By doug mckenzie
Staff Writer
PHOTOS BY CHRIS KELLY AND JERRY WOLKOWITZ Keyport defeated South River 37-6 on Friday night to win its sixth Central Jersey Group I title. Bottom right, South River’s Tyreek Robinson tires to find a hole in the Keyport defense. Top right, the Rams’ Steve Maclosky tries to elude a swarming Red Raider defense. Middle right, quarterback J.J. Adelino listens intently to head coach Rich Marchesi. And above, a South River player walks off the field amid the mud and rain at Howell High School.
The Keyport High School football team has given head coach Mike Ciccotelli something he’s never had before — a perfect season.
The legendary coach has spent the last 25 years at Keyport High School chasing perfection, and came within one game of capturing it five times, only to have his teams drop one heartbreaking game each time.
On Friday night, amid the rain and wind at Howell High School, the Red Raiders did what they’ve done all season: dominate an opponent with an overall team effort that was as brilliant as it was predictable. When the final whistle blew, Keyport had a 37-6 win over two-time defending CJ Group I champion South River and the perfect ending to a perfect season.
Junior tailback Kenny Cattouse was as dominant as ever, rushing for 217 yards on 35 carries, spearheading a Keyport effort that was a culmination of the season. South River knew the Red Raiders would try to run it down their throats and simply couldn’t stop them.
"I thought we would need to play flawless football to beat them, and we didn’t do that," South River coach Rich Marchesi said. "We made some mistakes, and fumbled the ball, and that hurt us. I expected them to play well and they did. That’s a great football team over there."
Defensively, the Red Raiders were all over the field, allowing only a 54-yard TD run by the Rams’ Steve Maclosky late in the second quarter, and just 108 total rushing yards. By the time Maclosky got the Rams on the board, Keyport had established that its offense would not be stopped — not by the sloppy field conditions, not by the supposed "curse" that had allowed perfection to elude Ciccotelli for 25 years, and certainly not by South River’s defense.
"We were in their face all night long," Ciccotelli said. "Our guys were all over the field, playing our type of game. We dominated the action without getting cocky. That’s not our style."
While Ciccotelli noted that the guys who usually get the headlines played as well as ever on Friday, it was some of the less-prominent players who stood out against South River.
"Guys like Kenny (Cattouse), J.J. (Bedle) and Daquan Cross played well, as expected, but it was the unsung heroes on the two lines who really dominated the game," he said. "A.J. Youncofski played the greatest game of his life. Raheem Matthews, Brain Mueller, Pat DeNardo, A.J. Lawrence — these guys played their hearts out."
Marchesi noted that he was surprised that his offense struggled as much as it did, and added that the weather conditions certainly had something to do with the outcome.
"What hurt us was that we simply couldn’t move the ball," he said. "I thought we’d be able to run on them a little bit, but they did a nice job of slowing us down.
|
