Middlesex Wins Second Straight To Start Season With 65-50 Win Over Spotswood
MIDDLESEX, NJ–Sitting with a raucous crowd in the Eastern side bleachers at Middlesex High School’s gym, i witnessed the hometown Blue Jays systematically dismantle and defeat the Chargers of Spotswood in GMC Blue Division action on Monday night. Using a crisp passing attack which led to many easy lay-ups, and an outside arieal attack which disabled Spotswood from keying on any one player, led to the Jays running out to an early lead and pulling out a rather easy victory.
Using their weapons to theit advantage and keeping Spotswood a pass behind them, were the keys to Middlesex racing out to an 10-4 advantage. Finishing the first quarter 18-12 was the first dunk of the season for Middlesex center Nick Fariella who stole the ball from Ross Gerhart and ran in uncontested for the slam. Leading the way for Spotswood was Cody Pace and Ross Gerhart, whose perfect 8 of 8 Free throw preformance combined in the first quarter single handedly kept the Chargers in the game.
None such happenings occured in the second though as Middlesex played such good fundamental basketball as it had a plus twelve for the quarter at 22-10 and was two fold Spotswood at the break 40-20. As with the South River game, the Jays exhibited a balanced scoresheet with all five starters at six or more points with three of the five in double figures.
The third quarter was the mixer of the cement cake that was this game. While Spotswood came out fired up with two shots made by Gerhart and Nick Olesinski respectively, the Jays were able to wrestle control of the quarter and the game effectively for good. A 5-0 run by Middlesex after a Vinny Vizzi tip in gave them the quarter 13-8.
Starting off the fourth quarter the Chargers applied a full court press which the Jays were ready for. With Sparky Stockton accumilating 3 of his 5 assists and Nick Fariella with 4 of his 9 points they were able to make the final push to get the second string players some time on the hardwood. With the game far out of hand and the Middlesex JV team playing, Gerhart and Pace added 5 points apiece while Kyle Paul Adams hit a transition lay-up which sent the crowd into roars.
#10 Middlesex (2-0) hosts the (1-1) Metuchen Bulldogs fresh off a schlacking from Bishop Ahr, while the (0-2) Chargers play home to #2 Cardinal McCarrick both on Thursday. With the victory, Middlesex won its first two games of season since Brian Feath took over as head coach in the 2005-06 season. In addition, the last time any Middlesex team won its first two games was back in the 2000-01 season when the Blue Jays upset sixth seeded, and defending GMCT champ Sayreville, and reached the Elite Eight of that year’s tourney as well as the CJ Group I Championship. See the scorecard, top three players of the game, and team statistics from this game. Also, you can read the Spotswood perspective on this game by taking a look at the post by our Charger Volunteer.
Scorecard
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final |
| #10 Middlesex (2-0) | 18 | 22 | 13 | 12 | 65 |
| Spotswood (0-2) | 12 | 10 | 8 | 20 | 50 |
Three Stars of the Game
1. Sparky Stockton – Quietly unspectacular is the preffered venacular for Sparky who virtually clinched the top spot by leading the game not only in points and rebounds but was an integral part of the transition game.
2. Nick Fariella – A major factor in the first half where his athletisicm and leaping ability not only help electrify his teammates but also demoralize Spotswood with his breakaway slam in the second.
3. Cody Pace – Practically held Spotswood in the game with 6-6 from the stripe in the first quarter. Added a few other points later in the game to equal fourteen.
Team Statistics
| # | Middlesex | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Fouls | Blocks |
| 23 | Nick Fariella | 9 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| 20 | Sparky Stockton | 20 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 12 | John Stockton | 11 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Billy Lester | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 5 | Mike Perone | 11 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| 1 | Ryan Farley | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 | Mike Colacci | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 14 | Kyle Paul Adams | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 33 | Mike Fincher | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 31 | Rob Menditto | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 24 | Adam Wells | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 65 | 28 | 18 | 8 | 11 | 5 | |
| # | Spotswood | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Fouls | Blocks |
| 11 | Ross Gerhart | 16 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| 00 | Joe Petosa | Did Not Play | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 | Nick Olesinski | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| 14 | Pat Dwyer | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 22 | Cody Pace | 14 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 44 | Vinny Vizzi | 2 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 32 | Alex Sharoykin | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 | James Pareti | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 24 | Jake Skarzynski | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | Tyler Osofsky | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 31 | Mike Limming | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 50 | 24 | 13 | 9 | 11 | 3 |