Despite Grid Loss, Patriots Show Continued Growth Against Rebels

Considering where his team was just one year ago when they took on the Rebels from Howell High School, it was understandable why Freehold Township Football Coach Mike D'Antonio was so proud of his squad. 

After all, the last time these two teams shared the football field the Howell squad beat their Freehold Regional High School District and A North rivals by a punishing 47-0 score. On Friday night it was a much closer game despite the Rebels picking up a 35-22 win on their home field. 

With senior quarterback Ryan MacFarlane matching up against Howell's Ryan Davies the two exchanged scoring drives all throughout the game with the Rebels making that last push they needed to get the win. 

The Freehold coach said it was that ability to close the game that made the difference for the Rebels. "It could have been better, but we're getting there," he said. "We're just working hard. We're young. We've got a lot of young kids and we made young mistakes in the fourth quarter."

Still, through the first two games of the season D'Antonio said the improvement he has seen in his team has been enough to give him plenty of confidence in their future success. "Last week we had 191 yards of offense and we lost 31-6. We had maybe 400 yards of offense all last year and scored 80 points. We're getting better."

The Patriots showed flashes of that potential on both sides of the ball on Friday, including several points where they were holding the lead. They were also the first team to get on the board when Drew Intile capped off an 85 yard clock devouring drive with a 15 yard touchdown run to start the game. 

Running the option offense MacFarlane used a nice balance of keeping the ball himself and handing off to his backs to help the Patriots use as much clock as they could to keep the talented Rebel offense off the field. "You know they're going to score their points and you know he's [Davies] going to get his yards," said the Freehold coach. "We tried to do some things to change it up. We got to him a couple times."

With a young roster D'Antonio said his team still needs to learn how to close out games if they are to make regular appearances in the win column. With players like MacFarlane to turn to, the coach said they have good veteran leaders to learn from. "The kid is a field general, a leader. He runs the ball, he loves it. He makes people miss."

Much like they had done in the first quarter, the second quarter started with the Patriots methodically moving down the field while the minutes ticked off the clock. With a well timed pitch to Dan Bloodgood gave the Patriots a short lived 14-7 lead over their hosts.

Even when they could not stop Davies from unleashing a long pass down the field, the Patriot's defense did all it could to get to him during the game including several punishing hits and one interception. On the next drive following Bloodgood's score the Rebel quarterback was taken down hard by Manny Maragoto.

On the very next play, the Patriots got to see what makes Davies such a highly regarded player in the conference as he unspooled a long range touchdown pass to tie the game.

The one interception the Patriots picked up on Friday also helped keep the game close as Mike Coppa picked a Davies pass on the Rebel 3-yard-line t prevent another score for the home team. 

This was MacFarlane's first game against the Rebels as the quarterback for his team, but said he could see the improvement in his squad and believed that success will continue in the future. "We understand the offense more," he said. "This is our second year running it and we have people believing in our program finally."

Despite not getting the win, the quarterback said his team now knows they could have had a few breaks gone their way. "We know we can hang with good teams," he said. "None of us have our heads down. None of us are going to let this affect us next week. We're going to work our butts off in practice and we're going to do our job and we're going to try to win."

The Patriots will continue their search for the first win of the season next Friday when they are scheduled to travel to take on Middletown South.