Pats get winning season by beating Howell, 19-6

BY TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY CHRIS KELLY staff Above, Manalapan’s Alex Widener tries to break a Joe Levine tackle during the Braves’ Thanksgiving Day win over Marlboro at Marlboro. At left, Mustang wide receiver tries to catch the Brave defense sleeping with a trick passing play. The difference between 6-4 and 5-5 is like night and day. Just ask the Freehold Township Patriots.

With their 19-6 win on Thanksgiving Day against rival Howell, Freehold Township finished the season with a winning record, 6-4, for just the fourth time in school history.

“It would have been disheartening to lose,” coach Dominick Lepore pointed out. “We thought we had a good football team before the season started. We wanted to be a playoff team and have a winning season.

“When we didn’t get in the playoffs, we focused on a winning season,” he added.

Freehold Township rode the power running of Kevin Wagner, as it has all season, at Howell, as the big back plowed through the Howell line for 221 yards on 35 carries, picking up two touchdowns on 1-yard runs.

“We knew he was going to be our workhorse, carrying the ball 20 or 25 times a game,” said Lepore “He’s been such a formidable back, so reliable, that we ran him as often as we could. Playing against big, physical Group IV schools, he took the punishment all season and he played both ways.”

With his 221 yards on Thursday, Wagner finished the season with 1,218.

Ryan Cunard, a junior, who was one of the finds of the season for Freehold Township, scored the final touchdown of the game. With the Patriots holding a 13-6 lead in the third quarter, Cunard got open downfield on a sideline pattern and quarterback Tom Porricelli hit him, resulting in a 65-yard scoring strike that gave Township the two-touchdown cushion.

“He was such a weapon for us as a receiver and running back,” noted Lepore. “We expect a lot from him next year.”

Porricelli completed a superb season by going 8-for-14 for 147 yards. Last year, the junior was just asked to run the offense, while this fall, the team looked to him to make plays. He turned into a perfect compliment to Wagner’s running, becoming a complete quarterback. Besides his arm, he made plays with his legs this year showing a talent for scrambling for big yards.

Chris Dorf (receiver, defensive back), J.R. Carlino (linebacker/running back) and Korey Yngstrom (receiver/defensive back) are among the other veterans who had outstanding seasons for the Patriots.

“We’ve got things going in the right direction,” said Lepore, who has been the coach for two of the Pats’ four winning seasons. “We’re getting respect from the other teams. We’re at the point where the program is for real. It’s now a matter of consistency.”

The Patriots will lose the like of Wagner, Dorf and J.R. Carlino, but will have a lot of key players returning as they look to forge back-to-back winning season.

Three-fifths of the offensive line — center Joe Carlino and guards Tom Heslin and Mike Fox are back next year along with Porricelli, Cunard and Ahmir Martin (running back/defensive back). The defense should be solid as well, Lepore remarked.

But that’s next fall. For now, the Patriots can enjoy the 6-4 season that has the program back on the winning side of the ledger.

Howell, which finished 1-9 for the season, got a 12-yard touchdown pass from sophomore Sean O’Reilly to Brian Smith.

Cory Davies’ Rebels were a young team this fall and were much more competitive than their record indicates. They should be able to turn things around next season.

The Manalapan Braves will tell you that there’s a huge difference between 4-6 and 5-5. Manalapan avoided a losing season by beating archrival Marlboro, 27-6, Thanksgiving Day.

The Braves, the Central Jersey Group IV finalist last year, finished the season with four straight wins and a whole lot of momentum for next year.

“The kids responded real well,” said first-year coach Ed Gurrieri. “I challenged them at 1-5 and they responded. I’m so proud of them. They never stopped working and always believed that they could win.”

Eddie Gurrieri, head coach Ed Gurrieri’s son, polished off another 1,000-yard rushing season with one of the biggest single games in Manalapan history. The senior ran for 271 yards on 31 carries, scoring on runs of 47 and 43 yards. His two long runs helped Manalapan jump out to a 20-0 lead after one quarter. He finished the season with more than 1,200 yards.

The late-season turnaround puts a completely different spin on Manalapan’s season.

“Winning four in a row is big,” said the elder Gurrieri. “We have a lot of guys coming back, and going 5-5 makes it a lot easier.”

Gurrieri said there were two factors behind Manalapan’s strong finish. The first was getting healthy. The team had a rash of injuries early. Second was switching from a one-back to the two-back, I-formation.

“This year we felt that with a young line and the fact that we didn’t have a big fullback that it would be better to spread people out with the one back,” coach Gurrieri pointed out. “We went back to the I-formation with the fullback, and we started to the move the ball.”

Rocco Lamagna and Tim Slisky alternated as the blocking fullbacks who paved the way through the line for Gurrieri.

Greg DiLorenzo had a big year catching the ball from quarterback Nick Scardelli. They hooked up one last time on a 9-yard touchdown pass that was the final score of the game. Scardelli and Alex Widener had earlier connected on a 24-yard scoring pass.

Scardelli was 10-for-19 for 112 yards, and DiLorenzo pulled down six of those passes for 73 yards.

Senior captains Justin Bloss, Eddie Gurrieri, DiLorenzo and Widener drew the praise of their head coach for their leadership, especially when the team was 1-5.

“Our senior captains were great leaders,” he noted. “No one pointed fingers. They kept everyone on the same page.”

Manalapan’s win in the oldest Thanksgiving Day rivalry in the Freehold District (34 years with Manalapan holding a 24-7-2 edge) spoiled Marlboro’s celebration of its 1994 Central Jersey Group IV championship team, which was honored at halftime.

Quarterback Rob Boyce scored Marlboro’s only touchdown on a 4-yard run in the second quarter.

With the loss, Marlboro finished the season under first-year coach John Fiore at 3-7.

The Mustangs made big inroads in Fiore’s first season and have something to build on.

Freehold Borough is another team with a lot of momentum to build on for ’05.

First-year coach Mark Ciccotelli watched his team endure an 0-7 start and admired the way they remained focused and were able to finish the season with three straight wins. The Colonials picked up there first win in the Thanksgiving rival with Colts Neck, 7-6, on Thursday.

Quarterback Danny Matthews scored on a 59-yard run early in the second quarter and place-kicker Brian Maida provided the winning point with his point-after.

Colts Neck would strike back on a 4-yard pass from quarterback Kevin Kelly to Ed Colligan, but the kick failed, and Freehold Borough held on to a 7-6 lead, which the Colonials protected in the second half.

Matthews, who grew into the quarterback position as the season progressed, rushed for 83 yards on 14 carries.

Like so many teams in the District, the Colonials were very young this fall and Ciccotelli was impressed with the character his team displayed throughout the season. It’s character that will serve Freehold Borough well as it looks to climb its way back toward being a winning program.

It was a season of near misses for Colts Neck (0-10), but coach Mike McArthur can draw solace from the way his team came to play every time-out. The record did not do their effort service.