It’s no surprise that the Shore Conference A North Division championship could be riding on the outcome of today’s match in Howell between the Rebels and the Manalapan Braves.
They battled it out for the title last year and are at it again in 2007.
Both suffered early-season setbacks and had to deal with a resurgent Freehold Township team, which caught everyone off guard.
Yet, here the two teams are with identical 8-2 records heading into today’s showdown.
Howell head coach Rich Yuro pointed to the way previous role players have adjusted to being starters.
“A lot of the kids I wasn’t sure of have stepped up and responded,” he pointed out. “We’re playing good soccer.”
Howell had to find replacements for a pair of graduated defensive stars in Paul Calafiore and Mike Krol.
Billy Kappock and Matt Salvatore have stepped into their positions and with players like George DiCharo and Mike Savino as the outside defenders, the Rebels have a championship defense anchored by goalie Brian McDonough.
For the first few games of the season, the Rebels had to get by without their best player, Kyle Bethel, who suffered a high ankle sprain. He’s back in the lineup, but only playing at about 75 percent. However, that is more than enough for him to make an impact on the game.
“He’s dangerous, he holds the ball, which takes the pressure off others and he creates,” said Yuro.
In Bethel’s absence, Cody Calafiore, Eric O’Neill, Joe Parella and Kevin Carbone have been very productive.
John Natoli’s Braves were in a similar situation to Howell’s, having to find replacements for some graduated stars. Natoli expected the process to be slow, but perhaps not quite as slow as it turned out to be.
Manalapan has come a long way in just two weeks. The Braves opened the season with a stunning 6-2 loss to Christian Brothers Academy (CBA). That was followed shortly by a 4-0 loss at home to Howell. The Braves were reeling.
“The CBA loss was a wake-up call,” said Natoli, who with 199 career wins is just one away from No. 200. “The kids knew we had some work to do.”
Work has gotten the Braves back into a first-place tie. They reversed the loss to CBA in the rematch and will be looking to do the same today in Howell.
“It’s been a decent turnaround,” said Natoli. “It was a matter of players getting more comfortable in playing new positions.”
Kevin Mulvanerton, Kevin DeLorenzo, Chris DeFalco, Jon Franklin and Bryan Rice, a freshman, have been the newcomers who have jelled with the team’s returning starters, players like George Quintano, Adam Rice, Brandon Russo, Bryan Telzer, Caner Semen and Jeff Weitz.
DeFlaco and Franklin have doing solid jobs distributing the ball to their dangerous forwards who are led by George Quintano.
Quintano has eight goals and seven assists despite drawing double teams every game.
In Jake Grinkevich, the Braves probably have the best keeper in the Shore, which is always comforting heading into a big game.