600 Horsepower: Jason Lajara’s Career Night Helps No. 7 Brick Memorial Put Up 613 Yards to Upset No. 2 Holmdel

*Updated with school record for Brick Memorial’s Nyzier Matthews

HOLMDEL – Brick Memorial knew Holmdel had deservedly drawn plenty of attention this season for its explosive offense under star quarterback Jack Cannon, so the Mustangs wanted to deliver a message against the Shore Conference’s second-ranked team on Friday night. 

We have an All-Shore guy running the offense on our side, too, and we can also light up the scoreboard. 

Brick Memorial senior quarterback Jason Lajara went nuclear for a career-high 411 yards on 26-for-33 passing and four touchdowns while also running for 89 yards and three touchdowns to outduel Cannon and power a stunning 55-41 upset of the Hornets (3-2) in a nondivisional game at Bob Roggy Memorial Field. Cannon was brilliant in defeat with 277 yards passing and 183 yards and five touchdowns rushing.

Lajara’s 386 passing yards are the most by any Shore Conference quarterback this season. He was less than 100 yards away from the single-game Shore Conference record of 477 yards passing set by St. John Vianney’s Anthony Carlucci in 2011. 

“The whole week we knew we were underdogs,” Lajara said. “The whole Shore doubted us. I think it’s just that grit of being an underdog. We’re not used to being the underdog coming into the game, so for me it was just grit.” 

The two teams combined for 1,019 yards of offense in an epic back-and-forth between two of the Shore Conference’s top quarterbacks. Brick Memorial scored the most points of any Holmdel opponent in 12 years after entering the night averaging 25 points per game, compared to 39.5 for the Hornets. 

“(The matchup with Cannon and Holmdel) motivated all of us because we know that Jay is a great football player,” Brick Memorial head coach Walt Currie said. “Cannon is a fantastic football player, going to D1, going to Dartmouth, we understand all that, but we know that Jay plays with a chip on his shoulder, and I think part of tonight was that chip coming through.” 

The Mustangs (4-2), ranked No. 7 in the Shore Sports Insider Top 12, exploded for 613 total yards and double nickels on the scoreboard one week after being held to 14 points in a one-point loss to Donovan Catholic. It marked the highest total yardage in a game in the 19 seasons Currie has been Brick Memorial’s head coach. 

Senior running back Nazeer Whittaker also had a monster game with 17 carries for 138 yards and a touchdown rushing, plus six catches for 84 yards and a touchdown receiving. Not to be outdone, senior wide receiver Nyzier Matthews had 10 catches for 144 yards and a touchdown, including a clutch 32-yard catch in the final minutes that helped seal the win.

In the process, Matthews set the program’s all-time record for career receiving yards with 1,701 and counting. He passed the 1,666 by former Houston Texans tight end Garrett Graham, who was an All-Big Ten player at Wisconsin.

“I was really motivated,” Matthews said. “I had one catch last week. I never did that before, so that will never happen again.” 

Brick Memorial needed all of it, as Holmdel rallied from a 28-point hole to make it a one-score game at 48-41 after a 3-yard touchdown run by Cannon with 7:12 left in the game. 

With Holmdel’s home crowd roaring, Brick Memorial delivered the defining drive of its season thus far. The Mustangs went 65 yards in 11 plays, not only forcing Holmdel to burn all of its timeouts, but punching in a touchdown to essentially ice the game. 

With Cannon and the Hornets’ offense looming, Brick Memorial was not going to punt the ball back to Holmdel. The Mustangs went for it on fourth-and-4 from their own 41-yard line and converted it on a 5-yard pass from Lajara to junior tight end Joe Livio. 

Holmdel used all of its timeouts leading up to a fourth-and-3 from the Hornets’ 47-yard line. The 5-foot-10, 185-pound Lajara plowed up the middle, carrying tacklers to just make it past the sticks for a huge 4-yard run with three minutes to go. 

“(Offensive coordinator James) Mahoney says, ‘Can you run?’ And I said, ‘Of course.’ I think I just found the grit in me,” Lajara said. “The linemen did an outstanding job the whole game. We said, ‘We get this first down, we win,’ and we executed.” 

Rather than settle for trying to run the ball to kill the clock, Lajara went for the jugular. Currie and Mahoney called for a run-pass option play in which they wanted to run the ball, but Lajara had other ideas.

He went up top down the sideline to a leaping Matthews, throwing a perfect ball for a 32-yard gain to Holmdel’s 7-yard line. Lajara then ran it into the end zone on the next play, taking the wind out of the Hornets with 2:05 left in the game for a 55-41 lead that sealed the victory. 

“I have the utmost trust in (Matthews) every single play,” Lajara said. “If I see a one-on-one, it’s going to be up there every time.” 

“I knew in big-time moments, coach trusts me, Jason trusts me, to make a big play,” Matthews said. 

Currie said he did a bad job of communicating to Lajara that the Mustangs wanted to run the ball in that spot, but Lajara also followed an edict by Currie to his players if they are going to take a risk like that. 

“He threw the ball up in a perfect spot to one of our best players, so ‘don’t be wrong’ is what we tell the kids,” Currie said before smiling. 

Brick Memorial Comes Out on Fire

The Mustangs sent a message from the opening whistle that this was not going to be the same team that lost 15-14 to Donovan Catholic last week. The defense forced a three-and-out to start the game, and then Brick Memorial went 93 yards in only eight plays, scoring on a 17-yard run by Whittaker for a 7-0 lead with 7:05 left in the first quarter. 

“I feel like that set the tone for the whole game,” Whittaker said. “Everybody’s energy was up. It just showed everyone that we belong here.” 

The big play was a 29-yard strike from Lajara to junior wideout Shawn Fowler, who returned to the lineup from a hamstring injury and finished with four catches for 85 yards and a touchdown. 

For the entire game, Brick Memorial snapped the ball almost immediately after the official spotted it, cranking up its tempo to a level it hadn’t shown yet this season. They were using one-word playcalls to allow them to get to the line of scrimmage and go. 

“We can play fast, but we’ve never purposefully played that fast,” Currie said. “Part of it was we were coming off a loss, and we needed a little juice. And this gave our kids some juice in practice and it worked really well, and we just ran with it and brought it into the game tonight.” 

After another uncharacteristic three-and-out for Holmdel’s offense, the Mustangs drove 70 yards in seven plays, scoring on a 13-yard pass from Lajara to Fowler for a 14-0 advantage with five minutes left in the first quarter. 

Holmdel answered with an 11-play, 64-yard drive that featured a 28-yard run by Cannon and culminated with his one-yard keeper to cut it to 14-7 with 11:41 left in the second quarter. Brick Memorial came right back by zooming 69 yards in only five plays, scoring on a 51-yard bomb from Lajara to Whittaker to push the lead to 21-7 with 9:28 left in the half. 

A sack by Brick Memorial junior Jaxon Pacheco killed Holmdel’s ensuing drive, allowing the Mustangs to balloon the lead to 28-7. They went 65 yards in only five plays, scoring on an eight-yard pass from Lajara to Matthews with 5:58 left in the second quarter. The big chunk came on a 34-yard catch by senior wideout Erik Pedre. 

Another stop by the Mustangs resulted in the offense pushing the lead to 34-7 by going 78 yards in just four plays. Matthews took a pass from Lajara and zigzagged his way for a 53-yard gain, and three plays later, Lajara hit Livio for a 17-yard touchdown and a stunning 27-point lead. 

“They can’t really guard our wide receivers,” Lajara said. “Going into trips really messed them up a little bit because they had to shift their outside linebackers. They’re a really good defense, they’re really well-coached, but they had those little holes, and I think we just found (them) every single play.” 

“I didn’t think they could cover us either, in my opinion,” Matthews said. “I knew we had them from the gate, the first play.” 

Holmdel fought back to punch one in before halftime when Cannon hit sophomore Anthony Serini, who had four catches for 115 yards in the loss, for a 34-yard gain and later scored on a 5-yard run to cut it to 34-13 at halftime. 

Lajara was unconscious in the first half, finishing 19-for-21 passing for 292 yards and four touchdowns in two quarters. He hit his first 17 passes and didn’t throw an incompletion until there was only 17 seconds left in the half. The matchup with Cannon appeared to have energized him to play at his peak level and remind everyone that he also was an All-Shore quarterback last season. 

“It was impressive,” Currie said. “The whole offensive performance in the first half I thought was really good. Jay’s better when he plays fast. He’s not good when he’s kind of looking around and waiting and taking time off the clock. He’s far more effective when you just get up and run a play.” 

“Jason was really motivated,” Matthews said. “He trusts in his abilities, and he trusts our receiving corps.” 

Holmdel Fights Its Way Back

Brick Memorial picked up right where it left off to start the second half. The Mustangs drove 51 yards in six plays to take a 41-13 advantage on a 26-yard run by Lajara, who went from killing the Hornets with his arm in the first half to using his legs to do the damage in the second half. 

However, the Hornets are never out of it with Cannon at the controls. He scored on a nine-yard run and then hit Serini with a 2-point conversion pass to cut it to 41-21 with 7:32 left in the third quarter. A pass break-up on fourth down by Holmdel freshman defensive back Tyler Carri set up a nine-play, 71-yard drive that ended with a two-yard touchdown run by Cannon to make it 41-28 with 20 seconds left in the third quarter. 

The Mustangs answered with a two-yard touchdown run by Lajara to go up 48-28, but the Hornets came right back with a two-yard touchdown run by junior Michael Todisco. The big play on the drive was a 62-yard strike from Cannon to Serini down to the Brick Memorial 11-yard line.

Serini then had the home crowd in a frenzy when he recovered an ensuing onside kick. Five plays later, Cannon scored from three yards out to cut it to 48-41 with 7:12 left in the game. 

That’s when Lajara and the Brick Memorial offense had the final say to put away a seismic road win. 

“I think people got to earn their respect, and I think we definitely did today,” Lajara said. “Being the underdog, I love that. I think there’s times when respect is due, and I think it’s now.” 

Brick Memorial entered the season with high expectations thanks to a stellar senior class coming off a sectional final appearance. They started off 3-2 due to a combination of injuries and one of the Shore Conference’s toughest schedules.

“Even though we had a great season last year, we tried our best not to come in with an ego this year, but to be honest, a little bit we did,” Whittaker said. “We had our moments where we were humbled a little bit, so we went back to the drawing board, worked hard, and most importantly fought as a brotherhood.”

A season that started slowly for Lajara, who missed the first two games with an illness, has kicked into gear. 

“It feels great to be back and playing to the best of my abilities,” he said.

“All week in practice, all week in school, that’s all (Lajara) talked about was the upset and showing  everybody what Brick Memorial is about, and that’s what we came out and did,” Whittaker said.

The Mustangs also did it without their full lineup, as star linebacker Trey Tallmadge is still out with a hamstring injury suffered in the second game of the season, and starting wideout Ricky Dillon was out with a concussion. 

“This win right here says a lot about Memorial football,” Matthews said. “At our best, I don’t think anyone can beat us.” 

Next up for the Mustangs is the annual rivalry game with Brick (3-2) next week, while Holmdel will try to stop a two-game skid when it faces Marlboro (2-4) in Class A North. 

 

Box Score

Brick Memorial 55, Holmdel 41

	BM	H
First downs	27	7
Rushes-yards	31-227	34-219
Passing	26-33-0	19-32-0
Passing yards	411	277
Fumbles-lost	0-0	1-0
Penalties-yards	2-10	6-40

Brick Mem. (4-2)  14  20  7   14 – 55 

Holmdel (3-2)        0   13 15  13 – 41 

Scoring Summary

B: Whittaker 17-yard run (Marotta kick). 

B: Fowler 13-yard pass from Lajara (Marotta kick). 

H: Cannon 1-yard run (Mueller kick). 

B: Whittaker 51-yard pass from Lajara (Marotta kick). 

B: Matthews 8-yard pass from Lajara (Marotta kick). 

B: Livio 17-yard pass from Lajara (pass failed). 

H: Cannon 5-yard run (kick failed). 

B: Lajara 26-yard run (Marotta kick). 

H: Cannon 9-yard run (Serini pass from Cannon) 

H: Cannon 2-yard run (Mueller kick).

B: Lajara 2-yard run (Marotta kick).

H: Todisco 2-yard run (kick failed). 

H: Cannon 3-yard run (Mueller kick). 

B: Lajara 7-yard run (Marotta kick). 

Individual Statistics

RUSHING — H: Cannon 27-183, Serini 1-5, Scheinman 5-28, Todisco 1-2. B: Whittaker 17-138, Lajara 14-89. 

PASSING — H: Cannon 19-32-1 277. B: Lajara 26-33-0 411. 

RECEIVING – H: Murphy 2-6, Aliperti 4-47, Scheinman 6-59, Todisco 3-50, Serini 4-115. B: Matthews 10-157, Fowler 4-83, Whittaker 6-90, Livio 3-38, Pedre 2-36, Iacullo 1-7. 

INTERCEPTIONS — B: Pierce 1-0. 

Scott Stump is the football editor and a reporter for Shore Sports Insider. He first started covering Shore Conference football in 1999 and has covered basketball, baseball and seemingly every other Shore Conference sport at some point. 

Email: scottstump25@gmail.com