No. 10 Middletown North makes a statement with 41-22 win over No. 9 St. John Vianney to move to 5-0

HOLMDEL — The question surrounding Middletown North entering Week 5 wasn’t whether the Lions were a good team. That much has been established during the team’s undefeated start. The question was how good.

Middletown North had taken care of business through the first four weeks versus teams with a combined record of 3-15. While the Lions were dominant in those victories, they had yet to prove it against one of the top teams in the Shore Conference. That opportunity arrived on Friday night when the Lions aced their first big test of the season.

Senior running back Shane Volante ran for 149 yards and two touchdowns, senior Brian O’Donnell had a touchdown run and a touchdown catch and the defense slowed down a dangerous St. John Vianney offense to lead Middletown North, ranked No. 10 in the Shore Sports Insider Top 12, to a statement-making 41-22 Shore Conference nondivisional victory over the No. 9 Lancers.

“We’ve been waiting for this for a while now,” senior tight end/linebacker Brody Tooker said. “We’ve been taking it week-by-week but we’ve been waiting to make a statement.”

“We haven’t done amazing in the past so people think of us as the underdogs,” Volante said. “It’s really nice to pull out this win and prove we’re a legit team.”

The Lions started fast with two touchdowns in the first quarter and never took their foot off the accelerator to improve to 5-0 for the first time in at least 25 years. Volante had touchdown runs of 1 and 10 yards, O’Donnell scored on a 2-yard run and a 32-yard screen pass, junior quarterback Owen Robson tossed a 38-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Jack Viola and sophomore Matt Belenko rushed for a 1-yard touchdown. Middletown North’s offensive line of senior Andrew Klimovich at center, junior Shea Mora and senior Anthony Lubrano at guard, seniors Mike Dwyer and Matt Bumbalo at tackle and Tooker and senior Joe Grasso at tight end consistently won the battle at the line of scrimmage and paved the way for the Lions to rush for 234 yards and post 418 yards of offense.

“I felt like we had to run the ball and run the clock down, and our guys stepped up,” Middletown North head coach Steve Bush said. “We’re good up front on both sides of the ball, and Shane and Matt run hard.”

“A lot of the credit for my performance today goes to the O-line,” Volante said. “We have big guys up front and they made some amazing holes despite the crazy defense they were running. They were stacking a lot of guys on the strong side and sending eight. It’s hard for them to know their responsibilities, but they still did an amazing job. It allowed me to just hit the holes as fast as I could and get positive yards.”

“The big thing is we finish blocks,” Tooker said. “We’re not stopping until the other guy is either in the ground or the whistle is blown.”

St. John Vianney standout sophomore running back Abdul Turay ran for 126 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries and junior quarterback Zach LaBarca ran for 84 yards and a touchdown and threw for 140 yards with one touchdown and one interception. LaBarca scored on a 65-yard run and threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to senior wideout Jahmere James, while Turay scored on a 46-yard run. The Lancers hit on three big plays to remain within striking distance most of the game, but Middletown North’s defense played sound, structured football to hold Turay under 200 yards for the first time in four games and limit a Lancers’ offense that was tied for fifth in the Shore averaging 32.4 points per game.

“We all know our jobs,” Tooker said. “They’re talented. They have guys who can make splash plays and they did like other teams hadn’t against us. We knew we couldn’t let them take the momentum from that.”

“Our guys have been doing a great job on defense of doing their job and being in the right position and then flying to the football and gang tackling,” Bush said. “We had to get everybody to the ball, and we did that. (Turay) is a great player and you’re not going to bring him down with one guy. They made a couple big plays, and we expected they would get one or two somewhere, but we bottled them up a good portion of the time.”

 

An Early Statement

Middletown North immediately showed that the step up in competition would not be an issue. Robson hit junior wide receiver Ryan Clark for a 31-yard gain on the second play from scrimmage to move the Lions quickly into Vianney territory. A drop on third down forced the Lions to settle for a field goal attempt that missed the mark, but Middletown North would get the ball right back when a fumble on Vianney’s first play squirted right into the arms of Viola, who returned it to the Lancers’ 14-yard line. Two plays later, O’Donnell took a direct snap and raced to the pylon for a 2-yard touchdown run and a quick 7-0 Middletown North lead.

The Lions’ defense then forced a three-and-out, aided by a six-yard tackle for loss by O’Donnell on a quick pass to the flat. Vianney had to punt from its own 10-yard line, which resulted in great field position for Middletown North at the Lancers’ 40. On third-and-10, Robson scrambled for a 23-yard gain that extended the drive. Belenko capped the series with a 1-yard touchdown run for a 14-0 advantage.

St. John Vianney answered on LaBarca’s 65-yard touchdown run to cut Middletown North’s lead to 14-6 after the extra point failed.

The Lions came right back with their third straight scoring drive to take a 21-6 lead early in the second quarter. On a drive that began at their 42-yard line, Robson hit O’Donnell for a 6-yard gain on third-and-3 at the SJV 39, and two plays later O’Donnell took a screen pass and weaved his way through the Lancers’ defense for a 32-yard touchdown reception that gave his team a two-score lead.

 

Brian O’Donnell takes a screen pass and weaves his way through the SJV defense for a 32-yard TD reception and a 21-6 @footballMNLions lead early Q2. pic.twitter.com/ubtsC6WyZ4

— Bob Badders (@Bob_Badders) October 4, 2024

Later in the second quarter, an interception by sophomore defensive back Scottie McClaren set the Lancers up at the Middletown North 35-yard line. Grasso made two key plays, first by tipping a screen pass intended for Turay to force an incompletion and then sacking LaBarca to bring up fourth down. The Lancers converted on fourth-and-11, however, when James made a fantastic 31-yard reception along the visiting sideline down to the Middletown North 5-yard line. The Lions’ defense buckled down and forced Vianney to settle for a 29-yard field goal by senior Brendan Allen, which made the score 21-9 with 5:06 left in the first half.

As they did all game, the Lions responded with another scoring drive to take a commanding lead. Bush made a gutsy call when Middletown North was facing a 4th-and-2 at its own 43-yard line and he kept the offense on the field. It seemed the Lions were only trying to draw Vianney offside and the play ended with a false start penalty that made it fourth-and-7 from the 38. The offense stayed on the field, however, and converted when Robson hit Clark for a 13-yard gain to the SJV 49.

“We were on the other side of the 40 so I said let’s take a shot at this,” Bush said. “It was risky but we got it done.”

Middletown North converted another fourth down on the drive when Volante surged for a 2-yard gain on fourth-and-1 from the 40-yard line. On the next play, Viola got behind the Lancers’ defense and Robson found him for a 38-yard touchdown and a 28-9 Middletown North lead with 47 seconds left in the half.

St. John Vianney never let Middletown North get too comfortable with a big lead and scored a timely touchdown in the closing seconds of the half. After a 16-yard run by Turay, LaBarca launched a pass to the end zone that James hauled in for a 43-yard touchdown with 11 seconds on the clock, trimming Middletown North’s lead to 28-16 at halftime.

 

A Stop and A Score

With the Lancers set to receive the kickoff to begin the third quarter, the late first-half touchdown could have been the spark they needed to turn the tables. Instead, Middletown North got a stop on defense and then drove 97 yards for its fifth touchdown. This drive was almost exclusively on the ground with Volante rushing six times for 38 yards. Belenko broke free for a 37-yard and Robson found Clark for a 14-yard gain on third-and-7 to set up Volante for a 1-yard touchdown run that gave the Lions a 34-16 lead midway through the third quarter.

“That’s just who we are as a team,” Tooker said. “It shows how bad we want it. We haven’t had something like this year in a while.”

St. John Vianney continued to hang around and pulled to within 34-22 when Turay got to the edge and out-raced the Middletown North defense for a 46-yard touchdown run on the final play of the third quarter. The Lancers attempted a 2-point conversion to try to make it a 10-point game but the pass was broken up in the end zone.

Middletown North put the game away with another assertive scoring drive, this time going 64 yards in 11 plays and chewing over six minutes off the clock. Volante had eight carries for 45 yards and Viola converted a third-and-13 by taking a screen pass for 13 yards. Volante burst through the middle of the line for a 10-yard touchdown run that put the Lions ahead 41-22 with 5:42 left in the game.

 

What’s next for both teams?

Middletown North will host Red Bank in a key Class B North game while St. John Vianney will square off with Manasquan in a Class C North contest.

 

Box Score

No. 10 Middletown North 41, No. 9 St. John Vianney 22

 

	Middletown North	St. John Vianney
First downs	20	15
Rushes-yards	43-234	26-225
Passing	13-18-1	10-22-1
Passing yards	184	140
Fumbles-lost	2-0	2-1
Penalties-yards	5-40	8-64

 

	1	2	3	4	F
Middletown North (5-0)	14	14	6	7	42
St. John Vianney ( 3-3)	6	10	6	0	22

 

Scoring Summary

MN — Brian O’Donnell 2-yard run (Seamus Montegue kick)

MN — Matt Belenko 1-yard run (Seamus Montegue kick)

SJV — Zach LaBarca 65-yard run (kick failed)

MN — Brian O’Donnell 32-yard pass from Owen Robson (Seamus Montegue kick)

SJV — Brendan Allen 29-yard field goal

MN — Jack Viola 38-yard pass from Owen Robson (Seamus Montegue kick)

SJV — Jahmere Jones 43-yard pass from Zach LaBarca (Brendan Allen kick)

MN — Shane Volante 1-yard run (kick blocked)

SJV — Abdul Turay 46-yard run (pass failed)

MN — Shane Volante 10-yard run (Seamus Montegue kick)

 

Individual Statistics

RUSHING — MN: Shane Volante 28-149, Matt Belenko 5-49, Owen Robson 4-21, Brian O’Donnell 4-16, Jack Viola 1-12, Team 1-(-13); SJV: Abdul Turay 12-126, Zach LaBarca 13-84,  Jahmere James 1-15.

PASSING — MN: Owen Robson 13-18-1, 184; SJV: Zach LaBarca 10-22-1, 140.

RECEIVING — MN: Jack Viola 5-73, Ryan Clark 3-58, Brian O’Donnell 3-41, Joseph Grasso 1-8, Shane Volante 1-4; SJV: Jahmere James 3-80, Dante Campagna 5-47, Adam Urs 2-13.

INTERCEPTIONS — MN: Jovanni Fernandez 1-0; SJV: Scottie McLaren 1-0.