SOUTH AMBOY, NJ–On Wednesday evening, GMC Hoops traveled down to Waterfront Park in South Amboy to watch the second annual Thanksgiving Rivalry Game between the Eagles of Cardinal McCarrick, and the Trojans of Bishop Ahr. It was the first Thanksgiving Day game played at the Park, which also hosts high school baseball games for both the Eagles and the Guvs of South Amboy. This game would be the season finale for both teams as McCarrick entered the game with only a 2-7 record while BGA had compiled a 5-4 mark including a first round game loss to Holy Spirit (61-3) in the Non-Public Group III playoffs. It was also senior night at Cardinal McCarrick, where standout players such as Dontre Merricks, Melvin Smith, and Sammy Wright along with the rest of the seniors were honored before their last game in an Eagle uniform.
Although this is a young rivalry in football, the two schools have already had a fierce rivalry in boys basketball. Starting in the 1999-2000 season, these two schools have played each other each year at least once with McCarrick owning the series so far with an 11-2 mark in 13 games played including a 64-61 victory over the Trojans at home on January 27, 2007. While the Eagles have dominated in basketball, Ahr has dominated in football. Last year in the series opener, the Trojans steamrolled Cardy Mac by a score of 46-0 to finish the season at 4-7. Bishop Ahr has historically been a solid program in football with dominant teams in the Greater Middlesex Conference going back to the days when the Trojans were coached by Tony Aschettino, and competed in the GMC White Division when the league was born in the mid 1980s. On the other hand, McCarrick is a fledgling program that was reborn in the late 1990s. Since the 2004 season, the Eagles have compiled a record of just 6-23 including three losses to BGA in this contest. The past two seasons, the Trojans have outscored the Eagles by a combined total of 91-0.
While the home team would finally get on the board for the first time in over ten quarters against its rival, and the game was a bit more respectable, the result was still the same as Bishop Ahr won easily, 41-12. After jumping out to a 7-0 first quarter lead, the Trojans poured it on in the second quarter to break the game open. The visitors from Edison rolled up 27 points on four touchdowns in the frame (one missed extra point). According to the article in the Thursday Star Ledger, Quarterback Larry Belotta, who ended up with over 1,000 yards passing on the season, completed 62.5 percent of his passes for a 160 yards, and threw a TD pass while teammate and running back, Moses Negron, had touchdown runs of 24 and 34 yards as he tallied up 135 yards rushing on 12 carries for an average of 11.25 yards per carry. Negron, who also recorded a milestone in the contest, by going over 1,000 yards rushing on the year, opened the scoring with a 24 yard run in the first quarter that made it 7-0. Then, in the second quarter, BGA put the game away on an 18 yard touchdown run by Jesse Long made it 14-0, and then Belotta followed that up with a 70 yard punt return. Belotta then went to the air for his only touchdown pass of the night when he connected with Matt Sheehy, a member of the BGA basketball team, for a 45 yard touchdown that made the score, 27-0. Capping the first half scoring was Trevor Brummer, who picked up a McCarrick fumble, and ran it in from 28 yards out for a 34-0 halftime lead. Negron wrapped up the Trojan scoring by making it 41-0 in the third quarter on a 34 yard touchdown run.
Arriving at the game late in the third quarter, the web site learned from our Bishop Ahr Hoops Volunteer that the game was well out of hand. Nevertheless, we stayed until the end of the contest, and happened to capture the Eagles only offensive touchdown in the game. The Eagles started their drive at midfield in the fourth quarter, and then got a couple nice runs including one for a first down by Wright. Merricks, who followed Wright’s first down gain with a nice run on a keeper, dropped back to pass on fourth down, scrambled around, and then near the McCarrick sideline, let go a pass to junior wide receiver, Ryan Brock for an eight yard touchdown. The Eagles missed the two point conversion, and that was all the scoring that there would be in this game. With the 29 point victory, Bishop Ahr finished the season at 6-4 overall, and 2-2 in the GMC Blue while Cardinal McCarrick dropped to 2-8 overall, and 0-4 in the GMC Gold. Since 2004, the Trojans have compiled a record of 21-20 overall while going 12-8 in division play. In addition, over that same period, BGA has outscored McCarrick by a combined total of 164-26, or by an average of 41 to 7 each year. View the video highlights of this game at YouTube.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop Ahr (6-4) | 7 | 27 | 7 | 0 | 41 |
| Cardinal McCarrick (2-8) | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 12 |