Middletown South Stages Late Rally to Beat Brick Memorial

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By Jim Hintelmann
MIDDLETOWN – Trailing Brick Memorial, 21-14, late in the fourth quarter with the Mustangs at first down at its 5-yard line, Middletown South’s chances of winning Friday’s non-divisional football game appeared bleak.
The Eagles, however, staged a stunning comeback, scoring 10 points in the remaining time and winning, 24-21 on quarterback Matt Mosquera’s 22-yard field goal with just 2 seconds left.
The rally began when South’s James McCarthy recovered a Brick fumble at the South 10 to end the threat. A penalty put the ball back at the 5 and South was faced with a third and 15.
Mosquera, however, evaded a Brick blitz and threw a 25-yard pass to Tom Coffey for a first down at the 30 to keep the drive going.
“That was a make or break play,” Mosquera said. “I have all the faith in the world in Coffey. He found the open space.”

McCarthy later threw a 33-yard pass to Coffey, who caught seven passes for 134 yards, for a first down at the Mustang 3. McCarthy then went over the goal line on the next play to cut the lead to 21-20, with 2 minutes remaining. Mosquera tied it with a conversion kick.
South had all three of its time outs left. It was able to hold for downs and get the ball back at its own 38 with 1:14 left following a Mustang punt.
Mosquera threw a pair of 15-yard passes to Coffey for a first down at the 33 and then passed to Spencer Pereless for a first down at the 11 with 15 seconds left. Cole Rogers ran 6 yards and then Mosquera kicked his game-winning field goal.
“We had three time outs remaining,” said Mosquera, who completed 25 of 33 passes for 267 yards. “We were confident that our defense could home them so we could get back on the field.
“Our offensive line did a great job protecting our quarterback,” said South coach Steve Antonucci. “Tom (Coffey) is a tough kid and very talented.”
The game started out as if it would be a long night for South with Brick jumping out to a 14-0 lead.
Quarterback Tim Santiago capped a 9-play, 57-yard drive with a 19-yard touchdown on a keeper and Matthew Cuppari kicked the first of three extra points.
The Mustangs scored again on their next series with Santiago throwing a 32-yard touchdown pass to Karl Kumm for a 14-0 lead.
“Santiago did a great job of running away from the tendencies that they had shown on the film,” Antonucci said. “He has a good arm and is very talented, but we made some adjustments at halftime.”
A short passing game from Mosquera, who completed seven straight passes, sparked a 63-yard drive that was capped with a 4-yard touchdown run by Rogers. That narrowed the Brick lead to 14-7.
South tied the game in the third quarter, 14-14, when Mosquera and Coffey hooked up for a 33-yard touchdown pass.
“I was a little cold in the first half and dropped a couple of passes that I should have caught,” Coffey said, “but I made them count in the second half. Hopefully, we’ll have a couple of home games in the (New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association) playoffs and go on from there.”
Brick Memorial settled down and regained the lead at 21-14 on a 1-yard keeper by Santiago. Then came the big South comeback.
South will have a bye week this weekend and then has a tough game against Freehold.