BARNEGAT - It’s been four years – 2014 to be exact when the Bengals lost to Buena in the South Jersey Group II first round – that Barnegat football has qualified for the state playoffs.
They’ve been close – recording consecutive 5-5 seasons the last two years, but just missing the cut. And it certainly isn’t due to any lack of effort, preparation or desire to succeed on the players’ part, as they are an extension of their head coach Rob Davis – a demanding, laborious leader, who is one of the most respected head coaches in the Shore Conference.
If you do your math correctly, however, you’ll find that none of the current 18 seniors on the team has ever experienced a playoff football game in their high school careers – a streak that this year’s group feels confident they can put an end to – for good reason.
“It’s definitely exciting; we’ve been looking forward to this year since sophomore year when we all started playing varsity,” said senior tight end Sean Morris. With all our guys coming back we’re looking forward to having a good season. In our time at Barnegat we have not gone to the playoffs and that’s always on our mind, but it starts with winning each individual game, winning the division and then moving onward after that.”
The Bengals return nine starters on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball this season and you can make a good argument that the Bengals will not only qualify for the state playoffs, but they’ll win their first playoff game since the 2013 team that went 10-2 and advanced to the South Jersey Group III final.
Senior quarterback Brian Finucan is back behind center after a solid junior campaign – his first as a starter. The 6-foot-2 signal caller is a pocket passer who is athletic enough to avoid the pass rush and take off when nothings there. Finucan went 58-of-106 in pass attempts for 1010 yards and eight touchdowns with six interceptions. You can expect those numbers to improve as he continues to mature as a quarterback and better defines his role as a leader.
“We’re definitely clicking a lot better than we were last year,” Finucan said of the offense. “We all know our stuff and are ready to go. We’re really ready; we think we’ve got a shot to really make some noise this year. We’re a threat both on the ground and in the air.”
Morris is Finucan’s main target – for good reason. The 6-foot-3, 228-pound Holy Cross University commit was a first-team All-Shore selection a year ago when he hauled in 38 Finucan passes for 671 yards and eight touchdowns. Morris is big and strong and is an exceptional blocking tight end as well as receiver. The Finucan-to-Morris connection has the potential to be one of the most dangerous in the Shore.
Wide receiver is the least experienced position group returning for the Bengals but they feel they have a trio of receivers that can draw some of the attention away from Morris by opening things up down field. Junior Devyn DeFilipo (6-foot-2, 175 pounds) is the only starter back from a year ago and he assumed that role for only four games, catching just four balls for 163 yards but one of those was an 80-yard touchdown.
Juniors Dominique Dorphin and Caleb Schafer step into starting roles this season with Schafer having seen limited action in nine games a year ago with one catch.
At running back, workhorse Charlie Cotton is back after carrying the ball 208 times last season for 1016 yards (4.9 yards per carry) and 10 touchdowns and catching seven passes out of the backfield for 85 yards. The 5-foot-10, 205-pound Cotton is blessed with a combination of power and speed giving him ability to run over or outrun would-be tacklers. Senior Mike Godfrey – a starting linebacker – will back up Cotton and 5-foot-11, 219-pound Brian Ewan, who is the starting middle linebacker, is back at fullback.
Four out of five starters are back on the offensive line including: 6-foot-2, 276-pound right senior right tackle Philip Gogarty, 6-foot-3, 238-pound junior left tackle Griffin Jackstadt, 6-foot-1, 268-pound center Tim Lauterbach, 6-foot, 244-pound senior right guard Joe Lauer. Six-foot senior Eric Feroldi gets the starting assignment at left guard with 6-foot, 278-pound senior Anthony Grimes, 6-foot-3, 229-pound sophomore T.J. Stokes and 5-foot-9, 220- pound senior John Pannone the primary backups.
After finishing in the lower half in scoring defense (21.6 ppg) a year ago, the Bengals feel confident that with nine returning starters back they’ll improve that number dramatically. The line returns three of four starters including: Morris and Pannone at defensive end and Grimes, who was an All-Division selection, at tackle. Six-foot-2, 195-pound sophomore Robert Armstrong Jr. worked his way into the fourth starting spot at tackle after shining in preseason.
Morris collected 41 tackles, 3.5 sacks, two interceptions and team highs in TFL (15) and quarterback pressures (14) from his end spot. Grimes added 39 tackles, four TFL, one sack, a fumble recovery and five quarterback pressures, while Pannone recorded 40 tackles, one sack, six TFL and five quarterback pressures.
“Defense is definitely a big part of my game,” said Morris, who will play tight end at Holy Cross. “I love to bring the intensity on the defensive side as well as the offensive side. I’ll do anything to help out my team whether it’s offense, defense or special teams.”
Jackstadt and Lauer are the backups at end while 5-foot-9, 175-pound junior Dominic Aneses and 5-foot-9, 210-pound senior Noah Mattiello will spell at tackle.
All-B South selection Ewan is back in the middle at linebacker; Cotton moves to linebacker from the safety where he was All-Division a year ago and Godfrey will man the “WILL” spot, giving the Bengals a formidable starting trio of linebackers. Juniors Rashidi Alleyne, Schafer and Aaron Osborn will back those three up.
Ewan led the team with 83 tackles including 11 TFL, one sack and an interception.
In the secondary, three starters are back including: junior Matt Scott, who started three games at strong safety last season, senior Sean Madej at free safety and senior Tristan Porcelli at cornerback. The 6-foot-2 DeFilipo gets the nod at the cornerback spot opposite Porcelli.
Madej was third on the team with 64 tackles and had a team-high four passes defended with one interception while Porcelli recorded 33 tackles and three TFL.
“Defense is a big thing for us in Barnegat and we always hone in on that,” Ewan said. “Our defensive coaches always do a good job with that and we’re just really excited to have nine seniors coming back – it’s very big for us. We’re looking awesome right now in practice, everyone’s doing their job.”
If everyone continues to do their jobs, there’s no reason this team can’t make the playoffs and get that first playoff win since 2013, and from there, who knows how far they can go.
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