Devils domination continues with 27-0 win over LB

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr.

Shore Regional High School QB Logan Clark (14) completed 8 of 11 passes in the win over Long Branch.

September 12, 2025 will go down in the Shore Regional High School record books with a big asterisk for the 27-0 win over Long Branch High School in the Shore Conference C North football division. It was the first time in 43 years that the Blue Devils beat the Green Wave in a football game.

Before the game, Blue Devils head coach Don Klein said that many of the Shore Regional opponents underestimated his squad. “They all think that Shore is this tiny Group 1 school, but we have very athletic, skilled players. Our only issue is that we don’t have the numbers like these bigger group schools we are forced to play this season,” said Klein.

The NJSIAA, the state governing body, every two years classifies schools based upon student enrollment. These are the numbers for 2023-2024; Group IV, the biggest, have enrollments of 1,077 or more, Group III has between 710-1,072 students, Group II has between 456-to-708, and Group 1 is less than 450 students.

“The last time we beat Long Branch was back in 1982 and we won 14-7. The last time we shutout Long Branch was all the way back to 1978, 47-years ago. So the win tonight, means a lot to this Shore Regional coaching staff,” said Klein.

Last season, Klein (who graduated from Shore in 1997 and was a three year starting quarterback for the Blue Devils) took over head coach duties at Shore. Prior to taking the position, Klein was the head coach at Ocean

Long Branch senior running. back Zahkai McDonald (2) follows Isaiah Rosario (15) junior, during the loss to Shore Regional.

Township High School for 17 years. As the Spartans head coach, he racked up an impressive 93-73-01 record, the all-time wins’ leader at Ocean. When he took over the program at his alma mater, the Devils were not expected to be good. Well, Klein led to an undefeated perfect 10-0 season before losing in the NJSIAA state title game.

“These student athletes at Shore have bought into our program and are working hard all off-season,” said Klein. He has many worries this year as the Blue Devils are playing Group III schools, which have a deeper pool of athletes. “Almost all of our kids play both offense, defense and special teams. If one or two get injured we don’t have the depth as the Group III schools, but were going to be very competitive.”

With the win over Long Branch, the Blue Devils have improved to 2-0. They opened on the road with a 42-14 win over New Egypt. Last year, Shore outscored their opponents 325-92, and so far this season in two games have a 69-14 advantage.

Long Branch has lost their first three games of the season. They have been outscored 90-14 so far this year with a 27-7 loss to Ocean, 36-7 to Brick and the 27-0 shutout by Shore. The 2024-2025 season the Green Wave finished 1-8, and were outscored 261-142. Their next opponent is Colts Neck High School, who are also winless at 0-3.

“I’m really happy with the strong start to the season. I thought we played better against Long Branch that we did in the opener,” said Klein. He and his staff put the players through a solid week of practice. “We put emphasis on fundamentals and effort and I think that showed up on the field this week.”

Klein said that anytime a team gets a chance to play a neighboring program it is going to mean a little more. “Great respect for Long Branch and the tradition they have in their program. Our team was locked in, they are a big Group 4 school with over 1,500 students, we haven’t played one another since the late 90’s,” said Klein. He also admitted that one of biggest losses the Blue Devils had against the Green Wave was personal for Klein. “I played in an embarrassing loss in 1966 when LB beat us 42-0 and then they followed that up the next year beating us 31-0. It was nice to turn the tables all these years later.”

Logan Clark, junior quarterback, completed 8 of 11 passes for 77 yards and one touchdown. Cole Torres, junior running back, had 106 yards on 12 touches and one touchdown. Senior Johnny Mazzacco had five rushes for 22 yards and a touchdown. Vinny Sasso, senior, had two receptions for 44 yards and one went 29 yards for a touchdown. Rounding out the scorning was Reid Spallone, senior, who had an interception for a 40-yard touchdown.

Shore will travel to Manasquan High School on Saturday, September 20, for divisional 1:00 p.m. kickoff. Manasquan, going into the Shore Regional game, has a 2-1 record, with a 27-0 win over Toms River Routh, 14-10 over Point Beach and a 36-32 loss to Matawan.

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