Spotswood Rolls Past Neighborhood Rival South River, 76-55
SPOTSWOOD, NJ–Every year it always seems to happen. Teams will lose to other teams that they should beat, and then they defeat a team that beat those other teams. Ok, I’ll give an example. Spotswood, which lost to South Amboy (77-71) and Dunellen (56-55) earlier this year, not only defeated South River, it rolled to a 20 plus point victory. The Rams defeated South Amboy three times including two victories by 25 points or more while they split with Dunellen.
According to the South River volunteer that was at the game, Spotswood scored 35 points in the first quarter, and never looked back. The Chargers, which entered the game at 3-9, and on a four game losing streak, didn’t let the Rams get within 15 points. South River did have Tyler Harris, one of its two players that had been sidelined with a sprained ankle, play in the contest, but it didn’t make much difference. Leading 57-42 at the start of the fourth, the Chargers got a three pointer from Dalonte Grant for a 60-42 lead, and then got another three from Tommy Soulias for a 65-47 lead.
The reserves got a lot of play time in this one as Spotswood ended up winning by 21. The Chargers did lose a lot to graduation from last year’s GMCT Final Four team that lost to St. Joseph’s including 1,000 point scorer Cody Pace, Tyler Osofsky, and Allen Kuiper. However, they still had the likes of Tommy Soulias returning along with Garrett Walters as well as players from a JV squad that went 15-5 last year, and reached the quarterfinals of the 2010 East Brunswick/GMC JV Tournament before losing to Carteret.
Spotswood and South River have long been neighborhood rivals that played each other twice a year when they were both in the GMC Blue, but the Rams moved down to the Gold Division for this season, and was playing the Chargers in a crossover.