St. Joseph’s senior forward Anthony Williams skies for a putback against St. Joe’s by the Sea from Staten Island in the Friends of South Amboy Charity Basketball Games on December 17th. Williams will help lead the 3rd ranked Falcons against 8th ranked South River at Maglio Gymnasium on Monday.
Rams Travel up to Maglio Gymnasium to Battle Falcons in Top 10 Clash on Monday Evening
METUCHEN, NJ – In a rare holiday treat, two teams in the GMC Hoops Top Ten will kick off the holiday tourney season with a rare regular season match-up when 8th ranked South River travels to Maglio Gymnasium to take on 10th ranked St. Joseph’s on Monday evening. It is a rare occurrence since St. Joseph’s rarely plays GMC games outside of the rough and tumble world of the Red Division.
However, an opportunity presented itself this season since the Falcons were not scheduled to play in a holiday tourney. St. Joseph’s managed to schedule this contest with the Rams, who will be playing in the Keansburg Tournament later this week. South River is coming off a solid first week to its 2022-23 season with victories over Metuchen (72-50), No. 10 Spotswood (73-68), and Timothy Christian (73-43).
Meanwhile, St. Joseph’s is off to a strong start with three wins in its first four games. The Falcons opened the season with a 94-62 rout of 4th ranked Piscataway at The Mag and then followed that up with another impressive victory by defeating a solid St. Joseph’s by the Sea squad from Staten Island, 80-56 at the Friends of South Amboy Charity Basketball Games two days later (December 17th).
Last week, St. Joe’s suffered its first defeat to Colonia in a triple overtime thriller at The Mag (83-78) on December 20th. It was the first time the two schools squared off since the Patriots upended the Falcons in the 2022 GMCT Semifinals last February (70-58). St. Joseph’s regrouped and defeated 9th ranked J.P. Stevens (68-43) in North Edison last Thursday.
The Rams having been playing up the past couple of seasons under fourth year head coach Brandon Walsh, who has garnered a remarkable turnaround in a very short time in South River. In his first year, the Rams were 2-21. Two years ago, South River finished 9-6 during the pandemic season, and defeated Piscataway to win the Jackson Family Pod. Last year, SRHS finished 2nd to South Plainfield in the GMC Blue and went 20-8 overall.
Meanwhile, St. Joseph’s is looking to return to the top of the GMC heap again. The Falcons haven’t played in a GMCT Final since 2019. St. Joe’s still has a streak of 15 straight years of being in the GMCT Final Four (including a berth in the Karl Anthony Towns/Jay Williams Pod in 2021). The Falcons are still a player in Non-Public A and the Red Division. However, with St. Thomas Aquinas and Colonia moving up to the Red, St. Joe’s stranglehold on the GMC’s toughest and most balanced division will be challenged.
South River is led by the trio of sharpshooter Jeremy Grospe, last year’s leading scorer Roman Santos, and 1,000 point scorer Lazaro Rodriguez. In addition, sophomore Alex Grospe stepped up his scoring with 17 in the recent victory at Spotswood while Kobe Taylor can not only put up good numbers, but also make big hustle and defensive plays in the clutch. Isaac Linares has also made a huge impact on the team with his athletic play.
The Falcons took some hits to graduation with the loss of the likes of Ethan Simmon (New Haven), Darren Tuck (Dodge City JC in Kansas), Amari Campbell (St. Peter’s University for track), and Kwame Herod. In addition, St. Joe’s also lost the likes of Khalid Brown, Dante Dupiche, and Alijah Hall, who all transferred to Piscataway this past off-season and Jadiel Manzueta, who went back to Perth Amboy.
Nevertheless, Joes still has plenty of firepower with senior guard, Josh Ingram returning along with forwards Anthony Williams and Owen Griffin. In addition, the Falcons have the scrappy group of Dave Caruso, Jeremy DeCaro, Christian Magliacano, and Dan Bellavia returning. DeCaro, Magliacano, and Bellavia were key contributors to an improved football team this fall that went 5-5 including a victory over Pope John of Sparta (21-20).
Some newcomers have also joined the mix at St. Joseph’s as well. Sophomore Dante Regan who saw limited varsity action last year, and was a key contributor to last season’s JV squad that reached the 2022 East Brunswick JV Championship Game, is in the rotation. Jeremy Clayville, who scored 583 career points at DePaul Catholic in Wayne, and is currently averaging 16.5 ppg early on this season. And then, there is 7 foot senior Scott Schmitt, who gives the Falcons a big man for the first time in quite a few years.
The Falcons have a lot more depth than the Rams. St. Joseph’s can go 8 to 10 players deep at least while the Rams could probably go only 7 or 8. With the likes of Ingram, Griffin and Williams, the Falcons have a slight edge in athleticism. However, Rodriguez, Santos, and Taylor give South River plenty of size to counter, and the guard play of the Grospes also present problems too.
This contest is a big step up for the Rams, but they did play bigger schools a year ago. South River’s 2021-22 schedule consisted of teams such as Wayne Valley, Hightstown, Roselle Delaware Valley, East Brunswick, South Brunswick, Johnson Regional, Raritan, and a solid Keyport squad that reached the CJ Group 1 championship and give Ranney some trouble in their first meeting last year. The game is slated to start at 5:00 PM on Monday evening.