Blue Devils going back to the sectional finals

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr. –  Photos by Doug Bostwick

Photo by Doug Bostwick – Scoring a touchdown on a two-yard run for Shore Regional in the 30-6 NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group 1 semifinal win over Point Beach was Mike Marotta (29) a senior.

November 7, the Blue Devils of Shore Regional hosted and beat the Garnett Gulls of Point Pleasant Beach 30-6 in the semifinals of the NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group 1 tournament. It was another dominating performance by Shore, who have outscored their opponents 327-180 this season.

Shore entered the playoffs as the second seed. They beat seventh-seed New Egypt 34-0 in the quarterfinals. That set-up the game with sixth-seed Point Beach, who upset third-seed Riverside 42-14 in their opening round game.

“I’m unbelievably proud of our players and coaches for their efforts in getting us back to the sectional championship for a second straight season,” said Don Klein, head coach. He took over the football program last season and the team finished with a 10-1 record. Their only loss was 31-0, in the sectional finals last year to Woodstown. “We work so hard collectively to be a program that glorifies our school and community and it is a direct result of the buy in we get from our players.”

During his high school career, Klein was quarterback at Shore Regional. He has only been the Blue Devils head coach for 21 games, but has the record for the most wins as head coach of the Ocean Township Spartan football team with 93. He spent 17 years as head of that school’s program. During his time in Ocean, he took the Spartans to nine NJSIAA state playoff games, made it to the state semifinals and won four Shore Conference divisional titles. He had three unbeaten regular seasons at Ocean, and one last year, his first at Shore.

Back on October 3, the Blue Devils hosted Point Beach in a regular season game. They dominated that game winning 63-7. Klein and his crew were confident going into the semifinals on Friday night. “I’m really happy with the way our team has developed as the season has progressed. We have gotten great development from really all of the players in our program and are excited to compete this Friday in Burlington City,” added Klein.

Klein said that he believes they are better prepared to play in this year’s championship game. “We are a 12-month program that has a structured process we follow that the kids have really committed to,” Klein said. He also added that the coaches have had a year under their belts. Shore, which is a tiny Group 1 school, the smallest of high schools, was moved up in the Shore Conference to play against Group 2 and 3 schools. “Having to play this bigger schools this year have prepared us for this championship game. We know Burlington City has a really good team (they have outscored opponents 432-130 this year) with some very talented kids, but as a program we feel better equipped than we were last year.”

Shore Regional, which has been known as a running program has kept that reputation in the forefront with tremendous running back. This season, one of those power backs, junior Cole Torres has rushed for over 1,485 yards and has 16 touchdowns. But they also have an air attack this year with a junior quarterback, Logan Clark, who has thrown for over 1,106 yards and 11 touchdowns.

In the win over Point Beach, Clark completed 10 of 18 for 98 yards. His lone blemish was one interception. He also ran the ball four times for 15 yards and had one touchdown. Torres was healthy and strong as he had 213 yards on 27 touches and two touchdowns. Mike Marotta had a two-yard touchdown and two catches for 26 yards. Marotta also had 10 tackles on defense and two of those were for a loss.

Also having a great defensive game was Kelty Connors, finishing with seven tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble. One of their biggest threats this season is kicker John Mazzacco. He has made 40 of 42 extra points.

The two regular season losses suffered by the Blue Devils were a 36-21 loss to Manasquan and a heartbreaking 14-13 loss to Red Bank Regional. Klein stated that they RBR loss really hurt as they should have won the game, and they should have played better in Manasquan.

Shore will travel to Burlington City on November 14, for a 6:00 p.m. kick-off of the NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group 1 sectional final.