Patriots Illustrated

Harrison Pop Warner Falls to N.A. Vikings on “White-Out Night”

           For many years the Harrison-East Newark Pop Warner football teams have been doing some of the same stuff that Harrison High School did on and off the field. This weekend, they have followed in their footsteps to do a themed “color-out.” The High School does a bunch of themes like the pink-out, black-out, and a bunch of other themes. This Saturday the Pop Warner teams decided to do things a little different, they did a white-out.. The Juniors and Seniors thought of doing a white-out and ordered white pants to go along with their white jerseys and helmets. 

          On October 12, the Harrison Blue Tide played against the rivaled North Arlington Vikings. The Blue Tide Juniors, who came in at a record of 1-4, wanted to get this win. The game started out great with Blue Tide standouts Jayden Rivera and Rickie Richardson connecting for 2 touchdowns before the half. The offense was on fire with Michael Zamora blocking anyone trying to get to the ball carriers. Unfortunately,  in the second half the Vikings came back and took the win 21-12. The Juniors will face Carlstadt this Saturday, October 19 in Carlstadt.

          Right after the Juniors’ game, the Blue Tide Seniors played against a very good NA Seniors team. The Vikings got the ball first and within the first couple of minutes, North Arlington scored. After the 2-point field goal the Vikings took an 8-0 lead. Although the defense struggled at the start, Harrison’s offense started out fast. On the following kickoff Justin Langley ran all the way to the 40 yard line with his team blocking for him. For the first offensive play, Langley, now at quarterback, threw a strike to tight end Brandon Vega to the 32 yard line. Vega ran and got the first down. Harrison decided to do another pass play. Langley completed another pass to Adrian Arande who ran to the 5 yard line. Unfortunately, after multiple penalties the Blue Tide were unable to score. By halftime the score was 16-0, with North Arlington in the lead. 

          In the 3rd quarter, Langley hurt his ankle. Jayden Crespo came in to run the next few plays and was able to push the ball up the field. The Harrison defense played tough in the 2nd half. Unfortunately, the NA Vikings were able to run up the middle for a touchdown. The Blue Tide didn’t give up and Crespo ran down the right side for a 60 yard touchdown. At the end of the game the final score was 22-6 in favor of North Arlington. The Seniors had multiple chances to close the deficit, but penalties really hurt the Blue Tide’s chances. The Seniors will face Carlstadt on October 19 in Carlstadt.  

Written by: Dalila Zamora

Rangers Starting the Season HOT!!!

            The New York Rangers have gone undefeated in the hockey season so far they have beat the Ottawa Senators 4-1 with Mika Zibanijed scoring 3 goals and having 1 assist. Artemi Panarin added to the win with 1 goal as well as 1 assist. 

            So far the Rangers are looking at a good start this season. They have young players and they are rebuilding their team. They have traded many of their top players because they want other people to try and get better. Although this can be considered as a rebuilding year, they will make a strong attempt to win the Stanley Cup Finals. Let’s see how long the Rangers can keep up the good play.

Written by: Aiden Silva (7th Grade)

It’s a Fun Time To Be a NY Sports Fan

This year’s MLB offseason has brought many thrillers. It has been crazy! The Yankees made probably the most impactful move of the offseason. The one transaction that is causing a lot of buzz is when they brought in power-hitting outfielder, Giancarlo Stanton. He came from the Miami Marlins so I don’t know if he is going to like the weather here so much. I think he’ll get used to it though, especially knowing that he will be hitting in a much smaller ballpark. Stanton was last year’s National League MVP and N.L. homerun leader. He adds a ton of power to the middle of the Yankees lineup, which is already filled with power from last year’s Homerun Derby winner, Aaron Judge and power-hitting catcher, Gary Sanchez. It is definitely going to be an exciting year to be a Yankees fan. They are without a doubt the favorite to win the American League championship as long as the pitching stays strong and the team remains healthy.    

On the other side of the city, the Mets also made some offseason moves. The biggest transaction was when they signed third baseman, Todd Frazier, who was with the Yankees last season. Frazier is a very good defensive third-baseman and can hit the long ball. The only problem is his very low batting average on a team that needs people on base for star slugger, Yoenis Cespedes. Many people in New Jersey are excited that Frazier is staying in New York since he grew up in Toms River, NJ. He’s also known to be a very good leader in the clubhouse. The Mets were in need of a third baseman because David Wright is aging and hasn’t been healthy enough to play in years.

They also brought in a solid hitter and veteran first baseman, Adrian Gonzalez. Gonzalez is nearing the end of his career and is coming off a down year with the Dodgers. Unfortunately, his power numbers have been down since 2015, but the Mets are hoping for some consistency at first which they haven’t had in years. Gonzalez will also be mentoring Mets first baseman of the future, Dominic Smith.

Lastly, the Mets were able to get Jay Bruce back from his short stint with the Indians last year. The Mets traded Bruce to Cleveland strictly to help them win the World Series. Once that didn’t happen, the Mets were able to get him back. He adds another solid lefty bat in the lineup. All three of these players are good additions to a Mets team that has plenty to prove after struggling last season.

It is a fun but nerve-racking time to be a fan of either one of the New York football teams. After both teams were absolutely atrocious last season, they seem to have made great decisions this offseason. The Giants picked up former Carolina Panthers running back, Jonathan Stewart. They also have the number two pick in the 2018 draft behind the Cleveland Browns. Many people think this is an opportunity to get a franchise quarterback who will be able to learn under Eli Manning and take over when he retires. Just like Aaron Rodgers did with Brett Favre.  I think that the Giants should pick up offensive lineman, Quinton Nelson, from Notre Dame. Nelson is the best lineman in the draft and can really help what was a horrible Giants o-line last year. This will add help to protect Eli Manning and make running room for Jonathan Stewart.

The Jets have also made a big move picking up quarterback Teddy Bridgewater from the Minnesota Vikings. Bridgewater showed plenty of promise when he was healthy two years ago as the Vikings starting quarterback. He missed part of the 2016 season, as well as all of last year with a very serious leg injury. This allowed back-ups Sam Bradford and Case Keenum to shine and lead the Vikings to the playoffs. With the Vikings signing the biggest free agent qb, Kirk Cousins, to a monster contract, both Bradford and Keenum signed with other teams. This enabled the Jets to sign a good quarterback in Bridgewater for a much smaller contract. The Jets also recently traded draft pick places with the Indianapolis Colts. The Jets moved up to the third spot in the draft, giving up their sixth selection and three other draft picks. This was a lot to give up just to move up three spots in the draft, but they must have done it for a reason. The Jets must really want one of the top four quarterbacks in the draft (Josh Rosen?) or the incredible running back from Penn State, Saquon Barkley. No matter which one of these teams you root for, it is going to be a very exciting next few months for New York sports fans.  

By: Dylan Huseinovic

Odell Beckham Jr.’s Injury Impacts Giants

Since being drafted by the New York Giants in 2014, Odell Beckham Jr. is arguably one of the best wide receivers in the National Football League. Week 5 of this season was a heartbreaker for all Giants fans and Odell Beckham fans. That week, 4 wide receivers went down including the 3 main receivers, Brandon Marshall (ankle), Sterling Shepard (ankle), and Odell Beckham(ankle).  With the 3 big receivers out for the rest of the season it’s going to be really tough on Eli Manning to find receivers that are not able to make plays like Beckham and Marshall.  So it was up to Ben McAdoo to find a way to call plays around the fact that more people are not going to be able to make the same plays as his top playmakers.  I think that these injuries led to the fact that Ben McAdoo and General Manager, Jerry Reese, have been fired. Eli Manning getting benched for a game due to the horrific season he and the organization are having, didn’t help matters.  I think that if Odell was not hurt they would have won more than one game this season so far. It is kind of a shame that you go from a 10-6 season to 2-11.  The games that they have lost have not even been close, besides the one game versus the Eagles. They should have won that game. Poor coaching leads to a poor season. You have one of the worst offensive lines in the league and you try to run it on the goal line instead of throwing a fade to Odell or Marshall.  I just think the Giants need to learn from this and bounce back next season. With Odell back, new coaches, and a few off-season additions, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t have over a .500 winning percentage in 2018.

Written by: Dylan Huseinovic

World Cup 2018

In 2018 this year the world cup will be taken place in Russia. Last World Cup finalist were Germany and Argentina. The game was ended 1-0 with an amazing goal scored by Mario Gotze in the last 5 minutes of second half of extra time, which allowed Germany take home the trophy. This year the 32 teams that qualified are very interesting and rare.

The USMNT was left in despair after their shocking failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

This year the U.S was knocked out by Trinidad & Tobago with a 2-1 loss. This is the first time in 32 years that they failed to qualify. Also after 36 years Peru finally qualified to a World Cup. Another rare thing this World Cup is that Chile will not be in the tournament, and World Cup regular Italy also failed to qualify. The question is this World Cup who will be the country taking the trophy home?

The groups were just picked last week (pictured above). Which group do you think is the easiest? Which group will be the “Group of Death”?