SSI Football Report: Gabe Kemp’s Historic Year for RBC, New Egypt’s 2-Pt. Ace, TRN’s Gritty Win

In the history of great running backs in the Shore Conference, no one has had a freshman season like Red Bank Catholic’s Gabe Kemp. 

The Caseys’ rookie already has 1,156 yards rushing in seven games, which is believed to be the single-season Shore Conference record for a freshman, and RBC still has at least four more games to go and probably more. Kemp leads the Shore Conference in rushing, which has never been done for a full season by a freshman, so he is on pace for more history. 

He just put 200 yards on defending Group 2 champion Rumson-Fair Haven and has carried the ball 79 times in the last two games. Kemp has rushed for nine touchdowns and caught another one, while averaging 6.9 yards per carry. 

Kemp, a Keyport resident, displayed his talents last year for the team at RBC’s sister school, St. James, so Caseys head coach Mike Lange had an idea who he was adding to a team that struggled in the run game all of last season. 

“The biggest thing to me is he pretty much makes the first guy miss every time he touches the ball,” Lange said. “The other thing is he leans forward all the time – to me that’s the sign of a gifted running back. He’s always going forward.” 

 

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At 5-foot-9 and 156 pounds, his size has not been an impediment in his first season. Teams also can’t gang up on him because of another precocious star, quarterback Rahmir Rivera, who is on his way to setting freshman records of his own. 

“It’s not a factor,” Lange said about Kemp’s size. “He’s compact, he’s tough, and he understands how to read the hole and read the scheme.” 

While Kemp was a highly touted addition to the team, Lange realized just how much when RBC grinded out a 13-8 win over Delaware power Middletown in the second game of the season. 

“In the third quarter of the game into the fourth, he took over,” Lange said. “He didn’t score, but he just had runs where we didn’t block a soul, and it looked like he was shot out of a cannon. It was 20-yard run, 15-yard run, 12-yard run, 5-yard run, just tough runs one after another.” 

He has picked up offers from Syracuse, Temple, Southern Mississippi and Kent State. 

It also helps that he’s running behind one of the Shore Conference’s biggest and best offensive lines in left tackle Jordan Key, left guard Joe Amadeo, center Caden Sternlieb, right guard Christian Peter, right tackle Lorenzo Tartamella and tight end T.J. Walsh.

With this kind of production as a freshman, it’s also worth noting some of the career records down the road. The Shore Conference rushing record is 6,676 yards set by Keyport’s Ken Cattouse in the early 2000s, and the state record is 7,589 set by Hopatcong’s Joe Martinek, who went on to play at Rutgers.  

The Caseys take on Paramus Catholic in a nonconference matchup this week. 

New Egypt’s Eddie Novatkowski Is a Two-Point Conversion Wizard 

New Egypt suffered a brutal blow when senior Lucas Burgos, the team’s top all-around player, tore his ACL in the first quarter of the season opener. The Warriors started 0-3 as the offense only managed 22 total points. 

Senior running back Eddie Novatkowski was supposed to be part of 1-2 offensive punch with Burgos for New Egypt, but now he has taken on even more responsibility. He also has delivered with 574 yards rushing and six touchdowns in the last three games, including back-to-back 200-yard games, to help the Warriors rally back to 3-3.

He has 725 yards for the season, giving New Egypt balance with sophomore quarterback Thomas Marabuto, who has thrown for 712 yards and nine touchdowns. 

“He’s just patient in his running style,” New Egypt coach Steve Fence said. “We were banged up early, but we were committed to the run game, and now our passing game has helped open up some stuff.”

Not only is Novatkowski the engine of the offense, he is a two-point conversion machine. He had six successful two-point conversions in a 54-38 win over Keyport last week. New Egypt tied the single-game school record for points set in 2018 when it scored 54 against Keyport in only 29 offensive plays. 

For the season, Novatkowski is 16-for-19 on two-point conversion attempts. The Warriors don’t go for two so frequently because they don’t have a kicker. They do it because they are so good at it. In the last two games, Novatkowski has a combined 11 successful 2-point conversions.

“My special teams coordinator has like four or five plays that we really like on two-point conversions,” Fence said. “It’s an empty backfield set, and we motion some guys. You can read it pre-snap, and it works.” 

The path to the postseason for the Group I school is difficult, as it most likely will have to beat Asbury Park and Monmouth to get in. They have put themselves in position to have a shot at it thanks to Novatkowski and an offensive line that has returned some key players from injury. 

“I’m proud of the kids,” Fence said. “We started 0-3 and had every reason to hang our heads, but we kept working and now we’re playing really good football.” 

Young Toms River North Learning to Close Games

A Toms River North team that graduated almost its entire starting lineup from a team that won its third straight Group 5 title took its lumps in a 1-4 start against its customary brutal schedule. 

The young Mariners broke through last week when they finished off a 21-20 win over Jackson in Class A South after being right in games with No. 2 Southern and No. 4 Brick Memorial and falling short earlier in the season. 

“We just needed to find a way to win a game where we had an opportunity to close it out,” head coach Dave Oizerowitz said. “We just needed to win one for our kids to have confidence in terms of ourselves. When you start to lose, you start to question things, and we want to get the players to believe in what we’re doing.” 

Losing even one game was a jolt for a team that entered the season on a 19-game winning streak and went undefeated last year. They had been searching for an identity, and they’re starting to find it in a rugged front seven on defense and an offensive line that can move people off the ball. 

“We’re being more physical and starting to win the line of scrimmage,” Oizerowitz said. 

The Mariners have also been working in some young standouts on defense alongside star junior linebacker Jack Baker and standout junior safety Cole Garrison, whose interception sealed the win over Jackson. 

“Defensively, our front seven is as good as anyone in (Class A South),” Oizerowitz said. 

Freshman Finn Boland, the younger brother of 2024 SSI Defensive Player of the Year Blaise Boland, has made an impact as an edge rusher along with sophomore Kam’ron Morse, the younger brother of former Mariners standout Mekai Morse. Sophomore defensive tackle Judah Williams also has been a force in the interior alongside junior Christian Davis-Joseph and 275-pound sophomore RJ Rossano. All of them return next year, and freshman Jazier Frazier is also back from a broken hand and plays in the secondary. 

They have also had to compensate for the loss of All-Shore linebacker Brady Cicala, who has missed much of the year with an injury. 

The Mariners have yet another challenge this week against No. 6 Rumson-Fair Haven. 

Dayton Frulio Update

Central senior defensive back Dayton Frulio, who has had two surgeries to remove a brain tumor, is recovering well after his second surgery, according to his father, Jerry.

Frulio is feeling well enough that he will be in attendance at Central’s Senior Night on Friday when the Golden Eagles take on Long Branch. 

He will then begin undergoing radiation treatments next week, according to his father. 

Notes From Around the Shore

—Holmdel senior quarterback Jack Cannon is averaging 398.3 yards of total offense per game this season. 

—Brick Memorial senior quarterback Jason Lajara is averaging 348.8 yards of total offense per game. 

—See where all the Shore Conference teams stand and what the brackets look like right now as far as the state playoffs are concerned heading into this weekend. 

—Southern (7-0) has its most wins since finishing 7-4 in 2019. 

—Neptune has its first six-game winning streak since 2014.

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