Tag: Josh D’Ambrosio

by Mike Pavlichko

Heady Montgomery point guard Ethan Lin repeats as CJSR Somerset County Boys’ Basketball Player of the Year

Basketball is a team sport, but without Ethan Lin, it’s highly likely Montgomery isn’t Central Jersey Group 4 champions three years running.

The smart, skilled, and unflappable point guard was the Central Jersey Sports Radio Somerset County Boys’ Basketball Player of the Year in 2024-25, and now he’s repeated the feat in 2025-26.

Last season, he was coming off a horiffic broken leg injury that truncated his sophomore season. He came back stronger than ever for his junior year, and that trajectory continued this season.

He’s the first back-to-back winner since another pretty good player did it in 2022, and 2023: Mikayla Blakes of Rutgers Prep. She’s doing alright these days, only the leading scorer in the nation in D1 women’s basketball, scoring 27 points per game for Vanderbilt, where she was just announced Thursday as a semifinalist for the Naismith Trophy, given to the Women’s College Basketball Player of the Year. A two-seed in the NCAA Tournament, they open play at home Saturday against High Point.

Lin reminds us – in the way he runs the game – of former East Brunswick standout point guard Amir Bell, who lead the Bears to a Central Jersey Group 4 title in 2013 as a junior. He then went on to be a standout at Princeton, where he was a thousand-point scorer, and most recently played in the German Bundesliga.

In the Group 4 semifinals against Cherry Hill East – a 30-point blowout win, 67-37 – Lin scored “just” nine points. And while many would look at that and say he was “held” to nine, he more realistically held himself to nine points. An unselfish player, he saw opportunities to get the ball to teammates Shree Mallavarpu and Connor Benedict, who scored a career-high 23 and a near-career high 28 points, respectively, as they dominated the game.

Or, as his father said to us afterward, “I think they game planned a lot for Ethan, but they forgot everyone else.”

That’s what makes Lin special, his feel for the game that not every player has.

Lin will be headed to play at the University of Pennsylvania next year. The Quakers of the Ivy League won the Ivy Madness Tournament title, and are in the NCAA Tournament as 15 seed, playing third-seed Illinois of the Big Ten Thursday evening at 9:25.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with Central Jersey Sports Radio Boys’ Basketball two-time Player of the Year Ethan Lin:

Honorable Mentions:

  • Prosper Highlander, Gill St. Bernard’s: The senior from Cameroon – full name Prosper Highlander Sonkoua, who dropped the Highlander this year and went by Sonkoua – averaged 15.6 points and 72. rebounds a game this year, and emerging as a big prospect in the class of 2026, currently uncommited. He also hit 37 treys and had 33 blocks and 74 steals for the first-time Non-Public B state champs.
  • Dorsett Mulcahy, Gill St. Bernard’s: The senior point guard – who will head to Canisius next year – has been a rock for Mergin Sina’s Knights, even during a downturn a couple of years ago during a season where the roster was very much in flux. But this year, he upped his game and scored career-high 502 points, averaging 18.6 points per game, with a career-best 66 treys. The Knights finished second in the state – behind only Rutgers Prep – with 254 triples on the year.
  • Will Brunson, Rutgers Prep: Merely a sophomore, Brunson scored 22.2 points and 8.4 rebounds per game this season for a squad that reached the Somerset County Tournament finals. He also hit 53 treys, part of a 282-three barrage by the Argonauts that led the entire state of New Jersey
  • Riley Gorman, Immaculata: A senior, Gorman graduates with 1,238 points, cracking the 1k barrier in the Somerset County Tournament, in a win over Bernards. Averaging 22 points a game, he hit 91 threes, and finished his career with 168. And in 28 games played this season, he scored in double figures in all but one, a two-point effort against Westfield where he wasn’t feeling well and sat the second half.
  • Aaron Feath, Hillsborough: Also just a sophomore, he plays on a team with his older brother Derek, but not at all in his shadow. The kid hit big shots all year for a team that won 22 games and lost just eight, and scored at a team-best 18.5 point per game clip, while dishing out 103 assists.
  • Josh D’Ambrosio, Manville: Going 19-9 for a second straight year, D’Ambrosio – also an excellent football player – brought that physicality to the hardwood. He averaged 14.5 points per game, dished 100 assists for the second straight year, and hit 66 treys, giving him 219 in a four-year varsity career.

Manville guard Josh D'Ambrosio (3) directs traffic for the Mustangs against Middlesex in the Central Jersey Group 1 quarterfinals.
by Alec Crouthamel

Manville boys rally, stun Middlesex in Central Jersey Group 1 quarterfinals

Midway through the third quarter, Manville was on the ropes.

In the Central Jersey Group 1 quarterfinals, the sixth-seeded Mustangs (19-8) trailed Middlesex 36-22 on the road, with a rising home crowd.

But just as it looked like the playoff matchup was going to slip away from Manville, they struck back.

The Mustangs ended the third quarter on an 11-2 run, and kept their foot on the gas to eventually pull away late and stun the third-seeded Jays (19-9) 47-44. Senior Josh D’Ambrosio finished with a game-high 22 points – 14 in the second half – and knocked down a go-ahead three with under two minutes to play to take the lead for good.

As the final buzzer sounded to end a frenetic final minute, Manville came out of the fray with a victory, before being promptly mobbed by the section’s worth of students who made the trip down Route 28.

Middlesex opened the game rolling on both sides of the floor, complementing an aggressive and opportunistic defense with a balanced scoring attack on offense. Five different Jays scored in the opening quarter.

They took a nine-point lead into halftime, led by 13 points from Jax Robel. He finished with a team-high 19 in the loss, as the Mustangs’ defense held him without a point in the final quarter. As a team, Middlesex knocked down six three-pointers in the opening half, but made none in the second half.

Once the teams exited the locker room after halftime, it was clear Manville had a different intensity than the opening 16 minutes.

The Mustangs attacked the basket and set up threes of their own on offense, and did a much better job matching up on the defensive side, forcing turnovers and bad shots.

The late run to end the third quarter was just as much due to Manville’s defensive intensity as its deliberation and efficiency on offense. In addition to D’Ambrosio taking more scoring initiative, the Mustangs got a major boost from junior forward Jonathan Gosk with seven points in the third quarter alone. He finished as the team’s second-leading scorer with ten points.

Manville trailed by five at the end of the third, and the momentum fully swung the visitors’ way quickly to start the fourth. D’Ambrosio drew a three-shot foul to open the scoring, and freshman guard Levan Chankotadze added a three-pointer of his own to take the lead for the first time in the half.

The two teams went back and forth from there, including a go-ahead three-point play chance from Chris Kozak, but Manville found its footing from the perimeter and knocked down its free throws late to seal the upset victory. D’Ambrosio scored 11 of the Mustangs’ 14 fourth-quarter points.

Manville moves on to the semifinal round for a third straight year, where it will face the winner of the opposite quarterfinal between second-seeded Point Pleasant Beach and tenth-seeded Dayton. The location will depend on the winner of the game. Middlesex’s season comes to a close with a 19-9 record.

Click below for postgame reactions from Manville head coach Bill Rooney and guard Josh D’Ambrosio with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Alec Crouthamel, presented by the Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

Manville’s Josh D’Ambrosio still has sports to play, but four-year starter takes CJSR’s 2025 Longevity Award

“You never had the makings of a varsity athlete.” -Junior Soprano

“Josh has been a varsity athlete since he stepped on the gridiron as a freshman.” Dave Markowitch

The Manville coach has it right.

Josh D’Ambrosio got into the game as a ninth grader at outside linebacker, and has had an extraordinary career. This season – at free safety – he had 32 tackles, 13 solo, nine TFLs and two interceptions for a defense that allowed just nine touchdowns all season. He’s been there his entire four-year career in blue and gold.

But it was on offense where he may have helped the team most all year. He threw for 720 yards and nine touchdowns without a single interception in 51 pass attempts, but also carried 156 times for 1,268 yards and 18 scores, with a long of 74.

The Wing-T isn’t an easy offense to run, but D’Ambrosio did it well in his three years as the starting signal caller. In his career, he’s accumulated over 4,300 yards.

But even more importantly, he developed over time into a vocal leader, the person his teammates looked to in good times or bad.

And in the end, he went out making history – helping lead the team to its first undefeated regular season since 1968, and a program record for wins with 10, the last one coming at home against Asbury Park, for the Mustangs’ first playoff win in school history.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Chris Tsakonas talk with Manville senior Josh D;Ambrosio:

Honorable Mentions:

  • Logan Stevens, Bernards: In a three-year varsity career, he never lost a single regular season game. A runningback/defensive back, Stevens rushed for 2,386 yards in his career, also grabbing 59 passes for 814 yards, scoring 39 career touchdowns and 236 points. On defense this year, he had 34 solo tackles, three interceptions, nine pass breakups, a TFL and a forced fumble. He also excelled on special teams, with 642 kick return yards – for a 23.8 average – with the Mountaineers’ getting average field position of their own 36-yard line.
  • Andrew Avent, Rahway: Spending four years on varsity, Avent came on the scene as a baby-faced freshman. He leaves as a baby-faced senior with a million-dollar smile, and several program records, including career rushing yards (4,524), single-season rushing yards (1,961), career touchdowns (77) and points scored.
  • Nate Endgdahl, Ridge: Sophomores rarely play line on the varsity Red Devils team, but Engdhal did, making him the first defensive lineman in first-year head coach Sutherland’s time at Ridge (five years, the first four as Defensive Coordinator) to have started three consecutive years. Sutherland calls him a “once-in-a-decade player.” This season, he had four sacks in six games played, logging 33 tackles and six TFLs.
  • Filipe Granadiero, South River: The senior linebacker led his team with 91 tackles this season, and also owns the career record with 264, taking the mantle from his brother, Marcus, who also was a Rams’ linebacker for longtime head coach Rich Marchesi.
by Mike Pavlichko

Manville makes history! Mustangs trounce Asbury Park, 35-0, for first-ever playoff win

The Manville football team had only made the playoffs five times prior to this season, which has been a dominant one against Big Central competition any way you slice it.

Turns out, after coming up empty in all five previous appearances, the sixth time was the charm.

The fourth-seeded Mustangs got two touchdowns from Isaiah Bennett, two from Sam Echeverri – one on a run and one on a pass from Josh D’Ambrosio – and a run from D’Ambrosio himself en route to a 35-0 dismantling of fifth-seed Asbury Park Friday night in the Central Jersey Group 1 first round, to give Manville its first playoff win in program history.

In the Friday night “Big Central Game of the Week” presented by Bellamy & Son Paving, the Mustangs – who started on offense – needed just three plays to score, on a 61-yard TD catch by Echeverri. After a long Asbury Drive took six minutes off the clock and came up empty, the teams traded possessions before Manville went ten plays in just under five minutes, capped by a Bennett two-yard run to make it 14-0.

The rest of the scoring came in the second half, and the Blue Bishops only really threatened once, late in the third quarter, when they made it as far as the eight yard line. But they got driven back, and Matt Gorbatuk had a big sack to get out of danger and preserve the shutout.

The victory makes Manville 10-0 – setting a new program record for wins – and will send the Mustangs down to top-seed Burlington City for a 6 pm game next Friday. (No early dismissal will be needed, as there’s no school for the teachers’ convention.) The Blue Devils (8-1) were 49-0 winners at home over eight-seed Bound Brook, 49-0, Friday night. The Crusaders’ bounceback season ends at 5-5.

Click below for Mike Pavlichko with postgame reaction presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen!

by Mike Pavlichko

Perfection! Manville caps first undefeated regular season since 1968 with 49-7 win at Bound Brook; Mustangs claim Freedom Silver title

It was all there laid out for the Manville football team this week. A chance to clinch their first perfect regular season since 1968, and a chance to win the Freedom Silver Division title in the Big Central Conference.

They took those chances, and ran with it. And threw it. And scored a bunch in a 49-7 road win at Bound Brook, which has put together a nice five-win regular season, and may still have a chance at making the playoffs with some help.

But Friday night, Manville made it clear they are the premier Group 1 school in the league, and by a large margin.

On a night when senior QB Josh D’Ambrosio threw, ran and caught a pass for a touchdown, while fellow senior Sam Echeverri ran for two and threw two of his own, the defense also did its part, allowing just one touchdown. Manville has shut out four opponents this year – Hopatcong, Belvidere, Middlesex and South Hunterdon – and allowed no more than 14 points in a game all season long, while scoring no fewer than 41 a game in their last six.

Manville (9-0, 5-0) will finish in the middle of the pack in the South Group 1 supersection, and we’ll have to see where they land in Central Group 1, where they will be placed when the brackets are sorted by Northing numbers (geographically). Bound Brook (5-4, 4-1) will wait to see if other teams’ wins or losses can get them in.

We’ll have updated playoff standings later Friday into early Saturday morning on the site here at Central Jersey Sports Radio, and you can hear the likely brackets on our 2025 Playoff Projection Show Saturday at 6 pm, with Mike Pavlichko and Marcus Borden live in studio.

Watch postgame reaction from Marcus Borden with victorious Manville below, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

Marcus Borden’s 2024 GMC/BCC Camp Caravan: Manville, Metuchen, Spotswood hit the Shore for quad scrimmage at Point Pleasant Beach

Central Jersey Sports Radio high school football analyst Marcus Borden took advantage of the beautiful weather Tuesday morning to catch Manville, Metuchen and Spotswood in a quad scrimmage down at Point Pleasant Beach, as he continues his Camp Caravan tour in the 2024 preseason.

You can find videos – including video highlights and interviews – from all three teams below.

Manville: Head Coach Dave Markowitch, senior Armondo Lazzeri (G/DE), and juniors Josh D’Ambrosio (QB/S) and Isaiah Bennett (RB/LB)

Metuchen: Head Coach Jordan Leitner, senior Evan Toth (RB/LB and juniors Kyle McPartlan (QB), Cam Hayes-Durina (WR/S) and Justus Leitner (WR/CB)

Spotswood: Head Coach Chris Meagher, seniors John Wallace (OT/DT), Sebastian “Seb” Saracino (RB/LB), Stephen Henits (WR/OLB) and junior Se’mir Tolbert-Brimage (QB/DE)

You can now watch all the 2024 Camp Caravan videos on YouTube by clicking this link!