Sports Shorts

The Raritan Bay Cougars PeeWees of Old Bridge defeated the Monmouth Falcons of the Jersey Shore Conference, 26-6, in the preliminary round of the Eastern Regional Division 2 playoffs.

Minkah Fitzpatrick led off the scoring with a 70-yard touchdown run and finished the day with two more touchdown runs. Mike Friedman also added a touchdown with a strong 25-yard run. The defense had a strong performance with great pass coverage by Daniel Grillo and Julanee Prince, and Jason Medero and Kevin Howard played strong up front.

Then, in Round 1 of the regional playoffs, Raritan Bay defeated the Harrison Hawks from the Burlington County Conference, 28-0. Minkah Fitzpatrick led off the scoring with a 10-yard touchdown run, and Mike Friedman had a strong day with two touchdown runs. For one of his touchdowns, Mike was wrapped up but spun out of the Hawk defenders’ arms and ran 33 yards for a score. Jordan Fetterman connected with Alan Jackson on a 20-yard pass for a touchdown. The Cougar defense was at its best once again with Ed Mish and Chris Weber, while Julanee Prince set up the first score with an interception at about the Cougar 40-yard line and took it down to the Hawks’ 10-yard line.

The Raritan Bay Cougars then traveled to Rumson-Fair Haven High School to play the Hunterdon Huskies from the Mountain Valley Conference. This was a game between two unbeaten teams, and it showed. The game was a nail-biter through four quarters of football with great defensive play from both teams. At the end of regulation, the score was 0-0, taking the game into overtime.

With the Cougars starting on offense from the 10-yard line, Minkah Fitzpatrick punched it in from three yards out with a strong run. Julanee Prince kicked the extra point to put Raritan Bay up 8-0. The Huskies scored from their first possession from the 10-yard line and also made the extra point to tie it 8-8. The game went into a second overtime, and both teams’ defenses came up strong, stopping each other and putting the game into a third overtime. The Cougars moved the ball to the 5-yard line when Jordan Fetterman hit Brandon Giles for what would wind up being the gamewinning touchdown. This gave the Huskies a shot to tie, but the Cougar defense reached deep inside themselves to push the Huskies back to the 35-yard line with a key sack by Chris Weber. The defense also had strong play from Steven Ruiz, Dmitry Mikhol and Mike Friedman, who also recorded a sack.

With the 14-8 triple-overtime win, the Cougars will now move on to the regional semifinals.

The East Brunswick/Spotswood Goldenbear Chargers captured the Division 2 State Title, shutting out the former No. 1 Brick Mustangs. Damion Diaz,Anthony Varbelow and Amir Bell made several key plays for a defense who has not surrendered a touchdown in 19 quarters. After turnovers stopped three GBC drives in the first half, quarterback Matt Mangarella hit Sean Hudson with 2 key passes in the second half and handed the ball to his tailback, Dean Vitale Jr., resulting in nine carries for 153 yards and two scores. Darren Friedman and Steve Chaimowitz made some key blocks in those drives. GBC is now in the semifinal round against a North West Philly team who has out scored their opponents 84-0 in two games. The game will played at Toms River North High school on Sunday at 4 p.m.

The St. Bart’s Buffaloes JRPW team came back in dramatic fashion on Sunday and defeated the Hopewell Valley Bulldogs 19- 13, to advance to next weeks Eastern Region Championship game against Jackson. Hopewell scored early in the second quarter to go up 13- 0, and that is when the Buffaloes dug deep and began their comeback.

They took the ensuing kickoff and marched right down the field and scored to cut the lead to 13-6 at the half. In the second half St. Bart’s scored again but missed the extra point and trailed 13-12. Then with about 3 minutes left in the game Hopewell had a fourth and two at the 30-yard line of St. Bart’s. The Buffaloes defense came up big again and stuffed them for no gain. The offense carried that momentum as they drove down to the 1-yard line with 46 seconds left. On the next play they punched it in for the incredible comeback.

The team is made up of the following players: Gabriel Alterman, Thomas Bahmer, Zohar Benamu, Eric Brydboard, Michael Burns, Michael Contreas, Nick Deluca, James Farrell, Chase Fee, James Fragale, Stefan Glasgow, Tim Iannuzzo, Joe Ielmini, Colton James, Dylan Jenson, Brendan Kennedy, Nicky LoGatto, Ryan Long, Conner McCloskey, Aaron McSweeney, Sean Mills, Shawn O’Connor, Alex Petroski, Ray Reichert, Anthony Saini, Chris Schumann, Michael Stapert, Tyler Stevenson, Jeffrey Szatkowski, and Ryan Tarnofsy. Coaches are: Bob Mills, Jeff Szatkowski, Pete Ielmini, Jim Farrell, Bob Long, Jim Burns, and Barry Stapert.

The Old Bridge Lightning U8 travel baseball team will be conducting tryouts at the Sandlot Baseball Academy On White Oak Road on Saturday, Dec. 13, from 4-6 pm. All players must be born after April 30, 2000. Please contact Tony Tannucilli at [email protected] or by phone at 201-412-5197 for more details.

The East Brunswick 12U Bears finished the 2008 fall baseball season with a respectful 5-3 record. The Bears competed in the Central Jersey Baseball League and finished in third place in the Central Division. The team played very well together. Defense, base running and pitching were noted areas of improvement from the summer tournament season. The team is managed by Dave Stary. The players listed alphabetically are Matt Bellantoni, Pat Geiger, Tommy Lanzano, Nick Mangarella, John McHenry, Ryan Murphy, Michael Ng, Zach Schrier, Nick Smutko, Zack Stary and Stevie Zatz.