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Madison, Summit ready for close battle
Taking a look at North 2 Group 2, it’s another very tough game to call with a couple of 11-0 teams from the same neck of the woods battling it out as Summit takes Madison at Kean University.
While the outcome of the game is very uncertain the key to the game is plain as day: if you’re the Hilltoppers, stop Justin Goodwin.
Madison’s senior running back has broken the 1,500-yard mark this season and his 32 total scores is tops in Morris County. It’s one of the highest totals of the state and Goodwin’s 196 points has him at sixth on the Morris County single-season scoring list.
For the Hilltoppers and coach John Liberato, scoring points has not been an issue at all this year either, but the defense has been exposed at times against high-powered offenses. Summit has scored 36 or more points nine times this year, most since the team’s 12-0 state championship season in 2009.
In that 2009 season Liberato’s team surrendered 20 or more points only three times, though, and in 2011 Summit has given up 20 in seven different contests.
These are two teams that know each other very well, despite the fact that they haven’t played one another this season and only twice since 2009. The schools are only five miles apart and everyone knows everyone including the coaches and athletic directors.
Liberato played running back at CW Post behind Madison Athletic Director Sean Dowling, and the two recently helped organize a breakfast for the captains of both teams to meet before the game -- a calm before the storm.
There’s a ton of pride on the line and good reason to think this game will be an absolute war. If Summit can’t contain Goodwin, however, it could be in for a long night.
THE PICK: Madison 31, Summit 17
Contact John Quirk at jquirk@cablevision.com. Follow him on Twitter: @QuirkMedia
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