Under the bright lights of Alan Deaett Field, both Glen Rock’s and New Milford’s defenses shone for 47 minutes.

With both offenses averaging around 30 points per game as they entered Friday night, the last thing anybody expected was a defensive battle. But that is exactly what happened.

Glen Rock needed every last second as they scored their first points of the game on a quarterback Matthew Schlett 1-yard touchdown run with a mere eight seconds left, and they would go on to win by a score of 6-0.

Senior Captain Vincent Neubert anchored the defense and took pride in their effort.

“Our coach always says defense wins championships and pitching a shutout was really exciting for a lot of guys on the team,” Neubert said.

Senior linebacker Dylan Tarleton paced the Glen Rock defense for a second straight week, this time recording five total tackles including one sack.

Tim Ray (’17) also stood out on defense and special teams, averaging 41.5 yards per kick return as well as a recording a key interception late in the third quarter. This was his third interception this season.

Glen Rock totaled 178 yards of total offense compared to New Milford’s 130 yards, which proved to be season lows for both teams.

But thanks to Glen Rock’s key defensive stop with three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Glen Rock had the ball with prime field position and a chance to win the game. After converting on a fourth-and-six, Schlett broke off a huge 20-yard touchdown run that sent the Glen Rock faithful into a frenzy. The excitement was quickly quelled as Glen Rock got flagged for a holding penalty, their sixth penalty of the game.

“At first I was disappointed, but since we had more time I was confident that we would definitely be able to score a second time,” Neubert said.

Schlett proved to be an effective game manager, not turning the ball over a single time.

The game had been delayed an hour from 6pm to 7pm due to a thunderstorm.  The wet conditions made the ball slick throughout the game.

Next week, Glen Rock faces Lyndhurst, who comes in riding a two game winning streak behind the strong play of quarterback Peter Guerriero.

“We need to just clean it up a little bit and go back to scoring like we did in games before New Milford,” Neubert said.

Glen Rock looks to build on its four game winning streak at 1PM on Oct. 18 at Glen Rock High School for its Homecoming Game.