By Jeff Appelblatt
The football team from Freehold Township High School looks to make history in its next game, Nov. 4 at Manalapan High School. A win would result in a share of Freehold Township’s Shore Conference A North Division championship.
Thinking that far ahead, though, made the goal near impossible. When the Patriots stepped onto the field for the second half at East Brunswick High School Oct. 28, the team didn’t appear to be the same one that went into the break with a 23-0 lead. The student-athletes weren’t necessarily thinking about Manalapan, but they didn’t seem to be thinking about the game on the field either.
“It was 23-0 at halftime. [The players] didn’t think it was going to be a real game,” Freehold Township coach Cory Davies said about his team after the game. “They had the feeling at halftime they were going to win the game. It’s hard. That happens. We told them not to let it happen. It happened.”
Luckily for Freehold Township, despite being outscored in the final 24 minutes, East Brunswick’s defense wasn’t able to silence the Patriots offense, and Freehold Township held on to win, 36-21.
And no matter how lackluster Freehold Township’s defense looked at times in the second half, a few crucial plays helped the Patriots hold off the charging Bears.
One of the biggest plays in the game came in the third quarter. East Brunswick quarterback James Schuld thought he saw another chance to score. But when his receiver wrapped across the front of the end zone, Schuld’s pass landed in the arms of the leaping Anthony Lotti, who was able to bring the ball back 34 yards.
But even with that play on his mind, Lotti was one of the first to acknowledge Freehold Township’s need to improve on defense going forward.
“Offensively, we clicked on all cylinders,” the senior, who will be attending the University of Pennsylvania next fall, said after the win. “But on defense, we have to clean up a lot. We’re going to be seeing a lot of better teams in the playoffs.”
One of the biggest advantages the Patriots got from the interception was that time was erased. The clock was on Freehold Township’s side.
The ball, on the other hand, wasn’t in Freehold Township’s possession much longer. Less than 60 seconds after the Lotti interception, Patriots quarterback Charles Sabbagh threw an interception of his own.
That eventually led to the first of two fourth-quarter touchdowns for East Brunswick. But it was too little, too late.
Aside from the pick he threw, Sabbagh was on point the majority of the game for Freehold Township. He completed 20 of 32 passes. In total, he threw for 244 yards, which included a 43-yard touchdown pass to Javier Rodriguez. Sabbagh also ran the ball into the end zone for a touchdown of his own.
But it was Max Nowak that scored most of Freehold Township’s points. The senior ran the ball 12 times for 156 yards and three touchdowns. Nowak has 10 rushing touchdowns on the season.
“It wasn’t a pretty win, but it’s a win,” Davies said. “We could have executed a little better, but at least we won the game.”
Lotti hopes his team sees the the game against East Brunswick (1-6) as motivation to improve.
“It’s a good thing we got this game out of the way, so we could learn from it and move on,” he said.
Moving on for Freehold Township starts with the game Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. on the field of the undefeated team from Manalapan.
“It’s a crosstown rivalry,” Lotti said. “The animosity in the game is already built up. The tension is high. We want to win. They want to win.”
Manalapan (8-0) already has part of the A North title locked up. The Patriots (7-1) want to defeat the Braves, forcing the teams to share the division championship.
“We have the opportunity to do something our school has never done before and get a piece of the championship in football,” Davies said. “Manalapan is very, very good. It will be very, very difficult to do. Hopefully, we can.”