DISNEY WORLD, Fla. – All the West Lynn Pop Warner B squad needs now is to do something the Patriots couldn’t even do – defeat a Giants team from New Jersey.If the Rams can do that, they can call themselves national champions.West Lynn earned the right to face the New Jersey Giants in Friday’s junior midget Thomlin Division title game with a 36-13 throttling of the Fort Worth Colts. Jersey won its game over Santa Cruz, Calif., in the other semifinal.The Rams were able to pull off the win despite the fact that their all-purpose offensive weapon – Brad Scuzzarella – got hurt early in the first quarter shortly after scoring his team’s first touchdown (bruising his knee after hitting it on an opponent’s helmet). But Kevin Heing (two touchdowns), as well as Devinya Robinson and Juan Prenza (one each) were more than able to pick up the slack on offense while Micah Jackson was his usual terror on the other side of the ball.Coach Maurice Cordy had an uncomfortable feeling leading up to the game for the oddest of reasons – for the first time all year, his team won the toss and received the ball.”All year, we’ve kicked off,” said Cordy, speaking to The Item from Florida after the game.His premonitions almost looked to be too true. West Lynn fumbled three plays into its opening drive and Fort Worth came right down the field and scored.But then things settled down for the Rams. Scuzzarella’s 55-yard run (and the extra point) made it 8-7, West Lynn, and the Rams never looked back.Shortly after, Scuzzarella got hurt, “and we had to play the rest of the game without our best running back,” Cordy said.However, the Rams had no trouble pouring it on after that. Particularly impressive was Robinson, who made several coaches on Fort Worth stand up and take notice.”A lot of people think that because she’s a girl, they don’t have to pay much attention to her,” Cordy said. “But after the game, a lot of people came up to us and said they didn’t know she was that good.”They gave her a lot of respect,” Cordy said. “Once they saw her play, they knew.”Cordy also cited Prenza, quarterback Eli McConney and Jackson as contributing to the victory.McConney and Prenza hooked up for a 65-yard scoring pass, and Prenza had a key interception while playing out of position. Scuzzarella is normally the team’s safety, but after he went down, Prenza – a linebacker most of the time – filled the slot.”I thought he played pretty well – especially defensively,” Cordy said.As for Jackson, “he’s such a force on the defensive line,” Cordy said. “He just keeps getting better and better.”Once again, he made a lot of tackles in the backfield,” he said. “He’s so strong, and so quick.”Cordy said his team stuck to three or four basic plays on offense.”We run those same plays the whole game, unless the other teams proves it can stop them,” he said. “If they can’t, then we keep running them.”He had a lot of praise for Fort Worth.”They scored twice, and they earned it both times,” he said. “They were very good. There were no cheapies.”West Lynn plays for the division title Friday at 1. There are two junior midget divisions: Thomlin and Warner. Winners in both divisions will emerge as champions.”They call it a co-championship,” said Cordy, “but if we win, we’re going to call ourselves champions. But first, we have to win the game.”New Jersey looks pretty strong,” he said. “They’re big and physical. But so are we, so it ought to be a good game.”
