Monday Thoughts

A little of this and a little of that on this first Monday of December.

Thanks to a couple of road victories Southern Regional is now just a win away from claiming it first-ever state sectional football title.  The Rams scored in the final minute to upset Eastern over the weekend and on Friday night will face undefeated Williamstown at Rowan University for the South Jersey Group 5 title.

Southern is the only Ocean County team to reach the finals following weekend losses by previously-undefeated Lacey and Point Beach.  Other Shore Conference schools to advance to next weekend’s sectional finals are Manalapan, Middletown South, Neptune and Shore.

The college football bowl matchups are set and we now know how costly that Rutgers loss was last week.  The Scarlet Knights are headed to the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando, Florida on December 28^th and a payout of $2.275 million.  Meanwhile Louisville, who rallied to beat Rutgers, will face Florida in the Sugar Bowl on January 2^nd for a $17 million payday.

20 teams return to Monsignor Donovan High School today for the World Volkswagen Academic Challenge, one of the state’s largest academic tournaments.  The original field of 68 teams has been reduced to 20 following the opening round and the school today will host the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals.  The only Ocean County School still alive is Central Regional, who will face Biotech in the Varsity B Bracket.   Scholarship money is given to schools that reach the semifinal round thanks to the sponsorship of the new World Volkswagen on Route 37 in Toms River.

In Friday’s segment I talked about our “Restore the Shore” project and fundraising partner, Hometown Heroes.  Special thanks to Vinnie Brunetti, who now lives in Flemington but spent his youth in Manalapan, where he was a standout football player and wrestler.

Brunetti came to Toms River on Friday to make a $10,000 donation from his New York-based RVM Enterprises.  Accepting the donation were Michael Schwartz & Jen Barna of Hometown Heroes.  For more on this visit restoretheshore.com