The Shore Daily, 1/25/15
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It was a light Saturday with a few high-profile wrestling matches and some football news highlighting the day. Also, the seeds for the Shore Conference Wrestling Tournament are now set after Sunday's seeding meeting.
Also on Sunday morning, two-time first-team All-Shore kicker Mike Caggiano of Manalapan committed to a full scholarship at the University of Massachusetts. He also had an FBS offer from Hawaii.
Brick earned the No. 3 seed in the upcoming wrestling SCT with a hard-fought, 33-29 win over No. 7 Toms River South in Class A South. Junior Tommy Costanza ignited the win with a surprise pin at 145, using a chin whip to register the win in just 11 seconds. This is the second time Costanza has come up big in a crucial spot, as he used a Peterson roll to rally for a clutch victory in a win over Jackson Memorial on criteria earlier in the season.
Brick's Dean Sherry won a rematch of last year's Region VI final at 170 when he beat Toms River South's Antrez Clagon, 4-2, at 180, to maintain the upper hand after beating Clagon in last season's region final.
The main intrigue involving the SCT is whether anyone can stop a collision between No. 1 seed Howell, the defending champion, and No. 2 Brick Memorial in the final. Those two could see each other again in the NJSIAA Tournament because they are both in South Jersey Group V. Bob Badders has the SCT seeds and the breakdown here.
The first-round matches between seeds 13-20 are at the site of the higher seeds on Tuesday, followed by the round of 16 and quarterfinals at the sites of the top four seeds on Thursday. The semifinals are at 3 p.m. on Saturday, followed by the final at 5:30, both at Jackson Liberty High School.
One other bout of note from Saturday was Rumson's Marcus Iwama, who was the Region VI champion at 132 last season, decisioning previously undefeated Dylan Seidenberg of Raritan, 7-5, at 138 to remain unbeaten. Also, congrats to Point Boro's Dan Nobbs and Pinelands' Thomas Poklikuha, who each picked up their 100th career wins on Saturday.
There was only one boys basketball game yesterday as St. Rose beat Ranney 61-45 in Class B Central behind 15 points from Nolan Slattery.
There also was some football tidbits on Saturday, including Howell lineman Jeremy Subjinski announcing that he has committed to Monmouth University as a preferred walk-on.
Also, St. John Vianney junior quarterback Anthony Brown picked up an offer from Wake Forest to go with offers from Monmouth University, Old Dominion, New Hampshire, Liberty University and Northwestern University. Brown also got an invite to the prestigous Rivals camp featuring some of the nation's top talent. I could see Big Ten, ACC and then potentially the SEC teams really starting to get involved during the spring and summer.
Two Shore Conference standouts also picked up scholarship offers from St. Francis (Pa.), an FCS program. Barnegat senior lineman Xavier Young and St. John Vianney senior lineman Kyle Gibson, both of whom were SSN second-team All-Shore picks, each added offers.
Also, a pair of Mater Dei Prep sophomores, wide receiver Eddie Lewis and defensive lineman Artis Hemingway, will be playing for the U-17 team in the International Bowl at 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 31 at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, home of the Cowboys.
They are part of a team that will play a squad of Canadian all-stars, and it will be live on ESPN3. Lewis was a second-team All-Shore pick by SSN after a huge season with 47 catches for 873 yards and 10 touchdowns for a Seraphs team that went 8-3 and reached the Non-Public Group I semifinals.
More on Sunday:
- Former Monmouth Regional football coach Bobby Acosta is now the recruiting coordinator at Syracuse.
- Former Paramus Catholic football coach Chris Partridge said he turned down a job at Rutgers. A big question among local coaches I talked to was how Partridge would've been able to recruit at schools like Don Bosco, Bergen Catholic, St. Joseph's-Montvale and St. Peter's Prep, considering those coaches have not held back on their disdain for him after being in fierce competition with Paramus Catholic for talent and championships.
- Paulsboro wrestling coach Paul Morina is now tied for the most wins in South Jersey history.
- Bob Hurley after St. Anthony pulled out a tough one on the road against Camden in a match-up of storied New Jersey programs: The "wine and cheese" crowd could learn something from attending a game at Camden.
- An Alabama girls basketball team has won 74 games in a row.
- The son of Massachusetts high school legend and former Fresno State star Chris Herren is now carving out his own identity and dealing with taunts as a star freshman in Rhode Island. The elder Herren battled substance abuse issues that derailed his career and now gives powerful talks to many high schools across the country about its dangers. He spoke in Toms River last year, and he doesn't sugarcoat the message one bit. Glad to see his family doing well after all they have been through.
- Really, Chad Ford? Weak.
On tap for today: There is actually a basketball game today, as Central travels to Christian Brothers Academy at 2 p.m. for a nondivisional game as CBA tries to bounce back from a loss to Freehold Township on Friday and get a milestone for junior Pat Andree, who is four points shy of 1,000. Andree has a chance to really put his name up there in the record books at one of the Shore's most storied programs by the time his career is all said and done.
I'll end with the sweet putback by Dwayne Benjamin yesterday.
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