I caught a couple more scrimmages since the Friday post, Toms River North-St. Rose Saturday and Freehold Twp.-Manasquan. Here are some notes from those games, as well as some other goings-on around the conference.
-Manasqaun looks legit. The Warriors tied Freehold Twp. 1-1, but gave up an own goal in the second half. After watching the first two scrimmages on Friday and Saturday, the thing that struck me about Manasquan was that they look exactly the same as when I saw them last year. And I saw them in the playoffs against Raritan. Considering their slow starts that have plagued them the last two years, coach Mark Levy has to love that his team is pretty much picking up right where they left off.
-One of the reasons Manasquan might have looked so good against the Pats was the absence of midfielder Bobby Searby, who sat out with a minor leg injury. They have some size in the back and skill in the middle, but not everyone looked on the same page. They lost some key senior starters, so the lag is understandable. Free-T will be a tough team when healthy.
-I wouldn't want to play Toms River North in any tournament. The Mariners have eight seniors starters who played in two tough postseason losses last year (a 1-0 loss to Howell in the SCT and a shootout loss to Washington Twp. in the SJ IV first round) and eight sophomores from a freshman team that went 24-0-1 last year. A ninth sophomore, Todd Webb, played with the varsity team last year, and should be a step ahead of the rest of the talented class. While coach Dave Mitchell has to be dreaming about 2009, the sophomores could add enough to the mix to make 2007 a big year for North.
-I've already heard the hype for the M's freshman prodigy Jeff Sheck. TR East coach Ted Gillen raved about him when I talked to him last Friday, saying he would be the best player in the Shore Conference down the line. Mitchell isn't rushing Sheck into the lineup and is trying to control any expectations people might have for Sheck.
"He's very physically mature, but he's still adjusting to the speed of the high school game,'' Mitchell said. "He's going to learn though and he can give some size in the meantime, which we're lacking in."
-St. Rose played TR North tough, and they have enough back from last year to be considered the B Central favorite. Time will tell if I, myself, consider them as such, but if a B-Central team can look like they belong on the field with a team like North, that's a start. I'll have a better idea if I see Rumson at all before the season, possibly tomorrow against Wall.
-Some of you may be wondering why I didn't watch the Manalapan-Jackson game on Saturday. I had a Neptune football practice to cover in the morning and didn't get out of there until about 11 a.m., so the 10 a.m. scrimmage in Manalapan was out the window. So instead I checked out the TRN-St. Rose 11 a.m. scrimmage in Wall, which was far more convenient.
-Just because I wasn't in Manalapan Saturday, doesn't mean I didn't get anything on the news front. Believe it or not, I didn't ask anyone the score, which just goes to show you how much I care about that in my evaluation (it also shows you my absent-mindedness). By all accounts, Alex Morgans was spectacular in goal for the Jags and totally shut down the Braves scoring. A lot of the Monmouth County coaches and fans don't follow him as regularly as they do the A North keepers like Jake Grinkevich (Manalapan) and Mike Roura (Middletown South), but he might be the better than all of them.
One A-North coach who was at the game told me Morgans basically dominated Manalapan's attack while he was in the game, saving every shot in sight.
"And we're talking diving saves on shots two yards in front of the net,'' the coach said. "He was incredible."
The same coach told me a week before that Grinkevich was the best keeper in the Shore, but said after watching Morgans, Jackson's senior might be better than Manalapan's junior. He'll have to be if the Jags are going to make a run to the Shore Conference championship.
Morgans sat for most of the second half with a tight quad muscle, according to Jackson coach Steve Bado, which allowed Manalapan to score twice. Bado said his Rutgers-bound keeper would be in under normal circustances, but they didn't want to push it.
Grinkevich also missed the game with an apparent injury. I'd heard a couple different things from different sources about what it was, so I wanted to confirm the injury with someone from Manalapan before printing anything, which I haven't been able to do yet. Word is that it's nothing serious, much like Morgans' injury.
**Edit: Jake Grinkevich sprained his ankle in playing North Carolina earlier this summer and has been day-to-day, according to head coach John Natoli. He said Grinkevich was looking to play in Friday's scrimmage against East Brunswick, but it's still up in the air. Indications are that he'll be ready for the season-opener against CBA on Sept. 7, but Natoli wants him to get some work in first. Then again, if Jake Grinkevich says he's good to go, do you really think Natoli would say no?** -Howell's grabbed a couple preseason wins over a young Holmdel team and an overmatched Point Boro team, but the Rebels are still trying to figure out how to replace Mike Krol and Paul Calafiore from last year's 16-2-2 squad. Krol was arguably the best sweeper in the Shore and Calafiore could play anywhere on the field at a high level. Coach Rich Yuro said he's looking at Billy Kappock as a possible replacement for Krol. Kappock played in the middle last year, which concerns Yuro because he has been unable to get comfortable replacing the spot of someone he moves to sweeper. Despite the losses, Howell is still loaded, and even if they have some warts, the Rebels are going to be a top-three team in the Shore at the start of the season.
-Also from the Howell camp, Kyle Bethel hasn't played due to the lingering effects of a sprained ankle he suffered a few weeks back, Yuro said. This is generally the approach to nicks and bruises in the preseason, so probably not much to read into.
-There are a few more injuries and tidbits I'm trying to get confirmation on, which I'll post when I get them. Feel free to clue me in anything if you feel I've missed something noteworthy.
**Edit: Central forward Clay Gashlin the fibula bone in his right leg in early August and is out until at least the end of September, coach Rob Bechtloft confirmed. Gashlin is one of the best goal scorers in Class B South, so the Golden Eagles would be fortunate just to hang around .500 until he gets back, which is not guaranteed with an injury like that.**Preview to begin later this week. I'm not sure which division I'm kicking it off with, but judging on the amount of info. I have from the coaches, it'll probably be B South. That's not set in stone though, so keep checking back to catch anyone of interest.
