Edison head coach Matt Fulham after Edison’s Central Jersey Group 5 title win on November 11, 2022. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
Sports reporters ask a lot of the same type of questions all the time. “How do you feel after that win?” “What can you say about your offense?” “What went wrong tonight?”
One that you would be best not bothering ask this week of the Edison football coaches is: “Have you seen a team as good as Toms River North?”
Because the answer is very easily going to be a big fat “No.”
Edison (9-3) will play Toms River North (12-0) Saturday afternoon in the Group 5 semifinals at Cherokee High School in Medford, a 5:30 pm kickoff. The Eagles won the Central 5 title, while the Mariners won the South 5 championship. The winner gores on to play in the state’s first ever public school group finals, to be held in two weeks at Rutgers University’s SHI Stadium in Piscataway.
And Edison probably hasn’t seen a team like this in a long time.
Toms River North has scored at least 42 points a game in all but their first, a tight win in the 20s over Washington Township in the same Battle at the Beach in Ocean City where Edison got its season started on the right foot, with a four rushing touchdown performance from quarterback Matt Yascko in a win over Cedar Creek. They also have four shutouts.
They are led by junior QB Micah Ford, who runs all over the field, and sometimes passes it, with great success on both accounts. He has major D1 interest, including offers from West Virginia and Maryland, and interest from Greg Schiano at Rutgers.
Stopping him isn’t really an option. It’s the old ESPN adage: “You can only hope to contain him.”
Problem is, TRN has other weapons, too.
Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk about Edison’s CJ5 championship, and Saturday’s matchup against Toms River North: