Red Bank Catholic Reaffirms Its Shore Conference Superiority

Above photo: Hahn about to take the snap in Friday night’s big RBC win

RED BANK – The much ballyhooed game between the No.1 and No.2 teams in the Shore Conference Friday night at the Count Basie Field in Red Bank - in front of a standing room only crowd estimated to be around 4000 fans- turned into just another typical lopsided win by the Shore’s reigning and undisputed No.1 team, Red Bank Catholic.

Caseys’ junior quarterback Eddie Hahn was 7-out of-11 for 189 yards and two touchdowns in the first half with both scoring tosses going to senior wideout Nick Luischer - who had three catches for 118 yards in the half before he was injured playing in the secondary. While senior defensive end Doug Zockoll registered four sacks in the second half as the Caseys rolled to a 35-7 win over previously unbeaten and No.2 Manalapan 35-7.

The win extends the Caseys winning streak over Shore Conference opposition to 39 while Manalapan’s 30-game winning streak against Shore Conference opposition and its 32-game regular season winning streak were both snapped.

Red Bank Catholics last lost a Shore Conference game back on October 9, 2010 in a 26-25 overtime loss to Freehold.

It only took a minute and a half for Red Bank Catholic (7-0, 5-0) to establish what direction the game would take when on third-and-12 on the third play of the game, Hahn scrambled to his right and found Lubischer at the Caseys’ 45 before he shook off a would-be tackler grabbing his facemask and sprinted down the Red Bank Catholic sideline for s 75-yard scoring play and an early 7-0 lead.

The Caseys defense sacked Manalapan senior quarterback Dan Anerella eight times and suffocated Shore Conference touchdown leader Imamu Mayfield holding him to 75 yards rushing on 17 carries. Prior to Friday night’s game, Mayfield was third in the Shore Conference with 934-yards rushing on 114 attempts with 21 touchdowns.

“He likes to cut back and we game planned for that,” Senior linebacker/tight end and University of Miami-bound Jamie Gordinier said. “We had our backside linebackers waiting there for the cutbacks, and we did a tremendous job stopping it.”

With his four sacks on the night, the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Zockel now leads the Shore Conference in sacks with 11. He also recovered the ball after Dylan Murphy’s first of two sacks forced a fumble on a blitz that led to a 11-play, 48-yard drive in which Hahn had two huge first-down runs to keep the drive alive before senior tailback Mike Cordova scored from six yards out to make it 14-0 with 11:08 left in the first half.

“Eddie Hahn is a special football player,” Red bank Catholic head coach Jim Portella said. “He’s a playmaker for us and gives us a dimension we haven’t had in a while. He elongates plays with his feet finding open receivers and makes plays that aren’t by design. I think he’s a dynamite quarterback, a DI quarterback and people are going to start realizing that.”

The Casey defense then forced a Manalapan (6-1, 4-0) into a three-and-out as senior cornerback Mike Demonte broke up a key third-and- 8 pass. On their ensuing possession, Red Bank Catholic scored on a 9-play, 81-yard drive when Hahn stepped up in the pocket and found Lubischer in the back of the end zone for an outrageous leaping grab over the defender resulting in a highlight reel 25-yard touchdown reception

“Nick Lubischer flat out makes plays,” Portella said. “It’s unfortunate he got hurt, hopefully he’ll be back soon.”

The drive, which gave the Caseys a 21-0 lead with 4:58 left in the half, was punctuated by a Lubischer 18-yard reception on third-and-11 from their own 19 and a 41-yard grab for a first down at the Braves 23-yard line by the tight end Gordinier.

The Braves then responded with their only scoring drive of the night traveling 89 yards in five plays finishing it off with a 26-yard scoring strike from Anerella to Gerard Hodge-Rocourt to cut the lead to 21-7 with 3:05 to play in the half. Senior wideout Tyson Plummer contributed a 35-yard reception to keep the drive alive and an additional 15 yards was tacked on for an illegal hit out of bounds placing the ball at the Casey 39-yard line.

After the kickoff, the Caseys moved the ball to the Braves 36-yard line with 44 seconds to play but Hahn’s second-down pass was intercepted at the goal line by senior cornerback Dan Debner preventing further damage and the score remained 21-7 at the half.

In the second half the Caseys relied on a punishing ground game that churned out 124-yards eating up large chunks of time off the clock and used a relentless defense that physically took over the line of scrimmage while recording seven of their eight sacks in the second half.

Back-to-back sacks by Murphy and Zockoll forced a Manalapan punt at the 4:37 point of the third quarter and five plays later senior running back Nick Cella’s tackle-breaking burst up the middle increased the lead to 28-7.

The Casey’s held the Braves to minus-11 yards on their next two possessions on two sacks by Zockoll and one by senior defensive tackle Nick Roy before embarking on their final scoring drive of the night that resulted in a 18-yard touchdown run by senior running back Tommy Spernal and a 35-7 lead. On the drive, Cordova carried the ball four times for 35 yards, finishing with 69-yards rushing on 13 touches for the night.

Junior defensive lineman Charlie Gargiulo added a sack on the Braves final possession before Zockoll mercifully and quite fittingly ended it with his fourth sack of the night on fourth-and-8 from the 30.

“Doug Zockoll has a great desire to get to the football,” Portella said. “He’s got a great engine and really played well tonight.”

“We just kept getting after it and eventually wore them down,” Zockoll said. “Our main goal was to contain Mayfield, once we established that it allowed us to get after the quarterback, and that’s what we did. I love going after the quarterback, I’m a speed rusher – that’s my style of play.”

“We have a lot of division titles but we haven’t had a state championship since 1976,” Portella said. “We’re a very good football team, we’ve been a good football team the last four or five years. We don’t set a goal to be No.1 in the Shore or win a state championship, we just want to play to the best of our capabilities and see where that takes us. I’m really proud of the effort the whole team put forth tonight.”

Red Bank Catholic will attempt to clinch their fifth straight division title next week when they play Ocean Township in their first road game since the season opener at Wall.

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