Indians Can't Keep Up With Rams

The way Toms River South first-year head coach Ron Signorino spoke of his team’s game Saturday night against visiting Southern Regional, it would seem as though his Indians are a long way away from contending in the Shore Conference Class A South.

Although Southern put Toms River South away for a comfortable 28-7 win Saturday night, the Indians were a few plays away from putting themselves in position to beat the Rams. But having a chance to win is not the end goal for Signorino. The end goal is winning.

“We’re going through a culture change as a program,” Signorino said. “We want to get back to the level we established in years past and we know that’s going to take time. It’s probably taking longer than we’d like for it to, but you have to go through the process.

“We made too many mistakes and in the end, we beat ourselves. Southern’s a very good football team and we’re not where they are yet, but when we’re playing at the level we need to be and we eliminate some of the dumb mistakes, that’s a game we have a chance to win. Tonight, we just weren’t able to take what was there, especially on offense.”

Southern dominated the stat sheet, outgaining Toms River South 274 yards to 122. Rams senior tailback T.J. Bellissimo led the running game with 170 yards on 41 carries, including two touchdown runs.

In the second half alone, with Southern moving to a run-heavy attack in an attempt to eat up the clock and control the ball, Bellissimo gained 114 yards on 28 carries. On the first drive of the third quarter, the Rams orchestrated a 16-play, 74-yard touchdown-scoring drive during which Bellissimo carried the ball 13 times for 48 yards.

The Rams took a 14-0 lead into halftime behind a more balanced attack that featured the arm of quarterback Dan Higgins, who threw for one touchdown and ran for another in the first half.

Higgins finished with 78 yards through the air on 8-of-17 passing. He also ran for 26 yards on six attempts.

Toms River South spotted the Southern a 21-0 lead with 4:07 left in the third quarter, but marched down the field to the Southern 8 yard-line in 12 plays and had a 1st-and-goal to go.

Zach Ligouri, however, fumbled the ball into the end zone after a six-yard run and Southern’s Richie Weisz recovered for a touchback. The Indians were flagged for illegal procedure on the play, so a successful run would have resulted in a five-yard penalty.

The Indians scored on a 22-yard fumble return for a touchdown by Darius Hart with 7:19 left. Defensive lineman Russell Messler stopped Bellissimo in the backfield on a 3rd-and-1 from the Southern 29 and forced the ball out. Hart picked it up and ran untouched into the end zone to cut the deficit to 21-7.

Southern, however, went back to Bellissimo and the ground game, chewing up 6:35 of the clock with a 13-play drive that spanned only 48 yards. Bellissimo capped the drive with a six-yard touchdown run on 4th-and-goal with 44 seconds left.

Toms River South turned Southern over on downs on the first drive of the game and forced the Rams into a 4th-and-9 from the Indians 14 on their second drive.

Although Higgins found Kevin Barreau for a 14-yard touchdown pass, Toms River South again held on fourth down on the next drive to keep Southern off the board early.

“I think the defense is ahead of the offense right now,” Signorino said. “Defense was just a matter of being out of position on a few key plays. They are mental errors and they are correctable with some work in practice. It’s not physical, which is good.”

In the loss, Toms River South quarterback Anthony Mannato rushed for 83 yards on 18 carries. Ligouri added 25 yards on seven attempts.

“They’re reverse option gave us some problems in the second half,” Southern coach Chuck Donohue said. “I was really concerned with their quarterback running the option and they beat us with it for a lot of the second half. We were just able to force some turnovers and control the ball, but other than that, I don’t think we were able to stop them in the second half.”

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