Football Preview: Matawan Regional Huskies vs. St. John-Vianney Lancers
Matawan Regional hasn't had much luck against St. John-Vianney recently, but that could start to change on Friday. The Matawan Regional Huskies will be playing in front of their home fans against the St. John-Vianney Lancers at 6:00 p.m. Both come into the game bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Matawan Regional took a loss when they played away from home back in September, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Thursday. Their defense stepped up to hand Ocean Township a 7-0 shutout.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask St. John-Vianney). They simply couldn't be stopped on Friday as they easily beat Manasquan 52-20 at home. Considering the Lancers have won three contests by more than 27 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Abdul Turay was his usual excellent self, rushing for 232 yards and five touchdowns while picking up 11.0 yards per carry. Those 232 rushing yards gave him a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Zach Labarca, who threw for 166 yards and a touchdown while completing 75% of his passes.
St. John-Vianney didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Brayden Delavega and Dj Carter. Carter also snagged an interception, which is notable because St. John-Vianney is 3-1 when he posts at least one interception, but 1-2 otherwise.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, St. John-Vianney was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 275 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 214 rushing yards in five consecutive matchups.
Matawan Regional's win bumped their record up to 2-4. As for St. John-Vianney, they moved to 4-3 with that victory, which also ended their three-game losing streak.
Matawan Regional was taken down by St. John-Vianney 35-0 when the teams last played back in October of 2020. Can Matawan Regional avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
