Championship Focus: Toms River North Heading to Third Straight State Final
TOMS RIVER — Toms River North football coach Dave Oizerowitz considered his current starting quarterback’s place among a lineage of standout Mariners signal callers and described the group as a collection of snowflakes: born of the same system, but each different in his own way.
When it comes to his manner of operation in a championship setting, Toms River North senior quarterback T.J. Valerio is like a snowflake in another way: he is as cold as ice.
Valerio completed his first eight pass attempts on the way to 209 yards and three touchdowns through the air as Toms River North overpowered Washington Township, 27-10, for a second straight season to earn its third consecutive appearance in the Group 5 championship game. The Mariners will get back to work for the final week of the season and take on Union City Friday at SHI Stadium in Piscataway in hopes of winning their third straight state championship.
“It means a lot to us,” said senior wide receiver Nasir Jackson, who posted 110 receiving yards on four receptions. “Everybody kept doubting us and putting the odds against us and we beat the odds today.”
From the moment the 2023 season ended, the potential 2024 returnees on Toms River North began to hear the whispers that questioned whether or not they could continue to compete for a championship without the graduating Class of 2024. Valerio was at the center of that as the player who had to replace current Stanford freshman Micah Ford at quarterback — a task Valerio performed admirably for a short period of time in 2023 while Ford was dealing with an injury.
“I know who I am,” Valerio said. “Coming off a year where I had to ride the bench a little bit, that just made me the player I am today. Knowing who I am made me be able to step into the role that I’m in today and I think the same can be said for a lot of the guys on this team. I know how good this team can be and if I just do what I know I can do, we’re going to be really good with the players we have.”
This season, however, the offense was in the hands of the first-year senior starter and — like so many new starters on both sides of the ball — Valerio has answered the call, and then some.
“We lost an all-time senior class and I don’t know if anybody thought we’d be this good,” Oizerowitz said. “But over the course of the summer, we realized as a staff that we had something pretty special with the way they were clicking together. These guys have won at every level in a dominant way, playing very good football teams in the (Shore Conference) American Division. We just kept getting better and better and here we are.”
“I think the heart-and-soul of this team is the coaching staff and the job they do every day,” Valerio said. “There was no doubt what the goal was. They came in that first day and everything was the same as last year and the same as the year before. Nothing changed and I really credit them for holding us to that standard and showing that belief in us.”
Friday night was another shining example of Valerio’s ability — and that of his receiving corps — to alter a game in an instant. The senior connected with his target on his first eight pass attempts of the game, including a 5-for-5 showing in the first half. Those five completions were not just high-percentage dump-offs either: with 138 across the five passes, Valerio averaged 27.6 yards per attempt and his shortest completion of the bunch was a four-yard hit to running back Mordecai Ford on his first attempt. In his next four attempts, Valerio averaged 33.5 yards per completion and picked up at least 26 yards on all four throws.
“We have had a lot of different quarterbacks in this spread offense over the years, going back to (Mike) Husni and (Jake) Kazanowsky and Micah and now T.J.,” Oizerowitz said. “They are like snowflakes: they are all a little different and they are all great. T.J. runs our offense at a level that is really hard to defend because he can affect all parts of the field with his arm and he can run it like a fullback. He is also really smart with the football. We love him and he is able to do some things that other guys couldn’t and the staff has done a good job building the offense around him with a great group of receivers and a great offensive line.”
Toms River North’s passing game hit its stride after an early commitment to the run, followed by an impressive throw from Washington Township’s No. 2 quarterback to even the score in the second quarter. The Mariners took the game’s first lead at 7-0 when sophomore Cole Garrison capped a 10-play, 88-yard drive with a three-yard touchdown run outside of a 26-yard pass from Valerio to senior Nasir Jackson, the Mariners covered the length of the drive on the ground.
“I think we were a little more run-heavy than we were thinking going in, because they are really good against the run,” Oizerowitz said. “That’s their forte. We wanted to come in balanced, but we are going to do whatever the defense is giving us. We try to pinpoint where our opportunities are and keep them off-balance, depending on the down and distance.”
Washington Township hit a serious speed-bump on the ensuing drive, when starting quarterback Cole Aquino left the game with an injury and did not return. Backup Kirtan Patel came on in relief and Toms River North aided the Minutemen cause with a pass-interference penalty on fourth down that extended the drive while placing the ball on the Mariners 21. On the very next play, Patel threw a pinpoint pass to Paris Pratt up the right sideline for a 21-yard touchdown strike and a 7-7 tie.
Watching the opposition punch back inspired Valerio and the offense to conjure up their own quick response. Jackson ran post-corner route and Valerio threw him a perfect pass on the left side, allowing Jackson to haul in the ball and touch his feet down in bounds before stepping out with a 32-yard gain to the Washington 25.
After a loss of one yard on first down, Valerio dropped back to pass, surveyed the field, and eventually found his third read wide open on the left side of the field. Senior Mekai Morse caught Valerio’s check-down, made three defenders whiff with missed tackles on the way to the goal-line and dove into the end-zone for a 26-yard catch-and-run that made it 14-7, Toms River North, after Carter Tamaro’s extra point.
“We have a group that is really resistant to adversity,” Valerio said. “We got into some second-and-twenties and some third-and-thirteens and nothing skips a beat. Everyone does their job and trusts each other.”
Toms River North’s defense forced a three-and-out on the ensuing Minutemen possession and the Mariners set out to demoralize the visitors on the first play of the drive. Taking over at midfield, Valerio faked a pitch, reset in the pocket, and fired a pass over the middle for Jackson, who caught the ball in stride a step ahead of the defender, who could not bring Jackson down before he rolled into the end-zone with a 50-yard touchdown and a two-score Toms River North lead, 21-7.
“Me one-one-one with anybody, I know I’m going to come out with the ball,” Jackson said. “I came out of the break and saw one guy to beat and me one-on-one with a corner — that’s barbecue chicken.”
The first three of Jackson’s four receptions went for at least 26 yards and the senior was Valerio’s downfield target of choice when he chose to throw the ball deep.
“Me and T.J. are like brothers from another mother,” Jackson said. “We got that connection.”
“As a quarterback, it’s a dream to have the receivers I have,” Valerio said. “As long as I have a little bit of extra time, somebody is going to squeeze open and I’ve just got to find them. That’s mainly my job because I know they’ll be open.”
Washington Township breathed new life into its mission with a 13-play drive that set up a 33-yard field goal with two seconds left in the first half. Jackson gave the Minutemen a scare with a creative, 33-yard return on the kickoff that ended the half, but he could not quite get around the corner on the left sideline to break an improbable touchdown return to end the half. Toms River North settled for a 21-10 lead heading to intermission.
Valerio hit his first three passes of the second half, but hit a snag with his next three, including an interception on third-and-long that set up Washington Township on the Toms River North 30 yard-line. That pick followed a fourth-down stand by Toms River North on its own 16-yard-line after Washington Township moved the ball from its own 11 all the way to the red zone.
Toms River North’s defense began its dominant finish to the game by stuffing a first-down run, then forcing three consecutive incompletions for another turnover-on-downs.
Washington Township’s defense forced another Toms River North punt, but the Mariners pinned the Minutemen inside the 20-yard-line and the visitors faced fourth-and-8 from their own 19 with just over six minutes left and a 21-10 deficit. They opted to go for the first down and failed to convert on a third consecutive fourth down play, giving Toms River North the ball just 19 yards from the end-zone.
Thanks to a holding penalty on a would-be touchdown and a delay-of-game later in the drive, it took Toms River North eight plays to get back in the end-zone, but Valerio found Garrison for a two-yard touchdown toss on fourth-and-goal from the two yard-line, giving him his third touchdown pass, Garrison his second touchdown, and Toms River North a 27-10 lead with just over two minutes to go.
Ford then picked off Patel on the first play of the next Washington drive and Toms River North ran on the clock on its Group V semifinal victory. It marked the third straight season in which Toms River North has beaten Washington Township, which included a 49-14 win in last year’s South Jersey Group 5 championship game. Toms River North’s 28-21 win over the Minutemen in 2022 came on opening weekend during Toms River North’s perfect 14-0 season.
Seniors Blaise Boland and Eddie Slosky have led the defense throughout the season and junior Brady Cicala turned in a strong performance Friday that included a sack. The Toms River North secondary also delivered a sterling performance, limiting Patel to just three completions on 14 attempts, including incompletions on his final seven throws.
“(Patel) played about as well as he has played all year and I thought our kids on defense really buckled down, especially in that second half,” Oizerowitz said. “We were really good against the starter before he went out and he’s a really good player too. The biggest thing for us going in is if they couldn’t run it — and they really didn’t outside of maybe two big runs — we were in good shape. If they had to throw the ball consistency, they couldn’t win like that.”
The lone red flag in Toms River North’s performance was its volume of yellow flags the Mariners drew. Toms River North was hit with 15 penalties for 135 yards.
“I think the score wasn’t indicative of the way the game went,” Oizerowitz said. “We controlled the game from beginning to end and the score should have reflected that a little bit more. Penalties hurt us and I think some execution in some key areas could have been better, so that’s something we can take out of this game. You have to be better in some of those areas if you want to beat a team in a state championship game.”
Toms River North is now one win shy of capturing its third straight Group 5 championship after beating Passaic Tech in each of the last two group finals. The return of Rutgers-bound offensive tackle Ja’Elyne Matthews made the Mariners a team to watch heading into 2024, but the emergence of Valerio, Jackson, Morse and Ford, plus the further development of senior receiver and defensive back Camryn Thomas have kept the offensive machine churning.
“They are hungry,” Oizerowitz said. “Every week we come back, they have something to prove. There were a few things in the media this week portraying us as not as good of a football team as the last two years. Our kids read that and took it to heart.”
“We all know what’s on the line,” Valerio said. “We’re just going to make sure we push each other to get the job done.”
Box Score
Toms River North 27, Washington Twp. 10
Washington | TR North | |
Rushes-Yards | 29-81 | 41-164 |
Passing | 8-23-1 | 11-15-1 |
Pass Yards | 123 | 209 |
First Downs | 12 | 15 |
Fumbles-Recovered | 0-0 | 2-0 |
Penalties | 4-40 | 15-135 |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F | |
Washington Twp (10-3) | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
TR North (13-0) | 0 | 21 | 0 | 6 | 27 |
Scoring
TRN — Cole Garrison 3-yard run (Carter Tamaro kick)
W — Paris Pratt 21-yard pass from Kirtan Patel (Luke Sheets kick)
TRN — Mekai Morse 26-yard pass from T.J. Valerio (Carter Tamaro kick)
TRN — Nasir Jackson 50-yard pass from T.J. Valerio (Carter Tamaro kick)
W — Luke Sheets 33-yard field goal
TRN — Cole Garrison 2-yard pass from T.J. Valerio (pass failed)
Individual Stats
Rushing — W: Colin Beeler 12-59, Caleb Palagnas 5-18, Da’Shawn Long 3-9, Jaylen Robinson 3-7, Kirtan Patel 4-(-2), Cole Aquino 2-(-10); TRN: Mordecai Ford 15-69, T.J. Valerio 11-53, Cole Garrison 13-45, Mekai Morse 1-1, Lucas Elias 1-(-4)
Passing — W: Kirtan Patel 3-14-1 73, Cole Aquino 5-9-0 50; TRN: T.J. Valerio 11-15-1 209
Receiving — W: Ray McFall 2-52, Issac Parra 4-36, Paris Pratt 1-21, Da’Shawn Long 1-13; TRN: Nasir Jackson 4-110, Mekai Morse 2-36, Mordecai Ford 2-29, Cam Thomas 1-27, Cole Garrison 2-7
Interceptions-Return Yards — W: Parker Reese 1-0; TRN: Mordecai Ford 1-0