Balanced Attack Helps Trojans Roll Past Owls
NORTH EDISON, NJ–Like a lot of teams in the Greater Middlesex Conference, the 2012-13 edition of the Bishop Ahr Trojans took significant losses to graduation last year. The team lost all, but one player to graduation from last year’s roster. The most significant of those losses were Roger Kilgore (Yale for football), Dillon Salva (Kean for football), and Kenny Virden (Wesley College for football). So, Ahr has a lot of new faces.
The only player returning from last year is Mike Jensen, who was a standout football player for BGA during the fall. Trojans did get some veteran help with the transfer of Owen McLeod from St. Joseph’s. Now, in his junior year, McLeod played on the St. Joseph’s-Green team that defeated South Plainfield (54-41) in the 2011 Perth Amboy/GMC Freshmen Tournament Championship. In his sophomore year, McLeod was a key player in the JV’s undefeated season that included three victories over East Brunswick. One of those wins over the Junior Bears was for the 2012 East Brunswick/JV GMC Tournament Championship.
In addition to Jensen and McLeod, there is Tom Duffy, Greg Patuto, and Tom Weiler. All five of these BGA players contributed to a balanced scoring attack that helped the Trojans build a 50-24 lead by the late portion of the third quarter, and ultimately to a 62-47 victory over Highland Park. The Trojans also have a very solid sophomore class. Eleven different players scored for Bishop Ahr, which led by 28 points on a couple of occasions in the fourth quarter before Highland Park finished the game by scoring 15 of the last 17 points. Duffy and McLeod led all BGA scorers with 12 points each while Jensen, Patuto, and Weiler each added seven.
Highland Park had the two high scorers in the game in Nadre Hepburn (21 points) and Jordan Long (17 points). However, the Owls only had five players break into the scoring column, and three of them go no more than four points. On top of that, Hepburn scored 11 of his 21 points in the final 2:53 of the game in the midst of the Owls 15-2 tear to close the contest, and make the score more respectable. The Owls have a good deal back from last year including Hepburn, their best player, Long, David Webb (had 3 points in the game), and Harry Landis. Highland Park has some good athletes in Hepburn, Long, and Webb. All three play football during the fall. The Owls need to work better on the defensive side of the ball though. Too much reaching.
Since losing its opener on the road at Carteret, BGA has won three straight to improved to 3-1. All games played by the Trojans so far this season have been within the Blue Division. With the win, Ahr was able to stay within a half game of first place, which is currently owned by three teams: Carteret (3-0), Piscataway Tech (3-0), and Spotswood (3-0). Looks like a fairly good race developing in the division this year. Highland Park fell to 0-4 with the loss. Over the holidays, Bishop Ahr will be playing in the Keith Benovengo Memorial Tournament in Scotch Plains with a first round matchup against the host school Raiders at 4:00 PM on December 27th. Meanwhile, Highland Park will take on Dunellen in the opening round of the Shello/Santy Tournament at the Faber in Dunellen at 7:00 PM on December 27th.