PLAYOFFS RAPIDLY APPROACHING, OTHER TIDBITS

       Since I didn’t want to title this, “The Crazy Ramblings of a Football Madman,” I figured I’d go with the playoff angle and other aspects.
       After this week’s games, we’ll break down the potential playoff scenarios when the cutoff comes next weekend and we find out who is in and who is out and who will be playing where and against whom, so stay tuned for that next week.
       I’ll get more in depth next week, but right off the bat, I think that the Central Jersey Group III bracket could be awesome. Middletown South has to get by Ocean this week to secure its spot and defend its championship. That’s insane to think that if the Eagles lost to the Spartans, that this could be a year in which Middletown South, Raritan and Manasquan, who all reached or won state championships last year, could potentially miss the postseason. When’s the last time that happened?
       Assuming that South gets in, CJ III could be a royal rumble of Shore teams. I haven’t figured out the seeds yet, but anyone who wouldn’t love a semifinal group of Wall, Long Branch, Freehold and Middletown South is crazy. However, a combination of those teams could have to play in the first round, so it may not even be possible. Still, with last year’s finalist, Moorestown, also heavily in the mix, that is a great bracket filled with physical, punishing teams with some star power.
       Speaking of that star power, Long Branch running back Travis Patterson continues to impress, as he ran for 118 yards and helped the Green Wave own the clock in knocking off previously unbeaten Red Bank Catholic, 20-14, on Saturday night. Patterson gets rave reviews not only from fans but from other coaches because he runs straight downhill, almost never getting hit for a loss. He is the quintessential north-south runner who is almost guaranteed to get you three or four yards on a play, and he deals out punishment to anyone trying to take him down. The only ***** in his armor has been second-half fumbles, which he had in the Wall and RBC games. This is the first year he has played linebacker and running back full-time, which may take its toll from time to time. Other than that, he is a back that will be right near the top when it comes to post-season accolades if he keeps it up.
       Also, my apologies to the Green Wave for picking against them against RBC. I haven’t been able to get it right with them this year, as I picked against them in wins over RBC and Lacey, and I picked them in a loss to Wall. Hopefully, I’ll get it right at some point.
        Wall has a similar back to Patterson in junior Blaze Caponegro, so RBC will face a lot of the same issues when it takes on the Crimson Knights this week. Wall has already clinched no worse than a tie for the Liberty Division title, but RBC can get a share of it with the win. I would think Wall will also try and control the clock with Caponegro just like Long Branch did with Patterson, and then maybe try to go up top to Tim Wright for a longball when it gets the chance. Regardless, it should be a great game and it marks RBC’s last really good chance to prove people wrong and stamp itself as a top 10 team in the Shore. Maybe it could be like Freehold’s situation last week, when everyone is throwing dirt on the Caseys and they rise up and take down Wall, although Freehold’s situation was a little different because Red Bank was a winless team before shocking the Colonials, who then went on to stun Middletown South. The RBC-Wall game is always a little more interesting because RBC coach Frank Edgerly grew up in Wall before playing quarterback for the Caseys in the late 1980s.
        I caught part of Asbury Park’s 41-0 win over Mater Dei on Saturday, which gave the Blue Bishops a share of their first division title since 1988. This team certainly deserves some recognition after undergoing situations that a lot of other teams would have crumbled under. Their game against Barnegat on Saturday looks to be the best game of the day, with Barnegat’s passing game vs. Asbury’s ground attack. There are plenty of playmakers on both sides of the ball, and this is one of those games where it will be interesting to see who can run with who. Can Asbury’s Derrell Bell or Will Johnson keep up with Barnegat’s Dan Cintron on a deep route? Can Asbury’s George Stephens outrun speedy Erik Smithman if he gets into the open field on a run? It should be fun finding out, as the Blue Bishops would reap a ton of power points for a Group I school, while Barnegat would get a nice little haul even though it is a Group II school now.
        I will be trying to get you a couple features as well as the usual stuff leading into this weekend’s games, so hopefully that can be accomplished as I will also be trying to help out with some Shore Conference Tournament soccer stuff when I can.

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