1/21 The Improvement of the Shore 'C'

Written by Andrew Jones

The Shore C, a new division to Shore Conference last year, is a division that often gets overlooked often for no other reason than the 5 programs (Howell, Freehold Township, Freehold Boro, Marlboro, and Manalapan) are still new to hockey. Last year, it was called a one team division with Howell going undefeated in divisional play and winning the Shore ‘C’. Howell also went on to win the Dowd Cup (Shore B and C teams compete for the Dowd Cup)beating Rumson-Fair Haven in the first round, blowing out Red Bank Regional 10-0 in the semi-finals, and defeated Wall in a crazy 9-7 win for the Dowd Cup at the Armory last year. What do all those teams Howell defeated have in common? They were part of the Shore B division. That was just the first of the Rebels playoff tournaments’ last year, they also qualified for the state playoffs. Marlboro qualified for the state playoffs too, but admittedly, they were never really a threat.

This year, things have changed. In the first week of the season, the Freehold Township Patriots defeated current public number 7 in the njpowerranking.com rankings, Kinnelon Colts. That was great news for fans of the Shore C knowing that it wasn’t just Howell finding success out of division play. This year, the Patriots found a way to upset Howell and claim the Shore C championship. The race was very close between 3 teams, Howell, Freehold Township and Manalapan who all finished within 3 points of each other. Howell has continued to have success outside the division, beating Brick Memorial in the season opener, beating SJV, tying Monsignor Donovan (all Shore A teams). The Rebels have also beat the top 2 Shore B teams this year in Toms River South and Wall. There is no reason for the lack of respect to continue, I would not be surprised at all to see a Shore C team win the Dowd Cup again, and there is no reason why one of them cannot do some damage in the state playoffs.