Red Bank Catholic’s Luciana Panaccione took the all-around gymnastics title at the Shore Conference meet, scoring a 37.875. Manchester Township’s Jada Powell finished in second with a 37.575, and Brick’s Shea Wagner finished third with a 36.600. Panaccione claimed the vault title as well with a 9.65 and finished second on the beam with a 9.525. The sophomore standout also placed second on the floor with a 9.4 to help secure her all around title....

Lexi Sinatra scored one goal and assisted on the other as Red Bank Catholic, No. 15 in the NJ.com statewide Top 20, upended No. 14 St. John Vianney 2-0 at Count Basie Field in Red Bank. Nina Bicej scored off Sinatra’s assist as Red Bank Catholic climbed to 12-2-1. Goalkeeper Heidi Wierman recorded seven saves to earn the shutout for Red Bank Catholic. It was the second straight loss for St. John Vianney (13-4-1). The Lancers are 2-4-1 since they opened the season with 11 straight wins....

Red Bank Catholic claimed the Shore Conference B-North division with an 11-2 record. The Caseys started the season 2-1 following a 101.4-99.25 loss to Middletown South, but rattled off nine straight victories to take control of the division. Red Bank Catholic recorded a season-high team score of 107.075 against Holmdel, led by Luciana Panaccione, who had an all-around score of 37.5. The team’s second loss of the season came on the road against Howell, 109.5-106.95....

TOMS RIVER – Red Bank Catholic didn’t so much play a football game on Friday night as let out a 150-minute primal scream. “It seemed like some people forgot who the top dog in the Shore Conference is,” senior linebacker Luke Scaturro said. “We had to remind everyone tonight.” The Caseys viewed being seen as an underdog against a Shore Conference opponent as an insult considering they entered with an 11-game winning streak against Shore competition, so they went out and did something about it. RBC, ranked No. 2 in the Shore Sports Insider Top 12, sent a bruising reminder about which team rules the Shore with a 24-10 nondivisional win over No. 1 Donovan Catholic (7-1) on the road. RBC (6-2) will almost certainly lock down the final No. 1 ranking in the Shore if it takes care of business against No. 8 Wall next week, but there is the possibility the Caseys could see Donovan Catholic again in the NJSIAA Non-Public B playoffs. If they do, no one will consider them an underdog. RBC had been No. 1 all season until a nonconference loss to Winslow Township on Oct. 3, coupled with Donovan Catholic being undefeated, dropped the Caseys to No. 2. “We took a lot of disrespect,” sophomore star running back Gabe Kemp said. “We’re the No. 1 team in the Shore and that shouldn’t be doubted.” Kemp said during the week that Donovan Catholic would not stop him. It ain’t bragging if you back it up. The Shore Conference’s leading rusher grinded out 147 yards rushing on 34 carries and scored three touchdowns against a defense that hadn’t allowed more than 14 points in a game all season. He hurled himself into the maw of Donovan Catholic’s defense time and time again, with no run longer than 15 yards, chopping at the tree until it fell. The Caseys handed the Griffins their first loss with a clock-eating offense that completed three drives of 70 or more yards and limited Donovan Catholic to only six possessions in the game outside of two plays shortly before halftime. It was a bare-knuckle fight in the trenches, and the Caseys won it. “They have a lot of threats on offense,” Kemp said. “We didn’t want them having the ball, so as much as possible we wanted to run the clock out.” Sophomore quarterback Rahmir Rivera also kept the chains moving with 46 yards rushing on only five carries and 13-for-15 passing for 140 yards. A defense that has taken its lumps at times this season executed its gameplan to perfection to hold a team that entered averaging 36.5 points per game to a season-low 10 points and 187 total yards. They also rose to the occasion by forcing a huge turnover on downs at their own 30-yard line early in the fourth quarter while holding a seven-point lead. The Caseys wanted to put the game on the shoulders of Donovan Catholic senior quarterback Kahden Davis by stifling Griffins senior running back Alex Staten, who entered the game as the Shore’s No. 2 rusher behind Kemp. RBC held him to 53 yards rushing on 13 carries, including only two carries for one yard in the second half. “The gameplan was to stop the run,” junior defensive end Asher Cummins said. “We know Staten was coming into this game with a bunch of great games, a bunch of 200-plus-yard games, so we needed to stop the run and trust our DBs in the back end, and they played phenomenal.” Davis was limited to 64 yards on 11-for-21 passing by a secondary that entered surrendering an average of 252.3 passing yards per game. Donovan Catholic also played most of the game without its leading receiver, senior wideout Aidan Kelly, who was injured in the first quarter and didn’t return. “This was the perfect time to show what we’re made of,” Scaturro said. The Caseys set the tone from the outset by getting a stop on the opening possession and then embarking on a monster 14-play, 96-yard drive against a defense that had been impenetrable much of the season. Kemp had eight carries for 32 yards on the drive, including a one-yard plunge for a 7-0 lead with 1:37 left in the quarter. The drive took nearly five minutes, and the key play was a 31-yard strike from Rivera to junior wide receiver Ethan Kennedy to the Griffins’ 1-yard line. Donovan Catholic answered with a 59-yard drive that culminated in a 37-yard field goal by senior kicker Sal Reynoso to cut it to 7-3 with 8:16 remaining in the first half. The Griffins then appeared to have the momentum when senior defensive back Nyron Snerling intercepted Rivera and returned it to RBC’s 35-yard line, but the Caseys’ defense forced an incompletion on fourth down to neutralize the threat. The offense rode that swing to go on a 10-play, 48-yard drive that ended with a 35-yard field goal by sophomore kicker Simon Picinich and sent them into the locker room up 10-3. RBC started to tighten its fist around Donovan’s throat when it took the opening kickoff of the second half and went 80 yards in 16 plays. The Caseys ate up more than half the quarter before Kemp punched it in from two yards out for a 17-3 advantage with 5:10 left in the period. The crucial play was a 23-yard connection from Rivera to junior wideout Jason Berecsky on third-and-16 to the Donovan 22-yard line. “I said to Lorenzo (Tartamella), they’ve had the ball for eight minutes off the clock, and (Donovan) is continuing to wear down,” Cummins said. “Like they don’t want to play football anymore, and we continued to pound them. It’s so easy on the defense when the offense takes up half the quarter.” The Griffins looked dead in the water before East Carolina commit Ja’el Hester took the ensuing kickoff 70 yards to RBC’s 28-yard line to liven up the home crowd. Four plays later, Davis found sophomore Chris McClaren, the backup quarterback who was playing receiver with Kelly out, for an eight-yard touchdown pass. That made it a one-score game at 17-10 with 3:22 left in the third quarter. The home team appeared to be turning the tide when the defense forced a three-and-out, and then Donovan Catholic drove 31 yards to the RBC 24-yard line. However, Cummins sacked Davis for a six-yard loss on fourth-and-5 to take the wind out of the Griffins. “Coach called us a stunt for me and ‘Scat,’” said Cummins, who also had a tackle for a loss in the win. “That was a great call.” RBC then went to work on the decisive drive with a six-play, 70-yard march. Rivera hit senior tight end T.J. Walsh for an 18-yard gain and Berecsky for a 19-yard gain before Kemp scored from five yards out for a 24-10 advantage with 9:33 left in the game. The Caseys threw a wrinkle at the Griffins with Walsh, who had seven catches all season before making five on Friday night. Donovan had one last chance to make it interesting, but the Caseys forced an incompletion at their own 12-yard line to wrap up their fifth win over Donovan Catholic in their last seven meetings. The Caseys’ two losses this season came in nonconference games against defending Non-Public B champion DePaul and defending Group 4 champion Winslow Township. When it comes to their own backyard in the Shore, no team has beaten them since 2024. “We took it extremely personal that we were the underdog,” Scaturro said. “Everyone was picking against us. We kept quiet, we came out here, shut them down, got the ‘W’ and couldn’t be happier.” Head coach Mike Lange was barking at anyone in earshot after the game about underestimating the Caseys. “It motivated us throughout the whole week,” Cummins said. “It was personal between all of us. We took it to heart and we played phenomenal. As long as Coach Lange is our coach, we’re always No. 1 in the Shore.” ...

Red Bank Catholic head coach Mike Lange was in the midst of a preseason practice with the varsity team in the summer of 2025 when longtime Caseys freshman coach Tony Flego walked over to him from the other side of the field. “He’s like, ‘You gotta come see this,’” Lange recalled. “I thought they were kicking like extra points. This kid was just casually kicking 50-yard field goals. It’s a story I will never forget.” A few practices earlier, freshman Simon Picinich had shown up dressed in Umbro shorts and soccer cleats even though he hadn’t played soccer since sixth grade. Flego told the players that the freshman team was looking for a kicker, so about six of them decided to audition. A succession of linemen and skill players took turns flubbing kicks all over Coach Lou Montanaro Field on White Road in Little Silver. “Coach (Flego) was like, ‘Who wants to kick?’” Picinich said. “I was so scared, I didn’t go first. There were a few kids that went before me, and I went last. I kicked it and it went over the fence at White Road.” A few practices later, Flego began moving the ball farther and farther back as Picinich boomed one field goal after another. “I heard (Flego) walk down, and he said, ‘I’m going to get Lange and show him,’” Picinich said. “When I saw (Lange) I was like, ‘I’ve got to really lock in.’ He saw me hit a couple 47-yarders.” “It was shocking to us,” RBC sophomore running back Gabe Kemp said. “And right after that day, they just moved him right up to varsity.” Lange already had two of the most high-profile freshmen in the state in Kemp and quarterback Rahmir Rivera. Little did he know he also had a third. “I had no idea who he was,” Lange said. Just over a year later, the sophomore is one of the top kickers in New Jersey and could play a key role in Friday night’s Shore Conference game of the year. Top-ranked Donovan Catholic welcomes No. 2 RBC(opens in new tab) to Toms River at 6:30 p.m. in a matchup that happens to feature two of the Shore’s best kickers in Picinich and Griffins senior Sal Reynoso. A Love of Kicking – But Not For a Football or Soccer Team There’s a good reason Lange had never heard of Picinich before last year. He never played organized tackle football and he wasn’t a soccer convert, considering he quit the game in sixth grade because he said it was “boring.” Picinich played flag football in Howell from when he was in fourth grade through eighth grade, but he did not play a fall sport. He wanted to play wide receiver, but said his mother feared the head injuries that are an inherent risk of playing football – unless you’re a kicker and punter. Even while playing flag, which does not have kickoffs or field goals, he couldn’t shake the joy he found in booting a football. “There was this one day where me and my dad and my older brother just went out to the field near my house,” Picinich said. “I was like 7 years old. My dad said, ‘Why don’t you guys try field goals?’ We were just kicking for two hours, and I loved it. Every time we went back to the field, I was always kicking.” Friday night’s massive showdown marks a full-circle moment for Picinich because it was that same matchup that fueled his aspirations to be a high school kicker. He attended RBC’s 35-14 win over Donovan Catholic at Count Basie Field as an eighth-grader in 2024. “I saw how they were one of the top teams in the state, and I was like, ‘I would love to go there, the football there is great, and that would be awesome if I showed my talents to the coaches and they brought me up to varsity one day,’” Picinich said. A Whirlwind Year That timeline accelerated dramatically after Picinich’s performance in the 2025 preseason. “I was not expecting to get up to varsity,” he said. “When I got there, I was just thinking about freshman football. I was like, ‘This is crazy.’” RBC had a returning All-Shore kicker in senior Blake Caruso, but he transferred to Donovan Catholic in the preseason. Just weeks after Picinich turned heads at practice, he was handling kickoffs, extra points and punts in front of a packed house at Count Basie Field in the season opener against three-time defending Group 5 champion Toms River North. “I didn’t get on the field until the first punt,” Picinich remembered. “When I caught the snap, I was like, ‘I think I forgot how to kick a football.’ But once I did it, all the nerves went away, and I felt totally fine after that.” “He had never played football, never kicked in a game, and he’s starting against Toms River North, which was No. 1 in the Shore at the time,” Lange said. “Now it’s just the norm that he handles all three phases for us.” Five games later, he attempted a 59-yard field goal against St. John Vianney that came up just short. The New Jersey state record for a field goal is 58 yards, set by Shore Regional’s Kevin Mills in 1984. In an age where the scouting industrial complex knows every top player by the time he’s out of the womb, Picinich emerged from nowhere. He earned Shore Sports Insider first-team All-Shore honors(opens in new tab) as a kicker, and then was named first-team All-State as a punter(opens in new tab) by NJ Advance Media. He hit a Shore Conference-best 10 field goals on 14 attempts, and his misses were from 47, 59, 46 and 58 yards. He also recorded 45 touchbacks out of 67 kickoffs and averaged 37 yards per punt. The only person who wasn’t impressed? Picinich. “My parents thought I had a good year, but honestly I thought I could’ve done better,” he said. “But it already happened, so it’s in the past now.” New Heights The journey from obscurity to stardom added another chapter in the spring when Picinich attended a spring practice at Rutgers and was invited to their camp in June. “I did pretty good at the camp, and they told me the head coach wants to see me after,” Picinich said. “When he told me he was going to give me an offer, it was like memories of all the hard work I put in. I just blacked out. It was insane.” Picinich then added another offer from Syracuse in late September. “Good thing he made that switch to football because he’s definitely going to have a great career with kicking,” Kemp said. “He’s going to have more offers than any of us. Kids come up to me and Rahmir in school, and I’m like, ‘You should be friends with Simon before us because he’s going to the (National Football) League!” As a sophomore, Picinich has hit seven field goals, with a long of 47 yards, and averaged 38 yards per punt. His 27-yard field goal with 1:48 left in the game was the difference in RBC’s 31-28 thriller over rival Rumson-Fair Haven(opens in new tab) last week. The underrated part of his game is that 92% of his kickoffs have been touchbacks, including two from the 25-yard line that were backed up because of penalties. “He’s a touchback machine,” Lange said. “I think in this day and age when you have that, you’re at such an advantage defensively because somebody’s got to go 80 yards every time.” He still has eyes on that state record. He said he has hit from 63 yards in practice. “I think because I thought I didn’t have a great season last year, I wanted to come back and show everyone I’m better than that,” he said. “But all the accomplishments from last year did give me some more confidence this season.” He also has fierce competition among Shore Conference kickers this year. Ocean junior Aidan Zacharczyk has two game-winning field goals of 40-plus yards, including a 51-yarder, and Reynoso has four field goals, including a 47-yarder. Now Picinich gets to play in the game he once watched as an eighth-grader. Donovan Catholic is searching for its first 8-0 start in school history, while RBC has won 11 straight games against Shore Conference competition. Something has to give. Picinich will conduct his usual pregame ritual of watching highlights from Jacksonville Jaguars kicker Cam Little. He has the NFL record with a 68-yard field goal and just beat the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday with a 57-yard field goal as time expired in London. Then the sophomore will step out into a spotlight that might have never come if he didn’t take a chance his freshman year and come out for football. “I heard a lot of people are coming,” Picinich said. “I hope I see that because I love more pressure. Honestly, I think it makes me play better.”...

RED BANK – Hoping to avoid another stunning late-game collapse, Red Bank Catholic turned to its closer with the game on the line against rival Rumson-Fair Haven on Friday night. Returning All-State kicker Simon Picinich calmly booted a 27-yard field goal with 1:48 left in the game and the Caseys, ranked No. 2 in the Shore Sports Insider Top 12, withstood one last furious rally by the No. 4 Bulldogs to pull out a 31-28 thriller at Count Basie Field in an instant classic. “I’m just keeping my head clear, not putting too much pressure on myself because I know there’s fans screaming and everything,” said Picinich, a sophomore who has offers from Rutgers and Syracuse. “I just kept calm, and every kick’s the same.” “Simon’s the best kicker in the Shore,” sophomore quarterback Rahmir Rivera said. “I have a thousand percent confidence in him.” Rumson (5-2, 3-1) mounted one final drive to RBC’s 14-yard line behind junior quarterback Brady Williams, but a missed 30-yard field goal with 20 seconds left in the game allowed RBC (5-2, 4-0) to exhale and clinch at least a tie for its second straight Class A North title. The Caseys now lead the all-time series 40-23-6 over their former Thanksgiving rival. The victory also sets up the Shore Conference game of the year next week, when the No. 2 Caseys travel to No. 1 Donovan Catholic in a showdown that could potentially decide the final No. 1 ranking in the Shore. The thrilling win came a week after a 31-24 nonconference loss(opens in new tab) against a Winslow Township team that rallied for a comeback victory. Rumson was down 28-14 midway through the third quarter and roared back to tie the game before RBC stabilized and pulled out the win. “We knew we had to finish,” Rivera said. “Last week we came up short doing the same thing – penalties, self-inflicted wounds – but we knew this week we definitely had to finish.” As expected, the stars on each team exploited the other team’s biggest weakness. RBC sophomore running back Gabe Kemp, the Shore Conference’s leading rusher, shredded Rumson’s run defense to the tune of 30 carries for 206 yards and two touchdowns to give him 1,126 yards rushing this season. On the other side, Williams, the Shore Conference’s leading passer, took apart the Caseys’ secondary by going 30-for-54 for what is believed to be a school-record 348 yards passing and two touchdown passes. He also ran for a touchdown. On top of that, RBC’s defense was flagged five times for pass interference. Picinich was the difference, as the sophomore got his first chance at a game-winning kick this season and converted it with ease. He also went 4-for-4 on extra points, boomed four touchbacks and handled the punting. “I’ve been thinking about game-winners this whole season with all the big games we’ve played,” he said. “Now that I’ve got the opportunity, it feels great. During the fourth quarter, I wasn’t thinking about it. I trust my offense to score another touchdown, but our special teams coordinator is like, ‘Get ready.’ And I was like, ‘I’m always ready.’” RBC opened the game with an eight-play, 66-yard drive that ended when Kemp sped down the sideline for a 31-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead. Rumson immediately responded with a 10-play, 65-yard drive that culminated in a two-yard touchdown run by senior tailback Ryder Izzo to tie it up. The Bulldogs took their only lead of the game when they drove 73 yards in 11 plays, highlighted by a 27-yard strike from Williams to senior wide Cole Spoonire. Williams then found senior wide receiver Casey Moore for a 6-yard touchdown pass on third down for a 14-7 lead with 6:02 left in the second quarter. Spoonire finished with eight catches for 93 yards in the loss. The Caseys came right back to tie it at 14 with a seven-play, 76-yard drive capped by a 31-yard scamper down the sideline by Rivera with 3:45 left in the half. “I’m not going to lie. That wasn’t supposed to be me, that was supposed to be a running back’s play, but I just followed my guys and it led me to the (end) zone,” Rivera said. RBC went back ahead when senior linebacker Luke Scaturro sacked Williams to kill Rumson’s ensuing drive, and the Caseys stuck in another score before halftime. Rivera found junior wide receiver Ethan Kennedy over the middle and he weaved through the Rumson defense for a 51-yard touchdown and a 21-14 lead with 1:47 left in the half. Kennedy finished with five catches for a career-high 103 yards in the win. “I think our coach was more open to non-RPO plays,” Kennedy said. “We ran some plays we hadn’t run before, and I think running more out of 11 and 10 (personnel) just opened our offense in a way nobody has seen.” “I watched the film and their safeties like to come down on run plays, so we just went over the top,” Rivera said. The Caseys extended their lead to 28-14 with a seven-play, 88-yard drive on their first possession of the third quarter. A 30-yard Kemp burst and a 21-yard catch by Kennedy set up Kemp’s eventual three-yard touchdown with 7:13 left in the period. However, Rumson wasn’t going out without a fight. The Bulldogs trimmed the lead to 28-21 with a four-play, 44-yard drive that included a 20-yard pass from Williams to junior wide receiver Michael Capra. He was outstanding in defeat with a career-high 11 catches for 97 yards. Williams bounced off a tackler for a five-yard touchdown run with 17 seconds left in the third quarter to cut it to a one-score game. The defense forced a three-and-out, and then Rumson went 60 yards in 14 plays. The Bulldogs tied the game at 28 on a clutch 10-yard touchdown pass on fourth down from Williams to Capra, who just got the ball over the plane of the end zone for the score with 7:02 left in the game. With another potential late-game collapse looming, RBC responded with one of its biggest drives of the season. The Caseys went 66 yards in 14 plays, including a key 16-yard pass from Rivera to Kennedy to reach Rumson’s 24-yard line. “It was a 5-step glance. I saw the corner drop and I was running deep and I broke on it and made a play on the ball,” Kennedy said. The drive stalled at the Rumson 10-yard line when Rivera was tackled short of a first down, but it was easily in range for Picinich, who gave RBC the lead. Rumson had the home fans sweating it out when it reached the RBC 14-yard line thanks to a 50-yard pass from Williams to senior wideout Jason Tucker. The Caseys’ defense made one of its biggest stands of the year when it forced three straight incompletions, which resulted in Rumson deciding to attempt a game-tying field goal that was wide left. RBC clinched its 18th division title in school history and picked up its biggest victory of the season. “It’s not how we thought the game would turn out ideally, but it was a great atmosphere, really exciting, and I’m just glad we came out with the win,” Kennedy said. ...