US Army All Shore Gridiron Classic

It’s either the last game of last season or the first game of the upcoming season…either way it’s been part of the summer schedule for the last 32 years. About 100 recently-graduated football players from Ocean and Monmouth County high schools will be in uniform tomorrow night at Brick Township’s Keller Memorial Field for the US Army All Shore Gridiron Classic. The name of the game might have changed but its significance has not. For some this will help them get a start on playing football in college while for others this is the final time they will put on a football uniform. Regardless they get to represent their high schools one more time and of course there is the matter of the bragging rights of the Shore Conference.

Monmouth County leads the overall series 16-14 with one tie but Ocean County takes a two-game winning streak into tomorrow nights contest.
Southern Regional’s Chuck Donohue, who guided the Rams to their best-ever season last fall, is the head coach of the Ocean squad. He has such offensive standouts as quarterbacks Shane O’Connor (Pt Boro) and Brian Staub (Brick Memorial) and running backs Tom Rickmers (Lacey) and Jon Daniels (TR North). Leading the defense will be Southern’s Steve Sibona, Brennan Candito of Brick, Justin Pandorf of Lacey, Point Boro’s Jeff Keffer and Brett Yajcaji of Toms River East to name just a few.

Freehold’s Mark Ciccotelli has the honor of leading the Monmouth County squad which features quarterback Nick Tyson, who led the Colonials to a state title last December. He has weapons like running backs Michael Peavey of Neptune and Uly Gibson of Middletown North along with receiver Brandon Brown, his Freehold teammate.

The game is presented by the Shore Football Coaches Foundation in partnership with All Shore Media with the US Army and ROTC on board as lead sponsors for the first time.

Millennium Radio’s Shore Sports Network will broadcast the game live on 105.7 The Hawk and Fox Sports 1310 and on their respective internet streams beginning at 6:45Gates open at Brick Township High School tomorrow night at 5:30 and kickoff is scheduled for 7pm.