Middletown North Lions Roar Past Ocean Behind Thompson's Two Touchdowns

Photo above: Lions on the Prowl

OCEAN TOWNSHIP – Troy Thompson led Middletown North to a 21-7 nondivisional win over Ocean Township Friday night on the Spartans home field picking up valuable power points in the process.

With the state playoff qualifications looming in the very near future, the Lions (3-2, 1-2) are clearly in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV picture after matching their win total from a year ago in their fifth game of the season.

Thompson, a senior tight end/outside linebacker, turned in scores from both sides of the ball while enhancing his reputation as a “big play” performer. His 16-yard touchdown reception with 1:52 remaining in the first half gave the Lions a 7-0 lead.

“It was a great call actually,” Thompson said. “We caught them coming on a blitz and the kid who was supposed to cover me came on the blitz; I was wide open and basically walked in.”

And his 30-yard fumble return for a touchdown - off a bad snap late in the fourth quarter - sealed the win for North giving them a 21-0 lead with 6:31 remaining in the game.

“It was a designed blitz call all the way,” Thompson said. “Coach called the right play at the right time; it was a great call. I saw the ball go over the kids head and tried to help the team out the best I could.”

On the Lions four-play touchdown drive at the end of the third quarter, Thompson had 27 and 9-yard receptions to set up a Freshnock two-yard plunge over the top of the pile for the score and a 14-0 lead.

Thompson finished with 116 yards receiving on eight catches and one touchdown through the air.

“Donald (Glenn) made some really good throws for us and Troy had an outstanding game on both sides of the ball,” Middletown North head coach Steve Bush said. “Troy got a lot of those balls tonight and did a good job making plays on them; he did a heck of a job.”

Freshnock set up Thompson’s second quarter score with a spectacular 49-yard run to the Spartan 16-yard line. The heralded senior running back took the handoff up the middle on the play, broke it to the left sideline then twisted and spun for additional yardage while breaking one tackle after another.

For the game, Freshnock carried the ball 19 times for 96 hard-fought yards in a blue collar like performance.

On Middletown North’s second possession of the game – a 15-play, 61-yard drive that ate up over 10 and a half minutes off the game clock – Freshnock was a workhorse, grinding out 24 yards on seven carries on a drive that spanned the first and second quarters.

The Lions were stopped on that drive on fourth-and-6 from Spartans 21-yard line turning the ball over on downs, however, they succeeded in keeping the ball out of the hands of Ocean’s All-Shore running back Tyler Thompson for large a chunk of the first half.

Thompson, who rushed for 1,481 yards and 18 touchdowns last season as a sophomore, was held to 21-yards on the ground on 10 carries in the first half as a tenacious Lions defense swarmed all over him.

With the score 7-0 after the Troy Thompson touchdown, Ocean took over at their own 31-yard line and on second-and-7 from the 34 Lions senior inside linebacker Anthony Pianoforte sacked Ocean sophomore quarterback Kenny Pickett and stripped him of the ball with Anthony’s brother – senior tackle Vincent Pianoforte – recovering the ball at the 27. However, on third-and-7 from the 24-yard line Lions sophomore quarterback Donald Glenn was picked off in the end zone by Marcus Blackmon to end the half.

The Spartans (1-3, 1-1) drove to the Lions 17-yard line on the first possession of the second half but Pickett’s fourth down pass to Tyler Thompson was defended perfectly by senior cornerback Aaron Borrero for a huge play to thwart the possible game-tying scoring drive. Senior outside linebacker Dylan Hallard sacked Pickett on third down for a nine-yard loss forcing a long fourth-and-14 for Ocean.

The Lions took over at the 17 and drove to the Ocean eight-yard line on an 11-play, 75-yard drive, but it stalled and Nick Banta’s 25-yard field goal attempt sailed wide.

On the drive, Glenn, who had another solid game at quarterback for the Lions, hit Thompson on three straight throws for 33, 5 and 15 yards and Freshnock added 19 yards on three carries. Glenn finished with 144-yards on 13-for-19 passing and one touchdown for the night.

The Lion defense then forced an Ocean three-and-out and Freshnock scored to end the third quarter. Ocean’s Thompson was held to three yards on one carry in the third quarter and 34 yards on 13 rushes with just under eight minutes to play.

On the Spartans first possession of the fourth quarter they faced a fourth-and-9 from the Lions 37 and desperately needing score down by 14 with just over nine minutes to play. However, Lion junior defensive end Matthew Dombrowski beat his man around right end opening up a clear path to Pickett for a 13-yard sack, while almost taking Pickett’s head off in the process.

In all, the fired-up Lion defense sacked Pickett five times with Dombrowski, Hallard and Jake Goldfarb each with one and Anthony Pianoforte with two. They gave up only 171 total yards - with most of it coming on meaningless late fourth quarter yardage, and Ocean’s Thompson was held to 87 yards on 23 carries with 53 of those yards gained on Ocean’s final two possessions.

“The defense did a great job tonight,” Bush said. “I was really proud of the way they contained Thompson and I think our whole defense played really well.”

After a North punt, Thompson reeled off runs of 19 and 13 yards for two first downs and seemed to be finally getting untracked. But on first down from the Lion 44, the snap sailed way over Pickett’s head and Thompson – coming on a blitz – scooped up the ball at the 30-yard line and easily scored to put the game away.

Ocean did go 65 yards with Thompson scoring from the one with 58 seconds remaining in the game then recovered an onside kick with 55.5 seconds left in the game, but senior safety Jordan Pitts interception of a Pickett pass ended the game.

“We’re just trying to get better each game and we’ve done some good things here and there, but not consistently enough,” Bush said. “This was a big win for us and now we just have to keep going one game at a time here and see where it takes us.”

“We executed our game plan perfectly,” Thompson added. “We knew this was a must win game and we were in a playoff like situation; we got to win out.”

Follow @getmready