Bulldogs Advance To State Final With 16-9 Win Over Timber Creek

Photo above: #10 Collin Coles and #44 John Lista

RUMSON – During the week leading up to Friday night’s 16-9 win over Timber Creek all the Bulldogs heard about was the high-powered Timber Creek offense which averaged over 400 yards of offense per game and 31.4 points which jumped to 40 points per game in their six wins.

The Chargers (6-4) are led by super sophomore quarterback Donovan Leary, who came into the game with 2,600-yards passing and 26 touchdowns while averaging close to 300 yards per game through the air and senior wideout and University of Maryland commit Tarheeb Still, who averages 137.8 receiving yards per game with 11 touchdowns.

“We’ve been hearing about their high-powered offense all week,” said Rumson-Fair Haven senior quarterback Colin Coles. So going into the game we were going to try to control the ball just like we did against Somerville last year and I think we achieved that for the most part. Definitely some improvements are needed on offense but we’ll have that down for next week.”

Unfazed, the vaunted Bulldog defense held the Chargers to a season-low nine points and 236 yards of total offense while their offense used a power-running game to control the ball and the clock and hit the big play when needed.

“Our defense has worked hard throughout the whole entire year,” said sophomore linebacker John Lista. “You can see from RBC (first game of the season) we’re a completely different team now. And it’s just been awesome the way we’ve been progressing by working hard every day in practice. Coach Schulte says, ‘Row the boat – we got to get better every day,’ and that’s what we’ve been doing.”

Coles was superb in directing the offense completing 8-of-17 passes for 137 yards and converting one key third-down play after another, including picking up two critical first downs on third and fourth down quarterback sneaks.

Lista led Rumson’s shutdown defensive effort recording two strip-sacks and four tackles for loss, including the game-clinching strip-sack of Leary on fourth-and-8 from the Bulldogs 43-yard line with 1:37 left in the game and Timber Creek threatning to tie the game.

“Coach Schulte actually told me to just blitz through whatever gap you want,” said Lista. “The other strip-sack I got tonight was when I went C-gap so I went to the outside and Aiden (Moriarty) chipped his guy and I got a free release from the outside and I hunted down the quarterback. Tonight was a great job by our whole defense: Drew Frankel, Ryan Ruane, Tim Carey, Gordon Forsyth, everyone – the entire secondary.”

On Timber Creeks second possession of the second half, with Rumson leading 10-3, the Chargers drove 58-yards eight plays - aided by a facemask penalty and a personal foul call on the Bulldogs - to pull within 10-9 of Rumson with 3:23 left in the third quarter.

Junior running back Jalen Gibson-Green finished off the drive with a one-yard plunge but Rumson senior safety Drew Frankel blocked the extra-point kick to keep the Rumson lead at one.

The Bulldogs answered with a time-consuming 13 play, 80-yard scoring drive that took close to eight minutes off the clock while running the ball 12 of the 13 plays on the drive.

Rumson was facing a fourth-and-inches from the Timber Creek 18-yard line and decided to forgo the field-goal attempt and go for the first down which proved to be the right decision.

Coles handed off to senior fullback Pete Crowley, who burst through the first line of defense and bolted up the middle for 18 yards and the score.

“We decided to give it to our fullback, Pete, who hits harder than anyone else in the Shore and is just the meanest true fullback I’ve ever played with,” said Coles. “We gave it to him right up the shoot and let our boys blow him up the middle and that was our plan.”

On the drive, Cole converted two crucial quarterback sneaks for first downs. On third-and-1 from the Timber Creek 42 he picked up four yards and a first and on fourth-and-1 from the 29 he gained two yards for the first down. He also hit junior wideout Patrick Jamin for 25 yards to get the drive untracked.

Mike Piperno’s extra-point kick, however, was blocked by junior Roderick Boyd and the score stood, 16-9 with 4:36 remaining in the game.

On the ensuing kickoff, Coles inadvertently lofted the kick short and Lista recovered and the Bulldog’s had a first down at their own 48 with a chance to put the game away.

Rumson then moved to the Timber Creek 26-yard line, but a fourth-and-3 pass into the end zone fell incomplete and the Chargers took over with 2:29 remaining in the game and down by seven.

On second-and-6 from the 30, Leary connected with Still over the middle for 25 yards and a first down at the Rumson 45 to stop the clock. A Leary to Dior Boyd sideline pass picked up three yards on first down but Leary then threw two incompletions into the end zone setting up a fourth-and-8 at the 43. That’s when Lista ended the threat turning the ball over to Rumson, which then took a knee to run out the clock.

“It’s amazing,” Coles said of the Bulldog defense. “I’ve had the pleasure of benefiting from it for two years now. Every time I feel down-and-out of it all I have to do is pick my head up and look on the field and see a great play happening by guys like Lister and then we’re right back into it no problem.”

Leary wound up completing 18-of-30 passes for 168 yards and Still caught eight of his passes for 86 yards as both players finished way below their season averages. And the Bulldogs defense limited Timber Creek to 20-yards rushing on 16 attempts, including four sacks for a 1.25 yards per carry average for the game.

“What we were doing the entire game was trying to key up #1 and #4 - those were their two key players,” said Lista. “The kids going to Maryland so we were protecting against the deep ball – if they got a hitch it was okay. We just wanted to protect against the big play so they didn’t get the momentum.”

On Timber Creeks second possession of the game, the Chargers embarked on a 64 yard, 13 play drive that ended with a Zach Coluccio 23-yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead with 2:40 left in the first quarter.

The Bulldogs answered right back with a nine play, 77-yard drive with Crowley barreling up the middle for a 3-yard touchdown and a 7-3 lead after Piperno’s extra point.

On the drive, Cole found Jamin for 27 yards on a critical third-and-6 play down to the Timber Creek 46-yard line. Then on third-and-8 from the 44, Cole and junior running back John Volker connected on a beautifully set-up screen play for 33 yards down to the 11-yard line and three plays later Crowley scored.

“Those are staple plays of ours that we work on them like bread-and-butter in practice,” said Coles. “They were executed well with tight holes and we have very athletic guys in Volker and Jamin that can get through those holes.”

Timber Creeks took over at its own 46 on the ensuing kickoff and drove to the 3-yard line where they faced a fourth-and-goal before a delay of game penalty pushed them back to the eight. Leary’s fourth-down pass into the end zone then fell incomplete handing the ball over to Rumson, who then drove the length of the field before settling for a Piperno 30-yard field goal and 10-3 lead at the half.

A Cole to Jamin 26-yard completion on third-and-11 from their own 49 and a Cole to Crowley 9-yard completion on third-and-8 were keys to the drive.

On Timber Creeks first possession of the second half, they drove to the Bulldogs 29-yard line where they had a first down, but back-to-back 7-yard sacks by sophomore linebacker Ryan McKay and Moriarty - a sophomore defensive end - forced the Chargers to punt.

Second-seeded Rumson (6-4) will travel to top-seeded and undefeated Wall (10-0) next Friday in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III championship game. Wall is ranked No. 1 in the USA Today’s New Jersey Top 25 poll.

Wall defeated the Bulldogs 14-3 in the second game of the season for both teams so Rumson will be out to even the score on Friday.

The Bulldogs will be making their seventh straight trip to the sectional finals winning five of the last six championships.

“We’ll be ready for Wall,” said Lista. “We want to win another state championship.”

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