South Sports Friday

The Middletown South Boys Cross Country team placed second at the Colts Neck Cougar Invitational.

11th Jay Malejki 17:14
12th Shaun McGeever 17:19
14th Dave Liepa 17:21
15th Ryan Ure 17:21
21st John Healy 17:36
30th Dane Couch 17:48
33rd Jim Geant 17:52

For complete results from all the races at the Cougar Invitational you can go to http://www.coltsnecktrack.com/cougar%20inv/results.htm.


The Eagles Football team played in a classic game against Wall High School and pulled out a 35-34 win. Senior Pat Campbell made the game saving tackle on a two-point conversion attempt with less than a minute left in the fourth quarter, capping a South win in which they came back from a 20-7 defecit at halftime. Scott Stump will most likely have a full feature story on ShoreConferenceSports.com later up by tonight or early tomorrow morning.

Roundup

Yesterday, there was a lot of action going on at Middletown South in terms of sports. First, the Field Hockey team evened their record at 3-3-1 yesterday with a big win over cross town rival Middletown North. Senior forward Jordan Hickman was assisted by senior midfielder Kathleen Pierce for a goal at 21:38. Junior goalie Katie Johnson stopped 8 shots to help the Eagles defeat the Lions, who were ranked 7th in the Shore at ShoreConferenceSports.com.

The girl's tennis team lost a close one yesterday to Middletown North, 3-2. Freshmen Christine Liu and Julie Kuhn both won their singles matches in striaght sets for the Eagles.

Both the boys and girls soccer teams lost to Manalapan High School yesterday. The boy's lost a close, 1-0 game on a goal in the 73rd minute. The girl's lost a high scoring affair 6-3. Goals were scored by Smantha Marxen, 29th minute, Megan McDermott, 56th minute, and Jackie Lockwood, in the 59th minute.

Also, junior defensive back Rob Bennedetto was awarded the Special Teams player of Week 3 for blocking a punt and returning it for a touchdown in South's 34-0 win over Central. Junior quarterback Pat Campbell and sophomore linebacker Sean Campbell were both honorable mention POTW in offense and defense, respectively.

Moreno named SEC Freshmen of the week

Former Middletown South great and current Georgia University tailback Knowshon Moreno was name SEC Freshmen of the Week for his play against Alabama on Saturday night. He tied for the team high with 74 rushing yards and a touchdown. (Picture from GeorgiaDogs.com)

Boys XC Takes 1st at Garrett Mountain; Girls Third

The Boys Cross Country team took first place by a landslide, scoring 25 points with a team average of 17:46.

2 Malejki, Jay 17:31.28
3 McGeever, Shaun 17:35.97
6 Leipa, David 17:48.58
7 Ure, Ryan 17:58.07
10 Healy, John 18:00.61
22 Couch, Dane 18:38.46
31 Geant, James 18:53.25

Conner Givens also won the JV race with time of 19:17.

The Girls team also ran very good races to finish third in their division.

5 Anderson, Kirstin 22:17.04
18 Amitrani, Annie 22:33.26
19 Marron, Lauren 22:36.04
24 Brookes, Katie 22:51.77
26 Abeltin, Katie 22:53.76
28 Ambrosi, Jenna 22:56.32



In college football news, Knowshon Moreno added 74 rushing yards and a touchdown on 17 carries and 22 yards on 2 catches to his stats this season as the Georgia Bulldogs defeated Alabama in a great overtime game on the road.

Eagles roll with help from Campbell, Martino

After a special teams miscue on the opening kickoff led to a Pinelands an early 7 point lead, Middletown South came roaring back to win their second game of the season by a score of 49-21.

The opening kickoff of the game by Kyle Gross was short and miscommunication between Rob Sarbu and Mike Farrell led to the ball dropping and eventually being secured by the Wildcats at the 14 yard line. Gross eventually punched it in on a quarterback keeper. Pinelands led 7-0 with 11:00 left in the first quarters and it was the last time they held the lead.

On the first play from scrimmage in their home opener, the Eagles scored on a 66 yard touchdown pass from Pat Campbell to Craig Sweeney. After Alex Romanski tacked on the extra point, the score was 7 all with 10:40 left in the first.

The Eagles scored again on their next possession with Campbell picking up a touchdown on the ground after he was set up by a big gain by Chris Bunge to take the lead.

Then, Scott Vigar intercepted a Gross pass that bounced off his receivers hands, and took it into the endzone for a 14 point advantage. As the final seconds of the first quarter clicked off the clock Gross completed a 65 yard touchdown pass that brought the Wildcats back to within a touchdown, at 21-14 at the end of the first.

But from there on in the Eagle defense shut down the Pinelands offense and allowed their offense to pound the ball and take control of the game.

Four minutes into the second quarter, Pat Campbell found the endzone again from 14 yards out. On their next possession, Matt Martino broke a 40 yard run down the sideline which, after a defensive pass interference penalty in the endzone, set up a 2 yard score of his own. The score remained at 35-14 as the teams headed in for the half.

In the third, a Martino 47 yard touchdown run, and Bunge's 16 yard dash put the game out of reach at 49-14. The Eagle's second team offense fumbled the ball inside the red zone, which the Wildcats picked up and ran back for an 80 yard recovery to finish off the scoring.

Middletown South improves to 2-0, with a game at Central Regional High School next Thursday. Pinelands drops its second straight, falling to 0-2 and will play against Neptune next week.

Check ShoreConferenceSports.com for Friday night football scores from around the Shore Conference.

Boys; Girl's Cross Country win and lose

Both Middletown South Cross Country teams ran a three team race against Colts Neck and Marlboro, at the Colts Neck Course. The boys took 3rd place, Jay Malejkji, 6th place, Shaun McGeever, 7th place, Ryan Ure, 8th place, Dave Liepa, 9th place, John Healy, 12th place, Jim Geant, and 13th place, Dane Couch. More detailed boys, and girls results later.

Varsity Gymnastics had their season opener today, so I'll have those results soon, but I won't be around tomorrow, so don't look for anything then.

Make sure you continue to check out ShoreConferenceSports.com for more news and results from Middletown South and the entire Shore.

Roundup

There were some other South scores besides football and boys soccer yesterday as the Field Hockey team fell to Middletown North in overtime by a score of 3-2. The tennis team was also defeated by North by the same score. The girls soccer team played to a 1-1 tie against the Lions with a goal by Megan McDermott.

Knowshon Moreno picked up the first 100-yard rushing game of his career, while being the Bulldogs leading rusher for the second week in a row in a loss to South Carolina.

Former Eagle harriers, Rob George and Anthony Garrido made their debuts on the cross country teams of Washington and Lee University and Catholic University, respectively, at the Washington and Lee Invitational. George finished 24th out of 124 with a time of 31:20 while Garriddo came in at 32:07, taking 39th place in the 8K race. They will race each other again next week in Van Cortland Park in New York City.

Eagles soccer falls to North under the lights

A Middletown North goal two minutes into the second half gave the Eagles a loss in the first game of the season by a score of 1-0.

The goal was the only blemish on senior goalie Mike Roura's performance as he played an otherwise excellent game in front of the net for the Eagles; including stopping 4 consecutive close-range shots in a row before the South defense was able to clear the ball.


Notes:

• This was new Head Coach Patrick Petretta's first game as head coach
• Chris Butler received a yellow card in the 55th minute.
• The team's next game is Monday at Manalapan
• The next home game is Wednesday against CBA
  

The Middletown South Football team began their quest for their 5th straight sectional title by defeating the Neptune Scarlet Flyers 23-7 at Neptune. Make sure to check out ShoreConferenceSports.com for scores and recaps from around the Shore Conference.

Moreno impresses in NCAA debut

Knowshon Moreno was the leading rusher for the #13 Georgia Bulldogs in their season opener on Saturday night, running for 70 yards on 20 carries in the first college football game of his career after red shirting last year. He also added 2 receptions for 51 yards, including a 35 yard catch that helped set up a Georgia touchdown. Several members of the Middletown South Football coaching staff were on hand for the game in Athens. Also, he seems to be making news in other places than his old stomping grounds