By Scott Stump - Senior Editor
E-mail: stump@digitalsports.com


     LONG BRANCH - Milling around the field after its resounding 28-0 win over Long Branch on Saturday afternoon, Red Bank Catholic basked in the sound it longed to hear - silence.
     That was the sound RBC elicited when it started the game by recovering a fumble on the opening kickoff and scoring on its first play to bring the home fans to a quiet hush, and that was the sound at the conclusion of the afternoon. The Caseys (1-0, 1-0), ranked No. 6 in the DigitalSports Top 10, ruined the unveiling of the Green Wave's new artificial turf stadium and their first home game since 2003 by churning up 231 yards on the ground while suffocating Long Branch's run-oriented offense to the tune of only 20 rushing yards.
      "We weren't too focused on Long Branch or this environment,'' said RBC senior David Reeves, who had a strong all-around game. "We were just focused on ourselves.''
      RBC's season opener began auspiciously when junior kicker Tucker Hawley whacked a squib kick that went about 20 yards and bounced off a Long Branch player, right into the arms of onrushing junior linebacker Kevin Whitlock, who recovered it to immediately put the Caseys in business and stun the packed home stands. Reeves then elicited a cheer from the visiting stands when he took a handoff and darted left for a 36-yard touchdown on the Caseys' first play after the fumble recovery.
      "That (fumble recovery) was huge because it took their crowd from sky-high to completely silent, and then to score on the first play, we just took the wind right out of them,'' said senior tight end/linebacker Luke McCarthy.
      "We wanted to just attack and attack, and that's what we did,'' Reeves said. "The line did a great job of opening the hole and I took it from there.''
      Long Branch (0-2, 0-1) moved the ball on its first drive, with senior quarterback Randy Rodriguez hitting senior wideout Larry Morris with a 46-yard pass, but the drive fizzled inside RBC's 30-yard line. The teams traded possessions before RBC took over with 10:45 left in the half and ran the ball down Long Branch's throat one week after Wall rolled up 251 yards on the ground against the Green Wave. Reeves and senior Nolan Vill each ran for 96 yards on 11 carries, consistently gashing Long Branch's defense for six- and seven-yard gains.
      "Seeing (what Wall did), we expected we could run and run and run,'' Reeves. "The line did a great job to allow Nolan Vill and I to run downhill.''
      Often using the stretch play to get wide on Long Branch, the Caseys mounted a 20-play, 82-yard drive that sucked nine minutes off the clock and ended with senior quarterback Connor O'Leary plunging in from one yard out for a 14-0 lead with 1:45 left in the half. RBC converted three third downs and two fourth downs during the drive, and on the afternoon the Caseys were 3-for-4 on fourth-down conversions and converted three third downs of seven yards or longer.
      "We got beat on third down,'' said Long Branch coach Dan George. "Third-and-6, third-and-7, third-and-12...They came off the ball, and they were physical.''
      Knowing that Long Branch had roared back into the game against Wall with a big second half last week, the Caseys were determined to keep their foot on its neck. RBC took the opening kickoff of the second half and drove all the way to Long Branch's 21-yard line on 14 plays in nearly eight minutes before stalling out, but the Caseys still were bleeding the clock and preventing the Green Wave from generating any momentum in front of their large home crowd.
      "The difference today in contrast (to a loss to Long Branch) last year was that we established and maintained field position,'' said RBC coach Frank Edgerly. "Even on drives where we didn't score, we took time off the clock and left them the ball deep in their own territory.''
     The final game-changing momentum swing came when Reeves, who is also a cornerback, picked off a pass just two plays after Long Branch had stopped the Caseys inside their own 25. That gave RBC the ball at Long Branch's 44-yard line, and Edgerly dialed up a halfback pass in which Reeves stepped back and floated a pass to streaking wideout Jake Flaherty for a 41-yard gain to Long Branch's 3-yard line. Three plays later, senior fullback Anthony Lubischer, who also had a strong game at linebacker, leaped over the pile for a one-yard touchdown and a commanding 21-0 lead with two minutes left in the third quarter.
     "To get that interception and then hit the (halfback) pass, I think that sent them over the edge,'' Edgerly said.
     "I was a little nervous, I'm not going to lie,'' Reeves said about the pass. "(Edgerly) said if I don't have it to just take off, but I saw the corner kind of stutter, so I threw it.''
     Long Branch's offense only ran 15 plays in the second half with RBC's offense swallowing the clock, and the Caseys' improved team speed on defense allowed them to keep the Green Wave's playmakers in check. Long Branch had 36 total yards after halftime one week after scoring 34 points against Wall.
     "Our biggest concern was the run game because we definitely thought they were going to come out and come right at us on every play up the middle,'' said senior defensive lineman Shawn Smith, who had two hits for a loss. "I was expecting them to come out real hard in the second half because they came out really hard in the second half against Wall, so we had to be on our game.''
     "They just have athletes who can make plays, so we had to contain them,'' McCarthy said. "People underestimate us (on defense). They may not be thinking it, but we're faster than a lot of teams out there.''
     McCarthy showed some speed and sent the home crowd heading for the exits when he stepped in front of a pass by Rodriguez and returned it 42 yards for a touchdown and 28-0 lead with 11 minutes left in the game.
     "The kid kind of just threw me the ball, and I just took it to the house,'' McCarthy said.
     The result was more silence from the home side of the Green Wave's new house. While Long Branch was eager to put this game behind it after all the hoopla surrounding the game, RBC was also champing at the bit to get on the field after some drama of its own during the preseason. Edgerly left to take a job on Greg Schiano's staff at Rutgers in early August, resulting in defensive coordinator Jim Portela being named head coach. However, Edgerly then surprisingly resigned and returned to the team as head coach in the middle of last week, and the team thankfully had a first-week bye.
      "Everything was built up about (Long Branch's) emotion, but it was our season opener, too,'' Edgerly said. "With everything that's been going on in the last month with Jimmy (Portela) and myself, there was a lot of things going on that I think these kids emotionally needed that outlet of getting back on the field.'' 
      RBC, which shared the Liberty Division title with Wall and Long Branch last year, is out to prove that Saturday's performance was just the tip of the iceberg.
      "You look on the scoreboard and it's great, but we could've played much better,'' McCarthy said. "The score could've been worse.''
      Long Branch, meanwhile, will have to deal with the sting of dropping to 0-2 on a festive day that had been built up for months and has also become a nice rivalry. Junior linebacker Bill George, Dan George's nephew, had his house and car plastered with RBC paraphernalia leading up the game thanks to his good friend, Whitlock, who works with George in the summer at Monmouth Beach Bathing Pavilion. Whitlock was the one who pounced on the opening fumble to get the ball rolling for the Caseys, and now the Georges and the rest of the Green Wave have to find some answers heading into their bye week.
      "Believe it or not, I thought we got better defensively today or it would've been a lot worse,'' Dan George said. "We've got to continue to get better.''  
     Dan George also refused to let a memorable day be spoiled by the loss after four hard years on the road because of renovations to the entire school complex at Long Branch. Some members of the famous "Road Warriors,'' the group of seniors from last year's team that reached the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III final despite having never played a home game in their four-year high school careers, were in attendance. There was a ceremony before the game re-dedicating Bresett Stadium and Ippolito Field, conducted by Long Branch Superintendent of Schools Joseph Ferraina.
     The event still brought together old families and friends of a Green Wave program that is one of the oldest and most storied in the history of the Shore Conference. Former quarterback Isaiah Hall was even at George's house on Friday night for an hour or so talking about the past few seasons.
      "It was awesome,'' Dan George said. "Even with this loss, where we didn't look good, it will not ruin today because I'll never forget about today in my life from a positive standpoint.''
      

Box score
Red Bank Catholic 28, Long Branch 0

                              R          L
First downs              15        5
Rushes-yards          46-231   21-20
Passing                 4-13-1     6-17-2
Passing yards           60         111
Fumbles-lost           1-0         3-1
Penalties               5-45        4-30

RB Catholic (1-0, 1-0)       7 7 7 7 - 28
Long Branch (0-2, 0-1)    0 0 0 0  - 0

Scoring summary:
Reeves 36-yd run (Hawley kick)
O'Leary 1-yd run (Hawley kick)
Lubischer 1-yd run (Hawley kick)
McCarthy 42-yd INT return (Hawley kick).

Individual statistics
Rushing - Reeves 11-96, Vill 16-96, S. Taylor 2-(-13), O'Leary 5-8, Beim 2-11, Lubischer 1-1, Compitello 5-13, Brown 4-19. L: Stovall 4-3, George 5-9, R. Rodriguez 6-(-5), Shuler 3-9, White 2-2, Robertson 1-2.
Passing - R: O'Leary 3-12-1 19, Reeves 1-1-0 41. L: R. Rodriguez 5-14-2 101, Shuler 1-3-0 10.
Receiving - R: Reeves 1-(-4), A. Taylor 1-13, J. Flaherty 2-51. L: Morris 3-65, Kelly 2-39, Kanach 1-7.
Interceptions - R: Reeves 1-0, McCarthy 1-42. L: Shuler 1-0.