Eagles’ stock is rising after win over Falcons
BY SHAWN LAYTON
Staff Writer

EDISON — Christmas came early for the township high school boys basketball team with a 35-33 win over St. Joseph last week followed by an impressive 44-33 win over Old Bridge as the team improved to 2-1 on the young season.

The Eagles’ win over St. Joseph was the team’s first since the 2001 season and it sent an emphatic message to area teams — Edison is for real.

Perhaps most impressive about the victory was the fight the Eagles displayed along the way. After going down 9-0 in the opening minutes of the contest, the Eagles simply regrouped under the tutelage of reigning Red Division Coach of the Year Charlie Mohr and held the Falcons to just 24 points the rest of the way.

“It was an extremely hard-fought game,” Mohr said. “After the 9-0 run they went on, we made some defensive adjustments. Our defense was really the difference. It was huge that night. It’s a tough task to hold a team like St. Joes to 33 points and fortunately we did enough offensively to get the win.”

Junior Barry Holmes sank some key shots down the stretch and his 10 points led all Eagle scorers.

“We definitely struggled a bit offensively,” Mohr said. “We got a huge spark from sophomore guard Erik Janz in the third quarter. Janz got a couple of steals and gave our team a tremendous lift going into the fourth quarter.”

Fresh off the defensive masterpiece against St. Joes, Edison continued to play a stingy defense to hold Old Bridge to 33 as well.

Zach Manfre was instrumental in the win, finishing with 12 points and 10 steals. Holmes was an offensive force once again, finishing with 19 points.

“Barry got hot and hit a couple of 3-pointers in the third quarter,” Mohr said. “He sank a couple in a row and we started to pull away a little bit. Old Bridge definitely played hard and kept fighting.”

Also coming up big in the win over Old Bridge was Mike Campbell, Nathan Otokiti and Terry Roland.

“Campbell and Roland were effective on the defensive end and both rebounded the ball really well,” Mohr said. “Nathan also gave us a spark defensively and he came up with a couple of big rebounds.”

The Eagles looked to improve to 3-1 on the season when the opening round of the annual Gene Haley Tournament got under way yesterday. In the opening round, the Eagles took on Carteret.

“I know Carteret is a big and athletic team,” Mohr said. “They look to be a much-improved team from last year, and we must play well to beat them.”

JFK and Montgomery squared off in the other opening-round game. Edison will be looking to win the event for a second straight season.

“It’s always a good tournament with tough competition,” Mohr said. “Everybody will be looking to knock us from the top spot.”