By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
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MAYS LANDING — The Oakcrest High football team work black-and-blue uniforms for the Falcons’ first-round state playoff matchup with visiting Red Bank Regional on Saturday. The color scheme was an indicator of what was to come, as Oakcrest’s defensive unit punished the Buccaneers — who never even came close to scoring — in the Falcons’ 40-0 victory in The Stucco Pros Game of the Week.
And the defensive effort wasn’t even the most impressive part of the game for Oakcrest, as sophomore quarterback Zane Forest threw for more than 300 yards and five touchdowns, carving up the Buccaneers’ defense and getting some tremendous catches, and runs-after-catches, from his group of talented and speedy wide receivers.
Second-seeded Oakcrest (7-3, 3-2 West Jersey Football League Memorial) advances to the South Jersey Group 3 semifinals, where the Falcons will host No. 3 and undefeated Pinelands (10-0) on Saturday morning. Red Bank (4-5, 2-3 Shore Conference C-North) saw its season come to an end having lost two straight and being outscored 75-7 in those games.
“We did everything we could have done, and everything we should have done,” said senior Devin Fortson, who actually started his career as a quarterback before switching to receiver with the arrival of Forest. “The defense set things up perfectly for us, and the way we ran our offense — we executed perfectly. Zane, our quarterback, executed perfectly; just everybody as a team gave a great effort.”
Fortson was the recipient of one of Forest’s five touchdown passes as he took a short hitch route and raced 39 yards to paydirt to stretch the lead to 33-0 midway through the fourth quarter.
“Our skill guys are insane. Uthman Mitchell — he’s a dawg. Maison Webster, he’s a dawg. Myself, I’m confident that I can play ball,” Fortson said. “Everybody on this team can play ball. And when the ball gets spread around, everybody gets into a flow and we’re firing as a team. It’s just the confidence. Our confidence is through the roof.”
Even special teams was on fire on Saturday morning, as Website, the team’s punter, pinned Red Bank inside its own 5-yard line twice, and star linebacker Jayden Graves forced a fumble on the game’s opening kickoff. That led to the first score, as Forest hooked up with Mitchell on a little bubble screen pass and Mitchell did the rest, breaking two tackles on his way down the left sideline to give the Falcons a 6-0 lead just 90 seconds into the game. Forest and Mitchell teamed up again on the team’s third possession, as Mitchell leaped high in the right corner of the end zone to pull down a fade pass from Forest. The quarterback then kept it on the 2-point conversion and ran it in, giving Oakcrest an early 14-0 lead.
“I’ve been playing with him as long as I can remember, since youth league,” Forest said of Mitchell, both of whom are sophomores. “Our chemistry just connects. I know where he’s going to be and he knows where I’m going to put the ball. It’s just very easy between us.
“I’m way more comfortable (than last year as a freshman). I have a lot of playmakers on offense that I can trust. All my receivers, even the ones who sub in, can make plays. I trust all those guys,” Forest added. “In film, I saw that they were stacking the box a lot and didn’t really have a safety over the top, so once we realized that our eyes lit up because we like to throw it deep.”
The game was still in doubt heading into the third quarter, but junior linebacker Julian Davis made sure the Buccaneers were counted out when he picked off a pass and returned it for a touchdown and a 20-0 lead with 5:13 left in the third quarter. After Oakcrest forced another Red Bank punt, Forest hooked up with Mahkai Cooper Corbin for a 4-yard touchdown on a fourth-down play to push the lead to 26-0. Forest connected with four different receivers for his five touchdowns.
“It’s amazing. Last year, we had a couple guys who could make plays, but we didn’t have this many guys who can do everything we need them to do,” Forest said. “It makes my job easy — I just have to put the ball where they can get it. This season has been very fun. We worked really hard in the offseason, and now that we’re in the playoffs our mindset is that we didn’t put all that work in for no reason. We’re going to try to make the deepest run we can and try to get that sectional championship.”
Forest, however, knows the road only gets tougher from here. The winner of Oakcrest vs. Pinelands takes on either top-seeded Seneca or No. 4 Timber Creek. Seneca has scored 35-or-more points in four of its seven wins this season, and boasts senior quarterback Anthony Tirico, who has passed for nearly 6,800 yards and 60 touchdowns in his career, and has rushed for 4,100 yards and 52 more touchdowns.
“We have to watch the bad in in the film, watch our mistakes and eliminate the mistakes, like penalties all the way down to body language. We have to fix everything,” Forest said.
For seniors like Fortson, the goal continues to be just being able to put on that Falcons jersey one more time.
“I just didn’t want it to end today,” he said. “I want to keep this going and hopefully make this the best team in Oakcrest history. That’s our goal.”
WHAT’S NEXT: No. 2 Oakcrest hosts No. 3 Pineland Regional in the South Jersey Group 3 semifinals on Saturday, No. 7 at 11 a.m. No. 1 Seneca hosts No. 4 Timber Creek on Friday at 7 p.m. in the other semifinal. The winners meet the following weekend at the highest remaining seed.
