No. 1 Donovan vs. No. 2 RBC Preview: Longtime Friends Gabe Kemp and Alex Staten Headline Game of the Year
For Shore Conference fans, Friday’s showdown between No. 1 Donovan Catholic and No. 2 Red Bank Catholic has been circled since the preseason.
For Griffins senior running back Alex Staten and Caseys sophomore tailback Gabe Kemp, it’s been much longer than that.
“Me and Gabe have been talking since family vacations about this game,” Staten said. “For me and Gabe, it’s not about who has the most rushing yards. It’s who comes out with the dub at the end of the day.”
“This is competitive,” Kemp said. “We don’t even text each other right now. It’s personal, but we got so much love for each other off the field.”
Donovan Catholic running back Alex Staten will be going head to head against his good friend and fellow star running back Gabe Kemp and Red Bank Catholic. (Photo by Doug Phillips/Framegrabs)
The two stars have been tight since early childhood because their mothers are longtime best friends. They are so close they refer to one another as cousins. On Friday night in Toms River, they both will be major factors in the game of the year in the Shore Conference.
Kemp leads the Shore with 1,176 yards rushing on an average of 6.9 yards per carry to go with 12 touchdowns. He is coming off a season-high 256 yards rushing and two touchdowns in a 31-28 win over No. 4 Rumson-Fair Haven.
No team has held him under 149 yards rushing all season, but he faces a Griffins defense that has not given up more than 14 points to any team. RBC’s offense is ranked No. 8 in the state in scoring at 38.6 points per game thanks to Kemp and sophomore quarterback Rahmir Rivera, who has thrown for 1,078 yards and 11 touchdowns while also running for 259 yards and three scores.
“Something’s going to give one way or the other,” RBC coach Mike Lange said.
“They have Kemp and Rivera, and they have big, physical receivers, a physical line – there’s going to be a lot of things to stop,” Donovan Catholic coach Dan Curcione said. “We just need to focus on what we do and do the fundamentals the right way. No missed tackles, get off blocks, same stuff we do every week, just at a higher level.”
Donovan Catholic allows 111.9 yards rushing per game, which is somewhat misleading because many of those yards were compiled in garbage time during blowouts. However, Brick Memorial did run for 232 yards in a 14-7 loss to the Griffins, which the Caseys hope is a sign Kemp can have a big night. Donovan Catholic’s defense believes otherwise.
It’s been hard for anyone to catch RBC running back Gabe Kemp this season, as he and his Red Bank Catholic team take on his good friend Alex Staten and No. 1 Donovan Catholic. (Photo by Patrick Olivero)
“He’s a great player and they have a lot of D1 talent on their offense, but we have a lot of guys on our defense,” said Donovan Catholic senior defensive end Jason Madden, a UConn commit. “Both our D-tackles are 300-pounds- plus, and from the trenches to the secondary, we have some dudes. I think we’ll be ready.”
Staten is second in the Shore with 1,068 yards rushing and 13 touchdowns on an average of 11 yards per carry for an offense that averages 36.6 points per game. In the last two games, he has exploded for 570 yards and six total touchdowns, including a school-record 371 yards rushing in a 51-13 win over Rumson.
“He’s talented, and you don’t want to get them in second-and-2 or third-and-1 where they can open up the whole menu (of plays),” Lange said. “That’s going to be a challenge because they’re pretty physical, and they’re pretty big on both sides of the ball.”
While Kemp is a relentless workhorse who has four games of 30 or more carries this season, Staten is the one-cut-and-go home run hitter of the Griffins’ offense. Both of them will be in the spotlight with the No. 1 ranking in the Shore and most likely a top-three seed in the upcoming Non-Public B playoffs on the line.
“Especially going against a family member like Gabe, it’s going to be a tough matchup that will be hard-fought, a dogfight, but I believe we will get the job done,” Staten said.
“Alex and I are 1 and 2 right now,” Kemp said. “The numbers are right next to each other, so it’s going to be a great game.”
Donovan Catholic has never started 8-0 in its history. RBC has won 11 straight games against Shore Conference competition, and four of the last six games against Donovan Catholic.
It’s the Class A North champs vs. the Class A South champs.
It’s all on the line on Friday night.
“You can just feel the energy, the tension in the air,” Madden said. “Everyone is anticipating it. It’s been the talk of the school.”
Here’s a deeper look at the game:
FBS commits
Red Bank Catholic senior DL Lorenzo Tartamella (Navy)
Donovan Catholic senior DE Jason Madden (UConn)
Donovan Catholic senior S Jael Hester (East Carolina)
By the numbers
| DC | RBC | |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 7-0 | 5-2 |
| Points Per Game | 36.5 | 38.6 |
| Points Allowed Per Game | 7.6 | 24.6 |
| Total Yards Per Game | 376.7 | 427.6 |
| Rushing Yards Per Game | 217.3 | 273.6 |
| Passing Yards Per Game | 159.4 | 154 |
| Yards Allowed Per Game | 222.7 | 334 |
| Sacks | 26.5 (3.8 pg) | 15 (2.1 pg) |
| Tackles for loss | 63 (9 pg) | 56 (8 pg) |
| Interceptions | 8 | 6 |
4 Burning Questions
Can Gabe Kemp be stopped?
The answer to that question for the seven previous teams RBC has played is simple: “No.”
Donovan Catholic will try to slow down one of the state’s best running backs by using its size advantage up front to get upfield for negative plays. The Griffins average nine tackles for a loss per game, led by 10 from senior linebacker Henry Byrnes and 9.5 from senior defensive end Jason Madden. Getting negative plays on first down will be huge in this game in order to force the Caseys into obvious passing downs. If RBC is in second-and-5 all game, the Griffins will be in trouble.
Can Donovan Catholic win up front?
Much of the game may hinge on a massive Donovan Catholic offensive line that Rumson coach Jeremy Schulte dubbed “Volkswagens with legs” after the Griffins rolled up more than 400 yards rushing against the Bulldogs.
Donovan Catholic sophomore Xavier Fowlkes (#78) and the Griffins line hope to swing the game by winning up front. (Photo by SidelineSamsShots)
Six-foot-five, 335-pound sophomore left tackle Xavier Fowlkes, one of the top offensive line recruits in the country for the Class of 2028, leads a big and physical line that also includes 305-pound senior Carter Smith. If they get a consistent push that allows Alex Staten to break some big runs, that could be the difference. RBC’s defensive line features Navy commit Lorenzo Tartamella, All-Shore senior Jordan Key and junior defensive end Asher Cummins, so this will be a group of All-Shore-caliber players going head-to-head.
The Caseys allow 81 yards rushing per game, so they have been good against the run this year. If they can limit Staten, that changes the whole game.
Can Kahden Davis exploit RBC’s secondary?
The Caseys give up an average of 252.3 yards passing per game, which includes a school-record 387 put up by Rumson junior quarterback Brady Williams last week.
Donovan Catholic quarterback Kahden Davis will be looking to hit some deep shots against RBC. (Photo by Patrick Olivero)
Davis, a Columbia commit, averages 159.4 yards passing per game in a balanced offense with senior tailback Alex Staten. Part of that is also because Donovan Catholic is so far ahead in the second half, it dials back the passing game. He averages 13.6 yards per completion, so he will attack downfield frequently.
He has thrown for 1,116 yards, 11 touchdowns and six interceptions this season, and he has to be careful with RBC junior Jason Berecsky lurking back there. He has four interceptions this season.
The shots are going to be there for wide receivers like seniors Aidan Kelly (33-496-3) and Nyron Snerling and junior T.J. Hunter. Can the Griffins hit some early and try to remove Gabe Kemp from RBC’s gameplan by jumping out to a lead? We’ll see soon enough.
Will RBC’s strength of schedule play a role?
The Caseys have faced defending Non-Public B champion DePaul, a top 10 New York team in St. Anthony, and defending Group 5 champion Winslow Township, going 1-2 in those games.
“We played a couple tough games where we took losses, but that just built us for this moment,” Kemp said.
Donovan Catholic’s biggest test has been a 14-7 win over Brick Memorial, which is ranked No. 3 in the Shore Sports Insider Top 12. Both teams have played Rumson, with Donovan beating the Bulldogs 51-13 and RBC pulling out a 31-28 win.
“I definitely feel our schedule has prepared us for this,” Madden said.
Will the fact that the Caseys have seen better competition this season factor into Friday night? Donovan has rarely been challenged this fall, whereas RBC has been in multiple four-quarter dogfights. We’ll see if that has an effect if it’s close deep into the game.
Scott Stump is the football editor and a reporter for Shore Sports Insider. He first started covering Shore Conference football in 1999.
Email: scottstump25@gmail.com
