Rebels Top Patriots in Classic Rivalry Battle

As they walked off the field following their home opener on Friday night, the Howell Rebel football team did so knowing they had once again beaten their rivals from Freehold Township in what ended up being a classic A North battle.

Just a year removed from beating their closest rival 47-0, this year's game was a whole different story as the Rebels battled their way to a 35-22 win over the Patriots. Friday's game was by no means the drubbing of last year, but it also showed that the Howell squad has the ability to pull through when the competition is stiff. 

After leading 21-14 at the half, the Rebels kept their high powered offense going as senior quarterback Ryan Davies used his deft passing skills to keep his team in the game and in the lead to the very end. It was not until the closing minutes of the game that the Howell squad took to the ground to eat up the clock until the final whistle sounded. 

One of the biggest keys of the game for the Rebels was the work of Davies. Despite facing a constant stream of pressure from the Patriots Davies used their intensity as motivation to push his team forward. 

Like the game last week against Toms River North, Davies was under constant pressure from the Patriots and took some hits that would have rattled a lesser quarterback. For the Rebel quarterback, he said when things do not go his way, it only makes him work that much harder. "I'm one of those guys who I get very very angry when I personally do things wrong," he said. 

The quarterback pointed to an interception in the third quarter when he was picked with his team knocking on the Patriot's doorstep. "I was pretty angry so I wanted to come back and do better than i was doing before," he said. 

On his very next drive, Davies connected with Brandon Yaegel on a 30 yard score to put his team back in the lead 28-22. That was the touchdown that gave his team the lead for good. Davies said with their second close game in as may weeks, he was glad the Rebels were able to emerge victorious. "I thought it was similar in the way that it was very physical and it was a good game," he said. "It wasn't one sided either way, but it definitely was different.

The biggest difference, he said was his team's ability to close out the win despite the Patriots giving a concerted effort to the end. "This week we really finished strong and the last drive we punched it in and won."

Having made a name for himself as one of the elite quarterbacks in the conference last year, Davies said that experience helped him push his team to a win on Friday. "I'm a little more confident this year and I have a little more experience," he said. "Especially in a game like this, when you're older it's better because it's a tough game so you want to keep calm and everything like that."

Coach Cory Davies said he was impressed with the way not only his team played, but also their opponent's play on Friday. "I think they played very well. They did some nice things against us and held the ball," he said. "Last year they had a lot of turnovers and we stopped them on downs often."

The Howell coach said it was evident early on that it would be a different game as the Patriots held the ball for much of the first quarter. Not to be out done by Davies, Freehold quarterback Ryan MacFarlane helped march his team down 85 yards down the field before junior Drew Intile charged 14 years to the pilon for the first score of the game. 

After Tim Donahue blocked the extra point, it provided the spark the Rebels needed to get themselves on the board not long after. With just over one minute to go in the first quarter Davies showed what an accurate arm he has as he connected with Yaegel for their first score of the game on a 28 yard strike.

The momentum took a brief sharp turn toward the visiting Patriots in the second quarter when they took the lead back on a short run by Dan Bloodgood on an option to make it a 14-7 win. On just the second play of the Rebel drive Davies was sacked hard by Matt Kuziemski on third and long. On the very next play Davies again found Yaegel for a perfectly placed touchdown pass.

Not all of Davies' touchdown passes landed comfortably in his receivers hands. In the closing seconds of the second quarter the senior threw up a prayer that hit the hands of players for both teams before Tory Robinson pulled in the pass.

The pressure only picked up on Davies in the second half, but it was not enough to make him and the Rebels take the loss despite once again briefly giving up the lead in the third quarter. 

Coach Davies said he was glad his team gets to go into next week's game against Marlboro with a 1-1 record rather than a hard to swallow 0-2 mark. "If we went down 0-2 it would be a tough sled mentally for our kids to get back," he said. "This is a game that everyone expected us to be able to come out on top so it's a game you have to come out on top." 

The coach also said with his quarterback spending so much of the game with the ball in his hands, the hits that he takes are bound to happen, but that is nothing new and something he seems to respond well to. "Through the years all our quarterbacks have had to do that," he said. 

And while his team will likely not have more time of possession than their opponents during the year, Coach Davies said that was not his squad's main concern. "We want to score as fast as we can," he said. "Other teams want to take that away from us and they hold onto the ball and they do that kind of stuff. At the end of the game we were trying to run the clock, but for the most part we really try to score."

All told the Rebel quarterback had a memorable game against the rival squad going 18-24 for 333 yards and five touchdowns while throwing just the one interception. With three of those passes going to Yaegel, the senior receiver recorded an impressive 220 yards on the day. Fellow senior Nick Craig had six catches for 64 yards and one touchdown, while Robinson had four catches for 41 yards and a score.

When they did go to the ground senior Jon Oeftering was one of their favorite carriers with six rushes for 45 yards. Davies kept the ball nine times for 14 yards while Nick Carelli had five carries for just nine yards. 

The Rebels are scheduled to return home next Friday when they will welcome the Mustangs of Marlboro to town for a 7 p.m. A North contest.