Seraphs beat Green Wave 34-20

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr
October 24, 2020
Saturday afternoon the 1-2 Green Wave of Long Branch visited the Seraphs of Mater Dei Prep who entered the football game with a 2-1 record and ranked sixth in the Shore Conference. One thing was obvious during the game, Dan George, head coach of the Wave was missing.

According to Ben Woolley, offensive coordinator, the entire coaching staff were involved in the game day decisions. They worked together as a coaching committee said Woolley. No official statement on why Coach George was not at the Mater Dei game.

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Seraphs started off red hot and tested that committee and the Wave players early on. Mater Dei Prep jumped out to a 20-0 first quarter lead.

It took the first quarter of play for Long Branch to get their focus, as the second quarter they scored first and only allowed Mater Dei seven points. Going into the halftime break the Wave were down 27-7.

The second half belonged to Long Branch as they outscored the Seraphs 13-7, but it was not enough as Mater Dei improved to 3-1 with the 34-20 victory. Long Branch dropped to 1-3 on the season.

It was a battle of quarterbacks, Christian Rodriguez, junior at Long Branch, completed 7 of 13 passes for 100 yards. He threw for three touchdowns and was not picked off during the game. Over on the Mater Dei Prep side of the field, Alex Brown completed 8 of 11 passes for 135 yards and threw four touchdown passes and had one pick.

On the ground, Rodriguez was the top rusher for Long Branch with 62 yards on 14 touches. Bobby Lawrence, senior, finished with 36 yards on eight carries. Sekou Kamau, sophomore had 27 yards on six runs.

Defensively, Andrew Conklin a senior linebacker, had a great game. He had some big hits and stops on the powerful Mater Dei backfield. Conklin also picked off a Seraphs pass.

This season Long Branch has given up 78 points while only scoring 34. They host Red Bank Catholic, number four in the Shore Conference, on Mischief Night with a 7:00 p.m. kickoff. Their last regular season game is against Red Bank Regional which is scheduled for November 26 at 10:30 a.m.