Football Player of the Week: Colts Neck's Romeo Thomas

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Every week this season, Shore Conference football fans will have their chance to vote for the Orthopaedic Institute of Central Jersey/Shore Sports Network Football Player of the Week on our website.

The Week 8 Player of the Week is Colts Neck senior running back Romeo Thomas, who had another huge game on the ground to go over the 1,000-yard mark on the season and lead the Cougars to a 13-10 win over Jackson Liberty.

Thomas carried 27 times for a career-high 233 yards and both of Colts Neck’s touchdowns. He opened the game with a 90-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage and scored the go-ahead touchdown from two yards out with 4:38 left in regulation to lift the Cougars to the victory.

After rushing for 960 yards and eight touchdowns as a junior, Thomas has turned in a fantastic senior season to become one of the Shore Conference’s most productive running backs. Through nine games, Thomas has rushed for 1,221 yards and 17 touchdowns on an average of 7.1 yards per carry, totals that are the second-most in the Shore. He has five games of 100 yards or more and two games over 200 yards rushing.

Thomas is a major reason why Colts Neck has experienced a stark turnaround under second-year head coach Matt Ahearn, going 7-2 so far after a 3-7 finish last season, for the program’s most wins since going 10-2 and reaching the Central Jersey Group 4 final in 2013.

Even with the win over Jackson Liberty, Colts Neck did not qualify for the Group 4 playoffs. The Cougars finished as the 16^th and final seed in the super section, but the 17 seed, Neptune, jumped them for the final berth based on a head-to-head victory in Week 7. Colts Neck will close out it season with an NJSIAA regional crossover game against Central Regional (3-5) at home on Saturday, Nov. 9.

Thomas won another close Player of the Week poll with 17.67 percent of the votes to win by a narrow margin over Barnegat’s Nik Dileo, Ocean’s Trebor Pena, Jackson Memorial’s Lonnie Cebulski and Mater Dei Prep’s Clarence Lewis.

Managing editor Bob Badders can be reached at bob.badders@townsquaremedia.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.