High School Football: Florence Picks Up Second Straight C.J. Group Championship Saturday, December 4, 2004 By Jerome Michaels SJSports Special Correspondent Every team faces challenges during the regular season and especially during the playoffs. For the Flashes from Florence, another challenge of facing an unfamiliar opponent during the Group playoffs tests the coaching staff’s ability to adapt. It seemed that Florence was able to execute their game plan against New Providence during the Central Jersey Group 1 title game at the Pit. Florence erased an early deficit and stream rolled past the Pioneers to pick up their second straight championship. Florence has now won 24 straight games with their 35-7 victory. New Providence was the team that loss to the Flashes during last year’s championship game and were looking not to repeat their effort. The Pioneers started out this game scoring on Jim Muench’s one yard run and Florence found themselves down by a touchdown. With the offense still unable to sustain a drive, the special teams started the scoring barrage for Florence. Abree Jones got his hands on a punt and picked up the loose football and scored to pull within a point after a missed extra point attempt. After place kicker Abree Jones’ 24-yard field goal gave the Flashes a 9-7 lead right before the half, Florence took advantage of their situation especially during their twenty point third quarter. Matt Ordog threw two touchdown passes, the first to Zach Rinaldi from 28 yards out and the second to Ryan Lee with less than three minutes remaining in the quarter. Florence added another fumble recovery touchdown and a fourth quarter touchdown to round out the scoring. Photos by Mark Fletcher