Sparta Bears win NJSYFL Super Bowl

The Sparta Bears 5th Grade Football team began their season with a trip to MetLife Stadium in late August. Playing in front of 60,000 Giants fans during halftime the Bears put on a show that drew huge ovations from the crowd. Three months later, they capped off the season with a championship win, defeating the Cranford Cougars 19-6 in the 2015 New Jersey Suburban Youth Football League (NJSYFL) Super Bowl played in Springfield.

In the Championship game, the Bears (9-1-1) defense led by Tristan Jarvis, Liam Gallagher, Nick Castorina and Jeremy Schon stifled the Cranford Cougars (8-2-1) offense to start the game. Once on offense, the Bears struck quickly with a two-play touchdown drive as QB Austen Frattura scampered for 50 yards into Cranford territory. Nick Ryan put the Bears up 6-0 with a 12-yard TD run. Once again, the Bears defense forced a turnover on downs and one play later, the Bears found the end zone again as the offensive line anchored by Jarvis, Castorina, Joe Buono and Eric Dau gave Frattura plenty of time to hit wide receiver Justin Fontana with a 65-yard TD pass to stretch the lead to 12-0.

The Bears defense continued to cause problems for the Cougars forcing their QB to throw two consecutive interceptions. The first to Nick Ryan, which he returned to the Cranford 5-yard line. The second INT by Charlie Mulligan set up the final TD for the Bears bringing their lead to 19-0. The Bears continued to shut the Cranford offense down behind the play of Jake Maguire, Tucker Austin and Ryan McGinn. Cranford managed to score a late TD in the final seconds of the game to bring the final score to 19-6.

Although several Bears teams have made it to the championship over the last five years, this was their first Super Bowl Championship for the program. The 5th grade team was honored at the Bears Awards Night on Dec. 1 at Sparta High School.