BY: Greg Tartaglia / NorthJersey.com
Jason Marasciulo put a cherry on top of the best football season in the history of two high schools.
The senior quarterback/defensive back accounted for four touchdowns and 423 all-purpose yards in Saturday’s Super Football Conference Ivy Division championship game. His Cliffside Park/Ridgefield co-op program defeated Demarest to finish unbeaten at 9-0.
“It means everything,” Marasciulo said Tuesday as he reflected on the season. “We came in with a high expectation and this championship-level standard coming into the season. Having [had] a disappointing season last year, we knew that this year would be different.”
It was different in that, prior to joining forces in 2021, neither school had ever completed an undefeated record. Cliffside Park had gone unbeaten in the regular season four times from 1990-2002, only to drop its first playoff game and finish 9-1.
Ridgefield’s best season as a solo program was 8-2 in 1988, and that, too, concluded with a playoff one-and-done.
Playing in the SFC Ivy Division means that teams are ineligible for the NJSIAA playoffs. The Royal Raiders could not care less as they hoisted their first trophy since Cliffside Park’s 1977 North 1, Group 3 title.
“As far as history, I just knew that Ridgefield couldn’t have a team prior to prior to me entering high school there,” Marasciulo said. “My brothers played on the football team, but they had to shut it down because they didn’t have enough participants.”
The third oldest of four Marasciulo boys began playing in second grade, when “they noticed I had a strong arm, so I was put at quarterback on the Pee-Wees.
“My older brothers were both receivers, because we all have a little bit of height,” he said. “We’re all about 6-2 and above.”
Despite having two potential Cooper Mannings to his Peyton, Jason never got to complete passes to his older brothers due to the age difference. Alex Marasciulo graduated in 2019 and Tommy in 2021.
And yet, “family” still plays a key role for Jason on the gridiron.
“The family atmosphere is always preached as a football team, but when you come into a different town – like, a different team than you’ve known, with different kids – it was difficult at first,” Marasciulo said. “The first year, the co-op was my freshman year, and we just kind of built on that family kind of mindset over the four years.”
As their counterparts at Waldwick/Midland Park have done, Cliffside Park and Ridgefield combined their junior programs as well.
“Our coach [Tom Mandile] believes, if we’re going to have a strong program, they should start at the rec level and then they should work their way up to high school,” Marasciulo said.
He is the 12th North Jersey Athlete of the Week ever selected from Ridgefield Memorial High School – and his school’s first football honoree since Danny Winter in 1980.
Marasciulo’s exploits, though, will be long celebrated in multiple towns.
“After losing two of our three best play makers in the first half [of the Ivy title game], Jason carried us to the championship,” Mandile said.
