The return of Jonah Glenn, 3 TDs by Eric Zebrowski lead Jackson Memorial to playoff win

BERKELEY TOWNSHIP – Jackson Memorial is back at full power at the perfect time.

Buoyed by the return of electrifying junior running back Jonah Glenn and some new offensive wrinkles involving speedy senior Eric Zebrowski, the sixth-seeded Jaguars roared into the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group 4 semifinals with a 46-13 win over third-seeded Central on Friday night.

Glenn finished with 181 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 10 carries in his return after being plagued by a hamstring injury much of the season, while Zebrowski scored three touchdowns of 30-plus yards in Jackson Memorial’s highest-scoring game of the season. The defense forced four turnovers, two of which led directly to touchdowns, while the offense rolled up 294 yards on the ground and 377 overall.

“With most of our team healthy, our running back back and with all our (new) plays now, this is the best our offense has looked,” Zebrowski said.

The Jaguars (5-5) will now try to solve second-seeded Brick Memorial when they travel to face the Mustangs (8-2) in the semifinals next week after losing 37-0 to them only a week ago. Glenn, who leads Jackson in rushing, did not play in the loss to Brick Memorial, which demolished Northern Burlington 56-0 in its first-round playoff game.

Jonah Glenn returns after playing sparingly in the last month

The junior said after Friday night’s win that he felt about 90% back from the hamstring injury he suffered in Week Three that ultimately caused him to miss the last two games and parts of several other games. On his first carry of the night, he completely reversed field for a 15-yard gain to look much more like his old self.

“I’ve definitely been waiting for this one for a while,” he said. “It felt good to be back on the field and do what I do. I definitely got in my groove again.”

Zebrowski was in a groove of his own on Friday night at Joseph J. Boyd Memorial Stadium. He touched the ball only five times but scored three touchdowns and amassed 154 total yards – all in the first half.

“With Jonah being the No. 1 running back in the Shore and definitely ranked among the top in the state, he definitely brings a lot of attention,” Zebrowski said. “He’s very explosive, he’s quick, and then you got me, where I can also make plays. Once they forget about me, I can make them pay.”

“Zebrowski has elite, Division 1 speed,” Jackson Memorial head coach Vin Mistretta said. “He’s undersized, but that dude was the third-fastest in Ocean County behind (Donovan Catholic star) Michael Thomas and I think the kid from Southern (Cole Cramer). The kid’s got legit speed, and he’s got a little football savvy, too. He’s got a little wiggle to him. He’s tough, he’s physical – he’s a fun player.”

Jackson Memorial has a flashback to 2015

Zebrowski had the Golden Eagles (8-2) on their heels early. The senior lined up at quarterback in the wildcat and zipped up the middle for a 34-yard touchdown run, leaping over one of his linemen and motoring into the end zone for a 7-0 lead only three minutes into the game.

Eric Zebrowski keeps it on a zone read and bursts 34 yards for a TD to give Jackson Mem a 7-0 lead on Central with 9:00 in the 1st. Star RB Jonah Glenn is in the game for Jackson after missing 2 games with injury pic.twitter.com/b1c22t0nWS

— Scott Stump (@Scott_Stump) November 1, 2024

It capped a five-play, 74-yard drive that also featured an 18-yard run by Zebrowski. Jackson Memorial had a package in which Zebrowski stepped in at quarterback for regular starter Dennis Caswell to run zone read with Glenn at his side, forcing Central to make a  choice between the two explosive runners.

“We switched it up a little bit, and it’s working out perfectly,” Glenn said. “We definitely complement each other really well. They focus on me, we give it to him. They focus on him, they give it me.”

The Jaguars made a similar move in 2015, when they switched wide receiver and all-around athlete Kyle Johnson to quarterback to run zone read with the program’s all-time leading rusher, Mike Gawlik. They rode it all the way to the Central Jersey Group 4 title.

“We’re historians, and we look back to 2015 when we did the same type of thing with Kyle Johnson,” Mistretta said. “We love read game. We’ve run it a lot in the past. It adds another dynamic to your offense. It’s just another way that we can attack defenses.”

The Jaguars roared to a big halftime lead

Jackson Memorial quickly made it 14-0 when junior Nick Dos Santos returned a fumble 59 yards to Central’s six-yard line. One play later, Glenn glided into the end zone for a two-score lead with 7:08 left in the first quarter.

Jonah Glenn scores on a 6-yd TD run after this 59-yd fumble return by Nick Dos Santos and Jackson leads Central 14-0 with 7:08 in the 1st pic.twitter.com/EgjbixAQki

— Scott Stump (@Scott_Stump) November 1, 2024

Central answered with a seven-play, 75-yard drive that culminated with a 38-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Joe Vezzosi to wideout C.J. Yates to make it 14-7 with 4:03 left in the first quarter.

It was all Jaguars from there, as they scored 25 unanswered points to blow the game open. They answered Central’s scoring drive with a seven-play, 65-yard drive of their own. Once again, Zebrowski ran zone read out of the wildcat and kept it for a 35-yard touchdown run to push the lead to 20-7 at the end of the first quarter.

Jackson Memorial then scored on defense when junior linebacker Jio Kabiri took an interception 37 yards to the house for a 26-7 advantage with 11:47 left in the half.

“I took it and all I saw was green grass,” Kabiri said.

The Jaguars were in nickel most of the game and neutralized Central’s bread-and-butter passing attack. They limited Vezzosi to 122 yards passing, including zero in the second half, picked off two passes and sacked him four times, led by two from junior defensive lineman Matt Howard. Senior running back Nick Ruggiero led Central with 149 yards rushing in his final game.

An interception by Jackson Memorial junior defensive back Chris Privette killed Central’s next drive. Two plays later, Caswell hit Zebrowski with a screen pass and he zoomed 68 yards for a touchdown and a 32-7 lead to all but end the game by halftime.

Eric Zebrowski is going off. He takes a short pass from Dennis Caswell and takes off for a 68-yd TD, his third TD of the game, PAT no good, and Jackson is pouring it on up 32-7 on Central with 6:44 in the 2nd Q pic.twitter.com/hxyFJkmdIE

— Scott Stump (@Scott_Stump) November 1, 2024

“It wasn’t even planned,” Zebrowski said. “(Caswell) called the cadence differently and whenever we call the cadence differently it’s a pass on that play.”

Jonah Glenn shows his breakaway speed is back

Glenn then put the exclamation point on the win and showed he is just about all the way back when he hit the jets for an 84-yard touchdown run in the third quarter that made it 39-7.

“I had to break one this game,” Glenn said.

“He’s so special,” Mistretta said. “He just makes something out of nothing, and if you really block well for him, that’s when the big ones come.”

Kabiri added an 8-yard touchdown run in the third quarter for his second score of the night to cap one of Jackson’s most complete efforts. The Jaguars were the last-place team in the rugged Class A South this season, but took it to the Class B South tri-champion Golden Eagles, who lost their last two games following an 8-0 start.

“We believed that we would have success in the playoffs because of the teams we saw,” Mistretta said.

Now they face Class A South rival Brick Memorial for a second time, hoping the return of Glenn can make for a different outcome.

“Every week, Saturday morning I call him up and he goes, ‘Coach I can’t move my leg,’” Mistretta said about Glenn. “You see pro athletes do it. Sometimes that hamstring just doesn’t go away, and you’ve got to just rest it. So now he’s feeling good, (and) he’s damn near close to 100 (percent) if not 100.”

Jackson Memorial will need to close a 37-point gap if it wants a shot at its first sectional title since that 2015 season.

“We’re going to come in with a chip on our shoulder, it’s going to be personal, and we’ve just got to be ready next time,” Zebrowski said. “We can’t let up.”

“We’re going to need everything we can because we just got rolled by this team last week, so we’ve got to get a lot better,” Mistretta said.

Box score

Jackson Memorial 46, Central 13

 

.                                     J                       C

First downs                11                    20

Rushes-yards         25-294            44-189

Passing                    2-7-0               10-17-2

Passing yards            83                    122

Fumbles-lost           0-0                     2-2

Penalties                 3-23                    5-64

Jackson Mem. (5-5)   20  12 14 0 – 46

Central  (8-2)                 7   0   6   0 – 13

Scoring summary

J: Zebrowski 34-yard run (Muzzillo kick).

J: Glenn 6-yard run (Muzzillo kick).

C: Yates 38-yard pass from Vezzosi (Nieves kick).

J: Zebrowski 35-yard run (kick blocked).

J: Kabiri 37-yard INT return (kick failed).

J: Zebrowski 68-yard pass from Caswell (kick failed).

J: Glenn 84-yard run (Muzzillo kick).

C: Vezzosi 1-yard run (kick blocked).

J: Kabiri 8-yard run (Muzzillo kick).

Individual statistics

Rushing – J: Glenn 10-181, Zebrowski 4-86, Kabiri 8-24, Blake 3-3. C: Ruggiero 28-149, Carroll 3-8, Vezzosi 11-30, Jarvis 1-0, Halpin 1-2.

Passing – J: Caswell 2-7-0 83. C: Vezzosi 10-17-2 122.

Receiving – J: Zebrowski 1-68, Jones 1-15. C: Yates 4-85, Riley 3-5, Amaechina 1-6, Tunney 2-26.

Interceptions – J: Kabiri 1-37, Privette 1-23.

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]