SSI Football Report: Foote Kicks It Into Gear for Southern, School Records Set in Week 6
Southern head coach Matt Abbato felt like senior RB/DE Levi Foote had finally shaken off the rust of a year away from football during a win over Point Boro in mid-September.
“He was physical, he ran hard, he looked like the player we knew he could be once he was comfortable out there again,” Abbato said.
It turns out that victory over the Panthers was just the start for the senior star, who is committed to Davidson for wrestling.
In the last four games, he has rushed for 468 yards and five touchdowns on an average of 10.9 yards per carry. In each successive game, he has rushed for more yards, culminating in a career-high 179 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 16 carries in a 27-19 win over Toms River North in a Top-10 matchup last week.
Southern senior RB/DE Levi Foote has taken off for hte Rams in their last four games, including a huge win over Toms River North in Class A South. (Photo courtesy of Levi Foote)
Foote isn’t just a playmaking complement to standout senior quarterback Carson Abbato, who is now 483 yards away from becoming the program’s all-time leading passer. Foote also is a force at defensive end.
He had a career-high 13 tackles, two sacks and two tackles for a loss as Southern beat Toms River North in consecutive years for the first time since 2004-05. Foote has three sacks in Southern’s last two games and four for the season.
He picked the perfect time to take it to another level, as Southern is in the midst of the defining stretch of its season. The No. 5 Rams (6-1) face unbeaten Middletown North (5-0) this week, followed by a Class A South showdown with No. 3 Brick Memorial to end the regular season. They aim to land a top seed in a Group 5 bracket in search of the program’s first NJSIAA sectional title in history.
“If I were to join our team, I wanted our goal to be state champs, to be the highest goal you could set,” Foote told SSI in September. “I don’t want to settle for anything less. That’s what we’re preached in wrestling. After every practice, every lift, it’s always ‘Group 5 state champs!’ I’ve brought that over to our team, but our team itself has brought that part out, and we have our eyes in the right place.”
Six Division Champions Crowned, One Still Left
Six teams clinched at least a tie for division titles this past week: Red Bank Catholic (A North); Donovan Catholic (A South); Pinelands (B South); Marlboro (C North); Point Beach (C South); and Monmouth (D North).
The team that ended the longest drought was Pinelands (7-0), which won its first division title since 1987 and just the second in program history. Point Beach ran its divisional winning streak to 10 games to capture back-to-back division titles for the first time in program history. Donovan Catholic also won consecutive division titles for the first time in its history.
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RBC has won 11 straight games against Shore Conference opponents and 10 straight division games.
All of the aforementioned teams still have to win their games next week or have the second-place team take another loss in order to clinch the outright title. RBC has to beat Wall, Donovan Catholic has to beat Toms River North, Pinelands has to beat Toms River South, Marlboro has to beat Red Bank, Point Beach has to beat Lakewood, and Monmouth has to beat Colts Neck.
Class B North is still up for grabs, with Middletown South and Middletown North tied for first. If the Eagles beat Matawan and the Lions beat Freehold Township next week, the two will play each other for the outright division title on Thanksgiving. If one of them loses and the other one wins in Week Eight, the winner clinches at least a tie for the title.
Stat of the Week: 17
That’s how many tackles for a loss Ocean defensive lineman Taejon Nevins has this season, which leads the Shore Conference.
Ocean’s Taejon Nevins (#50) has been a disruptive force for the Spartans this season with 17 TFLs. (Photo by Scott Stump)
He has had at least two in all but one game this fall after finishing with a pair of them in a 31-28 win over Raritan last week.
Alumni of the Week
Sean Trinder, Sr., WR, Colby
The former Rumson-Fair Haven standout caught his first career touchdown pass in Colby’s 21-7 loss to unbeaten Wesleyan in the NESCAC.
Jake Flaherty, Florida State; Michael Bimonte, Texas
Flaherty is a former Red Bank Catholic standout who is in his first season on the staff at Florida State as a special teams analyst for the Seminoles. Bimonte is a former star quarterback at Manalapan who played at Rutgers and coaches one of the nation’s most high-profile players: Arch Manning. Bimonte is an assistant quarterbacks coach and co-passing game coordinator for the Longhorns.
Notes from Around the Shore
—Wall junior tailback Mike Boulard has ascended to fourth in the Shore in rushing yards with 731 after rushing for 162 yards on 34 carries in a 14-13 upset of Holmdel last week.
—Asbury Park has won two straight after an 0-5 start thanks to the emergence of sophomore running back Kevan Crawford. He has run for a combined 276 yards and three touchdowns in the past two games, including 114 and three touchdowns in a 24-13 win over Long Branch last week in the first meeting between the two teams since 1997. He has 37 carries in the last two games after having 37 total in the Blue Bishops’ first five games.
—Ocean junior Aidan Zacharczyk nailed his second game-winning field goal of 40 or more yards in the Spartans’ 31-28 win over Raritan. The converted soccer player also made a 51-yarder to beat Neptune. He leads the Shore Conference with six made field goals.
—Point Beach sophomore Jalen Kreiger made his season debut from a broken collarbone suffered in the preseason. He now gives the Garnet Gulls four legit rushing options in their Wing-T attack.
—Toms River South junior defensive back Hamza Hollingshead now has five interceptions for the season after snagging two more in a 35-7 win over Lacey. He also had 10 tackles in the win. He is tied with Rumson-Fair Haven’s Hunter Beattie for the Shore Conference lead in interceptions.
Rumson quarterback Brady Williams had a school-record 387 yards passing in a 31-28 loss to RBC. (Photo by Patrick Olivero)
—Rumson junior quarterback Brady Williams threw for a school-record 387 yards on a school-record 54 attempts in the Bulldogs’ 31-28 loss to Red Bank Catholic. He leads the Shore Conference with 1,709 yards passing. Rumson’s single-season school record is 2,893 set by Owen O’Toole in 2024.
—East Carolina has been recruiting Ocean County this month. Donovan Catholic senior defensive back Jael Hester is verbally committed to the Pirates, who also offered Griffins sophomore offensive lineman Xavier Fowlkes two weeks ago. East Carolina also offered 6-foot-8, 362-pound Brick freshman lineman Jaedan Murray on Oct. 3.
—Freehold Boro picked up its first win of the season with a 36-8 win over Lakewood to snap an eight-game losing streak. Sophomore quarterback Adrian KrKuti threw two touchdown passes and ran for two more in the win.
—Senior Dax Klein had a career-high 208 yards rushing and three touchdowns in Manasquan’s 41-0 win over Freehold Township. Klein is sixth in the Shore with 714 yards rushing this season.
New Egypt quarterback Thomas Marabuto has nearly 1,600 yards of offense for the Warriors this season. (Photo by Patrick Olivero)
—New Egypt junior quarterback Thomas Marabuto rolled up a career-high 242 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 30 carries in a 48-34 win over Keyport. He has 1,592 total yards and 17 touchdowns between rushing and passing this season.
Scott Stump is the football editor and a reporter for Shore Sports Insider. He first started covering Shore Conference football in 1999.
Email: scottstump25@gmail.com
