South Brunswick High School football coach Joseph Goerge had good reason to be fired up.
His team opened the season with a 35-6 victory over Old Bridge High School on Sept. 8 in Old Bridge.
“Really proud of my guys,” Goerge said. “The kids played extremely well on both sides of the ball. We came out and got a real good start. Two scores early, and then we get a pick-six, so we started out 22-0. But like I said before, [Old Bridge head coach] Anthony [Lanzafama] and this team isn’t going to roll over and die. You’re certainly not going to score 22 points in a quarter again on this team. They had a surge in the second quarter, but we were able to get a big stop at the end of the half. That helped us a lot.”
The Vikings led 22-6 at the half, and after a surprising downpour of rain at halftime, South Brunswick was able to blank the home-team Knights in the second half.
“The weather got a little bad, and the field got sloppy out there,” Goerge said. “I’m really impressed by how we came out in the second half. We got kids playing both ways, which of course is high school football, but they really played hard. We shut them out in the second half on both sides of the ball. That’s what I was really encouraged by. They got the better of us in the second quarter, but the kids didn’t put their heads down. They kept at it.”
Goerge praised the character and commitment from his team.
“It’s a very good group,” Goerge said. “It’s a good group of seniors. Good leadership. It’s a good start. You get your first win, it’s always a good thing.”
Goerge saw that the Vikings had room to improve.
“I think we have to tackle better,” Goerge said. “We have to get off blocks better and take care of the ball better. But we’ll get right back to work tomorrow and get ready for the next game.”
Justin Shorter, the standout senior wideout for South Brunswick, produced three touchdowns (two receiving, one rushing) in the game, including two touchdowns in the first quarter.
Senior quarterback Felix Quinones threw for 73 yards on 3-of-6 passing with two touchdowns. Quinones also rushed for 68 yards, which was second on the team behind Shorter’s 111 yards on the ground, and had an interception on defense that he returned 36 yards for a touchdown. Shorter finished with 65 receiving yards, and senior running back Dylan Kriz also found the end zone once.
Junior kicker Mitchell Fisher made three of his four point-after attempts.
“When you get that first win, you talk about confidence,” Goerge said. “We have basically a new offensive line and defensive line. Both groups came out and really played their butts off on both sides of the ball. That’s the big thing, that we gained a little confidence tonight, because some of those guys are saying ‘Whoa, this is my first varsity game.’ So we need to build on that. It’s not the end-all-be-all. Just like for Lanzafama, it’s not over. But for both teams, this is something you build upon.”
Shorter, who is headed to Penn State University, claimed that the team was ready to play against Old Bridge, which is a solid program each year.
“It felt great to be out here,” Shorter said. “We’ve been preparing for just Old Bridge all summer. We watched film on Old Bridge, practiced for Old Bridge and just studied Old Bridge. Thanks to my teammates, we were all able to be successful tonight. Just a great team win to start the season.”
South Brunswick holds its home opener on Sept. 15 against New Brunswick High School. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. New Brunswick fell in a rout to Piscataway Township High School in its season opener on Sept. 8 by a final score of 64-7.