Mustangs Pop Warner squad goes undefeated

Since 1991 when the Brick Mustangs first joined the Jersey Shore Pop Warner Junior Football League, its heaviest Midget Division team never finished unbeaten.

That is, until last weekend, when coach Gerry Spanola's squad sealed an 8-0 finish convincingly with a 22-0 victory over Freehold on Saturday night at home. A lot of that credit goes to Anthony Miller, who ran 20 yards for the Mustangs' first touchdown and closed holes at his middle guard position as he has all season. It was the second straight shutout for the Mustangs, who also had one early in the season.

"He's a very valuable part of our offense and at middle guard he was the most disruptive (on defense)," said Spanola of Miller. "He's the quickest offensive back to get hit as our fullback and takes a hit every time we run a play as our lead blocker and he's also the quickest to hit someone while he's on defense. He gets hit every play. Without him making the contributions he does, we're not the same team."

Cody Pinho, who scored the second touchdown on a 15-yard pass from Ray Cieplinski in the third quarter, also played solidly on defense at linebacker along with Joe Ruocco, who got a turnover for the fourth game in a row when he recovered a fumble. Ruocco had interceptions in the three previous games.

Shaquan Reid made a spectacular one-handed catch of a Cieplinski pass that led to the quarterback's 12- yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

"We played real well," said Spanola. "This is the best week we had on defense in the past few weeks. We're playing well and we're healthy and we're starting to peak. We've been stumbling over ourselves putting teams away but not over the past few weeks. We feel very confident as a coaching staff. Things are clicking and falling into place."

The Mustang Midgets need to be at their best as they begin defense of their Shore B South Division championship in the playoff semifinals this weekend against the loser of a coin flip between River Plaza and Point Pleasant, which tied for third place. The winner of that coin flip that took place early this week plays the Brick Dragons, who were the division runnerup after moving over this season from the A Division.

The Dragons Midgets, which closed a 6-2 regular season with a 36-6 blitz of Jackson, are one of three teams from the five-team program to reach the playoffs. The other two are the Dragons Pee Wees and the Dragons Junior Pee Wee White team, which also sealed an unbeaten season and did not allow a point while finishing in first place for the second straight year. Coach Tom Holland's Junior Pee Wee White team last weekend nosed out Jackson, 6-0, as Matt Gerrity capped off a seven-minute drive with a three-yard touchdown run with 50 seconds left. Now the squad will look for a second straight conference playoff championship beginning this weekend.

Coach Tony Cuccinello's Dragons Midgets got two touchdowns from son Doug at fullback in their rout while Brendan Darcy and Victor Rivera also ran for touchdowns and Bruce Weber hooked up with Mark Bixenman on a 21-yard touchdown pass play. Andrew Cruz connected on three conversion kicks and excelled on defense at tackle along with cornerback Dan DePaul and end Dan Wojtaszek.

"Three teams headed to the playoffs. You've got to be pleased about that. I don't know if the Dragons ever had that before,"

said Dragons Football Commissioner Kevin Matthews, whose Pee Wee team he coaches routed Jackson, 27- 12, to finish 7-1. With Southern beating River Plaza, it set up a three-way tie for first place with both teams and the Dragons and the league will decide by midweek how to break the tie. Brian Matthews scored three touchdowns for the Dragons Pee Wees on runs of 67 and 15 yards and a 20- yard reception from Dan Berg, who also connected with Joe Webb on a 55-yard

scoring pass play. Joe DiLauro kicked one conversion and Christian Casselli ran in another. Defensively, it was the usual strong efforts of Craig Levine, Ray Fattaruso and Dan Finelli while Matthews praised the blocking of his first and second units of offensive linemen.

In other games, the Dragons Junior Pee Wee Green continued to play better in the second half of the season and closed a 4-4 campaign with a 27-0 triumph over Howell behind Matt Schleifer's two touchdowns. Malcolm Vaughn also ran for a touchdown and Ken Cushman caught a four-yard scoring strike from quarterback Jake Scott. The Dragons Junior Midgets lost, 12-0, to Manasquan although David Kearns, Drew Scott, Tyler Sams and Steve Cimino earned praise for their efforts.

As for the Mustangs, they may have another team make the playoffs in the Junior Midgets that closed the regular season with a decisive victory over Middletown to finish in a three-way tie for fourth place with Freehold and Jackson. The league will discuss tonight how the ties will be broken in time for this weekend's playoffs.

The Mustangs Junior Pee Wees lost, 24- 12, and the Pee Wees lost, 20-0, to Freehold.