Sometimes, Bill Goble wants to switch places with longtime Dover boys soccer coach Jeff Hoyt. Hoyt had hundreds of players at summer workouts and preseason tryouts. Goble, the Tigers' football coach, wishes for such abundance.Dover had around 45 players at summer morning workouts, enough to field both varsity and JV – but Goble wants to relaunch a freshman team for the first time in a decade. Goble is also hoping to recruit a kicker once the soccer team starts making cuts, like he did last year."It starts with the ba...
Sometimes, Bill Goble wants to switch places with longtime Dover boys soccer coach Jeff Hoyt. Hoyt had hundreds of players at summer workouts and preseason tryouts. Goble, the Tigers' football coach, wishes for such abundance.
Dover had around 45 players at summer morning workouts, enough to field both varsity and JV – but Goble wants to relaunch a freshman team for the first time in a decade. Goble is also hoping to recruit a kicker once the soccer team starts making cuts, like he did last year.
"It starts with the basics: getting more kids out for football and getting them started younger," said Goble, who owns contracting and landscaping businesses and is a real-estate agent.
Dover kids who want to play football must join the Junior Knights, a feeder program for Morris Hills High School that also includes youth from Rockaway Borough and Wharton. However, Dover Middle School offers football, which Goble cited for the stable turnout.
The tradition
Dover has appeared in eight sectional finals, winning North 2, Group 2 in 1984, 1992 and 1996. The Tigers were last in a final in 2003, falling to Sparta in North 1, Group 2.
In 2019, Dover snapped a 16-game losing streak by capturing the last two games of season. The Tigers finished above .500 in its last two seasons in the Ivy Division – including a 7-3 record under alumnus Justin Hartman in 2022 – but slipped to 3-7 last fall.
The challenge
The Tigers are relying on strong offensive and defensive lines. Senior Bradyn Brown and junior Ismael Lopez, Dover's left and right tackle, are both 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds. Junior G/DT Josh Perez and C J.J. Filosa will be three-year starters this fall. But the skill players, led by junior returning starter Max Piechota at tight end and defensive end, are young.
"We're not inexperienced, as far as these kids have been around the team," Goble said. "They just haven't played a lot of varsity football."
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Expectations
Dover hasn't made the playoffs since 2013, a 53-12 loss to Mountain Lakes in the first round. They haven't won a playoff game in 22 years, when Goble was in eighth grade at Dover Middle School. Those are Dover's ultimate goals, which Goble says "start with Week Zero against Morris Hills."
2025 schedule
Week 0: at Morris Hills
Week 1: vs. Vernon
Week 2: vs. West Milford
Week 3: at Mendham
Week 4: vs. Lakeland
Week 5: at Sparta
Week 6: vs. Pascack Hills
Week 7: vs. Jefferson
Week 8: at Kittatinny