Freehold Twps Landmark Season Won't Be Defined By Crushing Loss

Photos courtesy of Tom Smith @ www.tspsportsimages.com

PISCATAWAY – Freehold Township’s momentous run through the state playoffs came apart at the seams midway through the second quarter against heavily favored Newark East Side (28-4) - ranked eighth in the state – in Sunday’s NJSIAA Group IV final at Rutgers Louis Brown Athletic Center (RAC).

The scrappy Patriots (24-5) took to the court with an air of confidence determined to prove their legitimacy and for a quarter and a half they accomplished that by efficiently setting the tempo of the game.

Freehold Township had their detractors second guessing themselves as they raced out to a 16-12 lead after one quarter and held a 22-21 advantage with 3:51 left in the half before the roof fell in on them.

It was though a switch was turned on for the Raiders at this point and they suddenly realized the Patriots were for real and they were in a dog-fight for survival.

Utilizing their superior depth, size, athleticism and a stifling zone press that produced numerous turnovers, Newark East Side then rattled off a 16-2 run and ended the first half outscoring the stunned Patriots 18-5 to take a 37-27 lead at intermission.

The Raiders blitz continued into the third quarter as they extended their run to 29-5 with an 11-0 start that pushed the lead to 48-27 and the Patriots never recovered eventually falling 69-44.

“We weren’t as composed out there as we would’ve liked,” said senior Seth Meisner, who led the team with 12 points along with three rebounds and two assists. “They are a very long and athletic team and that played a huge role in their press and made it very difficult for us to break it. The loss of composure was what really allowed them to go on that run.”

Despite the outcome of Sunday's final, Freehold Township head coach Brian Golub said his team should be proud of what they accomplished this season.

“It’s not possible to diminish the season these kids had, I couldn’t be more proud of these kids,” Golub said after the game. “It’s been a whirlwind year going through this season and I couldn’t be happier for them. They earned a trip here, which no team at this school has ever done. Unfortunately it didn’t work out today out well today, we lost to a much better team today that was bigger, faster, stronger, more athletic and just better.”

Golub was right. Newark East Side was better, but nothing can take away what this trailblazing senior-laden team accomplished this season. They’ll forever be revered in Freehold Township athletic lore as the team that brought home the boys basketball programs first-ever sectional championship and advanced to the group final.

“These kids were 9-13 last year with pretty much the same group back and we played as many games over the summer as we did all of last year. They played with heart all year but I’d be lying to you if I said I thought we’d be in the Group IV final.”

In Golub’s 24 seasons at the helm at Freehold Township he’s experienced thrill of victory winning the 2007 Shore Conference Tournament championship but has also felt the agony of defeat more than most.

Six times, including three consecutive losses from 2015-17, Golub’s teams have lost in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV finals, with a couple coming in the last seconds. But this year’s team turned the tables beating defending sectional champion and top-seeded Trenton 57-56 despite a heart-stopping final few seconds that saw Trenton miss two shots.

“You may or may not know my history (in sectional finals),” said Golub. “But I’m now 1-7 in this game and I’ll take it.”

The Patriots also became the first Shore Conference public school to play for a state championship since Neptune in 2012 when the Fliers lost to Plainfield in the Group III final and the first Group IV team to play in a state final since the 1981 Neptune squad.

Four of five starters and seven of eight players who saw significant playing time Sunday are seniors, including Meisner, Greg Billups, Zach Barilka, Christian Corcione, Matt Santangelo, Kevin Kilinskas and Greg Solla, and although the loss hurts them deeply they know they’ve etched a place in program history and will always be remembered for their courageous run to the final.

Billups is the only senior player on this year’s team to play major minutes in a previous sectional final as he did as a sophomore, so he knows both sides of winning and losing but even in loss he’s super proud of his team.

“I was just thinking about the whole season that we had,” Billups said. “It was one game that we lost today. We were able to something that not a lot of Shore teams can do. To be the first team in our school history (to make the finals) is an amazing feeling.”

Barilka scored seven points and added five rebounds and an assist and echoed Billups take on the game.

“It definitely hurts to walk away from something that we’ve been playing for our whole lives,” Barilka said. “But we know we did something different and this whole experience was a dream come true.”

Sophomore guard Zach Orrico will be the lone starter retuning next season and will be saying goodbye to 10 seniors.

“This experience was very important,” said Orrico. “These guys taught me how to play the game. They taught the JV players and all the underclassmen on our team how to win and be successful.”

“I would’ve signed on the dotted line in November if you had told me this was going to happen,” said Golub. “I mean, I thought we could be good. I thought we could be competitive and then after we beat Trenton I thought anything was possible. We came out and played well against Cherokee and played pretty good today for a while. They just overwhelmed us at a point. My hat’s off to them, they’re a hell of a basketball team.”

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