Manalapan Braves Jr Pee Wee take National Title Home to New Jersey

The AYF National Championship consisted of teams from Texas, California, Virginia, Maryland, Alabama, Arizona, North Carolina, Michigan, and of course, New Jersey. Three games in five days that resulted in the Manalapan Braves outscoring their opponents 86-44 and finishing off a story book season as undefeated national champions.

The young but mighty Braves took their 12-0 record down to Kissimee, Florida last week to test their prowess against the nation’s best. These young boys are lead by their head coach, Pat Marzo, who is no stranger to bringing teams into the National spotlight. Marzo has gone to Florida four straight years by winning four straight New Jersey State Titles with two different squads via a record of sixty wins with just three losses. Before this season, Coach Marzo had a second place (2013), third place (2011) and his (2012) first place showings at Nationals.

Game one was on Monday, December 8th against the Third Ward 49ers of Houston, Texas. The 49ers showed a great display of speed during that game and the contest quickly became a shootout. The 49ers amassed 244 yards of offense and some break away touchdowns but the Braves offense was hitting on all cylinders. The running game produced 324 yards on the ground and five Brave’s touchdowns by Anthony Matrone (2), Mike DeMayo, Hunter Konstantoulas, and Francesco Barone. The passing combination of DeMayo to Chris Marzo three times for 55 yards was enough to keep the 49er defense on its heels all day long. Vincenzo Rea, The state game hero, converted on four two point kicks thus giving the Braves a win in game one 38-19.

The National semi final put the Braves against a tough and high powered Virginia team, The Dale City Cowboys. Marzo credited defensive coach, Frank Barone, for making some quick adjustments to deal with the Cowboy’s very agile QB and spread passing attack. This game once again showed the Brave’s dominance between the tackles. Aside from two passes again from DeMayo to Marzo, this time 40 yards, Manalapan rushed for over 270 yards and controlled the ball for twenty six of the fourty minutes. Barone, Matrone, and Konstantoulas had touchdowns for the Braves while Rea added three more two point kicks giving the Braves a 24-12 victory and a National Title game appearance.

The Jr Pee Wee National Championship game had the Braves (14-0, ranked first nationally) facing the Garden Villa Giants (15-0) out of Texas. Garden Villa, ranked second nationally, has a rich history of National titles in their former league (Pop Warner) as well as AYF. The defensive game plan was very different for the Giants as Coach Barone explained, “ Head Coach, Pat Marzo, has set a high standard when it comes to preparation and hard work. This is for the players and the staff. Down at Nationals was no different and you get access to each games film so we had two to work off of for the title game. The Giants showed that they were armed with an explosive between the tackles full house backfield set. They could challenge the best of defenses. Their speed was a concern but I felt that our outside backers (DeMayo and Barone) and our corners (Marzo and Konstantoulas) are so strong and could lock down the edge. This enabled me to use our inside backers (Matrone and Vender) along with our safety, I’Shawn Pitts to aggressively blitz the A and B gaps.” Blitz they did, win they did, 24-13. Anthony Matrone had two touchdowns from his fullback position alongside Francesco Barone, who rushed for 100 plus yards with a touchdown of his own. Rea once again was perfect with extra points.

Coach Marzo sang high praise for his staff, team overall, and especially the offensive line. He stated, “Everyone worked so hard and put so much into this. We were the ultimate family team. The parents were supportive, the kids worked hard in school and on the field, each player was able to contribute to the bottom line, the coaches spent hours going over films and practice plans each week. I think our offensive line, coached by Vin DeMayo and Brian Holowach, was the unit that set us apart this year. We were able to play our game and control the ball. We ran behind (guard) Joe Fratacci on many short yardage situations. Andrew Roginski played center in flawless fashion. Mario Chierchia, Dante Barone, Alex Claro, Joe Sauchelli, and Justin Nyers were able to just dominate defensive lines.”

The members of this 2014 Braves Dream Team are:

Coaches: Pat Marzo, Vin DeMayo, Frank Barone, Ray Spinelli, Frank Matrone, Brian Holowach, Paul Rea, Frank Roginski, and Dom Varricchio.

Players: I’Shawn Pitts, Hunter Konstantoulas, Chris Marzo, Mike DeMayo, Francesco Barone, Dante Barone, Ray Vender, Anthony Matrone, Joe Sauchelli, Jonathan Gelb, Gavin Claro, Mario Chierchia, Zach Simmons, Ben Pirozzi, Joe Fratacci, Andrew Roginski, Jake Heitzner, Corey Holowach, Mike Spinelli, Spencer Cusumano, Matty Defelice, Calvin Burke, Nick Martini, Vincenzo Rea, Justin Nyers, and Tyler Walker.