Red-hot Elizabeth looks to keep it going when Minutemen host Passaic Tech in N2-G5 semis

With all the Elizabeth football team has gone through this year, the Minutemen might as well be playing with house money.

After two games, head coach John Fiore was ousted by the Board of Ed over an enrollment controversy regarding his son, and the former head coach has threatened legal action.

The move left players upset, many crowding into a packed school board meeting on September 19th in Fiore’s support.

They would go out and lose the following night to St. Joseph-Metuchen, and the next week, St. Thomas Aquinas star Chase Young collapsed on their field and had to be taken to the hospital.

But they would only drop one more game between then and now, the next week to Bridgewater-Raritan. Since then, they won three regular season games – at Morristown, home against Watchung Hills, and at Union – to grab a two-seed in North 2, Group 5.

And last week, the Minutemen won their fourth straight game, 34-33 in a rematch with Morristown, this time at Williams Field. Sophomore quarterback Arique Fleming pulled off the football equivalent of a double-double (or is it a “double-triple?”) by throwing for 189 yards and rushing for 108 in the victory.

They will no doubt run into a stiff challenge at home against third-seed Passaic Tech, which is 8-2 on the year – very good, but not quite the 13-0 team that lost by ten in the Group 5 title game a year ago to Toms River North.

That’s their opponent Friday night at 6:00 in the sectional semis, with a trip to the title game on the line. That’s a place Elizabeth hasn’t been since 2014, when they lost to Linden in the sectional final, 27-20.

But hey, no time like the present, right?

Click below to hear Elizabeth head coach Eugene Kline talk about the Minutemen, and this week’s sectional semifinal playoff game against Passaic Tech: