2016 Shore Sports Network Offensive Player of the Year: Toms River North’s Mike Husni
The 2016 Shore Conference football season was filled with some incredible individual performances that had the record book being rewritten week after week. The stats compiled by several players at the end of the season were mind-blowing, but through all of it there was one play that stood above the rest.
Toms River North senior quarterback Mike Husni turned in an all-time season this fall, and was the easy choice to selected as the 2016 Shore Sports Network Offensive Player of the Year. Husni’s remarkable career came to a close with the greatest statistical season by a quarterback in Shore Conference history as he threw for 2,027 yards and 25 touchdowns on 63 percent passing and ran for 1,618 yards and 19 touchdowns to lead the Mariners to an 11-1 record, the Class A South division title and a trip to the NJSIAA South Jersey Group V final.
“I think he’s one of the greatest high school football players the Shore Conference has ever seen,” said Toms River North head coach Dave Oizerowitz. “He can spin it and he can run it as well as anyone who’s ever laced ‘em up.”
This season Husni became the first player in Shore Conference history, and also possibly the first in New Jersey history, to run and pass for 1,000 yards each in three different seasons. Additionally, he became the first player in Shore Conference history to throw for 2,000 yards and run for 1,000 yards in the same season. His 44 total touchdowns also tied the Shore Conference single-season mark set by Mater Dei Prep quarterback Christian Palmer in 2014.
Their wasn’t much the 5-foot-10, 165-pounder couldn’t do on a high school football field. Piloting the No. 1 offense in the Shore to the tune of 44.3 points and 470 yards per game, Husni was fourth in the Shore in passing yards, sixth in rushing yards and sixth in total points. He began the season with 244 yards passing and four touchdowns plus 137 yards rushing in a 41-7 win over Southern, and never looked back. He had six games of at least 200 yards passing and ran for over 100 yards in eight of 12 games.
His top passing game was a 282-yard, 4-touchdown performance in a 41-21 win over Middletown South in a game that was, at the time, the matchup between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the Shore. He also ran for 75 yards and a touchdown in the game. His highest rushing output of the season came in a win over Central that clinched the A South title. He carried 18 times for 213 yards and two touchdowns in the 34-7 win while also throwing for 167 yards and a touchdown. In a state semifinal win over Howell he completed 9 of 10 passes for 207 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for 185 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries.
A two-time first-team Shore Sports Network All-Shore selection, Husni was selected as tis season’s Class A South Offensive Player of the Year by the coaches. He recently received his first scholarship offer from Marist, an FCS program.
Football editor Bob Badders can be reached at badders@allshoremedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Bob_Badders. Like Shore Sports Network on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel for all the latest video highlights.
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