen years before any present player on the football team was even born, Lyndhurst brought home the state championship title. Unfortunately, the team has never even made it back to the finals since then. However, this year was different.

Led by Head Coach Tuero, the football team finished the season with a 9-2 record and nearly brought home its first state championship in over three decades. The Golden Bears’ season ended with a 14-34 loss in an away state playoff game against Rutherford High School on Nov. 17.

“We worked so hard all year, and to get beaten in the second half of the game was heartbreaking,” senior Brian Podolski said. “But I want everyone to know that this team is my family, and what we accomplished is going to stay with me forever.”

Podolski was the man under center for the Golden Bear offense who, with the help of the offensive line and junior running back Piotr Partyla, kept Lyndhurst in every game.

“My job as an offensive lineman is to make sure nobody gets to [Podolski or Partyla],” senior Shane D’Andrea said. “Any opportunity I got to lay a kid out on his back, I did it, and I made sure he felt it too.”

Senior Jeffrey Grasso said the reason the team has achieved so much is because of their strong bond.

“I would do anything for my brothers. They are all family to me, and I can’t thank them enough for working as hard as they did this year,” Grasso said.

Grasso was the centerpiece of the Golden Bears’ defense, along with seniors Paul Cimicata, D’Andrea and Jason Lauria.

“When Paul and I attack the ball carrier, that’s a scary sight for the other team,” Grasso said. “Both of us hit hard, and we hit with authority.”

This hard-hitting secondary was also responsible for many injuries including that of New Milford quarterback Brian Mackey, who sustained a concussion at a Lyndhurst home game on Sept. 29.

“When we’re on, we work as a unit, but when we’re off, then we are all over the place,” Cimicata said. “It’s like a chemical reaction. If one thing is off, the whole thing blows up.”