Week 5 Shore Conference football preview: Small schools grab the spotlight

Week Five in Shore Conference football is headlined by a small-school showdown and teams testing themselves outside the division as we take a little bit of a breather before the final push toward the state playoffs.

It’s going to be hard to top the wild action in Week Four, which featured three of the most heart-stopping games of the season, but this week features some intriguing matchups as we hit the midway point.

Here’s what to watch for in Week Five.

A small-school duel for first place

The Shore Conference newcomers, New Egypt, head to Shore Regional for a matchup of unbeaten Group I teams that essentially looks like the Class D North championship game. If Shore wins, the Blue Devils would need a victory the following week over Neptune to clinch no worse than a tie for the title, whereas if New Egypt wins, it will clinch no worse than a tie for the title and can win it outright with a victory over Point Beach.

Shore, which is trying to win its second division title in the last three seasons, enters as the strong favorite under new head coach Don Klein. The Blue Devils have outscored their three divisional opponents 124-0 this season. An offense led by quarterback Josh Moeller (404 yards, 5 TD) and running backs Brendan O’Brien, Cole Torres and Atticus Taboada (combined 627 yards, 12 TDs, 7.7 ypc) has not been held under 28 points all season.

Linebackers Tommy Schroeder (43 tackles, 6 TFL), O’Brien and Mike Marotta and defensive back Enzo Cagliastro (3 INT) head up a defense that leads the Shore Conference in allowing a measly 1.8 points per game. Only one team has scored on Shore all season.

New Egypt is going to have to find a way to run the ball effectively behind the tandem of juniors Lucas Burgos and Eddie Novatkowski (combined 808 yards, 7 TDs) to keep Shore’s offense off the field and kill the clock.

On the other side, seniors Aidan Healy (26 tackles) and Steven Meleg (25 tackles) and junior defensive lineman Sawyer Hughes (20 tackles, 3 sacks) will be tasked with trying to slow down the Blue Devils’ running game for a defense that has also been a force in only allowing 6.3 points per game.

The formula is pretty simple in this one. Run the ball and stop the run. Given Shore’s dominance up to this point, it will be up to New Egypt to prove it can do those two things effectively.

This game also has playoff seeding implications in Group 1. Shore is pushing for a No. 1 seed, while New Egypt would most likely rocket itself into a home game and a high seed with a win.

Are the Lions for real?

The only matchup of teams ranked in the Shore Sports Insider Top 12 features No. 10 Middletown North heading to Holmdel to face No. 9 St. John Vianney in a nondivisional game.

The Lions (4-0) are off to their best start in at least 20 years, but this will be their first major test because the combined records of their first four opponents is 3-15. St. John Vianney (3-2) is coming off two straight gut-wrenching losses, a 36-26 setback against Wall and a 35-34 overtime loss to Manalapan.

St. John Vianney sophomore Abdul Turay has looked like the Shore Conference’s best running back halfway through the season. He has three straight games of 200-plus yards and 900 for the season to go with a Shore Conference-high 17 touchdowns. He is the engine of the offense, but junior quarterback Zach LaBarca and his deep group of wideouts have also shown they can make plays in pressure spots.

They face a Middletown North starting defense that has not given up a touchdown all season, led by linebacker/safety Brian O’Donnell (24 tackles, 6 TFL) and a tough defensive line. They will be tasked with a job no team has figured out yet – stopping Turay.

Offensively, the Lions feature a balanced attack led by junior quarterback Owen Robson (694 yards, 5 TDs), running backs Shane Volante and Matt Belenko and wideouts Jack Viola and O’Donnell. The Lancers have given up 71 points in the last two weeks, so a unit led by linebackers Danny Breen and Dirk Hohenkirk and Turay at safety is looking for a bounceback effort.

This game will hinge on whether Middletown North can consistently move the ball on offense to keep Turay and the Lancers’ offense off the field. It also may be a test of whether the Lions can score enough to keep up if it turns into a shootout with another electric performance by Turay.

The matchup helps weigh relative division strengths. Middletown North is tied for first in Class B North, while St. John Vianney is in third in the rugged Class C North.

Nondivisional clashes

The majority of the games this week are nondivisional, so the stakes are more about teams getting wins to put them in playoff position or make a push toward a home game in the postseason.

Southern will try to regroup after a last-second loss to Central in a matchup of unbeatens last week, as the Rams head to face No. 5 Brick Memorial. It’s an old-school Ocean County matchup that has been on hiatus since 2020, with the main questions being how Southern slows down the Mustangs’ big-play offense and whether the Rams can control the clock with their running game.

The latest edition of “The Civil War” will be at Gernerd Field as No. 1 Toms River North welcomes Toms River South (3-2) after surviving a scare against Point Boro last week. There’s been a lot of chatter about continuing the rivalry games in Toms River given North’s dominance over Toms River South and Toms River East in recent years, so we’ll see how this one goes.

Toms River South last beat the Mariners in 2020 during the Covid-shortened season. Toms River North has the state’s longest current winning streak at 10 in a row and has won 31 in a row against public schools.

On Saturday, Freehold Township heads to Marlboro for a Freehold Regional District showdown. The Patriots are in first place in Class B North, while Marlboro is behind Red Bank Catholic and Rumson-Fair Haven in Class A North. On paper, the Patriots look like the favorite, but these rivalry games are ultra-competitive, as Howell showed in handing Freehold Township (4-1) its only loss this season.

It will be Marlboro’s hard-nosed defense against Freehold Township’s high-flying passing attack led by senior quarterback Nick Cardone. Much of the game comes down to whether the Mustangs (2-3), who are one of the lowest-scoring teams in the Shore at 10 points per game, can generate enough offense to beat a Patriots team averaging 29.2 per game.

That’s one of two Freehold Regional District showdowns that have some juice this week. No. 6 Manalapan has won three in a row after an 0-2 start, including a wild, 35-34 overtime win over St. John Vianney last week.

This is a prime spot for a letdown game, so Manalapan will have to be on point against a tough Howell team that plays in the rugged Class A South. The Rebels (2-2) beat a four-win Freehold Township team and just shut out Jackson Memorial, plus they were right in the game in a one-score loss to Donovan Catholic.

Howell has an opportunistic defense that has five interceptions this season, two of which it returned for touchdowns. Manalapan quarterback Ryan Dougherty will need to be accurate or the likes of Ryan Cross, Juan DeJesus and Zach Padilla will make him pay for mistakes. Senior linebacker Quincy Shaw (39 tackles) will lead a unit that will try to slow down the Braves’ running attack led by junior Ah’sere Woolfolk.

What else to keep an eye on:

• After missing most of two games with injury, Jackson Memorial junior star tailback Jonah Glenn is expected to be in the lineup when the Jaguars travel to Middletown South on Friday night.
• Either new Keyport head coach Charlie Marsh or new Asbury Park coach Will Johnson will get his first victory when the teams square off on Friday night.
• Pinelands welcomes Toms River East is a big nondivisional game for its playoff hopes. The Wildcats currently sit in 16^th in the United Power Rankings for South Group 3. The top 16 teams get in. Pinelands has only made it to the state playoffs twice in its history.
• The Shore’s longest-tenured head coach, Lacey’s Lou Vircillo, makes a rare return to his old 1970s stomping grounds when the Lions travel to face Red Bank. Vircillo was an assistant on the Bucs’ 1975 Central Jersey Group 2 championship team and then became their head coach until 1980. He left Red Bank to take the Lacey job and has been the only coach in program history. Red Bank beat Lacey on the Lions’ home field last year in a consolation game. This also marks Red Bank’s first game since its controversial loss to Freehold Township.
• No. 2 Rumson-Fair Haven will face the first-place team in Class C South when it travels to Manchester as it looks to bolster its spot as a No. 1 seed in Group 2.
• Ocean and Manasquan are each looking to end three-game losing streaks and keep their playoff hopes alive when they face off at Vic Kubu Warrior Field on Saturday.

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.  

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