The fans at John F. Bauer Memorial Stadium were treated to a thrilling double overtime victory by the Randolph Rams over the Mendham Minutemen 20-14.

To cap it off, it was Randolph High School’s Senior Night as well, and senior quarterback Kevin Farrell took matters into his own hands. During the second overtime period, he pulled off a 20 yard run on a keeper to set up the winning touchdown and uplifting ending to the Randolph football season. Although the temperature was near freezing, the fans stayed until the bitter end and basked in the warm glow of a hard fought seesaw victory.

At first things went smoothly for the Rams. Their first possession set the theme for the night, with plenty of rushes supplied by the Ram’s triple threat runningbacks, juniors Mike Mastrangelo and John Yachmetz, and sophomore AJ Garcia. Then Farrell mixed things up and hit Garcia on a 13 yard touchdown pass, to culminate the 9 play drive. Colin Bahor’s kick put Randolph ahead 7-0 with 6:03 on the clock.

But it was here where the Mendham Minutemen’s defense stiffened, allowing no more scoring for the rest of the half. Noteworthy contributions by Adam Agree, Ryan Harrington, Kevin Staley, Tyler Purdue, and Adam Papa stifled the Rams’ offensive drives.

The Rams played tenacious defense as well. Great plays by Todd Nigro, Mike Rampone, Matt Lade, Tyler Healey, Peter Wolmart, Nick Gangemi, Darren Cimbal, AJ Garcia, Andrew Gorol, and the entire defensive crew shutout the Minutemen until deep into the fourth quarter.

A goal line stand to end the first half typified their fine play. Mendham’s senior quarterback Matt Crimmins engineered a drive in the final minutes of the first half, utilizing junior runningbacks John Kuhn and Drayer Van Orden, and his reliable senior wide receiver/deep threat Brad Jones. But the drive was stopped in its tracks in the Randolph red zone, as Crimmins was pinned on the sideline and time ran out.

The second half opened up with a Mendham 3 and out series, and the Rams got the ball on their own 28 yardline with 10:02 left in the quarter. Farrell crafted another rushing oriented 11 play drive, culminating in a Mike Mastrangelo 2 yard touchdown run. Bahor’s kick made it a 14-0 Ram’s lead with 3:39 left in the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Minutemen’s offense woke up with a jolt supplied a Crimmins to Jones 41 yard sideline touchdown bomb with 8:32 remaining in the fourth quarter. They followed that with a 2 point strike, again Crimmins to Jones, and the scoring gap was cut down to 14-8.

Only 2 plays later, Mendham’s Adam Papa recovered a Ram fumble on the Mendham 40 yard line. Crimmins lead a 12 play 60 yard drive, culminating in another touchdown pass to Brad Jones. With only 2:06 left on the game clock, the extra point attempt was missed, and a huge sigh of relief could be heard from the Randolph sidelines and cheering section. The game was headed into overtime, all tied up at 14-14.

In the first overtime session, with both teams getting a possession on the opposition 25 yard line, neither team could manage a first down or a score.

Randolph elected to play defense to start the second overtime, and an intentional grounding call on Crimmins set up a third and 27 from the 42 yard line. The third down pass was intercepted by Tyler Healey and the Rams had their “last licks” chance to win.

Kevin Farrell took the snap and ran 20 yards to set up the ball at the five yard line. From there, senior Farrell handed the ball to sophomore AJ Garcia and the game was won on his 5 yard touchdown run.

Menham (3-6) 0-0-0-14 – 14
Randolph (3-6) 7-0-7-0-6 – 20
SCORING:
R- AJ Garcia 13 pass from Kevin Farrell (Colin Bahor kick)
R- Mike Mastrangelo 2 run (Bahor kick)
M- Brad Jones 41 pass from Matt Crimmins (Jones pass from Crimmins)
M- Jones 4 pass from Crimmins (kick failed)
R- Garcia 5 run