Shorter lifts South Brunswick to football playoff win over Old Bridge

With its star quarterback lost to an injury in the first quarter, the South Brunswick High School football team relied on dynamic playmaker Justin Shorter to rally the Vikings to a thrilling 21-10 comeback victory over Old Bridge in the Central Group V semifinals on Friday night.

Shorter scored on a 65-yard run out of the wildcat formation and returned an interception 69 yards for a touchdown to help the second-seeded Vikings (9-1) advance to the sectional final against top-seeded and unbeaten Manalapan (11-0).

“If you look at Justin tonight, he had that (game-tying 65-yard touchdown) run, which was a great equalizer, and he obviously had a pickoff at the end,” South Brunswick head coach Joe Goerge said of Shorter, a Penn State University commit who is widely regarded as one of the state’s best two-way players as a receiver and cornerback.

“Those are the things Justin is capable of doing. Justin could have 10 or 15 catches a game on some offenses, but it (playing in a triple-option scheme) never really bothered him.”

Goerge said he and his staff may have been asking a little too much initially out of backup signal caller Gage Katzenell-Hall, a sophomore who replaced starter Felix Quinones after he left the game with an elbow injury seven minutes into the contest.

“We’re not exactly sure what it was,” Goerge said of Quinones’ injury, noting that the team doctor examined Quinones and that Quinones said his elbow was feeling better after the game. “We certainly hope we get him back for Manalapan.”

Instead of relying on Katzenell-Hall to run the triple option, the Vikings put together a run package at halftime that would allow South Brunswick’s stable of backs to be involved in the offense.

While South Brunswick was unable to register a first down on the opening series of the third quarter, the Vikings controlled the line of scrimmage and were able to run downhill on their ensuing series, a 52-yard scoring march which Thomas Joe-Kamara capped with a 6-yard run.

Joe-Kamara’s touchdown run was the ninth play of the drive which featured just one pass, a key 13-yard completion from Shorter to wideout Hussain Abidi on a third-and-6 from the Old Bridge 48 that kept alive the march.

Shorter, Jaylan Lawson, Dylan Kriz, Katzenell-Hall and Joe-Kamara all had key carries on the drive, which gave the Vikings a 14-10 lead with 2:11 left in the third quarter.

“(Gage) had worked real hard in practice and given us a lot of good looks,” Goerge said. “We probably did a few things too risky in the first half with him. We probably should have let him settle down. That was my fault. We put together a little run package (at halftime) that we thought he could handle and get him into a situation where we were able to run the ball and get that score. I think that did a lot for his confidence in the third and fourth quarter.”

The palpable shift in momentum – Joe-Kamara’s touchdown run fired up the South Brunswick student section and marching band – carried over to the defensive side of the ball, where the Vikings forced a three-and-out and then made a huge stop on fourth-and-inches on Old Bridge’s ensuing series.

Linebacker Mike Slover stuffed Chancellor Cooper, standing him up at the line of scrimmage on the aforementioned fourth down play, as the Vikings took the ball over on downs near midfield with six minutes remaining.

After South Brunswick went three-and-out on the ensuing series, Old Bridge took over at its own 26 with three minutes remaining. Quarterback Anthony Imbimbo drove the Knights to midfield before disaster struck on second-and-4 from the Old Bridge 48. Wide receiver Ryan Rougeau appeared to be open for a split second, but Shorter stepped in front of Imbimbo’s intended pass across the middle of the field for a game-clinching interception. Shorter caught the pass in stride and took off down the left sideline, where he raced unscathed 69 yards for a 21-10 lead with just over a minute remaining.

“I had to step up big-time,” Shorter said. “All the work I’ve been putting in Monday through Friday paid off. It was a crazy way to finish, and now we’re going to be up there in the championship game. It’s awesome.”

Old Bridge was limited to 118 yards from scrimmage and just three first downs. The Knights were just 14 percent (2 of 14) on third down. Imbimbo had 30 of his team’s yards on a run that set up Old Bridge’s first touchdown.

South Brunswick, whose triple option mirrors that of Old Bridge, did not fare much better on offense. The Vikings were limited to 166 yards, all but 13 of which came on the ground. South Brunswick was just 13 percent (1 of 8) on third down.

A pair of turnovers aided Old Bridge, as the Knights turned two fumbles into a touchdown and a field goal to build their 10-7 halftime lead.

Quinones, who entered the contest as South Brunswick’s leading rusher with 749 yards and 13 touchdowns, not to mention his 542 yards and nine touchdowns passing, injured his throwing elbow on a pass attempt late in the first quarter.

The Vikings fumbled away the ball on their next offensive play. Damian Lewocha recovered the loose ball at the South Brunswick 43, from which the Vikings drove the rest of the field to take a 7-0 lead. Imbimbo’s 30-yard run on fourth-and-3 from the South Brunswick 36 set up Cooper for a 2-yard touchdown run.

Shorter answered on the very next play from scrimmage with a 65-yard scoring jaunt out of the wildcat formation to even the contest at 7-7 with nine minutes remaining in the first half.

South Brunswick fumbled yet again on its very next play from scrimmage. Kamal Sanders’ recovery gave the Knights excellent field position at the Vikings’ 20-yard line. Old Bridge, however, was unable to get a first down and had to settle for a Calogero Caruso 35-yard field goal that gave the Knights a 10-7 lead with 4:33 left in the opening half.

Old Bridge, which fell to South Brunswick 35-6 in the season-opener for both schools, was a vastly improved team that entered the playoff semifinal with a six-game winning streak including victories over defending sectional champions Sayreville and Piscataway.

The Knights (7-3) can clinch a share of the Red Division title, which they will split with Piscataway and South Brunswick, with a victory over East Brunswick on Thanksgiving Day.

South Brunswick will play North Brunswick on Thanksgiving eve – a game in which Quinones will definitely sit out – before taking on Manalapan for the Central Group V championship at a site (either Rutgers University, Kean University or MetLife Stadium) and on a date (somewhere between Nov. 30 through Dec. 3) to be determined.