Holmdel and Jack Cannon win QB duel in a thriller over Long Branch

HOLMDEL – Holmdel entered its season opener against Long Branch on Friday night knowing it has one of the best quarterbacks in the Shore Conference in junior Jack Cannon.

The Green Wave exited the game knowing they might have one, too.

Cannon and Long Branch junior Quinton Fisher put on a show for the fans at Bob Roggy Memorial Stadium in an electric quarterback duel in which Cannon and the Hornets prevailed in a wild 38-32 nondivisional victory. Cannon accounted for 281 yards of offense and three touchdowns, while Fisher erupted for 356 total yards and accounted for four touchdowns.

“That kid’s a great player,” Cannon said about Fisher. “We could not tackle him in the backfield. He was just throwing balls over our secondary’s head, including me. He’s definitely going to be a Shore Conference breakout player.”

A quarterback showdown

Coming off an All-Shore season as a sophomore, Cannon looked like he’s ready to take it up another notch in the Hornets’ new spread offense with 174 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 24 carries along with 107 yards passing.

Fisher, meanwhile, showed he might be one of the Shore’s most improved players after being thrown into the fire as a sophomore last season when senior starter Earnest Reevey was injured. Fisher racked up a career-high 175 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 19 carries and threw for 181 yards and two touchdowns to help Long Branch nearly rally all the way back from a 21-point hole. His primary target was senior wideout Aulander Daniels, who had 6 catches for 107 yards and two touchdowns and also ran for a touchdown.

In the end, it was Cannon who had the final say when he ran for two first downs inside the final three minutes to ice the game after Long Branch burned its timeouts.

“We needed two first downs and we came out and were physical and got it done,” Cannon said.

“He’s an unbelievable competitor,” Holmdel head coach Noel Kavanagh said about Cannon. “Anything he does, he tries to do it 100%. Colleges should be drooling over this kid.”

The Hornets (1-0) now have an 11-game winning streak against Shore Conference competition and proved that after losing a huge senior class and their head coach from last year’s 9-1 team, they will still be a force.

“I think we definitely played with a chip on our shoulder,” Cannon said. “We’re doubted. We lost 24 seniors, but I think we still have a shot at winning a divisional title or a sectional title.”

The win also marked the first career victory for Kavanagh, who took over for Jeff Rainess when he stepped down after eight seasons.

“It’s not about me,” Kavanagh said. “Honestly I was just happy for everybody here. I was happy that we were able to put a pretty good product on the field. Obviously we need to get better, but when it’s all said and done, it’s about these kids and the fans.”

A fast start for Holmdel

The Hornets, ranked No. 11 in the Shore Sports Insider Preseason Top 12, had the home crowd fired up from the outset as they took the opening kickoff and went 59 yards in 11 plays, taking a 7-0 lead on a 3-yard touchdown run by Cannon. The lead grew to 14-0 only two minutes later when senior defensive lineman Cipriano Bodnar stormed up the middle and blocked a punt that was recovered by fellow senior defensive lineman Hamza Elmesi in the end zone.

Cipriano Bodnar comes storming up the middle to block a punt recovered in the end zone by Hamza Elmesi and Holmdel has come out on fire up 14-0 with 4:28 left in the 1st pic.twitter.com/vJxfSvBi4w

— Scott Stump (@Scott_Stump) August 30, 2024

The Holmdel defense then came up with a stop on fourth down at their own 19 when senior defensive back Trey Critchley broke up a pass in the end zone. That set up a 9-play, 81-yard drive that ended with another 3-yard touchdown run by Cannon. The big play was a 46-yard strike from Cannon to senior wideout Frankie Serini.

Long Branch righted the ship with a 7-play, 62-yard drive that ended with Fisher hitting Daniels for an 18-yard touchdown that cut the score to 21-6 with 6:37 left in the half after a missed extra point. The Hornets answered with a 23-yard field goal by junior kicker Brandon Mueller, who also went 5-for-5 on extra points for eight points that proved crucial in his first varsity start.

“Without him I don’t think we win,” Kavanagh said. “He’s a really hard worker.”

Mueller’s performance was part of a huge night on special teams for Holmdel, which had the punt block for a touchdown and also a 57-yard kickoff return by junior James Murphy that set up a touchdown drive.

 

Gritty Green Wave

Fisher kept the Green Wave in striking distance with a 1-yard touchdown run to make it 24-13 at the half, with Long Branch getting the ball first to start the third quarter.

Long Branch then kept the momentum going with a monster 16-play, 63-yard drive that took 7:57 off the clock to start the second half. Daniels capped the march by lining up at quarterback and running for a 5-yard score to cut it to 24-19 after the PAT was no good.

“Going into halftime we thought we were going to blow them away,” Cannon said. “That’s on us captains to make sure we don’t have that mentality again. They just kept coming at us. They wouldn’t stop and they wouldn’t quit.”

It remained a five-point game into the fourth quarter before Holmdel extended the lead to 31-19 on a 3-yard touchdown run by sophomore Matt Scheinman. Long Branch answered in just four plays when Fisher took off down the sideline for a 42-yard touchdown run to make it 31-26 with 9:12 left in the game.

The momentum appeared to be building in Long Branch’s favor before Cannon drew a roar from the home crowd with a 63-yard touchdown burst on the first play from scrimmage on Holmdel’s ensuing possession. That juiced the lead back up to 38-26 with 8:57 remaining.

“I just really didn’t want to lose, and I was going to do everything in my power,” Cannon said. “I think I kind of just blacked out and found myself in the end zone.”

Fisher wasn’t done, however. He hit sophomore wideout Nyron Snerling with a 39-yard strike and followed with a 24-yard touchdown pass to Daniels three plays later to make it 38-32 with 7:33 left in the game.

Holmdel then appeared to be in serious jeopardy when Snerling recovered a fumble by the Hornets at Holmdel’s 36-yard line with 6:13 left in the game. The Green Wave (0-1) drove down to the 13, but a fumble for a 12-yard loss doomed the drive and Holmdel’s defense got a stop on downs with 4:18 left in the game.

“They have unbelievable players,” Kavanagh said about Long Branch. “Their quarterback, Daniels, their receivers, they’re outstanding. They just continually made plays. They’re very slippery. It was difficult on defense to contain them because they were so dynamic, but at the end we figured out something that could help us contain them a little bit.”

Cannon and the offensive line made sure the Green Wave wouldn’t get another possession by grinding out the rest of the clock for an exhilarating win between two teams that each made playoff runs last year.

Holmdel’s new offensive line showed that despite the graduation losses, the Hornets will still be able to run the ball. They put up 219 yards on the ground, and they needed every bit of it.

“They were pretty tough in the pass defense,” Kavanagh said about Long Branch. “Their speed and their coverage ability was outstanding. We saw that in the scrimmages. We were definitely like, ‘We have to run the ball to win this game,’ and we did a great job with that.”

“Coming into this game we knew we wanted to run the ball because I think we have a better front, and we kind of proved that we did,” Cannon said.

What’s next for both teams? 

Holmdel will now travel to Ocean (1-0) in Week One, while Long Branch will try to bounce back against Jackson Memorial (1-0) in a rematch of last year’s Central Jersey Group IV quarterfinals.

Box score

Holmdel 38, Long Branch 32

.                                         H                      L

First downs                   15                     19

Rushes-yards             39-219             31-205

Passing                     7-10-0               11-21-0

Passing yards           107                     181

Penalties                   3-21                 9-45

Fumbles-lost            3-1                    1-0

 

Long Branch (0-1)   0   13   6  13 – 32

Holmdel (1-0)        14   10   0  14 – 38

Scoring summary

H: Cannon 3-yard run (Mueller kick).

H: Elmesi recovered blocked punt in end zone (Mueller kick).

H: Cannon 3-yard run (Mueller kick).

L: Daniels 18-yard pass from Fisher (kick failed).

H: Mueller 23-yard field goal.

L: Fisher 1-yard run (De Jesus kick).

L: Daniels 5-yard run (kick failed).

H: Scheinman 1-yard run (Mueller kick).

L: Fisher 42-yard run (De Jesus kick).

H: Cannon 63-yard run (Mueller kick).

L: Daniels 24-yard pass from Fisher (kick failed).

Individual statistics

Rushing – H: Cannon 24-174, Iulo 10-44, Critchley 1-9, Scheinman 3-5, Todisco 1-6. L: Fisher 19-175, Snerling 1-9, Daniels 2-(-3), McDonald 10-36.

Passing – H: Cannon 7-10-0 107. L: Fisher 11-21-0 181.

Receiving – H: Reyes 2-13, F. Serini 3-68, Critchley 1-18, Iulo 1-8. L: Daniels 6-107, Moses 1-2, McDonald 1-(-1), Gonzalez 2-34, Snerling 1-39.

Interceptions – None.