Braves, Cougars win their Thanksgiving Day rivalries
Howell finishes at
.500 with comeback win at home
By tim morris
Staff Writer

JERRY WOLKOWITZ Freehold Township running back Chris Ramos-Herrera attempts to leap over Howell’s Rob Racz during the Thanksgiving Day game in Howell.

Manalapan and Colts Neck polished off outstanding seasons on the gridiron by winning their Thanksgiving Day games.

Tom Tarver’s Braves (7-3) snapped a two-game losing streak, defeating cross-town rival Marlboro (1-9), 28-0, while Colts Neck (8-2) topped Freehold Borough (2-8), 22-7, to complete the most winning season in school history.

Howell (5-5) completed its return to respectability winning a wild shoot-out over rival Freehold Township (3-7), 35-31, scoring 14 points in the fourth quarter.

Manalapan, which returned to the state playoffs this year after a four-year hiatus, sent its seniors out on a very high note. Quarterback Mike Gaeta sparked the Braves to their win. He had a hand in three of the team’s touchdowns. His touchdown runs of 10 and two yards staked the Braves to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Jon Pappa’s two-point conversion run after the second TD upped the lead to 14-0. Then, Gaeta and Brenden Provow hooked up on a six-yard scoring pass in the second quarter.

JERRY WOLKOWITZ Howell’s Terrence Tatum breaks through the Freehold Township defense during the Rebels’ win on Thanksgiving Day.

Mike Dattolo completed the scoring with an 80-yard run in the second quarter. Up 28-0 at the half, the Braves seniors could take most of the second half off and bask in the sunshine of the 2002 season.

Manalapan-Marlboro is the oldest traditional rivalry in the District. This year marks the 31st game with the Braves holding a 22-7-2 edge.

Colts Neck, which missed out on the postseason on power points despite having enough wins, was able to gain a large measure of satisfaction by stamping itself as the school’s winningest team. Mike McArthur’s squad topped the 7-4 mark of the 2000 squad for wins in a season. Its .800 percentage is also the best ever.

Bruising running back Lou Benninato scored twice (nine and 24 yards) for the Cougars and Brian Keller scored on a 32-yard run.

Benninato picked up 78 yards on 21 rushes and Keller, 71 on 11, as the ball-controlling Cougars ran for 173 yards.

The Cougar defense, which has been there all season, held a big-play Colonial running game to under 100 yards, sixty of which came on a run by Damian Walcott in the fourth quarter after the Cougars already had a 22-0 lead.

Colts Neck has now won all three of its Thanksgiving Day games against Freehold Borough.

The stakes were high in Howell despite the teams’ records. The Rebels, who were in contention for the state playoffs before losing a showdown in Manalapan at the end of October, had lost two straight games and were looking at a season of promise slipping from their grasp.

After dipping to 1-9 in 2001, Corey Davies’ Rebels were desperate to turn things around. They signaled that things had changed early, starting the season off with one of the great wins in school history, a 7-6 upset of Brick.

However, back-to-back losses had the Rebels at 4-5 heading into their game with Freehold Township. A .500 record would salvage the season, but three straight losses and a sub-.500 record would spoil everything they had gained in September and October.

Meanwhile, despite a 3-6 record, the Patriots were a team playing with confidence. They hadn’t folded when the team’s record dipped to 1-6. They bounced back to beat Lakewood and then won their state consolation game against South Brunswick. A third straight win would put the season in a different light and provide some momentum in the off-season.

The result of this Rebel-Patriot clash was one entertaining high school football game that featured a little bit of everything.

Eric Yngstrom starting the scoring by collecting a Rebel fumble and returning it 30 yards for a touchdown. Shannon Hill then returned the kickoff 88 yards to tie the score. It was the beginning of a 21-point explosion by the hosts.

Quarterback Dan Irvin hit Mike Russell on an 81-yard scoring pass and then scored on a two-yard keeper to lift Howell to a 21-7 lead.

Now, it was Freehold Township’s turn to light up the scoreboard and the Pats did, to the tune of 24 unanswered points. They grabbed a 31-21 lead after three quarters.

Chris Ramos-Herrera highlighted the spree, taking a short pass from Mike Popek and turning it into a 61-yard score.

Howell, though, was not through yet and rallied to win the game in the fourth quarter.

The comeback started when Irvin hooked up with Rob Smith on a 28-yard scoring strike that cut the deficit to three, 31-28.

Terrence Tatum, known more for his running, then made the biggest play of the day when he broke through the line to block a punt and set the Rebels up just inside the Patriot 20 yard line.

Two plays later, Irvin hooked up with Matt Maniscalco from 12 yards out for the winning touchdown.

Irvin was 10-21 for 198 yards and Tatum ran for 109 yards in the final games of their respective Rebel careers.