Tag: Matt Yascko

by Mike Pavlichko

Edison, looking to continue improvement after first win, draw tough defensive task Friday when Franklin visits Boulevard of the Eagles

The Edison football team was very much in its first three games of the season.

In the opener against Piscataway, the Eagles had a 14-10 third quarter lead. They trailed Old Bridge the next week at the half by eight. And they led Sayreville 14-13 coming out of the locker room for the second half.

They managed to lose all three games, but finally got in the win column last week against North Brunswick, a 20-14 win in which the offense gained 318 yards, its best offensive output of the season, both in yardage and points.

The next step is to wash, rinse, repeat – minus any mistakes – when Franklin (2-2) visits Edison (-13) Friday night in the “Big Central Game of the Week” presented by Bellamy & Son Paving. Kickoff is at 7 pm, with Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe on the call. Click here to listen.

The biggest challenge for Edison will be bottling up a Warrior attack that, while they lost to then No. 4 St. Thomas Aquinas last week, 57-45, put up the most points against the Trojans in any regular season game going back to the dawn of Big Central play in 2020.

Eagles’ head coach Matt Yascko has seen the film. He says Franklin just kept making big play after big play.

It was thrilling to watch, but it won’t be if his team doesn’t stick to the game plan this Friday. Defensively, Edison can make plays. Junior linebacker Shaun Garland already has a couple of sacks, while defensive linemen Zion Pearson and Robert Roma each have one. The Eagles also have one pick, have forced four fumbles, and recovered two.

Meanwhile, Ryan Toth has taken over at quarterback. The former Metuchen QB moved to Edison in the off-season, trading blue-and-white for red-and-gold. He’s thrown for 425 yards and three touchdowns, while three different backs are over the hundred-yard mark on offense, giving Yascko and the Eagles options on the ground, while Garland and Roma have eight catches apiece, and Daren Tirado has five.

The Eagles have some weapons, they’ll just have to avoid getting into a shootout if they want to get a win in a potential toss-up game they may need to have to get back into the playoff picture in the South 5 supersection at the midway point of the season.

Click below to hear Edison head coach Matt Yascko talk about the Eagles and Friday’s game against Franklin with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

by Dom Savino

With veteran RB Eato out, Edison overcomes and tops visiting No. 9 Colonia 27-21 at home

Edison knew ahead of its Friday night clash with No. 9 Colonia that it would be without the services of its All-Star running back. Three-year starter Nykier Eato was unavailable after leaving last week’s game with an ankle injury.

But for the Eagles’ unsung heroes, there’s a difference between having an opportunity and seizing it, especially when facing one of the most Big Central’s most potent offenses.

Making their first starts of the season, running back Lenier Whetstone and cornerback Dedrick Harvey shined, producing career performances in a 27-21 home win in the Bellamy and Son Paving “Big Central Game of the Week” on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Edison (3-3) has now won back-to-back games for the first time this season. The win is also the team’s first in its fourth contest against a team that’s been ranked in the CJSR Top 10.

Whetstone powered Edison’s revamped run game to another dominant performance, picking up a career-high 151 of his team’s 284 rushing yards. The Eagles scored all four of their touchdowns on the ground, including three from returning All-Division fullback Shawn Garland.

After a sluggish start — in which Colonia scored on each of its first two drives to take a 14-6 lead — Edison scored on three of its following four drives to grab the advantage for good.

The red-hot Patriots made a late-game push, using Jaylen McRae’s 45-yard touchdown catch to draw within six points in the fourth quarter. The catch was the first of McRae’s Colonia career.

But as the Patriots mounted what they hoped would be a game-winning drive in the final minutes, Edison cornerback Dedrick Harvey made his biggest contributions of the season. He was involved in all five of Colonia’s incomplete passes in the 4th quarter while covering the Patriots’ top wideout, Nygel Hill.

And with just over a minute left, Harvey turned his string of pass breakups into his first career pick, jumping a Dylan Chiera pass towards the end zone to secure the game-sealing interception — the first of Harvey’s career.

Colonia fell to 4-2 with the loss.

Click below for postgame reaction with head coach Matt Yascko and players Dedrick Harvey and Lenier Whetstonepresented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Dom Savino

The time is now for Edison to make a move as Colonia visits the Eagles Friday night

Edison knew it was a better team than the one that started the season 1-3.

Riding high off an impressive win — and fueled by a revamped run game — the Eagles are eager to prove it.

Edison (2-3) looks to return to .500 in a Friday home battle with No. 9 Colonia, the fourth Eagles’ opponent in their first six games to appear in the Central Jersey Sports Radio Top 10 this season.

You can hear the Bellamy & Son Paving “Big Central Game of the Week” at 7pm on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with the pregame set for 6:45. Justin Sontupe and Dom Savino will call the action, click here to listen.

Last time out, Edison handled Franklin, 27-13, behind senior RB Nykier Eato’s first career 200-yard performance. The 3-year starter accounted for 237 of the Eagles’ 390 rushing yards — a gaudy total that’s emblematic of the team’s recent emphasis on its rushing attack.

As the Eagles look to make a second-half push towards the postseason, they’ll also have the benefit of friendly environments. Edison will play in its home township for the entire final month of the regular season, with three home games and one road tilt at crosstown St. Thomas Aquinas still remaining.

Click below to hear Edison head coach Matt Yascko preview the Eagles’ Friday night Bellamy & Son Paving “Big Central Game of the Week” against Colonia with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Dom Savino:

by Mike Pavlichko

Edison gets back in the win column with 27-13 win at Franklin; Eato helps cause with 2 TDs

With the game tied at seven coming out of halftime, Nykier Eato made sure Edison was going to come out of Friday night’s road game at Franklin with a win.

Eato scored two touchdowns in the third quarter to put the Eagles up two scores, and quarterback Anthony Calantoni added a 12-yard run to make it 27-7.

That gave Edison enough insurance to pick up the win after Franklin answered with one more score. But they would get no closer, as the Eagles picked up the 27-13 victory.

Edison improves to 2-3, and snapped a three-game losing streak with the win. The 27 points was its best offensive output since a 27-0 home win over East Brunswick in its opener.

Franklin has lost two straight and drops to 3-2 ahead of a home game with Plainfield next Friday night.

The Eagles will face Colonia (4-1) at home next Friday night in the “Big Central Game of the Week” presented by Bellamy & Son Paving. The Patriots beat Perth Amboy 27-20 Friday night.

Click below for postgame reaction from Edison head coach Matt Yascko:

Edison football players work on drills in preseason camp. (Source: @ehsgridiron on Twitter)
by Mike Pavlichko

Marcus Borden’s 2024 GMC/BCC Camp Caravan: Senior talent hopes to help Edison soar

Central Jersey Sports Radio analyst Marcus Borden wrapped up Week One of his 2024 GMC/Big Central Conference Camp Caravan with a visit to Edison to see the Eagles.

Watch Borden’s full coverage below, including clips from camp, and interviews with head coach Matt Yascko along with seniors Anthony Calantoni (QB), Dedrick Harvey (WR/DB), Justin Boslet (OT) and Gavin Bailey (G).

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

by Mike Pavlichko

Edison looking to cut down on big plays as No. 8 Sayreville visits for Thursday night matchup

A lot has changed for Edison since last November, when the Eagles’ football team won its first state sectional title in over three decades.

Head coach Matt Fulham retired, and offensive coordinator Matt Yascko – a veteran head coach who won two titles himself at Carteret, and that 1991 title in Edison as a player – took over.

Yascko’s son – a four-year starter at quarterback, with his dad as his coordinator for the last three – graduated, along with solid kicker Selbin Sabio and a number of other significant contributors.

That’s meant a bit of a shift in offensive style, with junior Anthony Calantoni taking the reins, a QB who doesn’t nearly run it like the younger Yascko did.

And as the offense comes around, Edison is looking to cut down on big plays that did them in during losses at Bridgewater-Raritan and North Brunswick.

At least the Eagles get to play on their home turf finally, after playing those first three on the road. That’ll happen Thursday night when 8th-ranked Sayreville (2-1) comes to town for a 7:00 game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Pregame is 6:45, and Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel have the call. Click here to listen.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko preview the game with Edison head coach Matt Yascko:

by Mike Pavlichko

Yascko gets first win at alma mater; everyone gets involved as Edison wins 10th straight against arch-rival JP Stevens

Edison had a disappointing opener to 2023 with a 44-12 loss at Bridgewater-Raritan last Friday night.

It may not have been unexpected. While the Eagles are certainly talented, new players are adjusting to leadership roles and positions that had been manned by several three-year starters on last year’s Central Jersey Group 5 championship team. And that might take some time.

But Thursday night, they made sure there wasn’t another disappointment in Game Two.

Edison blew past JP Stevens 57-0 with everyone getting into the act, scoring early and often, as they built a 39-0 lead before halftime, activating the running clock for the second half.

Nyekir Eato rushed for touchdowns of five and six yards. Tori’ahn Rattray had a three-yard touchdown run and brought back the second half kickoff for a score. Aidan Woomer had a one-yard touchdown run and returned two punt blocks for touchdowns, once in the first quarter and again in the third. And Anthony Calantoni threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Ricky Harvey for the third score of the game.

Edison’s game MVP, Justin Reid, also recovered two fumbles on defense.

The Eagles improved to 1-1 with the win, the first for new head coach Matt Yascko at his alma mater, after three years as offensive coordinator. That followed 14 years leading Carteret, where he was 82-67 with two state championships and three finals berths.

JP Stevens fell to 0-2 with the loss, and has lost 33 straight dating back to 2018, the second-longest active losing streak in New Jersey behind Highland Park, which sits at 42, and opens the 2023 season at Tenafly Friday night.

Click below for postgame interviews by Marcus Borden with Edison head coach Matt Yascko and game MVP Justin Reid:

by Mike Pavlichko

Edison took graduation hit, but plenty of talent remains on O-line, D-line and at skill positions

Edison had a historic season in 2022, winning the Central Jersey Group 5 championship, its first sectional title in 31 years.

So, what do you do for an encore?

Repeating will be difficult, with the number of key players lost to graduation. It won’t be easy to replace the nearly 1,900 passing yards and 14 touchdowns from the arm of Matt Yascko, or the more than 1,100 receiving yards and ten touchdowns from Malcom Stansbury and Michael Strachan.

But the cupboard is far from bare for Matt Yascko, the quarterback’s father, who is an Edison alum, and spent the last three seasons as Offensive Coordinator, coaching his son, after coming over from Carteret, where he had a lengthy run and won multiple championships.

The Eagles bring back junior Nyekir Eato and the nearly 1,300 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns he piled up in his sophomore season. Senior wideout Ricky Harvey and his 387 receiving yards and four touchdowns are no small potatoes either.

That’ll be a plus, as will two of the standouts who came to Big Central Media Days last week: Sebastian Vera and Justin Reid, both two-way linemen who will become third-year starters in 2023.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk Edison football at Big Central Media Days with head coach Matt Yascko, and seniors Sebastian Rivera and Justin Reid.

by Mike Pavlichko

Welcome back, again: Yascko takes the reins at alma mater Edison after three seasons as OC

The Edison High School football team has a new head coach who is anything but new to the program.

After spending three seasons as the Eagles’ offensive coordinator, working with a unit that featured his son as the quarterback, Matt Yascko has been elevated to head coach.

No surprise, if we’re being brutally honest.

The Edison Board of Education Tuesday night approved the appointment of Yascko to the post, where he takes over for Matt Fulham, who retired in January after 20 seasons at the helm. He left with an 80-100-1 record, and handing off a program that has made the playoffs four straight postseasons dating back to 2018, capped off with a Central Jersey Group 5 championship, the school’s first sectional title in 31 years, this past fall.

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With the senior Yascko heading the offense, and the younger Yascko in charge of it on the field, the combo went 20-10 over the past three seasons.

Edison’s Matt Yascko (the QB/son, left) and Matt Yascko (the offensive coordinator/father, right) helped lead Edison to its first sectional title since 1991. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)

READ MORE: Yascko & Yascko: How the father-son QB-OC tandem united to help bring Edison its first title in 31 years

The hiring is a natural fit for the Eagles, whose staff has many local ties to the community. Yascko is an Edison alum, and was on the 1991 championship team in his junior season, so the move keeps the position in the family, while also promoting from within, allowing for a sense of continuity with a “new” head coach.

Of course, Yascko has significant chops as a head coach. Following a run as an assistant under Bob Molarz at Carteret, Yascko took the reins of the Ramblers for 14 seasons, going 82-67 and reaching three state finals, winning titles in 2007 and 2012.

https://www.edisonboysbaseball.com/

But he left in July of 2020 – coincidentally around the time Carteret dropped fall sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic – in order to spend more time around his son. In 2019, the younger Yascko was as a freshman for Edison, and got called upon to start the last six games of the year when Lucas Loffredo went down to injury, then moved and transferred out of the district.

That summer, when the offensive coordinator position opened up, Fulham offered Yascko the job, and the rest was history.

Yascko is the tenth head coach in Edison history, but only the second alum to lead the program. Mike Wojick is the other, and he was Yascko’s head coach when the team won the 1991 Central Jersey Group 4 crown.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk with Matt Yascko about being named Edison’s new head football coach. Scroll further down for additional comments about Yascko’s hiring.

Reaction from Edison:

Edison Athletic Director David Sandaal: “I couldn’t be happier. Matt has been a winner all of his life. As a player, he was a junior on the 1991 Central Jersey Group 4 sectional championship team, won two sectional crowns as the Head Coach for Carteret, and was the offensive coordinator this past fall for our 2022 state sectional championship team.”

Edison Wide Receivers Coach Brian Calantoni: “This day is a culmination of what we all worked for, for many years. We have the best coach and the best coaching staff in the state. We have six alumni on the staff. Coach Yascko is the epitome of Edison High School football, all about the team the town and the school. He’s humble, and he’s a hard worker and his teams are the same. Today is one of the best days in Edison High School football history.”

by Mike Pavlichko

What were the Top Ten stories of 2022 on Central Jersey Sports Radio? Here’s a look at the first five:

End-of-the-year lists are always popular, so we figured what better time to look at the most-read stories on Central Jersey Sports Radio this past year, one in which we had – yet again – a record number of visitors to the site? So, we compiled the top ten feature and game stories of the past year, and present them to you now.

We start today with stories 10 through 6, and will have the top five later this week.

Click on each headline for the complete, original story.

10. Yascko, Edison defense help knock off top-seed Lenape, bring home trophy for first time in 31 years

Edison’s Matt Yascko – shown here as a freshman against South Plainfield on October 18, 2019 – helped lead the Eagles to their first title since 1991. (Photo submitted by coach Matt Yascko)

It had been a long time coming, but Edison finally got its championship. With a group that had several key four-year starters, the Eagles brought home the big one. But they’d have to travel through wind and rain to do it.

With the remnants of Hurricane Nicole buffeting the state, Edison and some of the Eagles’ heartiest fans had to make the hour-plus-long trek down to to-seed Lenape in Medford, NJ (Burlington County) to see their beloved team. But it paid off, as they won the Central Jersey Group 5 championship, their first since the CJ4 trophy they won in 1991.

FULL GAME AUDIO: Central Jersey Group 5 Final: (6) Edison 28, (1) Lenape 14

9. Sayreville looking for more of the Wright stuff

Zaimer Wright (left) with his Bellamy & Son Player of the Week Award from Week 3, poses alongside head coach Chris Beagan. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)

Zaimer Wright was just a sophomore in 2021, but with him leading the way on the ground, Sayreville had its best season since they won the Central Jersey Group 5 title in 2018. His 1,403 yards and 25 touchdowns made him the to returning runningback in the Big Central Conference in 2022.

Injuries, however – both to Wright and others – slowed the Bombers a bit in 2022. They finished 4-5 as Wright only managed to play in seven of the team’s nine games and rushed for 644 yards and three touchdowns on 103 carries, fewer than half as many touches as he had in 2021.

Should he be healthy in 2023, expect more big things from Wright and the Bombers in his senior season.

8. Edison, Lenape to face off for Central Jersey Group 5 title tonight in Medford

Edison coach Matt Fulham talks to his team after a 42-23 win at St. Joseph-Metuchen on October 7, 2022. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)

Excitement was at a fever pitch for Edison fans heading into the Central Jersey Group 5 title game. Not only had it been a long time since they’d won a title – 31 years, to be exact – they had not been to a final since they last won it in 1991.

And with Eagles’ fans not knowing much about Lenape other than they were a top seed in the section despite a middling record of 4-4 at the cutoff, our interviews with Edison head coach Matt Fulham and Indians’ head coach Joe Wojceichowski drew a great number of fans to check it out.

It probably didn’t hurt that Lenape fans didn’t know much about Edison either.

7. Entire Edison community mourns the loss of much-beloved youth sports leader “Mr. G”

The man Edison children knew for years as “Mr G.”

People in Edison love their school sports, as you’ll notice from this bottom five of our Top Ten list. But they also loved “Mr. G.”

Beloved youth sports mentor William Giampolo passed away in January of 2022, and the news affected everyone who’d ever played rec baseball or football dating all the way back to the 1970s. He led the Edison Boys’ Baseball League from 1973 to 1998, and was instrumental in the Edison Youth Sports Council.

We talked with Edison Boys’ Baseball League President Brian Calantoni for his memories of Mr. G for this story, which also includes a photo gallery.

6. Yascko & Yascko: How the father-son QB-OC tandem united to help bring Edison its first title in 31 years

Edison’s Matt Yascko (the QB/son, left) and Matt Yascko (the offensive coordinator/father, right) have helped lead Edison to its first sectional title since 1991. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)

One more Edison story today, and this one’s a keeper. (Hey, we can’t help it if Eagles fans turn out on CJSR!)

Matt Yascko was a freshman in 2019 when the Eagles’ starter went down to injury, and he was elevated to starting quarterback for the final six games of the season. But before head coach Matt Fulham made the call, he made a call: to Yascko’s father, Matt, then the head coach at Carteret. Yascko, the dad, had played at Edison and was on the 1991 team that was the last one – until this year – to win a sectional championship for the Eagles.

With his blessing (though he might have done it anyway) Yascko, the son, became the starter.

And the next year, despite uncertainty about the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Yascko the dad joined Fulham’s staff at his alma mater as offensive coordinator, bringing father and son together for what would be an immensely successful three-year run: a record of 20-10 over that span, culminating with the Central Jersey Group 5 title this past season.

Check back later this week for the remaining five stories in our Top Ten of 2022 on Central Jersey Sports Radio.