New Jersey

2 Student Athletes Found Dead Outside Crashed Car off NJ Highway: Police

Two 19-year-old college students who were former high school athletes were found dead outside a crashed vehicle in the woods off a New Jersey highway Monday morning, state police and school officials say say.

The bodies of Samuel Cali and Leonidas Vagias, both of Towaco and former athletes at Don Bosco High School, were discovered outside a blue Lexus off the southbound side of Interstate 287 in Mahwah by a Department of Transportation worker, state police said. 

Investigators believe the two were ejected from the car at milepost 62.5 when they crashed Sunday night. 

The Don Bosco football team tweeted that it was mourning the loss of the young men, who graduated in 2015. Vagias was voted New Jersey's best high school kicker in 2014, and was an all-state, all league and all-Bergen County selection as a senior at Don Bosco, according to the site for the University of Rhode Island football team, where Vagias was a placekicker and punter. 

Cali, a freshman at Rutgers, was a two-time district champion and placed in the state wrestling tournament when he was at Don Bosco. 

State police are investigating. A cause of the crash hasn't been determined. 

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