Week 1 game preview

Friday night's football games include Pequannock travelling to Montville and Lakeland at home facing Passaic County Tech. As shown on the pages of Wednesday's Trends, we have now added football picks to our sports section. Hopefully everyone will view this strictly as a fun exerecise and that nothing we predict has merit because we are hardly experts, especially considering that we haven't seen any of the teams in action. Having said that, I stand by my picks, so for Friday's games, I chose Lakeland and Montville.

The Lancers will debut their new quarterback but will return most of one of the more stingy defenses in the area. The running game goes from a combo of speed and power to more of a power running game with Ray Capo. Teaming with Greg Bardzell last year the pair accumulated over 1,000 yards and a dozen scores. Lakeland beat PCT last November in their run for the playoffs 28-13. Their QB also was a WR last year, Tyriek Noble. He is as much a threat with his legs as his arm making him a threat to Lakeland but since this is the opener and they are the home team, they should prevail.

Pequannock goes to Montville and while their game last year was close, 14-0, Montville played the game missing some of their starters. They were a near playoff team a year ago moving to Group 3 and are looking to make a statement this year. The Panthers' plight is well chronicled, a winless 2007, two wins out of 30, if any school needs a win, it's Pequannock. Their schedule is tough but second year coach Ed Kopp can make this promise, the team will play hard each and every week. As I've said before, it's hard not to root for this team, but it will be a difficult task to knock off Montville.

Saturday's games include Pompton Lakes travelling to Lodi to face the always tough, playoff tested Rams. These two BPSL rivals have not met since 2006 when Lodi got the best of the Cardinals. Both have something to prove and both play with that chip on the shoulder attitude. A win here, which I think they will get, will go a long way towards propelling Pompton Lakes on another playoff run. It won't be easy, but Sean Carey at QB with a year under his belt and a slew of defenders coming back make this a difficult but somewhat confident pick.

Saturday night has West Milford going to Teaneck to face the Highwaymen. This game could go either way, the Highlanders are returning the soon to be most prolific passer in school history while Teaneck has many new faces, including first year head coach Art Mazzacca. Playing in the NNJIL and having to face powerhouses Ridgewood, Montclair, Kennedy, Don Bosco, and Hackensack, this will be viewed by them as a winnable home game. It could be a shootout, but in the end, I think Teaneck will scrape by at home.

Once again, please, do not take these predictions to heart. Its all in fun and in no way shape or form will they cloud my perspective while covering them for the paper. I will be in Montville Friday night and Lodi on Saturday. Check back with us here at Trendspotters for the most up to date info concerning this weekends games and to get more coverage, pick up the Trends on Sunday and Wednesdays.