“This is like Christmas coming early,” said Shore Regional football coach Mark Costantino following the unbeaten (11-0) Blue Devils’ impressive 20-14 non-division victory over rival Rumson-Fair Haven Regional Thanksgiving Day before a standing room only crowd.
Shore, which has won 19 straight games overall, will seek its second straight NJSISAA Central Jersey Group I title in a row Saturday when it meets Palmyra at Kean University.
“We feel that we’re a top five team in the Shore right now and can hang with anybody,” said Costantino.
A year ago, Shore shut out Rumson, 13-0, in a game played in rain, sleet and wind on a sloppy field, and there were a few people who thought that the result would be different on a dry field.
This year, however, the game was played on Rumson’s turf field under near perfect weather and there is little doubt that Shore had the better team.
“This win is just as good as last year,” said Costantino. “It was won on the road, and we had a chip on our shoulders today.”
The two teams are among the better defensive squads in the Shore, and it looked that way in the first half, which ended in a scoreless tie.
Shore, though, finally broke through in the third quarter when quarterback Matt Pennell scored on a 2- yard keeper after Doug Goldsmith set it up with a 42- yard run.
Goldsmith had a solid game both ways for Shore, rushing for 106 yards and coming up with a fumble recovery and an interception.
“It’s better to be 11-0 than 10-1,”said Goldsmith. “Rum- son has a very good team and we treated it like it was a state championship game.”
Linebacker Paul Christopher made it 13-0 early in the final quarter with 22-yard interception return, but Rumson (9-2) finally got an offense going on its next series as quarterback Michael O’Connor, who completed 13 of 16 passes for 137 yards and rushed for 103 more, both ran and passed the Bulldogs down the field to the Shore 19.
Here, he threw a touchdown pass to 6-6 sophomore Elijah McAllister, who out- jumped several Rumson defenders for the score. Tom Chapin kicked the point after to make it 13-7 with 2:22 left in the game.
Shore then scored what turned out to be a huge insurance touchdown on the first play following an onside kick-of f when Jack Britton scored on a 47-yard run.
“It was tackle-right play,” said Britton. “I got some good blocks.”
Rumson scored with six seconds left when O’Connor threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Pierson, but Shore recovered an onside kick to end the game.
By winning, Shore retired the Devil-Dawg Trophy for the second year in a row. The series began on Thanksgiving Day two years ago.
Rumson had played Red Bank Catholic every year on Thanksgiving Day since 1957, but Rumson dropped the series in order to play Shore.
Palmyra (10-1) will present Shore with a stiff test. It is averaging 38 points per game with the lone loss being to Woodrow Wilson of Camden.
Palmyra and Shore, however, did play one mutual opponent with Palmyra defeating Keyport, 35-34, in a first round CJ I game. Shore had beaten Keyport, 34-7, in an early season game.
