Gallant Manasquan Falls Short In Central Jersey Group II Final

HILLSIDE – If you weren’t a spectator at the game and you saw the final score of Manasquan’s 36-10 loss to top-seeded Hillside in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group II final you might’ve assumed the game was a lopsided rout when in actuality, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Manasquan was trailing by just four points, 14-10, with a little over 10 minutes left in the game when the roof fell in on them. Hillside – undefeated at 11-0 and ranked sixteenth in the state – scored 22 unanswered points in final 10 minutes of the game in which the final score was hardly representative how closely the game was actually played.

“Absolutely, I would’ve signed up for that before we got on the bus,” said Manasquan head coach Jay Price when asked if he would’ve signed up for being down by four at the start of the fourth quarter. “That’s our game; I have no problem with that.”

For most of the contest that’s exactly what Manasquan did - play their game - and it was working. The game was flowing precisely the way Warriors had it written up on the chalkboard. Run it, and run it some more, and keep the ball out of the hands of Hillsides explosive skill players.

Although Hillside outgained Manasquan 331 – 185, most of its yardage came in the fourth quarter and the Warriors ran 64 plays to the Comets 39 plays.

Senior running back Canyon Birch was a workhorse carrying the ball 15 times for 55 yards in the first half alone finishing with 79 yards on 26 attempts and Rashid Tuddles added another 10 rushes for 35 yards as the Warriors ball control offense did what it was supposed do in text book fashion.

Manasquan caught a break on the first play from scrimmage when Hillside running back Brian Ugwu fumbled and linebacker Jack Fabean recovered at the Hillside 19-yard line.

But the Warriors offense went nowhere. Two Tuddle runs and a Ryan O’Leary incompletion brought up a fourth-and-6 at the 15-yard line bringing on senior James Pendergist to attempt a 32-yard field goal. His kick sailed straight through the uprights for a 3-0 Manasquan lead less than two minutes into the game.

“We would’ve liked to have gotten seven there,” Price said. “But there was a lot of game left after that.”

The two team traded punts with Hillside taking over at the Manasquan 45 following short Warrior punt from the 20.

Four running plays later, Hillside quarterback Gavin Melendez got the Comets on the board taking it in from two-yards out for a 6-3 lead. The extra-point kick was no good and the score remained 6-3 with 4:55 left in the first quarter.

Two possessions later, Hillside drove 71 yards in 12 plays to take a 14-3 lead. On first-and-10 from the 23-yard line, Melendez threw a bubble screen to Shadon Willis that a Manasquan defender read perfectly but failed to wrap up Willis, who broke free down the right sidelines for 23-yard touchdown. James Louis ran up the middle for two points extending the lead to 14-3 with 1:58 remaining in the half.

“One mistake against these guys, and its deadly,” said Price on Hillside’s speed on offense. “They’re explosive.”

Birch then returned the ensuing kickoff 43 yards to the 50-yard line with under two minutes remaining in the half.

On second-and-five from the 45, O’Leary found Pendergist open for a 19 yard gain to the Hillside 26-yard line. Two plays later, Tuddle picked up six for a first down and Birch ran for four setting up a second-and-6 from the eight with 29 second left on the clock. O’Leary then threw a strike to Riley Callahan just short of the goal line leaving them with a first-and-goal at the one with nine seconds left.

O’Leary took the snap from center, dropped back and quickly turned firing a dart into the hands of John Forman on a slant in the end zone. Pendergist’s extra point pulled the Warriors to with four, 14-10, at the half.

In the third quarter, Manasquan drove inside the Hillside 35-yard line on their first two possessions but came up empty both times, including being stopped short after going for it on fourth-and-1 at the 32-yard line.

“They’re fast, especially once they turn the corner,” Price said. “But we came up short in tackling and stopped ourselves on a couple of drives in the third quarter. I thought if we could’ve scored on that one drive we could’ve flipped the field a little bit and taken some of the momentum we had in the first half, but it just didn’t go our way.”

When you waste scoring opportunities against a defense that possess the speed and backside pursuit that Hillside’s defense does it usually comes back to haunt you, and it did.

Up to this point in the second half the Warriors had run 20 plays to the Comets four while taking 11 minutes off the clock, but things quickly fell apart.

Taking over on downs on the 31, Hillside drove to the Manasquan 33-yard line where they were looking at a first-and-14 at the 33-yard line. Louis then picked up a crucial first down with a sensational run to the seven-yard line in which he broke as least four tackles. On the next play, junior running back Jahon Moore ran it in for a 20-10 lead.

Still in the game, the Warriors drove to their own 48-yard line but O’Leary was sacked by Diaby Aboubakar for a 10-yard loss on second down and two plays later they were forced to punt on fourth-and-15 from the 43.

The Warriors defense forced a three-and-out on Hillsides ensuing possession taking over at their own 22-yard line with time now a factor.

Three plays netted zero yards bringing up a fourth-and-10 and Manasquan elected to go for it with just under six minutes to play and down by two scores.

But O’Leary’s pass was picked off by Willis, who returned it for a pick-six to put the game to bed at 28-10.

Ugwu added a 79-yard touchdown run in the closing minutes to make it 36-10 after a questionable decision to go for a two-point conversion, but the damage had already been done.

Hillside held Manasquan to 185 yards of total offense on 65 plays for an average of 2.9 yards per play.

“They close. The last time we saw that was against Mater Dei,” said Price referring to Hillside’s speed and backside pursuit on defense. “You run a toss to the right side or a power to the right side, and all of a sudden, the kid that’s blitzing off the corner on the left catches you from behind. That doesn’t happen too much (against most teams).”

After successfully defending its sectional title Hillside now faces Haddonfield in the South-Central Group II Bowl game, while the Warriors will conclude their season hosting Wall in the 19th Thanksgiving Day game between the two rivals.

“They’re gritty kids,” said Price of his team. “There’s no quit in them and they battled to the very end. I’m proud as hell of them, I love these kids.”

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