South River reverses its fortune against Keyport
Rams dominate Red Raiders while taking
Group I title
JERRY WOLKOWITZ South River running back Zack Earvin sheds a tackle by Keyport’s Dezmin Laing during Saturday’s Group I final in Keyport. Laing was penalized on the play for grabbing Earvin’s face mask.
The Keyport Red Raiders entered Saturday’s Central Jersey Group I final with their eyes on a third straight championship and the perfect record that to this point has eluded Head Coach Mike Ciccotelli despite his team’s remarkable success during the course of his career.
What they found was an opponent who had been waiting a year for a chance at revenge, and it was simply too much for Ciccotelli’s team to handle.
The South River Rams were supposed to be celebrating a Group I title last year, when they hosted Keyport in the championship game as the top seed. But the Red Raiders were the better team that day, dominating the Rams en route to a 21-0 blanking and a second straight Group I title.
This year the roles were reversed. This time around it was Keyport who was expected to be celebrating another title, with South River heading home with another second-place finish on their hands.
JERRY WOLKOWITZ The South River defense, which held Keyport to a total of 29 yards in the first half of Saturday’s Group I final in Keyport, swarms on top of the Red Raider’s Ken Cattouse.
But Coach Rich Marchesi’s team took control of the game early on Saturday, performing a Keyport-like display of dominance over the hometown Red Raiders, and winning the Group I championship, 40-14.
The South River team arrived late for the game, seemingly kicking the ball off to start the game only moments after getting off the bus, but their tardiness certainly did not affect their effectiveness. Their defense, which has been shutting down opponents all season long, halted the highly regarded Keyport offense in its tracks on the Red Raiders’ first possession, forcing a punt and giving the Rams’ offense excellent field position.
From there, it didn’t take long for those in attendance to realize how South River planned on beating Keyport. Just give the ball to Zack Earvin and let him do the rest.
Earvin, who is as dangerous a running back as the Red Raiders have seen in recent years (and he’s only a junior, so get used to hearing about him), took the ball and attacked the Keyport defense, marching his team downfield before plunging into the end zone from one yard out to open the scoring. Following a successful two-point conversion, South River had the early 8-0 lead.
Keyport tried to answer, with Jamie Gutridge returning the ensuing kickoff to Rams territory. But South River’s defense stood tall again, and when Keyport quarterback Rich Cline tried to hit one of his receivers with a quick slant, Steven Zdep stepped in front of the pass and essentially changed the complexion of the game by picking it off at the Rams’ 25-yard line.
Four plays later, South River quarterback Mike Feaster (another junior) hit Kevin Cole with a 61-yard scoring pass, and the route was on.
Once again it was an opportunistic South River defense which took the ball away from Keyport. This time Cline hit his favorite target, Dezmin Laing, for a healthy gain, but the ball was knocked loose and was pounced on by South River linebacker Greg Mongelli. From there, the Rams used a little trickery, executing a perfect flea-flicker that began as a reverse to Zdep for a 61-yard gain from Feaster (6-7, 173 yards) to Steve McCloskey. The Rams found pay dirt again as Feaster snuck into the end zone from one yard out to give the Rams a 21-0 lead.
The lead had grown to 33-0 by halftime, thanks to a pair of Earvin TD runs (from two and nine yards out), and the outcome was clear.
The Red Raiders’ 14-game winning streak was coming to an end, and South River was getting its revenge, yielding just 29 yards of total offense in doing so.
The second stanza was little more than a formality, but Keyport came back nonetheless. Gutridge got the Red Raiders on the board with a 30-yard touchdown run with 6:06 left in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, Keyport’s outstanding defensive end, Shawn Poling, fell on a fumble in the end zone for Keyport’s second score, but not before Earvin (35 rushes for 120 yards) found the end zone again, this time from two yards out.
When the final whistle was blown, the scoreboard read 40-14 and South River had done the unexpected.
As he walked off the field, Marchesi said that his team fully expected to win the game despite Keyport’s reputation; after all, they had been waiting a year for the chance to face Keyport again.
As for Ciccotelli, he put things in perspective, noting that he knew after last year’s final that South River would most likely be back in the same position this time around. And he knew they would be a better team as well. He was right on both counts.
He was also right when he said his team had nothing to be ashamed of. The seniors on the Keyport football team lost a total of three games in three seasons, and they’re still two-time champions, Saturday’s disappointing loss notwithstanding.
But it was South River who had won this year’s Group I title, invading Keyport’s home field to do so. Exactly one year after Keyport shocked the Rams on their home field, South River got its revenge.