Knights – Central Jersey Sports Radio

It wasn’t exactly the way they drew it up, but Old Bridge High School will officially dedicate its baseball field in honor of longtime skipper Fred Cole Monday, even if the current varsity team won’t be on hand.

That’s because the Knights are in COVID-19 quarantine.

Originally, the event – unveiling a sign on the scoreboard that’s being installed this weekend – was supposed to take place before Monday’s Opening Day matchup against East Brunswick.

But the school still will dedicate Fred Cole Field with a ceremony at 3:45 Monday afternoon. In fact, it will be live streamed so that the team – and anyone else who can’t make it – can see. Another ceremony will be held at a time to be determined, when the current players can be there in person.

Cole coached nearly 500 games at Madison Central and Old Bridge, going 270-210 in that time, coaching 11 eventual pros, winning the Central Jersey Group 4 title in 1988 and the GMC Tournament title in 1989, before retiring over a decade ago. He’s a New Jersey State Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer.

But his impact was felt much deeper, including how he impacted the lives of the players he coached, and even the coaches he worked with.

The idea to name the field off Ticetown Road after Cole was the brainchild Current Old Bridge head coach Matt Donaghue and his staff. And Donaghue credits Old Bridge Athletic Director Dan Dimino for making Fred Cole Field ultimately come to fruition.

Now in his third season (35-23) as head coach of the Knights, Donaghue is a 2005 Old Bridge alum, and played for Cole. But following a circuitous route that saw Donaghue win a D3 national title as a player at Kean, then a sectional title as an assistant under Glenn Fredericks at Spotswood, he took over as the Knights’ head coach in 2018, and brought Cole on his staff as an assistant.

Donaghue spoke with Central Jersey Sports Radio about his nearly lifelong mentor:

Old Bridge head coach Matt Donaghue talks about mentor Fred Cole, who coached Donaghue in high school, and later worked on Donaghue’s staff.

by Dominick Savino

Despite a new conference and a once-in-a-century pandemic, some things remained the same for Old Bridge in 2020.

For the second straight season, the Knights (5-1) finished with the best record in their league, sweeping Big Central Division 5C with a 4-0 divisional record.

The Big Central is not formally recognizing division championships in 2020 because of the uneven number of games played in the COVID-affected season, but Old Bridge — for all intents and purposes — won its second straight league title for the first time in program history.

Old Bridge, which won the GMC Red Division in 2019 thanks to three league wins decided by a combined nine points, discovered some more late-game magic this year. Junior QB Owen Haughney scored a final-minute rushing touchdown on Opening Day to complete a come-from-behind, 21-14 win over Monroe. And Old Bridge finished its unblemished run through Division 5C with a fourth-quarter rally against South Brunswick, powered by RB Lawrence Hunter’s first career three-touchdown game.

Haughney led the offense in his second season as the dual-threat starter, throwing for 759 yards and eight touchdowns while adding 223 yards and four more touchdowns on the ground. Hunter, a first-year starter, was the team’s breakout star, pacing the Knights with 779 rushing yards and eight touchdowns.

Haughney and Hunter are two key members of Old Bridge’s Class of 2022, which also received key contributions from WR/DB Jake McAleavey (426 receiving yards, 3 TD) and OL/DE Luke Maisonet (27 tackles, 8 TFL).

It’s a 25-member junior class that, in addition to a perfect 9-0 division record, has guided Old Bridge to a 15-2 overall record in the last two years. That includes eight wins decided by seven points or less, the latest of which was a 28-27 overtime thriller over Long Branch to end the regular season.

But the returning Knights still believe they have unfinished business.

Old Bridge played in just one playoff game over those two seasons: a 34-7 upset loss to Kingsway in the first round of the 2019 Central Jersey Group 5 sectional tournament. Old Bridge was forced to sit out this year’s makeshift, two-week postseason after Long Branch reported a positive COVID case on its team less than 48 hours after the game.

“Now, we’re just focused on what’s in front of us,” Haughney said. “We want to bring that state title back to Old Bridge for the first time.”

Haughney and head coach Anthony Lanzafama spoke to Central Jersey Sports Radio about the season. Click below to hear their comments:

Owen Haughney