No. 6 St. Joseph-Metuchen’s third quarter run, Kretkowki’s 22, sink No. 5 Colonia, 58-40

With all due respect to those who returned, the full effect of off-season losses for defending GMC Tournament champion Colonia were on display Saturday afternoon in Metuchen.

That’s where No. 6 St. Joseph went on a 14-7 third quarter run to top the fifth-ranked Patriots, 58-40 in a GMC Red American Division game that will undoubtedly shake up at least the middle of the Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten when the Week Two rankings come out Monday.

Junior Rutgers Prep transfer Andrew Kretkowski led all scorers in the game with 22 points, spread evenly throughout the game: seven in the first, five in the second, four in the third and six in the final period. He hit two first half treys as St. Joe’s connected five times from beyond the arc.

With the loss of Aidan Derkack, who transferred to Spire Academy in Ohio to play his senior season for Kevin Boyle, Colonia was missing some well-established height inside to deal with the Falcons. Newcomer Desmond Rudanovic, a 6’7″ freshman, scored 15 points, but he’s as big as they go for the Patriots right now, and just getting his feet wet at the varsity level.

They’re also out R.J. Wortman, who skipped out to enroll early at Rutgers, where he’ll play football for Greg Schiano after grabbing 101 passes this year, his senior season. Defensive specialist Nick Smith also graduated. And on Saturday, St. Joseph did much of what it wanted to do on offense.

While sophomore Jayce Rodriguez, coming off a great freshman year, has been pouring in the points early on, what’s clear is Colonia also needs to develop some other options, or teams will gameplan for him and take their chances with the rest. Rodriguez had 13 on the afternoon, but besides him and Rudanovic, no one else scored more than four points.

Meanwhile, junior Elijah Murphy added 14 for the Falcons, including a nine-point first half where he went three-for-three from the foul line. He’s one of a number of returners for St. Joe’s, which also has brought in key transfers to supplement the lineup in season one of the second go-round for alum Mark Taylor, who won a pair of GMC titles here in the late 1990s.

It was a tight first half, with Joe’s up just 10-8 after one, and by seven at the half, 28-21. To start the second half, Marcel Carr of St. Joe’s hit a three, then Jayce Rodriguez countered with and and-one, but the Falcons finished the quarter on a 9-4 run to make it 42-28 heading to the fourth.

The Falcons weren’t perfect, missing some second- and even third-chance putback opportunities, and they got int foul trouble – even Kretkowski played the final few minutes with four fouls – but they are coming together after a light first full week of the season.

Click below to hear St. Joseph-Metuchen head coach Mark Taylor talk about the win with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko: