Mustangs travel to South River
By: Rudy Brandl
Things could have been so much easier.
The Manville High football team held destiny in its own hands last Friday night at North Warren. A victory would have given the Mustangs 10 power points and propelled them all the way up to a tie for fourth place in the Central Jersey Group 1 bracket. A coin flip would have determined if Manville or Bound Brook hosted the first round playoff game.
Instead, the Mustangs were blanked for the first time all season and had to wait for Saturday’s results to find out if they had qualified for the state playoffs. Thanks to South River, which rocked Middlesex, the Mustangs survived and wound up with the eighth and final seed in CJ 1.
Original power point tabulations had the Mustangs making the long trek to three-time defending champion Florence for the first round, but the No. 8 ranking earns Manville (6-2) the difficult task of traveling to South River for Saturday’s CJ 1 quarterfinals. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.
Rather than focus on the team’s two-game losing streak, Manville head coach Brett Stibitz is looking at the big picture. Two years ago, this team was mired in a 20-game losing streak. Monday, they started a week of preparation for the first playoff game in school history.
"Our ultimate goal was the make the states," Stibitz said. "We’re going to get on a bus for a playoff game."
Manville could have avoided the tough opening playoff game with a win in one of its two final games. Instead of facing, and possibly hosting, Bound Brook in a CJ 1 quarterfinal, the Mustangs have to take a long bus ride to face their toughest opponent of the season.
"We started out very good," Stibitz said. "It would have been nice to win (at North Warren) and get a better seed, but we still reached our goal."
No matter how fans look at the situation, Saturday will still be a special day for Manville. The team will be making school history no matter what the result.
It wasn’t that long ago that Manville was struggling to win one or two games in a season. Now, with Stibitz in charge for less than two years, Manville is playing its first playoff game.
"Regardless of anything, this is the first team to make the playoffs at Manville," Stibitz said.
One thing Stibitz and the Mustangs have to be concerned about is the recent lack of offense. After averaging over 40 points per game through the first five weeks of the season, the Mustangs were less than impressive in a 15-0 win at South Hunterdon before suffering consecutive losses to Belvidere (35-10) and North Warren (25-0).
The only touchdown vs. Belvidere came on the last play of the first half when senior quarterback Mike Knitowski connected with wide receiver Kyle Sopko on a desperation pass. Aside from that unlikely completion, the Mustangs haven’t found the end zone in the last two weeks.
The loss of offensive lineman Matt Golen has hurt the Mustangs. Senior tight end Rob Wood suffered an injury at North Warren and may not play this weekend. That would be two missing starters on the offensive line.
Senior running back Tommy Rock has also cooled considerably. He averaged over 200 yards per game early but hasn’t been over 100 during the team’s offensive slump. Rock has gone over 1,000 for the season and still is having a fine season, but he needs to recapture some of his September form if the Mustangs are going to have a chance in the playoffs.
"If we can run the ball, it could be interesting," Stibitz said. "But we have to play error-free."
Win or lose this weekend, the season is far from over for the Mustangs. They still have the huge game at Bound Brook on tap for the eve of Thanksgiving. That game will take on even greater meaning if it’s the last game of the season for both teams. The Mustangs have something to prove after getting squashed by a North Warren team that lost to Bound Brook early in the season.
That result is the only difference between Manville and Bound Brook entering the CJ 1 playoffs. While Bound Brook is hosting Keansburg, the Mustangs must travel to South River.

