Blue Devils Crush Garnet Gulls, 63-7

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr.

On the second play of the game, Cole Torres (10), a junior at Shore Regional powers through the Point Beach defense for a 57-yard touchdown.

October 3, Shore Regional held their Annual Mayor’s Bowl where the elected bodies of the sending districts were invited to watch a football game. The 2025 opponents were the Garnet Gulls of Point Pleasant Beach.

The Blue Devils were coming off two disappointing losses, and were extremely focused for the Gulls. “We had a great week of practice, and went over some of the issues from last week,” said Don Klein, head coach of the Devils. He added that the game plan for the Point Beach game was back to basics and they shouldn’t have any major issues.

Shore Regional was ready as it took only the second play of the game for the Devils to get into the end zone. Cole Torres, junior running back, blasted through the Point Beach defense for a 51-yard touchdown run. John Mazzacco made the extra point kick and with 11:16 to play in the first quarter Shore had a fast 7-0 lead.

Just under four minutes later, during their second offensive series of the first quarter, Logan Clark, junior quarterback for Shore, threw a 57-yard touchdown pass to senior Jack Madalone. Mazzacco was good again on the extra point and Shore was up 14-0.

On their third offensive series of the first quarter, Clark hit Reid Spallone, senior, for a 27-yard touchdown. Mazzacco was perfect on the extra point and with 4:21 left in the first, Shore was up 21-0.

Leading the Blue Devils of Shore Regional defensively with nine tackles in the 63-7 win over Point Beach was John Mazzacco (15) a senior.

The only blemish on the Shore Regional night occurred on a punt return. The Blue Devils fumbled the ball and Point Beach recovered on the Shore 30-yard line. One play later, they connected on a 28-yard pass play and extra point. That would be the last time the Gulls were in the end zone offensively.

Facing a fourth and goal at the Beach seven-yard line, Klein told Clark to hand the ball to Mazzacco who rumbled in for the touchdown and then kicked the extra point, and Shore was now up 29-7 with 8:07 left in the first half.

Shore added 14 more points in those eight minutes taking a 43-7 halftime lead. In accordance with NJSIAA rules, when a team has a 35 point advantage over an opponent, the second half of action will have a running clock.

During that very fast second half of action, the Blue Devils added 20 additional points to their total beating Point Pleasant Beach 63-7.

Going back 15 years, Shore Regional has only scored more than 60 points twice. Back on October 5, 2018 they beat Point Beach 70-0, and on October 29, 2010 they crushed Mater Dei 60-0.

“Were very happy with the total team effort in our victory over Point Pleasant Beach. We practiced at a really high level this week and that effort in practice showed up with our ability to execute once the lights went on,” said Klein.

Klein and his staff might have been worried about how the Devils would react after back-to-back losses. Klein said that he was extremely proud of how the players put the disappointing losses behind them. “Coaches and players made the decision to go to work and played really well tonight,” Klein said after the win.

Shore Regional had nearly 500 yards of total offense and the starters were taken out for the second half of action. The Gulls had 11 third down attempts and were successful on getting the first down only once. “That was something we really have been stressing. Get our defense off the field after the third down and get the ball back to our offense,” added Klein.

Clark had a great night, completing 8 of 12 passes for 183 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran the ball four times getting 40-rushing yards, one touchdown and one two point conversion.

Madalone had his 57-yard touchdown catch, Spallone had a 27-yard touchdown catch, senior Enzo Cagliastro had a 39-yard touchdown catch. On the ground, Torres, who has been playing with a sore arm the last two weeks, had a big night getting 155 yards on nine touches and one touchdown. Mazzacco had three carries for 15 yards and a touchdown, Anthony Pernice had one carry for a 55-yard touchdown, Quninton Robert had five-yard touchdown and Carlo Sasso had a 77-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown. Leading the Devils defense was Mazzacco with nine tackles and Mike Marotta with eight.

With the win, Shore improved to 3-2 on the season and have three regular season games left. On Saturday, October 11, they will be at Colts Neck High School for an 11:00 a.m. game. The final two games will be at Shore on October 17 against Monmouth Regional and then facing Matawan on October 24.

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