Shore Conference football: The Wall vs. Howell game came down to thinnest of margins
WALL -- When a touchdown is scored just before halftime, the scoring team benefits more from the halftime break than the conceding team.
Shea Brennan and Andrew Olsen will swear to that.
No. 17 Wall didn't have much going on in Friday night's Shore Conference nondivisional game against No. 18 Howell until Brennan hauled in a 21-yard touchdown pass from Olsen with 11 seconds left in the second quarter.
A Tony Credle 14-yard touchdown run with 4:21 left in the third quarter gave Wall the lead and the Crimson Knights held on for a 21-20 victory.
“We knew we had to get this win. It was a must-win for us. We couldn’t start the year 0-2,” said Brennan, a senior wide receiver/defensive back. “It was really Andrew, the backfield and a hell of a job by the o-line pounding.”
Special teams were a big part of it, too. After Howell's Brandon Wright scored his third rushing touchdown of the game with 10 minutes left, Wall forced a miss of the potential tying PAT kick and also withstood a potential winning 36-yard field goal attempt with 58 seconds left.
More: Shore Conference football schedule, scoreboard, highlights: Week 1
Key play
The play that set up Brennan's touchdown - a 35-yard pass from Olsen to Mason Adam - was a lifesaver. Wall was down 14-0 at the time. (Editor's note: Mason Adam was misidentified when this story was originally published.)
Making it a one-possession game meant everything.
“I think we cleaned some of that stuff up in the second half game. We kind of settled in and, and did a great job the rest of the way,” Wall head coach Ed Gurrieri said. “We talked when we went in halftime, we said that was the worst half we could've played with all the mistakes we made. And look at where we are. We're only down one score and they're kicking the ball off to us. So we felt very comfortable.”
What it means
Wall is 1-1 after a 4-7 campaign in 2022. “Anytime you get to go 1-1 after the season we had last year, it’s good,” Gurrieri said.
Howell, which was playing its first game, also was on the wrong side of one-point games against Jackson Memorial and South Brunswick last year.
They said it
Wall junior running back Mason Adam on his 21-yard touchdown run in the third quarter that tied the game at 14: “There wasn't much of a play. There were a couple kids in front of me, but I took the contact and then the hole opened up. I just got loose. I knew I had to keep moving my feet. And we scored. It felt awesome.”
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Rivalry game
“This is a mini-rival rivalry,” said Brennan, acknowledging that Manasquan is Wall's No. 1 rival. “Howell always comes in here and puts up a great fight with us, and we always know they’re coming to play. We know we have to bring our A game.”
Howell won last year's game 21-14.
“They beat us last year and they were coming in here thinking they were gonna beat us again. I know it," Adam said. "So we had to have our football mindset, tell 'em that we're gonna beat them, and we came out and we did our job."
What's next
Wall visits Middletown South and Howell hosts Middletown North on Friday.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Jersey Shore football: Wall Township beats Howell on Tony Credle TD
