Despite Significant Departures In The Off-Season, The Eagles Still Playing Competitive At HGHQ
NEPTUNE, NJ–It has been a tumultuous off-season in the least for the Eagles of Cardinal McCarrick. At the beginning of the summer, three of the team’s top players from last year, Marques Townes (St. Joseph’s), Jonathan Rodriguez (Bound Brook), and Alonzo Hamilton (Linden), all transferred. Then, toward the end of the summer, long time head coach, Joe Lewis stepped down to spend time with family and to support his youngest son, who is a high school wrestler.
Add to that the transfer of role players such as Carlos Morales (Perth Amboy) and Anthony Manning (Sayreville), and you would think that the cupboard is pretty barren in South Amboy. However, the Eagles also got some new faces to come in. First, a new head coach in Eric Woroniecki, who has roots in the GMC and Middlesex County as a former player at Old Bridge. Woroniecki was a member of the Knights squad that featured Sean Williams, Spencer Corbett, Tim Lucas, and Fichel Cuffy, and reached the Central Jersey Group IV Championship Game before bowing out against Trenton Central.
In addition, the Eagles got a couple transfers of their own. Jacquan Madden, a lanky 6’7″ forward, who transferred in from St. Patrick’s, gives them a low post presence and a lot of athletic ability while Sky Harris, a junior from J.P. Stevens, was a top notch player as a sophomore behind the likes of Marvin Crawford last season. McCarrick also has plenty of good talent coming up from the JV level with Tavian Chukwuani, Aaron Lewis, Sean McRae, and Steven Scott among others staying at the school after earning the 11th seed in last year’s East Brunswick/GMC JV Tournament.
Over the first two weeks of the season at the Hoop Group Headquarters Fall League, the Eagles have come up short, but have competed very well against the likes of Central Jersey Group IV semifinalist, Jackson Memorial and Central Jersey Group III finalist Lakewood. In the season opener against the Jaguars of Jackson Memorial, the Eagles hung tough throughout, and actually only trailed by a point late before falling 38-33. Then, this past Monday night against Lakewood, McCarrick tied the contest at 44-44 with two and a half minutes left, and almost took the lead after Harris drew a charge, but the Piners were able to get two scores in the final 1:20 to pull out the 48-44 victory.
While McCarrick will have a more difficult time matching the success of the past 10 years or so this season, and take a few more lumps in the rough and tumble GMC White, the Eagles may end up proving to be a tough out for many teams in both the GMC and outside Middlesex County this year.