RBR, RFH, Ocean impressive in week one

BY DOUG McKENZIE
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY CHRIS KELLY staff Above, Middletown South’s Rob Kelly makes the tackle on Long Branch’s Francisco Gomez, while at left, the Green Wave’s Paul Lewis tries to break through the Eagle defense during South’s opening-night win in Middletown. With week one in the books, things went pretty much as expected for the local high school football teams.

The local squads that expected to challenge for division titles, and perhaps more, were impressive, while the teams with lower expectations struggled a bit.

The one exception was the Long Branch Green Wave — a squad that can match up with just about anyone in the Shore. They just happened to run into the best the Shore has to offer in week one, losing to Middletown South, 33-6.

Middletown South wasted little time in proving to be the team to beat. The top-ranked Eagles played host to fourth-ranked Long Branch on South’s new artificial turf field, and quite simply, it was no contest.

As expected, junior tailback Knowshon Moreno was the spark that led the Eagles. Playing for the first time on the surface that replaced the renowned “Swamp” at Middletown South, Moreno looked comfortable with the change as he rushed for 183 yards on 23 carries and three touchdowns.

Behind a revamped offensive line, both Moreno and his backfield mate Trent MacCray (62 yards and a touchdown) found all kinds of daylight throughout the game, as did quarterback Dan Stivala, who rushed for 68 yards and a TD.

Long Branch managed to get its touchdown in the third quarter on a 15-yard TD pass from Maurice Turpin to Thomas Ellis, capping a 67-yard drive, but the Eagles responded with an 11-play, 69-yard drive, which resulted in Moreno’s third TD of the night, this one from two yards out.

Next up for the top-ranked Eagles is a trip to Red Bank on Saturday for a rematch of last year’s CJ Group III championship game, won by South. In fact, South beat RBR twice last year, handing the Bucs their only losses of the season.

In what essentially proved to be a warm-up for head coach Harry Chebookjian’s squad, the Bucs rolled over Howell on Friday, 41-21, using their advantage at the skill positions to out-gun the undermanned Rebels.

Rahmir Cottman was simply brilliant, with six receptions, including two touchdown catches where he out-leaped the defenders. He finished with 106 total receiving yards.

Michael Livingston was equally dominant on the ground, rushing for 140 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

The Bucs offense was simply unstoppable in this one, propelling RBR to a 28-0 halftime lead. Once the Bucs built the lead to 34-0 in the third on a Mike Garofalo 10-yard scoring run, Chebookjian assumed it was safe to rest his starters.

That move proved to be premature, as Howell made an inspired comeback, scoring three straight TDs to get within 34-21.

However, with the first string back in, the Bucs were able to stem the tide, and come away with an impressive season-opening win.

They hope to be equally explosive this Saturday when they host the Eagles in a game that could very well decide the Federal Division championship.

All this, and it’s only week two. Game time is 1 p.m.

As expected, Rumson-Fair Haven rolled over a severely over-matched Mater Dei squad on Saturday, building a 47-0 lead by halftime.

Quarterback Michael Roberto threw for four touchdown passes and ran for another, as the Bulldogs did what they needed to do — get past this game healthy.

Next up for RFH is a team that should provide them with more of a challenge — Point Boro, which is coming off an impressive 31-6 win over Asbury Park. Game time is 1 p.m. Saturday in Rumson.

Ocean Township also posted an impressive opening-day win, blanking Lacey, 42-0 — the team’s first-ever win over the Lacey program.

Junior quarterback Keith McPherson led the way in this one, rushing for 82 yards and two touchdowns, executing the option like an old pro, while also throwing for 170 yards and another score.

Chris Chittum also ran well, accumulating 102 yards and two TDs on just seven carries, behind the stellar blocking of the Ocean offensive line.

Ocean’s defense was equally strong, holding Lacey to just 42 yards of total offense.

Next up for Ocean is Toms River South, who did not play last weekend. Game time is 7 p.m. Saturday in Ocean.

Red Bank Catholic had to battle a little harder for its opening-day win, but won a 14-10 thriller over Manchester on Friday.

After falling behind 10-0 in the first half after some sloppy play, the Caseys turned things around in the second half. Tailback Donald Brown ripped off a 53-yard run on the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter to make it a 10-7 game.

The winning TD came later in the fourth when RBC used Brown, who rushed for 182 yards on 20 carries, as a decoy, setting up Greg Geran as the hero on a 7-yard pass from QB Kyle Brandon.

Manchester appeared poised to come back late in the game after completing a 63-yard pass play from their own 25-yard line on fourth-and-10, and getting four shots from the Caseys’ 11-yard line. However, the Casey defense proved up to the challenge, and stopped the last-ditch effort to seal the win.

RBC will look to make it 2-0 on Saturday when they take on a Pinelands team that is coming off its biggest win is recent history — a 6-0 shocker over Manasquan in Manasquan. Game time is 7 p.m.

Shore Regional had a tough time against Point Beach, dropping a 31-14 contest.

Shore built a 14-10 halftime lead on the heels of a Phil Greene 1-yard TD run and a 12-yard QB keeper from Gary Knoeppel just before the half.

But Point Beach controlled the second half, and handed the Blue Devils a tough opening loss. Shore will look to bounce back tonight when they host Keyport — a 20-12 winner over Monsignor Donovan last week. Game time is 7 p.m.

Monmouth Regional also suffered a tough loss on opening night, losing to Wall Township, 41-14. Wall was clearly the stronger team in this one, though the sloppy play throughout (six lost fumbles — four by Monmouth) was enough to make both coaches want to forget about this one and look ahead to week two.

For Monmouth, that means a shot at Freehold Borough — a 37-0 loser to Raritan last week — on Saturday in Tinton Falls. Game time is 1:30 p.m.