Shomo and Talarico power Spartans to victory

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr
Ocean Township senior Taj Shomo scored 17 points and his junior teammate Jake Talerico had 12 as the Spartans beat the Falcons of Monmouth Regional 57-45 last Monday night. It was a nondivisional game hosted by the Falcons.

Ocean Township junior many Padron (1) and Jon Zimmerman (32), a senior, fight for a rebound during the 57-45 win over Monmouth Regional.

It was such an up and down game. During the opening quarter the Spartans had a slight 18-15 advantage on the Falcons. Both squads were running, hitting the boards and shooting extremely well. Host Monmouth Regional has a new head coach; John Rivera who was an assistant at Brookdale Community College is the third coach in three years for the Falcons.

Last year Monmouth Regional had Jimmy Lane, a Princeton graduate who had a very tremulous relationship with his players, parents, fans and even officials. His one and only season at Monmouth Regional ended with a 1-19 record. Lane took over for Quinton Schwartz who had a three year run as the Falcons head coach. Schwartz had a 19-53 overall record and his last season the team was 8-15.

Rivera has a very long road ahead of him. In four years the Falcons have only won 20 games and lost 72. However, the players like and respect Rivera who has former Monmouth Regional stars John Jones and Austin Whitehurst as his assistants.

Ocean has John Terlecsky returning for his seventh season as head coach. “I told our players not to underestimate Monmouth Regional,” said Terlecsky. He mentioned how the two schools have become sport rivals over the years. “Rivera is a good coach and he will have the Falcons prepared.”

Driving hard the Ocean hoop is Nick Cirlincione (40) a sophomore on the Monmouth Regional Falcons.

During the second quarter it was all Monmouth Regional as they held the Spartans to only nine points while scoring 14. Going into the halftime break the Falcons had a 29-27 lead.

“We have had issues in the third quarter, where we have not played our best basketball,” said Terlecsky. He was hoping that the second quarter problems for the Spartans would not continue in the second half.

Ocean didn’t implode in the second half as they outscored Monmouth Regional 12-4 in the third quarter and 18-12 in the final eight minutes. Leading the Spartans was Shomo who not only had the 17 points, but pulled in six rebounds had three assists and three steals. Talerico ended the game with 12 points and had two rebounds, two assists, two steals and one block. Scott Bradley finished with eight points, three rebounds and two steals.

The Falcons had even scorning with three players

The ball handler for the Spartans this season is senior Danielle DeFillippo (20), who had five points in the game.

each getting 10 points. Tyler Hawkins, Matt Mooney and Andrew Slinger combined for 30 of the teams 45 points. A.J. Delutis had seven, Mike Componile scored three, Nick Cirlincione and Jalen Gates each had two and Tim Reynolds made a foul shot.

In the B North standings the Spartans are 4-6 and currently in sixth out of the eight teams with a 4-6 record.
Monmouth Regional competes in the A Central division of the Shore Conference. Out of the seven teams they are currently in last position and winless at 0-11.