Amazing Gabe: Kemp Rolls Up 200 Yards as No. 1 RBC Beats No. 5 Rumson
RUMSON – Slithering, spinning, lunging, hitting the hole straight on and even sideways – Red Bank Catholic freshman running back Gabe Kemp is going to get yards any way he can.
“He just needs a little crease, and with his quickness, he’ll make it happen,” junior tight end T.J. Walsh said.
The burgeoning Caseys star was a workhorse again on Friday night as he became the rare opposing rusher to put 200 yards on Rumson’s defense in his debut performance in a rivalry that dates back to 1947.
A week after he had 282 yards rushing on 42 carries, the 5-foot-8, 156-pound freshman toted the rock 37 times for 200 yards on Friday night and scored a pair of touchdowns to help the Caseys, ranked No. 1 in the Shore Sports Insider Top 12, grind out a 34-10 win over the No. 5 Bulldogs at Borden Stadium.
“I say I get in a rhythm,” Kemp said. “It takes me time, but I’ll find a weak person on defense, and I’ll just attack them all game. People think I’m small, but I run hard.”
“He puts his hand down, regains his balance, gets 10 more yards, leans forward,” RBC head coach Mike Lange said about Kemp’s relentless running style.
Red Bank Catholic freshman running back Gabe Kemp was always moving forward on his way to 200 yards rushing on 37 carries in a win over Rumson. (Photo by Patrick Olivero)
The win gave Red Bank Catholic (7-0, 4-0) no worse than a tie for the Class A North title, one year after losing to the Bulldogs (4-2, 2-2), who won the division last season on their way to finishing 13-0. RBC can win the division outright with a victory over Marlboro on Oct. 24.
Kemp, a Keyport resident, couldn’t help RBC last year because he was an eighth-grader watching the game in the stands. His older teammates gave him a crash course on a rivalry that RBC now leads 39-23-6.
“I was at the game last year,” Kemp said. “They always say it’s a rivalry. My coach said he’s been here 21 years, and he’s only lost twice. I took it like we have to beat them. My teammate Chris Gibson, he’s from Rumson. He took it really personally. He told us he knows all these guys, so we had to go out and beat them.”
Kemp now has 1,156 yards rushing and 12 total touchdowns in his rookie season on an average of 6.8 yards per carry.
RBC’s Offensive Line Imposes Its Will
The Caseys dominated the time of possession with long drives featuring Kemp slipping through cracks and bouncing off tacklers for solid gains. RBC went all in on the run game after freshman quarterback Rahmir Rivera took two blindside hits from unblocked rushers and lost a pair of fumbles in the first half.
“Our offensive line saw a lot of the D-ends crashing down, so our coach just adjusted to it with a lot of inside runs,” Kemp said. “It was working, getting five (yards) a carry, it’s pop and run. Five a carry equals first downs.”
It marked a reversal of last season’s game, when Rumson’s front line pushed the Caseys around all game.
“We’re more physical now, and we’ve got more experience,” Walsh said about the Caseys’ offensive line.
RBC Takes A Halftime Lead
Rumson took its only lead of the game when senior Drew Cavise booted a 25-yard field goal for a 3-0 advantage with 5:54 remaining in the first quarter. The drive was set up by a blindside hit off the edge by senior Dylan Plesser on Rivera that caused a fumble that junior defensive lineman Ben Gredell recovered at RBC’s 43-yard line.
The Caseys answered with a nine-play, 80-yard drive that was kept alive on a clutch 35-yard pass from Rivera to sophomore wideout Jason Berecsky on third-and-12 to put the ball at Rumson’s 24-yard line. Kemp then ripped off a 17-yard run and scored on a 7-yard run to make it 7-3 with 2:50 left in the first quarter.
“Every time we run that in practice I know it’s going to be open,” Berecsky said about the pass over the middle from Rivera. “If you cover one of us, you can’t guard the rest. I made eye contact with the QB, and we took it from there.”
RBC sophomore Jason Berecsky celebrates one of his two interceptions in the win over Rumson. (Photo by Patrick Olivero)
Berecsky then got the ball right back for the Caseys with an interception at the Rumson 40-yard line on the first play of the Bulldogs’ ensuing drive. Six plays later, Rivera scored on a one-yard keeper for a 14-3 advantage with 40 seconds left in the first quarter.
“I knew I could cover their receiver one-on-one, and I saw the QB lob it up, and I went out and caught it,” Berecsky said about his pick.
Rumson’s lone touchdown was set up by another blindside hit on Rivera from an unblocked rusher, this time linebacker Toby Najenson, and the fumble was recovered by senior defensive end Ben Roberts at RBC’s 43-yard line. The Bulldogs scored nine plays later when they inserted 6-foot-4 sophomore quarterback Brady Williams on fourth-and-goal and he plowed in from the 1-yard line to cut the deficit to 14-10 with 8:05 left in the half.
The Caseys had seen enough of the free shots on Rivera to the point that they ran the ball 15 straight times on their next drive, scoring on a 4-yard run by Kemp to make it 21-10 with 1:23 left in the half. RBC made the Bulldogs pay for a costly penalty, as it was about to punt on fourth-and-6 after a false start of its own, but Rumson was flagged for running into the punter, making it fourth-and-1 again. Kemp took a direct snap and ran three yards to keep the drive going.
Kemp had 126 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 22 carries by halftime.
“I think you saw we kind of simplified our plan as we went, similar to Vianney last week,” Lange said. “We just kind of went run and took away some of the RPOs, which (Rumson) did a nice job of taking them away. I thought we played the hot hand, and yeah it was the back (Kemp), but it was also our line blocking everybody. We were getting hats on hats.”
Rumson had a chance to add some points before the break when it drove to RBC’s 22-yard line, but Berecsky picked off his second pass at the Caseys’ 2-yard line.
RBC freshman quarterback Rahmir Rivera scored from a yard out in the first half. (Photo by Patrick Olivero)
Caseys Close It Out
The Caseys then shut the Bulldogs out in the second half, stopping them three times on downs and getting an interception by junior cornerback Kieran McGonnell on another drive. In Rumson’s two losses this season, its two quarterbacks have thrown a combined seven interceptions. The three turnovers on Friday night lessened the effect of 125 yards rushing by Rumson junior Ryder Izzo on 25 carries.
“I think it was more predicated on the run game, saying we’re going to crowd the box and making it like, ‘Hey, you’re going to have to throw,’” Lange said. “We did a good job defensively changing our coverage. We played a lot more man than we usually did just because it was simpler for what they do because they run a lot of rollouts where guys kind of get lost. We just played zero and one a lot of the time.”
The score remained 21-10 going into the fourth quarter after the teams combined to get three stops on fourth down in the third quarter. RBC extended its lead to 24-10 on a 23-yard field goal by freshman Simon Picinich, who also boomed four touchbacks and went 4-for-4 on extra points in the win.
McGonnell’s interception on a tipped pass helped set up a 33-yard field goal by Picinich that pushed the lead to 27-10 with 5:38 left in the game. RBC then tacked on a final score on a 38-yard touchdown pass from Rivera to senior wide receiver Johnny Williams with 1:09 left in the game.
Friday night also marked the season debut of junior running back Luke Lonczak, who had 34 yards on nine carries and a 28-yard catch in serving as a complement to Kemp. Lonczak had been rehabbing a knee injury and was cleared about 10 days ago.
“Having those two going into the stretch run is big,” Lange said about Kemp and Lonczak.
The victory reaffirmed the Caseys as the Shore Conference’s No. 1 team and kept them as one of only two unbeaten teams along with No. 2 Southern, which improved to 7-0 for the first time in program history on Friday night.
Kemp plans on keeping that top ranking beyond just this season.
“Every year for four years straight,” he said before smiling.
Box Score
Red Bank Catholic 34, Rumson-FH 10
| RBC | RFH | |
| First downs | 18 | 12 |
| Rushes-yards | 54-211 | 40-164 |
| Passing | 9-15-0 | 6-18-3 |
| Passing yards | 148 | 103 |
| Fumbles-lost | 2-2 | 2-0 |
| Penalties-yards | 3-20 | 2-10 |
| RB Catholic (7-0, 4-0) | 14 | 7 | 0 | 13 | 34 |
| Rumson-FH (4-2, 2-2) | 3 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
Scoring Summary
RFH – Cavise 25-yard field goal.
RBC – Kemp 7-yard run (Picinich kick).
RBC – Rivera 1-yard run (Picinich kick).
RFH – Williams 1-yard run (Cavise kick).
RBC – Kemp 4-yard run (Picinich kick).
RBC – Picinich 23-yard field goal.
RBC – Picinich 33-yard field goal.
RBC – Williams 38-yard pass from Rivera (Picinich kick).
Individual Statistics
RUSHING — RBC: Kemp 37-200, Rivera 8-(-23), Lonczak 9-34. RFH: Moore 5-17, Williams 9-27, Izzo 25-120, Dane 1-0.
PASSING — RBC: Rivera 9-15-0 148. RFH: Moore 2-6-2 16, Williams 4-12-1 87.
RECEIVING – RBC: Williams 5-82, Berecsky 1-35, Zabora 1-(-1), Lonczak 1-28, Walsh 1-4. RFH: Gyimesi 1-7, Spoonire 3-42, McDonald 1-31, Izzo 1-23.
INTERCEPTIONS — RBC: Berecsky 2-0, McGonnell 1-0.
