Ashante Worthy made sure that he and his Freehold High School football teammates thrived in their final home game of the regular season.
The gifted Worthy was instrumental, as usual, with his arm and his legs. The senior quarterback exploded for 334 rushing yards and six touchdowns while he passed for 112 yards and a touchdown to steer host Freehold to a 49-14 victory over Edison High School on Oct. 28.
Worthy, whose performance helped Freehold improve to 5-3 on the season, displayed emotion while standing on his home turf after the game.
“I just wanted to get the job done,” Worthy said. “The team played a big part in that. It was my last home game ever on this field, and everyone came out for us. They did it for us, they did it for the seniors and I just wanted to get the job done.
“It means a lot. I want us to go out with a bang. That’s all we came here to do, and we did it.”
Worthy pointed out that there is still work to be completed.
“I feel like we have a lot to work on,” he said. “We just have to get better every day and work harder every day. And, hopefully, good things will come our way.”
Coach David Ellis knew that the game would be important to his seniors.
“I thought we brought emotion to the day right away,” Ellis said. “This was Ashante’s last home game along with the other seniors, and I think we were able to put together a good football game because of it.”
The Colonials continue to seek a return to the Central Jersey, Group 4 state playoffs. A year ago, Freehold was knocked out of that sectional playoff field with a loss in the quarterfinals to Brick Township High School.
Ellis and his troops will hit the field this week in an effort to earn a playoff bid and advance through the tournament.
“We just got to practice better,” Ellis said. “We just need to clean things up, and it was evident today because we made some mistakes. In the playoffs last year, we found out the hard way against Brick that mistakes can cost you, so I’m just going to push them to make perfect practice, and hopefully we can make a run.”
The Colonials’ next game will be at Long Branch High School on Nov. 4 at 1 p.m. That game, according to Ellis, is what his players should focus on for now.
“We’re just going to take it one week at a time,” he said. “Right now, we’re putting all our focus on Long Branch. We have to go over there, and they’re a very good team. We just want to have a good showing. We want to have a better outing than the one we had today.”
Meanwhile, Edison was also sparked by the play from the quarterback position.
Junior quarterback Dean Escobar, who threw for 232 yards and two touchdowns, was pleased with the fight the Eagles put forth.
“We hustled when we needed to,” he said. “We didn’t execute the way we wanted to obviously, but we’re going to regroup and do what we need to do.”
The loss dropped the Eagles to 2-5 on the year, but Escobar doesn’t want the team to lose its morale.
“We need to make better decisions and have more fun,” he said.
Escobar hopes to salvage the season with a few victories.
“We got to win the next three games,” Escobar said. “It’s that simple.”
Edison coach Matt Fulham was pleased with how his team executed its plays, but he praised Worthy and Freehold for their constant attack.
“We executed and were able to make some plays,” the coach said. “We made an effort. We were able to contain really the best player that I’ve seen in a long, long time. The problem is they wear you down. If you make one mistake, he makes you pay, and that was the issue. They made us play. They’re an excellent football team, but I loved the way we played for the most part.”
Fulham singled out a lack of pass protection and the running game in the defeat.
“Our pass protection has to be better,” Fulham said. “And I think we need to run the ball more. I think we got held under 20 yards rushing today, so we have to be able to run the ball. It doesn’t help when you’re down 21 points. Obviously, the run isn’t going to help you there. Those are the things we need to work on.”
Fulham felt that his squad is earning its experience.
“Our schedule is brutal,” Fulham said. “We’ve played some great teams, and that’s what’s going to prepare us for the future. We have three games left. We’re going to take it one game at a time and try to win each game that we go to. But it’s back to work Monday and try to prepare for Piscataway.”
The Eagles will be back home on Nov. 3 to meet Piscataway Township High School at 7 p.m.