Ridgewood snaps Amboy’s 17-game win streak as Roy Sandberg scores 3 touchdowns

CAMBRIDGE – It simply came down to execution.

Facing an Amboy team that had won 17 straight games, including last year’s eight-player championship over Ridgewood, the host Spartans came through with a winning effort in a 34-22 victory Thursday.

Ridgewood (4-1) also avenged a 36-8 loss to Amboy in Week 1 with the win.

Ridgewood senior tailback Roy Sandberg led the backfield with three rushing downs and 168 yards on 19 carries.

“We knew it was going to be tough,” Sandberg said. “We knew that if we did what we had to do, we would win. We came out and we executed our jobs and we won the game.”

The Spartans set the tone for what would come by stopping Amboy (4-1) on fourth down on their opening drive.

Sandberg’s first rushing touchdown with 2:25 left in the first quarter made it 8-0. His second rushing touchdown came from 28 yards out and gave Ridgewood a 16-0 lead.

“That was a huge momentum thing,” Sandberg said. “I felt like the whole night they were fighting the momentum and I think we had to push the whole game. We had the crowd on our side and everything went right.”

Gaining a two-score advantage in the first half also gave the Spartans confidence against an Amboy team regarded as the best team in the state in its class. Amboy beat Ridgewood 74-22 in last year’s state title game and 48-42 in the regular season.

“Once we scored twice, we knew that we could compete with this team,” he said, “and we could beat this team.”

Amboy cut into the lead with a 2-yard rush from Owen Leffleman that helped make it 16-8. But Ridgewood did not let the Clippers get that close again.

“We know that we can compete with anybody and we’re one of the best teams in eight-man,” Sandberg said. “If we do our job, we can beat anybody.”

Sandberg and Gavin Franks made for a two-headed monster as Franks finished with 127 yards rushing on 17 carries.

“We’re pretty good running backs, but we couldn’t do it without our linemen,” Sandberg said.

Ridgewood quarterback Owen Anderson also had two rushing touchdowns. His 35-yarder at the end of the third quarter extended the lead to 22-8 before another Sandberg score made it 28-8 with 9:39 left in the game.

Amboy had a quick answer as Eddie Jones found Caleb Yanos for a 37-yard touchdown pass just over a minute later that made it 28-16 after a Brayden Klein run for two.

Ridgewood again had an answer as Anderson found the end zone from five yards out. Amboy’s Jones had a 60-yard pass to Evan Flanagan with 4:11 left, but the Spartans were able to salt the game away down the stretch with a 34-22 lead intact.

“We’re on a four-win streak right now, and I feel invincible,” Sandberg said. “We’re going to keep working hard. This isn’t the highlight of our season, playoffs is, but we’re going to keep working hard.”

For Ridgewood coach Patrick Elder, the story of the game was the Spartans’ defense.

“We finished drives and we were better defensively,” he said. “We didn’t play terrible on defense the first time against them, but they finished drives. Tonight, I thought we were just more consistent in our effort, mentally and physically on defense.”

He thought the early lead helped put pressure on Amboy. Klein was Amboy’s leading rusher with 54 yards, Leffleman had 33 yards and Jones had 25 on the ground. Jones was 3 of 7 passing with 118 yards, one touchdown and an interception to Anderson.

Elder also credited his team’s offensive and defensive lines.

“Our defense made them earn it,” Elder said, “and made them have to be more patient offensively then they’ve had to be, and that was good for us.”

Elder said the message all week was the same:

“If you’re consistent in your mental and physical effort, you’re going to like the result,” he said. “And I felt our kids did that tonight.”

One win, however, does not define their season.

“This is a nice win for us, but we’ve achieved none of our goals,” Elder said. “This is a step toward those.”