After his team cruised to victories in its first six games during a record-setting campaign, Woodbridge High School head football coach Joe LaSala knew the Barrons had a championship mentality by the manner in which they reacted to their first real taste of adversity.
“I walked into the locker room and I heard one of the players say we were going to be able to come back and win this game,” LaSala recalled of the mood at halftime with his team trailing New Brunswick by two touchdowns in the next-to-last regular-season game. “At that point, I knew that we believed we could win when we were down and I believed that we could win at any time.”
Woodbridge, which came back for a 21-20 victory over New Brunswick, rallied to win its next three games, including playoff victories over North Hunterdon (21-14) and Randolph (14-13), to reach a sectional final for the first time in 22 years.
The storybook season came to an end with a 37-7 loss in the North 1 Group 4 championship to Northern Highlands, which claimed its first sectional title in more than four decades.
LaSala, whose team (10-1) ended the year with a single-season school record for victories and claimed the school’s first division championship – a Greater Middlesex Conference Blue Division crown – in 28 years, said the season-ending loss doesn’t undermine what his players accomplished.
“We are not going to let one loss define what we did this season,” said LaSala, whose Barrons won their first 10 games, surpassing the school’s 1930 squad, which won its first nine game.
“I told them not to hang their heads and to keep their heads help up high because one day they will realize the impact they had, not only on each other, but in the building and in the community. I think those things outweigh the wins and losses.”
LaSala, who is the Home News Tribune’s 2019 Football Coach of the Year, took over the program in 2018, leading the Barrons to a 5-5 season, at the end of which Woodbridge players immediately commenced work on their championship run.
“We actually started (before Thanksgiving) last year,” LaSala said of his team’s offseason commitment in the weight room. “We were really able to go ahead and change our culture throughout those workouts. We had unbelievable attendance.”
LaSala said the work ethic carried over into the summer and training camp, preparing Woodbridge for one of the finest seasons in school history, during which junior running back Ali Lee Jr. set multiple school records.
“I had an idea that Ali was going to be special,” LaSala said. “He’s an unbelievable talent, so we knew we had to get the ball to him in a lot of different ways.”
Other keys to the team’s offensive success was the play of its line, which proved its mettle early in scrimmages against the likes of reigning sectional champion Union, North Brunswick and Linden, and the ability of the passing game to make clutch plays.
Woodbridge’s defensive front – which ends Jesus Cabrera and Jordan Harris anchored with a combined 21 sacks – was equally impressive, pressuring opposing quarterbacks to aid a relatively young secondary that recorded 15 interceptions.
Isaiah Jackson led the linebacking corps with 96 tackles, while Lee registered five picks for a defense that limited eight of its first 10 opponents to two touchdowns or less. Woodbridge outscored its first six opponents 189-37, or by an average of 25.3 points per game.
The unsung hero of Woodbridge’s championship run was the community, which rallied behind the Barrons, who had home-field advantage through the sectional semifinals.
“Football is always the driving force in the community because it’s the biggest sport,” LaSala said. “Week by week and game by game, people just kept getting excited about what we were doing. I think Woodbridge wanted a winning team and people rallied around us. We appreciated their support throughout the year.”
LaSala, who is 30 years old, also appreciated the support from his fiancé, Christina Vazquez, as well as his parents and siblings.
A 2007 graduate of Colonia, where he played football and basketball, LaSala returned to his alma mater after graduating from Montclair State University, to serve as an assistant gridiron coach. He was the architect of the Patriots’ spread zone read offense that reached a sectional final in 2014. LaSala now teaches health and physical education at Woodbridge.
His dear friend and former high school teammate Eric LeGrand, who became paralyzed after suffering a spinal cord injury while playing for Rutgers University in a 2010 game, delivered an inspirational speech to the Barrons during the season.
“Eric is the definition of perseverance and dealing with adversity,” LaSala said of Legrand, who has started “Team LeGrand,” a charity in conjunction with the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, which supports groundbreaking research and quality of life initiatives for people with spinal cord injuries.
“There are players on my team who have a lot to deal with at home, and I think when Eric comes and talks to them, he brings good insight to having to go ahead and get through hard times. A lot of players look up to Eric’s story, including myself to this day. I thank him all the time for coming back and bringing great perspective, not just to football, but to life.”
Regarding his team’s record-setting season, LaSala said the Barrons worked hard to achieve every milestone, and falling one win short of a sectional title can’t undermine those efforts.
“There’s true gratification when you know it’s earned and not just given to you easily,” LaSala said. “These guys have earned everything they’ve accomplished this season.”
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