By Anthony Williams, Special Writer
FLORENCE — The Flashes football team of Memorial High School did its best impersonation of Dr. Jekel and Mr. Hyde on Nov. 17. The Saturday game marked the Flashes’ Central Jersey Group 1 first round match-up against No. 6 Keyport at home.
The third seeded Flashes jumped out to a 19-0 first half lead, having capitalized on several miscues by the Keyport offense, but the Red Raiders stormed back in the beginning of the second half to turn the lopsided affair into a 40-29 barn burner.
After kicking off to Keyport to start the game, Florence won the early field position battle by capping off an 8-play, 54-yard drive with a blue-collar like 11-yard touchdown run by junior tailback Curtis Thompson.
Coming off the left side of the line, Thompson took the handoff, eluded a would-be tackler in the backfield, and broke three more tackles before crossing the goal line. The rumbling stumbling effort of Thompson gave the Flashes a 6-0 advantage with 3:22 left in the first quarter.
The ensuing kickoff would prove to be the start of a stretch of bad play for Keyport as the two returners erroneously assumed the ball was headed toward the endzone for a touchback and elected not to attempt to catch the ball.
After the ball came to rest on the 1-yard line, the Red Raiders frantically tried to recover and fell on the loose ball with the Flashes’ coverage team barreling down on them.
With their backs to their own goalline, Keyport players tried playing smash mouth football to get some breathing room, but on the third play of the drive, the Red Raiders’ quarterback was unable to handle the snap and Florence junior Josh Smith came up with the fumble to give the Flashes the ball on Keyport’s 2 yard line.
One-play later, senior tailback Rich Myers was rumbling into the endzone marking the second touchdown in one minute and twelve seconds — extending the Flashes’ lead to 12-0.
Florence’s defense continued to turn the heat up on the Keyport offense and intercepted a deflected pass on the second play of the ensuing drive.
Sophomore Mike Muchowski returned the interception to the Keyport 10 yard line to give Florence an excellent scoring opportunity. A roughing the passer penalty against Keyport on 4th down extended the Florence drive and set Thompson up for his second touchdown of the day, scoring on a 3-yard run up the middle. The point after was good and made the score 19-0 with 11:45 still to play in the half.
A Keyport interception in the endzone just before the half kept the Flashes from widening their lead, and the two teams went into the break with Florence leading 19-0.
The second half would prove to be a little more challenging for Florence, as Keyport came out of the locker room ready to erase the 19-point deficit and mount a comeback. After a failed onsides-kick attempt, the Keyport defense was able to stop Florence on their first drive and took possession of the ball on their own 20 yard line. On their fourth play of the second half, the Keyport tailback broke a 64 yard run for a touchdown with less than four and a half minutes gone, and cut the deficit to 19-7.
On the very first play of the next drive, Myers fumbled the ball after a four-yard run and gave the ball to Keyport on Florence’s own 21 yard line. Keyport needed just four more plays to add another touchdown on a 1-yard quarterback keeper, and just like that, Florence found itself clinging to a 19-14 lead.
With all of the momentum taken away from it, Florence appeared to be on the brink of a total collapse until junior kick returner Jazmir Best nearly scored on a 78 yard return to the Keyport 2 yard line. Myers would atone for his previous fumble, plowing into the endzone for the second time from two yards out on the very next play to restore order to the game and Florence’s hopes of advancing.
”Jaz had the big kickoff return that got the momentum back,” Head Coach Joe Frappoli said. “The momentum got away from us. We left a couple of scores on the field in the first half and they weren’t going to quit. They never did, so you have to give them a lot of credit for that.”
After regaining the momentum, the Florence defense stepped up once again as senior linebacker Zach Foga got to the quarterback and caused a fumble that was eventually recovered by sophomore lineman Mike Morgan.
The turnover would prove to be the proverbial nail in the coffin for Keyport as Florence would rebuild their 19 point lead, just as fast as they lost it, when five plays later Myers powered into the endzone for his third touchdown of the day for a 33-14 Florence lead.
Keyport added two more scores, and Thompson scored his third touchdown of the day on a 30-yard run, but the Red Raiders never really threatened the rest of the way.
Florence was able to overcome some uncharacteristic mistakes, not indicative of Florence football or playoff football, and find themselves one win away from playing for the Central Jersey Group I State Championship, but before the Flashes travel to Point Pleasant Beach on Friday, Nov. 30, for the team’s semi-final match-up, players will reignite an annual Thanksgiving rivalry with Riverside on Thursday morning.
The Flashes will need to bring their ‘A’ game and play mistake free football if they plan to become the first team to knock off undefeated Point Pleasant Beach next week.
Editor’s Note: This report was printed last week for the Nov. 22 edition of the Register-News.

