Mustangs roll over Freehold Twp. 51-7

If anyone had any questions about whether new football coach Walter Currie's triple options schemes were taking hold at Brick Memorial, they were answered on Saturday night ... with an exclamation point.

Bouncing back from a 41-20 opening victory over Long Branch, the Mustangs thrilled their home fans with a 51-7 trouncing of Freehold Township as Greg Penta threw two touchdown passes and ran 65 yards for another while Keith Bruno tacked on two running scores.

"I think we're as close as we're going to be," said Penta of adjusting to the new offense from the I formation last season under former coach Fred Sprengel. "Every day we're more comfortable. We were close (to grasping it) after our last game but Long Branch was 10-for-11 in third downs and when that happens, you don't have the ball much."

"They're absolutely picking up the schemes," said Currie. "It doesn't matter what we run as long as we have the kind of kids who work hard."

The words clearly paralleled the sentiment of Rutgers coach Greg Schiano about his very successful team.

"It's funny to hear that because my dad and his dad went to East Rutherford High together," said Currie.

It showed in the first half when the Mustangs rolled to a 37-0 lead and looked like the team that has been in the NJSIAA playoffs the past four years. And the offensive explosion surpassed anything seen last season when the team had all-time career rushing leader Vin Falkiewicz in the backfield.

"It was really good to see that," said Currie. "The biggest positive is the kids did a good job of keeping their heads up after a loss and continued to work and learn. They showed a tremendous amount of commitment and continued to believe in each other."

"We have to run the ball," said Penta as the offense churned out 360 yards, 273 on the ground. "We can't rely on the pass. We want to establish the line of scrimmage."

Brick Memorial's defense under coordinator Pete Brennan held Freehold to 110 yards net offense. Freehold's touchdown did not come off the starting unit.

"It was the whole defense. It showed a great improvement from last week," said Currie. That includes a linebacking corps a 3-5 formation that the Mustangs shifted to on Saturday of solid two-way players Bruno, who rushed for 77 yards and Mike Kiley, who led the rushing attack with 79 yards on 16 carries, and

Matt Kampf as well as Sean Canaley and Glenn McGinnis, both of

whom caught touchdown

passes. Also excelling, said

Currie, were had hitting

linemen Mark Pagnozzi, Anthony D'Elia and Bill Miller and a secondary in which Brian Staub played at one cornerback spot and Joe Pittius

and Alex Berardi alternated at the other cornerback spot and Anthony Piezzo played safety.

"Defense and special teams gave us great field position all night long," said Currie. "We had short field and good execution near the red zone. We did a better job on first downs this week of having second down and short yardage and third down and short yardage situations."

That seemed apparent in Freehold's brief, opening series when it was forced to punt from the shadow of its own goal posts and snapped the ball out of the end zone for a safety. Shortly afterward, Penta connected with McCossen on a 22-yard scoring play. Bruno's touchdowns came on runs of 12 and 11 yards and Kiley ran three yards for his score while Piezzo scampered 22 yards for another touchdown. Canaley pulled in a 22- yard scoring pass from Penta.

"We improved as a team this week," said Currie. "It's important that we stepped up and it's important that we keep improving."

Currie will have to sustain that progress during the team's bye week before going on the road the following Friday night to play Southern, which had its bye weekend last weekend after knocking off Jackson, 6-0, in its opener.