Knowshon Moreno, Bulldogs have hope for title game

Right now, the "experts" are saying that Knowshon Moreno will play his first bowl game at either the Orange or Rose Bowls. The Georgia Bulldogs, ranked 4 in the latest Bowl Championship Series (BCS) poll, also have an outside shot at the BCS National Championship game in New Orleans on January 7, 2008. In order for that to happen #1 Missouri needs to lose to #9 Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship game, where they are only a 3 point favorite. Also, #3 West Virginia would need to lose to unranked Pitt. This would be slightly less concievable because of the Panthers being a 28.5 point underdog, though in a college football season where a Division 2 team, Appalachian State, defeated a top ranked Division 1 team, Michigan, and Stanford upset USC, on the road, I'm counting nothing as impossible. Even if both those pieces fall into place, it still depends on how the polls come out, because if #5 LSU has a convincing win over Tennesse in the SEC Championship, the voters could decide that LSU is worthier than Georgia for the national championship.

Bunge's 5 TD day lifts Eagles

For the Middletown South seniors, the Thanksgiving Day matchup with cross town rival Middletown North was to be their last career game. The seniors were honored before the game and were all present at midfield for the coin flip.

From then on out, though, it was junior Chris Bunge's day on route to 5 TD's and a 35-7 Eagle victory.

The Lions were unable to convert a first down after forcing the Eagles to punt and punted the ball away.

Bunge fielded the ball near his own 20 yard line and took it all the way to the endzone basically untouched to put the Eagles up 7-0.

North put together a long drive that ate a lot of clock and then Joe Dickey threw a touchdown pass from 1 yard out to tie the game at the beginning of the second quarter.

The teams went into the locker rooms tied at 7, and it was any one's game.

On their first possession of the third quarter, however, South regained the momentum when Pat Campbell hit Bunge for an 83 yard TD pass to give the Eagles the lead, which they would not lose again.

Bunge added three more touchdown runs to bring his total to five. One was set up on an interception by Rob Cruz, and another by a crazy play on the ensuing kickoff.

Alex Romanski kicked from the left hash on his own 40, and kicked it to the opposite sideline, at about the 25. The ball came within inches of hitting touching the sideline before bouncing straight back towards the middle of the field and into an Eagles special teams player's hands.

The Eagles continue their winning streak against Middletown North, extending it to 7 straight years as winners of the Homecoming Game. South finishes with a record of 8-3, while the Lions end the season at 3-7.


It gets quiet now for a couple of weeks as far as South sports is concerned. Basketball practice starts tomorrow for both the boys and girls with opening night December 14. The first game is against Middletown North, and as I hear now, both the boys and girls will be home and they will be playing the games back to back, so the atmosphere is going to be amazing for those games. The hockey team has already hit the ice and will play its first game December 4 at the Wall Sports Arena.

Knowshon Moreno gets his first taste of the Georgia-Georgia Tech Rivalry on Saturday when the Bulldogs travel to Atlanta to take on the Yellow Jackets. The Tennesse-Kentucky game will also be of interest to Georgia fans as the Bulldogs need the Volunteers to fall if they want to play in the SEC Championship game. That game would just give Moreno a better chance to get to Herschel Walker's freshman rushing record of 1,616 yards (Moreno currently has 1228 yards).

Eagles stalled in drive for five

Middletown South fell to Moorestown High School in the Central Jersey Group 3 Semifinal 38-7. The Eagles will not be able to defend their sectional title for a fifth straight year. Their record falls to 7-3 with one game remaing on the schedule, the annual Thanksgiving Day game against cross-town rival Middletown North.

Alumni Update

Knowshon Moreno is starting to play well enough where I have to stop calling him "former Middletown South great" to "current University of Georgia star." He ran for 101 yards in the Bulldogs "Blackout" of Auburn last week. It was the fourth straight game going over the century mark, which also happen to be the first four starts of his career, and four straight Bulldog victories. Tomorrow Georgia gets Kentucky at home at 12:30. Look for Moreno to have a big game, as Kentucky is giving up 4.7 yards per game on the gound. Moreno is being considered as the top rookie in the nation by college football experts, and Mel Kiper even has him on his short list for this year's Heisman Trophy.

XC, Football play in state playoffs

Today both cross country teams ran at Holmdel Park for the NJSIAA Group 3 Championships.

The girls finished 5th in their race with 264 points and a top five average of 21:09

52 Lauren Marron SO 20:57
53 Grace Watters FR 20:57
54 Kirstin Anderson JR 20:58
64 Katie Brookes SO 21:16
81 Katie Abeltin JR 21:41
100 Annie Amitrani SR 22:12
106 Brittany Ryan JR 22:28

The boys placed 9th in a very competitive race with 245 total points and a Top 5 average of 17:36.

40 Shaun McGeever SR 17:19
51 Joseph Malejki JR 17:35
52 Ryan Ure SO 17:36
56 Dave Liepa SR 17:37
79 John Healy SR 17:57
99 Dane Couch SR 18:21
117 Jim Geant JR 18:42

The football team, the #5 seed in the CJ Group 3 tournament defeated #4 Lawrence 16-6. Touchdowns by senior Pat Campbell and junior Matt Martino, as well as a safety by the defense, helped the Eagles advance to face top-seeded Moorestown, the team that the Eagles beat 38-0 in the championship game.

Cross country runs strong at State Sectionals

Both the boys and girls cross country teams ran at the NJSIAA state sectionals at Thompson Park in Jamesburg. The girls placed second in the Central Jersey Group 3 Girls Race while the boys placed third in the CJ Group 3 Boys Race.

I now have the complete results for this afternoon's races.

They boys results can be found here; the girls results here.

Boys:
14 Shaun McGeever 17:10
15 Dave Liepa 17:11
20 Ryan Ure 17:23
21 Jay Malejki 17:28
22 Jim Geant 17:28
29 John Healy 17:32
51 Dane Couch 18:33
TOP FIVE AVERAGE 17:20


Girls
10 Grace Watters 20:27
11 Kirsten Anderson 20:28
13 Katie Brookes 20:38
16 Lauren Marron 20:50
22 Katie Abeltin 21:08
27 Annie Armitrani 21:29
37 Brittany Ryan 21:59
TOP FIVE AVERAGE 20:42


Alumni Update
Knowshon Moreno had another great game today, coming off his SEC Offensive Player of the Week performance against Florida last week. He again ran for a career high in rushing yards, 196 on 26 carries. Which puts him over 1,000 for the year. The last Georgia freshman to do that was Herschel Walker. You know, Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker. Oh, and he added three touchdowns, one of which was an 80 yard romp to the endzone on the first play of a drive.