Local teams use early bye weeks to get better

BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI
Staff Writer

MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Brick's Jordan Roschala fights for some yardage during the Green Dragons' loss to Manalapan on Sept. 21 in Brick. How beneficial is a bye week for the two high school football teams in Brick?

That question will unfold over the next two Friday nights for Brick Memorial, which comes off a bye week and plays host to Southern Regional at 7 p.m., along with Brick Township, which is off this weekend after dropping a 19-7 verdict to Manalapan to fall to 1-2.

"We had a very good week," said Brick Memorial coach Fred Sprengel, whose 1-1 team comes off a 7-0 victory over Freehold Township. "We shortened our workouts a little and worked hard and worked on conditioning."

The focus for both teams in their respective schedule breaks is cutting down on offensive errors.

"We're eliminating breakdowns," said Sprengel, who said he did not mind having the off week, even this early in the season. "We feel no one has stopped us but we stopped ourselves with mistakes and penalties, some of them questionable."

But Sprengel said his team is "fully focused" as it looks to stay in contention in the Shore Conference American Division and contend for a fourth straight berth in the NJSIAA playoffs after reaching the Group IV, Central Jersey championship game last season and three years ago.

"We have to improve [on threats] in the red zone and on third-down conversions," said Sprengel, who expressed satisfaction with the progress made by junior Greg Penta as the new quarterback, succeeding three-year starter Chris James, as well as the play of the defense. "We'll look to establish a little more of a passing game."

And Sprengel wants the execution to be a little sharper on offense, which will be helped by the expected return of running back and punter Mike Kiley after he missed the last game with an ankle injury. Kicker Dan Burke handled the punting chores in Kiley's absence.

"But we pride ourselves on how we're on the plus side of the turnovers ratio the last few years and we've had a few turnovers in our first two games," said Sprengel.

Sprengel characterized Southern as "a big, physical team with a hard ground game and which passed the ball well. They'll be looking to avenge last year's opening-game loss, and this is a huge game for us, a playoff game."

Brick Township also sees its next game against Lacey after being off this weekend as a very important game. The team is at a crossroads in a 1-2 start and must regroup if it wants to return to the playoffs after missing the postseason last fall for the first time in the team's history. The team plays Lacey next Friday at 7 p.m. in its homecoming game.

"It's probably going to be our biggest game of the season," said Joe Cusanelli, a running back and linebacker. "We just went through some tough breaks. This is a big week and we've got to try to get in some good practices."

It is a strange scheduling situation for Brick Township. Two games ago, its game was rescheduled by one day because of wet grounds - a 7-0 loss to Toms River North - and then it had to come back and play Manalapan last Thursday, only five days later. Now, it is off for 15 days.

Coach Warren Wolf said he does not mind having the bye week, customarily scheduled at the end of the season, moved to late September.

"It's better in the middle of the season. I kind of welcome it," said Wolf. "This will enable our injured players to get well."

And it will allow sophomore starting quarterback Jordan Roschala to fine-tune his game. Roschala scored a touchdown on a three-yard run in the first quarter that helped Brick Township strike first. The Green Dragons were held to 67 rushing yards, just 24 after halftime, when Manalapan rallied from a 7-6 deficit.

"The big thing is our inability to get the ball downfield," said Wolf.

"We have a lot of work to do. We have to get ourselves prepared better and our next game will show what kind of football team we have. Nobody expected us to be 1-2 and we can't seem to get our offense going."

Like Sprengel, Wolf said he is satisfied with his team's defense and will not point to the large number of young players in the lineup as a reason for what he considered "some things breaking down."

"We've had two scrimmages and three games, so they're all experienced right now," said Wolf. "It's more a matter of performance."

Scott Davis, who spends a lot of the time on the field as a receiver, defensive player and place kicker, shares his coach's feelings.

"Our offense has to start executing plays. We're in an offensive slump, and that's what the bye week does for us, to work out the kinks," said Davis.

"The defense is playing strong, but it's on the field most of the game because the offense is not keeping ball possession."

"The offense hasn't come together yet," said Cusanelli.

The Green Dragons can only hope that, with the down time, it will.