With McCarrick Returning to the Blue Division, the Eagles and Trojans Will Begin New Series Tuesday
SOUTH AMBOY, NJ–When the new division realignments and schedules were released this past summer, many in both South Amboy and North Edison circled Tuesday night on the calendar. With Cardinal McCarrick returning to the GMC Blue after a six year absence, the Eagles and the Trojans of Bishop Ahr will be renewing one of the fiercest rivalries in Greater Middlesex Conference Boys Basketball. This rivalry was the biggest in the GMC during the middle of last decade, it was the East Brunswick-St. Joseph’s rivalry before EB and Joes became fierce rivals several years ago.
The names on the two rosters have changed. Gone are names on BGA such as Mulvey, Francisco, Ambroise, Uszenski, Rooney, Williamson, and Figueredo. Gone are names from McCarrick such as Wilson, Rosario, Burwell, Appiah, Snider, Canela, Garcia, and Wagner. However, the Eagles are off to their best start in three years with wins in their first two games including a 49-37 decision over a Spotswood team that is ranked in several area polls, and a 68-31 blowout over crosstown rival, South Amboy in the Friends of South Amboy benefit game on Saturday night. It was the widest margin of victory in the brief three year history of the event. Meanwhile, Bishop Ahr opened the season on the road in Metuchen, and won an emotional game at the Dawg Pound by the score of 53-40.
Both teams figure to be somewhere around the Top Ten during the course of the season. The Eagles were already ranked ninth in the 2014-15 GMC Hoops Pre-Season Top Ten poll while Bishop Ahr did draw some consideration. McCarrick has been ranked as high as 7th in some polls, and not even ranked in others. These two teams began their fierce rivalry back in the late 1990s, and by the early 2000s, McCarrick was already getting the upper hand with victories over an Ahr team that was rebuilding while battling to stay competitive in the GMC White. By the 2002-03 season that all changed when Ahr moved down to the Blue and McCarrick moved up from the Gold. The two teams played twice that season, and the Eagles, which were in the midst of a memorable season that ended up with a GMCT title over St. Joseph’s at South Brunswick and a Non-Public B South championship at Lakewood, won both contests easily led by GMC Hoops Player of the Year, Mika Wilson, Billy Wagner, and Mike Garcia.
McCarrick would continue to dominate the rivalry for several years although Ahr was beginning to close the gap. Despite its advances Ahr, led by four year varsity player, all time leading scorer, and Philadelphia University hoops standout, Corey Francisco, who is now on the coaching staff at BGA as the freshmen coach, was unable to break through. It wasn’t until the year after Francisco graduated that Ahr was able to make a dent and finally turn this into a true rivalry. The Trojans, led by the likes of Billy Rooney, Mike Williamson, Kevin Uszenski, Derek Figueredo, and Martese Street were able to defeat a McCarrick team, led by Mike Burwell and Julio Rosario, that had reached the GMCT Finals the year before and lost to Piscataway, and would eventually win the 2008 GMCT. However, on a Saturday before Christmas in 2007 before a packed house of frenzied fans from both sides at McCarrick, Bishop Ahr not only scored a big upset with a hard fought 72-68 victory, but began a season that would be the best it had since Dennis O’Keefe’s first year at the BGA helm in 1992-93.
But like that first season under the Trojans longtime head coach, Ahr would have its season curtailed by St. Joseph’s although the game was much closer this time around with BGA taking Joes to overtime before losing. Cardinal McCarrick would get revenge later in the season at Bishop Ahr thanks to the work of Burwell, who would eventually go on to play post-graduate ball at South Kent Prep in Connecticut before moving on to the University of South Florida, and then Towson University. The following year, McCarrick moved up to the GMC White, but the two teams still played each other once a year for a stretch. Bishop Ahr won at McCarrick again by the score of 72-66 back in 2011 thanks to the efforts of Rashad and Roger Kilgore as well as Ryan Blakely. Both teams would end up reaching the GMCT Final Four with Ahr losing to top seeded Piscataway while McCarrick lost to second seeded St. Joseph’s. The two teams also battled the year before at Ahr with the Trojans winning as well. It is great to see this rivalry renewed. Now names such as Weiler, Krolick, Gelpke, Astarita, Abano, Hayes, Bazemore, Cue, McCombs, Dervishaj, Mitchell, Green, Menar, and Rowe can be added to the rich history of this fierce GMC boys basketball series.