Man, what a brutal Sunday. After a super busy week, I set aside a few hours to watch the Mets and the Jets. File that under “extremely bad idea.” Tom Glavine can’t get out of the first inning, and the Mets demise is complete. Then Chad Pennington, Mr. My-Sister-Has-A-Better-Downfield-Arm, throws a game-ending interception (his 2nd huge INT of the afternoon) in the final seconds against previously winless Buffalo with the Jets in field goal range to potentially tie the game on a long field goal. Somewhere, the Knicks were probably losing a pick-up game to a high school jayvee team while Isiah Thomas was harassing a female in the stands, just to ensure that all of the teams I root for continue to drive me insane. I was flipping to freakin’ “Teen Wolf” and “Top Gun” in the middle of those two games just to take my mind off Meltdown Sunday.
The Mets collapse still has me in shock, especially to the Phillies, who invented the word “choke” before Dr. Heimlich figured out how to stop it. I hope Willie Randolph is happy with his, “We’re OK, we’re OK,” act of the last couple weeks. He’s the guy that when the ship hits the iceberg, he tells everyone to go on with their dinner because there’s no way it could sink. He’s Kevin Bacon at the end of “Animal House” yelling “All is well!” during the melee at the parade before he gets trampled. But still, he doesn’t play, those underachieving Metropolitans do, and it’s on them. Sales of hard liquor just skyrocketed in the tri-state area in the last few hours.
Anyway, now that I’m done punching the wall, ordering my Kellen Clemens jersey and watching my 1986 “Amazin’ Mets” video to make myself feel better, let’s get to some stuff from this weekend’s football action. I’m calling it “Sunday Afternoon Quarterback” because, honestly, it’s rare for me to get out of bed on Sundays until it’s the afternoon.
As described in my previous post and has been stated a zillion times, the Middletown South-Wall game was unreal, and if you didn’t see all of the videos (we added some on Saturday), you need to go to Football Central and check them out. One thing I forgot to mention from that game is that out of all the tight ends I’ve seen this year, Wall’s Billy Lauch might be the best. He has caught a touchdown pass in three straight games and had a long catch that set up a short touchdown in Wall’s season opener. He can go up and get the ball in traffic and is a lethal blocker, so keep your eyes on No. 10. He had a 25-yard TD catch against the Eagles, and is also an excellent linebacker. As far as tight ends, also watch out for Toms River North’s Austin Kugler, who has emerged as a playmaker in recent weeks and is a load to try and bring down in the open field.
Also, I really like the rivalry between these two teams because it’s just good, hard football with no nonsense trash talking, no cheap shots and no coaches acting like babies and not shaking hands or throwing the ball late in a blowout or any of the other behavior that has popped up several times this season. It’s like a bigger and more high-stakes version of the Keansburg-Rumson-FH rivalry, where there is a healthy respect between the staffs and the players and it produces great football.
Speaking of some of the talk from this weekend, there is a lot of chatter about Point Boro coach Calvin Thompson kicking a field goal with only seconds remaining and a 29-6 lead on Monsignor Donovan. He was quoted by a reporter as being upset with his team being dropped in the Top 10 rankings and that they were going to “take” respect if it wasn’t given to them.
To be honest, I think the players on Mon Don could care less that a field goal was kicked in the final seconds, but it’s the symbolic nature of the act that I don’t agree with. What was three points going to prove? This isn’t the BCS, where you feed the scores into some convoluted computer system with millions of dollars and a bowl game at stake.
The Panthers can take respect by beating Manasquan, Holmdel and Barnegat, the three main contenders for the National Division title behind the unbeaten Panthers. Or go win the South Jersey Group II title. If you want to try to run it up there to make a statement, maybe I can buy that, but putting three more points on a 1-3 Mon Don team? The other things I always tell coaches about the rankings is that the only ones that matter are the final ones. Plus, if you have a state championship plaque sitting in the school trophy case at the end of the year, does anybody on the team or staff really care where you were ranked in a subjective sportswriter Top 10? Somewhere, Vic Kubu is laughing at the absurdity of caring about the rankings when all that matters is the hardware.
My two cents is that the Panthers should’ve taken a knee because there was absolutely no point to be proved by that time. Thompson has built the Panthers into a championship-level program and deserves credit for bringing it up a notch since taking over, but that move just makes no sense to me. It might actually have had the opposite effect than intended – I think some teams and fans lost respect for the Panthers for that move.
However, someone made an interesting comment to me about how this might send a message to his team that Thompson has their back and it could foster an “us against the world” kind of thing. We’ll see.
As for my football picks for the Schwartz Chrysler Mazda Pick ‘Em Show this week, well, how ’bout those Mets?! Tim Lamirande’s Willis Reed act cost me the Howell-Lacey game, Southern shoved my upset bid by Brick Memorial directly down my throat with a huge second half and the Federal Division owns me. I can’t figure it out, other than picking Middletown South in every game.
The Lamirande Cover-Up was impressive, as it was guarded like the combination to Fort Knox. After Lamirande’s amazing, 350-yard, school record performance, our own Bob Badders bumped into Howell’s all-time leading passer, current Wagner freshman Sean O’Reilly, who was at the game. Badders jokingly said, “Sean who?” to O’Reilly after Lamirande had set the school single-game passing record and O’Reilly replied in his best deadpan, “Yeah, I guess I’m not welcome here any more.”
Freehold and Lakewood stuck it to me this week with wins over Neptune and Central, respectively. Freehold looks like the real thing after 34-14 win over Neptune, and I’m an ***** for not remembering the conversation I had with Colonials head coach Mark Ciccotelli two years ago when he told me that the sophomore class that included Robert James and Brandon Carter will really help turn the program around by the time they’re seniors. Well, they’re seniors, and they’re turning it around. Great win for them, especially with the postponement because of the lights and the changes because of injuries that they had to go through, including moving James from running back to guard. I’m a ****** for a good turnaround story, and right now, the Colonials are one of them along with Holmdel, Asbury Park and Lakewood.
Also, you don’t see too many games where a kid runs for over 250 yards like Neptune’s Michael Peavy did, and they get blown out (it was 34-0 at one point). That’s what happens when you turn the ball over six times. Still, Peavy is leading the Shore in rushing right now, and stay tuned for a feature story that I have coming on him.
Another team on the rise is Asbury Park, which cleared what has been a stumbling block for them for years with a last-minute, 14-13 win over Keyport. That sets up a big game with Keansburg, which is essentially the Titans’ last major hurdle to the Patriot Division title. It’s good to see the Blue Bishops get rewarded for sticking out a turbulent 1-9 season last fall and coming back stronger. Junior Derell Bell, who made a big interception one week after having a big game at receiver in a win over Point Beach, has emerged as one to watch for the Bishops.
As for Keyport, watch out for wideout Justin Diaz. He is an underrated threat and would be getting much more notice if he wasn’t on a struggling, winless team. He has good speed, good concentration, and the ability to make plays in traffic. By the way, Keyport’s first four games have been against teams with a combined record of 12-2.
As expected, Barnegat kept rolling by plugging Erik Smithman in at running back for the injured Bob Fitzpatrick, as Smithman scored four touchdowns in a 32-0 win over winless Raritan. Smithman will get his first real test when the Bengals face unbeaten Holmdel and its ferocious defensive line in a big National Division game this week. Fitzpatrick’s season-ending injury also seems like it will be a rallying point for Barnegat, as he has been an integral part of their success so early in the infancy of the program.
I bumped into Rumson wideout Ryan Kirchner and Bulldogs assistant Brian Batchler at the Manasquan-SJV game on Saturday (Rumson is playing Squan this week) and asked Kirchner about his first career touchdown pass, which was the Bulldogs’ first play from scrimmage and went to John Lembeck, one of Lembeck’s two touchdowns on the night in a 37-14 win over Shore.
“I’m retiring with a perfect passer rating,” Kirchner joked. “It was the worst pass you’ve ever seen, but Lembeck was so wide open that it worked.”
As far as Manasquan is concerned, it looks like at least leading rusher Chazz Coursey should be OK after being dinged up along with sophomore RB Lorenzo Venables in a 28-13 win over St. John Vianney. After the game, Manasquan head coach Pete Cahill joked with Coursey, asking, “Are you more hurt than you usually are?” Coursey has been banged up most of the year, but should be fine. Venables, Manasquan’s next star back, went to the hospital after taking a helmet to the knee with what is probably a contusion or deep bruise or something of that nature. Third-stringer Kevin Miele may have to shoulder some of the load against Rumson after doing a nice job late in the game against SJV. I don’t think it’s going to change Squan’s game plan one way or the other. They will line up and try and belt Rumson in the mouth for 48 minutes.
Coursey and Venables are a little shaken up because this year because Manasquan’s running backs actually get hit. Last year, they were running behind the Indianapolis Colts’ offensive line, one of the best lines in conference history and one made up entirely of seniors except for Rutgers recruit Art Forst, who is a senior this year.
I will hopefully have the Shore alumni update on the site in the next two days or so. Here is a quick story to tide you over on Boston College freshman fullback Brad Newman, one of those monsters as a tight end on Manasquan’s offensive line last year.
Here are some final quick notes from the weekend: Monmouth has scored 78 points in its two wins and three in its two losses after a 34-21 win over Manchester. The Hawks (0-3) scored their first points of the season in the loss…Red Bank Catholic (4-0) is averaging a conference-best 49 points per game…Toms River North quarterback Anthony Penna has thrown a combined five touchdown passes in the past two weeks following a 35-0 win over Marlboro…Lakewood (2-1) has surpassed its win total from last year after a 17-14 victory over Central…Long Branch (3-0) is only one win shy of tying last year’s win total after a 28-7 win over Matawan. The Green Wave have already avenged losses to Lacey and Matawan and look to avenge a loss to Monmouth next…The 25 points that Southern scored in the second half of its win over Brick Memorial were two shy of their total points scored in their first two games (both wins)….After making nine catches in a win over Lacey, Howell wideout Chance Carrick is on pace for 70 receptions in 10 games, and there’s a good chance the Rebels will be playing more than 10 games.
E-mail: stump@digitalsports.com
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