Holmdel's Matt Iulo (Photo by Tom Smith/tspsportsimages.com)

Holmdel wins back-to-back division titles for the first time in history

Scott Stump | October 26, 2024

*Updated 10/26 with Jack Cannon setting school passing records

MANALAPAN – Coming into this season, defensive lineman Cipriano Bodnar and the Holmdel seniors had a clear goal on the heels of a year in which they went from 1-8 to a nine-win division champion.

“At the end of every season, coach asks us, ‘What are your goals for next season?’” Bodnar said. “And I’ve had the same goals for the last two years: Get hardware.”

The Hornets went out and got their hardware in heart-pounding fashion on Friday night by winning a 27-21 thriller over host Manalapan on a touchdown with 50.7 seconds remaining and a defensive stop in the end zone on the final play of the game.

The victory gave the Hornets (7-1, 4-1), ranked No. 7 in the Shore Sports Insider Top 12, no worse than a tie for the Class C North title. Holmdel has now won back-to-back division championships for the first time in program history.

Wall (6-1, 3-1) can tie Holmdel for the title by beating Manasquan in their Thanksgiving matchup.

Holmdel football (Photo by Tom Smith/tspsportsimages.com) - Holmdel football

Holmdel celebrated winning back-to-back division titles for the first time in program history with a 27-21 thriller over Manalapan. (Photo by Tom Smith/tspsportsimages.com)

“It’s unbelievable,” senior running back/linebacker Matt Iulo said. “I started crying tears of joy at the end of that game.”

Iulo had Holmdel fans crying tears of joy when he rumbled his way to the goal line and dove into the end zone to complete a 17-yard touchdown run that gave Holmdel a 27-21 lead with less than a minute to go in the game. Iulo finished with 91 total yards and two touchdowns in the win.

Holmdel gets a game-winning stop

The Hornets still had to withstand one final possession by the Braves (4-5, 3-2), who drove 49 yards to the Holmdel 15-yard line with nine seconds left in the game. After an incompletion on the first play, one final pass sailed high in the end zone as Holmdel senior defensive back Frankie Serini had tight coverage on the intended receiver.

“It was almost a heart attack, but I know my secondary is there, and they’re going to do what it takes,” said Bodnar, who had a sack in the win. “We know that no matter what, everyone is going to do their job.”

“This means everything,” said Serini, who had a tremendous all-around game. “It’s just a great feeling. We’re going to go into the playoffs with that chip on our shoulder trying to win our first sectional (title). We lost 20-something seniors, but we knew we had the players in our locker room who could go out on the field and make plays to win this thing.”

Holmdel withstood Manalapan rallying out of a 14-point hole to tie the game.

The Hornets jumped out to a two-touchdown lead

The Hornets opened the game with an eight-play, 60-yard drive that concluded when junior quarterback Jack Cannon hit sophomore Michael Todisco for a 12-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead. Todisco also had a 19-yard catch on the drive.

Manalapan’s defense then appeared to be slowing down a Holmdel offense that entered averaging 40 points per game, but the Hornets capitalized on a big break. Manalapan muffed a punt, and Serini pounced on it to give Holmdel the ball at the Braves’ 32-yard line early in the second quarter.

Holmdel's Frankie Serini (Photo by Tom Smith/tspsportsimages.com) - Frankie Serini Holmdel

Holmdel’s Frankie Serini (#7) pounced on a fumble on a muffed punt and then caught a touchdown pass on the next play in the second quarter. (Photo by Tom Smith/tspsportsimages.com)

“I got right in that kid’s face and I screamed at him, and I got right on the ball,” Serini said. “That completely flipped momentum in our way. I scored a touchdown and the whole game changed.”

On the next play, Cannon found Serini streaking down the sideline for a 32-yard touchdown pass and a 14-0 lead with 10:15 left in the half. Cannon finished 14-for-25 for 252 yards passing and also ran for 46 yards in the win. Serini had four catches for 89 yards.

Manalapan only had two total yards in the game up to that point but came alive on its next series. Junior running back Ah’sere Woolfolk ripped off a 57-yard touchdown run to get the Braves right back in it at 14-7 with 8:30 left in the half. Woolfolk finished with 107 yards on 15 carries.

Holmdel answered with a seven-play, 83-yard drive that ended with Iulo scoring on a six-yard run up the middle for a 21-7 lead with 5:25 left in the quarter. The big play came when Cannon eluded a sack, rolled out to the sideline and found junior tight end Alex Reyes behind the defense for a 42-yard gain.

The Braves had an immediate response when senior quarterback Ryan Dougherty hit senior wide receiver Jackson Pfister over the middle and he took it 69 yards to the house to make it 21-14 with 5:05 left in the half.

Manalapan then had a chance to tie it before the half after getting the ball back with a stop. The Braves drove 60 yards to the Holmdel 12-yard line on 11 plays, but came away with no points. They had a touchdown pass dropped in the end zone, and then Holmdel blocked a 28-yard field goal attempt to go into the locker room with a 21-14 lead.

Manalapan rallied to tie the game

The Braves had the home crowd roaring in the second half when they tied the game at 21 with a 10-play, 63-yard drive that ended with sophomore running back Nick Palmieri taking a direct snap and scoring on a 2-yard run with 1:30 left in the third quarter.

Dougherty, who finished with 228 yards passing, kept the chains moving on the drive with a 17-yard pass to senior wideout Anthony Hammel on third-and-10 and a 15-yard connection to senior wideout Justin Troxell on third-and-14.

Manalapan's Ryan Dougherty (Photo by Tom Smith/tspsportsimages.com) - Manalapan QB Ryan Dougherty

Manalapan’s Ryan Dougherty had 228 yards passing in the loss. (Photo by Tom Smith/tspsportsimages.com)

Manalapan’s defense then came up with a huge stop to get the ball back, but Holmdel didn’t blink despite giving up the lead.

“We’re a brotherhood, and we all trust each other,” Serini said.

“Our kids are built for four quarters,” Holmdel head coach Noel Kavanagh said. “They didn’t really waver in those moments. They kept on fighting. We talk about it, but to see it actually happen felt good.”

Manalapan appeared to be mounting a championship drive when it marched from its own 5-yard line to the Holmdel 22 in 12 plays. Serini had other ideas, as he killed the Braves’ hopes when he picked off a desperation pass by Dougherty on fourth down at the Holmdel 17-yard line with 4:13 left in a tie game.

“I was just thinking we’ve got to make this stop here,” Serini said. “Maybe I shouldn’t have picked that off, but we got the stop, and that’s all that matters.”

“That pick kickstarted us, and from that point we never looked back,” Iulo said.

Holmdel brought home the division title by driving 83 yards in eight plays. The Hornets only had 31 yards rushing in the game up to that point, and only five in the second half, before they ran for 54 on their final possession.

“Their defense definitely did a good job,” Kavanagh said. “It was difficult to run on them. I just think later in the game, we wanted to enforce the run game and finish the game, and we wanted to milk the clock a little bit because we didn’t want them to get the ball back with a lot of time left.”

“The adrenaline got to everyone in that moment,” Iulo said. “We all knew we had to dig deep, and we did our jobs, and it worked out the way we wanted.”

Iulo also had a huge, juggling catch for a 34-yard gain on the drive. He finished by punching it in from 17 yards for what proved to be the game-winning score.

“I just gave everything I had and more,” he said. “I wanted to do it for the guys in front of me. I couldn’t be happier for the guys up front.”

The Hornets won their ninth division title in school history, and two in a row for the first time after capturing the Constitution Division crown last season.

“It means having a legacy,” Bodnar said. “It means that we have left something here that hopefully the juniors, the sophomores and even the freshmen are going to carry on. They see the winning, and they want to be a part of that.”

Jack Cannon sets multiple school passing records in the win

The junior quarterback now has 1,690 yards passing this season, which is a new single-season school record for Holmdel, passing the 1,607 put up by Aneesh Agrawal in 2014, according to Holmdel’s coaches.

Cannon is also the program’s all-time leading passer in less than two full seasons as the starter. He now has 2,869, passing Mike Cantelli, who had 2,778 in 2009-10.

What’s next for both teams?

Both teams are headed to the state playoffs and will wait to see where they are seeded when the official NJSIAA brackets are released on Sunday at Gridiron New Jersey.

Friday night was a rare matchup between the two teams, who have only played twice in the last 21 years, with Manalapan winning in 2021.

Manalapan was in eighth in the United Power Ranking in the South Group 4 region heading into Friday night’s game. The Braves have an uphill battle in a region featuring two of the state’s top public school programs in Winslow Township and Millville.

Holmdel, which was in sixth in UPR in the South Group 3 region before Friday night’s win, has never won a sectional title.

“When I say hardware, what I mean by that is rings,” Bodnar said. “Going into this game, coach (Kavanagh) said, ‘Let’s go get our gear. Let’s go get that division title sweatshirt and go get some more hardware in the playoffs.’”

Box score

Holmdel 27, Manalapan 21

 

.                                  H                      M

First downs            14                      17

Rushes-yards       22-85               26-118

Passing               14-25-0               16-31-1

Passing yards       252                     228

Penalties              11-82                 3-15

Fumbles-lost         0-0                     1-1

Holmdel (7-1, 4-1)           7   14   0   6 – 27

Manalapan (4-5, 3-2)     0   14   7   0 – 21

Scoring summary

H: M. Todisco 12-yard pass from Cannon (Mueller kick).

H: F. Serini 32-yard pass from Cannon (Mueller kick).

M: Woolfolk 57-yard run (Bohichik kick).

H: Iulo 6-yard run (Mueller kick).

M: Pfister 69-yard pass from Dougherty (Bohichik kick).

M: Palmieri 2-yard run (Bohichik kick).

H: Iulo 17-yard run (kick failed).

Individual statistics

Rushing – H: Cannon 13-46, Iulo 9-39. M: Woolfolk 15-107, Palmieri 5-5, Dougherty 3-(-10), DiFilippo 2-4, Pfister 1-12.

Passing – H: Cannon 14-25-0 252. M: Dougherty 16-30-1 228, DiFilippo 0-1-0 0.

Receiving – H: Todisco 3-33, F. Serini 4-89, Iulo 3-52, Murphy 1-11, Reyes 2-46, Critchley 1-21. M: Troxell 7-76, Pfister 1-69, Woolfolk 2-22, DiFilippo 2-16, Hammel 2-31, Corsaro 2-14.

Interceptions – H: F. Serini 1-0.

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