Abdul Turay’s career night leads No. 9 St. John Vianney over No. 7 Holmdel
HOLMDEL – St. John Vianney entered this season as the Shore Conference’s biggest unknown with a new coach, a new quarterback and a young roster with only five seniors.
The secret is out on the Lancers and sophomore running back Abdul Turay after Friday night’s emphatic 33-19 win over Holmdel in a Class C North game at Bob Roggy Memorial Field. Turay erupted for a career-high 223 yards rushing and four touchdowns on 15 carries while also catching 4 passes for 64 yards in the win.
“We’re not satisfied at all,” Turay said. “We’re never satisfied. We’re coming for everybody in our way.”
The Lancers, ranked No. 9 in the Shore Sports Insider Top 12, rolled up 453 yards of offense on the No. 7 Hornets (2-1, 0-1) to bring Holmdel’s 12-game winning streak against Shore competition to a halt. St. John Vianney is now 3-0 for the first time in seven years.
“I think we’ve really got something special going on offensively,” new head coach Bob Acosta said. “We have weapons, and we’re young. I’m excited about the future of this program.”
St. John Vianney came up with two big stops on defense and capitalized on explosive plays from Turay and junior quarterback Zach LaBarca (230 total yards) to take a 14-point halftime lead and never looked back.
Lancers’ defense stands tall in the red zone
Holmdel went on a 15-play, 66-yard drive on its opening possession of the game, but came away with nothing thanks to the Lancers’ defense. Turay came flying up from his safety spot to drop Holmdel quarterback Jack Cannon for a 3-yard loss on fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line to kill the drive after Holmdel took 8:07 off the clock.
St. John Vianney then rode that momentum to take a 7-0 lead when Turay sprinted for a 51-yard touchdown five plays later.
“That was very important,” Turay said. “That play (on defense) gave us momentum on offense. My D-coordinator just told me to spy the QB, and I was able to make the play.”
Holmdel answered with an eight-play, 66-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard touchdown run by Cannon to tie it 7-7 with 8:12 left in the half.
The Lancers responded with a 30-yard run by LaBarca, a sensational 39-yard run by Turay, and then a 3-yard touchdown run by Turay to jump back ahead 14-7. The defense then came up huge again when sophomore Brayden Delavega picked off a pass by Cannon at the Lancers’ 8-yard line to kill another promising Holmdel drive.
St. John Vianney rode that turnover to a 12-play, 92-yard drive to make it 21-7. LaBarca found Delavega on a 15-yard scoring pass on fourth-and-10 for a dagger of a touchdown with only 34 seconds remaining in the half.
“Defenses are so worried about (Turay), and then I can run the ball, and we have some great wide receivers to throw to,” LaBarca said. “It’s just a really hard offense to stop because we go fast.”
St. John Vianney sophomore running back Abdul Turay celebrates one of his four touchdowns in the Lancers’ win. (Photo by LAZ Creative Sports)
Turay all but iced the game with a 55-yard burst in the third quarter that pushed the lead to 27-7. He was moving at another speed than everyone on the field on a night where numerous players were dropping on the ground with leg cramps.
“I needed to work on my speed a lot,” Turay said. “Last season I got tired near the end (of games). I did track in spring and that really helped with my endurance.”
Turay then put the exclamation point on the win when he took a pass 33 yards and then scored on a 21-yard run to make it 33-7 with 1:49 left in the third quarter.
Abdul Turay is an FBS prospect from the Shore Class of 2027
It marked a breakout game for the sophomore standout, who has offers from Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Penn State and West Virginia, according to Acosta. He started on both sides of the ball as a freshman and has made a leap forward as a sophomore.
“His ability, I saw it when I first got here,” Acosta said. “We put him in track and he got down to like 11.1 (seconds in the 100 meters), and this year I think we can get it into the 10s. I think the track conditioning has made him really explosive this year.”
Cannon, who ran for 151 yards and two touchdowns and threw for 218 yards and a touchdown in the loss, added a 2-yard run and a 10-yard touchdown pass to Matt Scheinman in the fourth quarter for the final margin.
St. John Vianney is now averaging 34 points per game through three games behind the tandem of LaBarca and Turay. Acosta believes his team has another gear it can still reach.
“We have a lot to work on still,” he said. “We’re not playing a clean game. I think if we can focus on playing four quarters of football, we’re going to be pretty good.”
What’s next for both teams?
Next up for St. John Vianney is another big Class C North game against Wall (3-0, 1-0), while Holmdel has a tough divisional game of its own against Manasquan (2-0).
Box score
St. John Vianney 33, Holmdel 19
. H S
First downs 20 15
Rushes-yards 36-185 23-292
Passing 20-29-1 15-20-0
Passing yards 218 161
Fumbles-lost 3-0 0-0
Penalties 9-95 5-30
St. John Vianney (3-0, 1-0) 7 14 12 0 – 33
Holmdel (2-1, 0-1) 0 7 0 12 – 19
Scoring summary
S: Turay 51-yard run (Murl kick).
H: Cannon 1-yard run (Mueller kick).
S: Turay 3-yard run (Murl kick).
S: Delavega 15-yard pass from LaBarca (Murl kick).
S: Turay 55-yard run (run failed).
S: Turay 21-yard run (kick failed).
H: Cannon 2-yard run (kick failed).
H: Scheinman 10-yard pass from Cannon (pass failed).
Individual statistics
Rushing – S: Turay 15-223, LaBarca 8-69. H: Cannon 23-151, Iulo 7-13, Critchley 1-10, Scheinman 4-25, Berardi 1-1, Team 1-(-15).
Passing – S: LaBarca 14-19-0 161, Foley 1-1-0 1. H: Cannon 20-29-1 218.
Receiving – S: Urs 4-28, Griffith 1-15, Campagna 4-39, Aquilone 2-16, Turay 4-64. H: Reyes 6-65, Murphy 1-2, Critchley 3-54, F. Serini 1-8, Iulo 4-45, Todisco 2-12, A. Serini 2-22, Scheinman 1-10.
Interceptions – S: Delavega 1-0.
Scott Stump is an award-winning reporter, newsletter writer and editor who first started covering Shore Conference football in 1999 and has covered basketball, baseball and seemingly every other Shore Conference sport at some point.
Email: [email protected].
