Red Bank Catholic football puts on explosive offensive show in beating Raritan

RED BANK – In Red Bank Catholic’s last game, the Caseys relied upon the right arm of senior quarterback Alex Brown to pull out a comeback victory. Brown threw for two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to erase a two-score lead against Wall.

In that game, the running game was relatively quiet as Brown tossed for 168 yards and three touchdowns. This Friday, the running game came alive again.

With senior running back Sabino Portella leading the way, Red Bank Catholic established an unstoppable running attack and eventually mixed in its vaunted pass offense to roll past Raritan 49-7.

Portella ran for over 100 yards by the end of the first quarter and finished with 140 yards and two touchdowns as the Red Bank Catholic (3-0) reserves played for much of the second half with a running clock.

It was Red Bank Catholic’s most balanced offensive effort of the season as the Caseys put on a show.

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“Everything was working,” Brown said. “I don’t think they could have stopped anything that we threw at them.”

Portella ran for touchdowns of 52 and 11 yards while fellow running back Rajahn Cooper scored on a 39-yard run – all in the first half. Brown also rushed for a 36-yard touchdown.

All the hard running helped open up the passing game. Brown found his receivers for two long touchdowns – a 68-yard strike to Najih Rahman and a 37-yard pass to Alex Bauman.

“The run opens up the pass, and the pass opens up the run,” Portella said. “We were able to show today that we can do both. I’m excited to see what we’re going to look like down the line.”

Defensively, the Caseys were nearly perfect. Aside from a long 74-yard touchdown pass from Benjamin Hutchins to Robert Shaw that tied the score at seven in the first quarter, the Red Bank Catholic defense kept Raritan’s offense in check.

The game-tying touchdown made it appear it would be a showdown between two ranked teams, but Red Bank Catholic had other plans.

“I don’t think any team is going to rattle us,” Brown said. “As you saw against Wall, we’re always going to come back.”

In the latest Shore Conference rankings, Rumson-Fair Haven leapfrogged Red Bank Catholic and became the new No. 1 team at the Jersey Shore. The Caseys had just supplanted Wall atop the rankings for the first time since 2019.

It was a short reign, but it didn't seem to affect Red Bank Catholic. Besides, the Caseys will get an opportunity to reclaim the top spot in a road game against Rumson-Fair Haven on Oct. 15.

“We didn’t care too much,” Brown said. “We’ll see them, and we’ll see then who the true No. 1 is but with a family like this, we don’t care too much about rankings.”

Red Bank Catholic 49, Raritan 7

Raritan (1-1) 7 0 0 0 – 7

Red Bank Catholic (3-0) 14 21 7 7 – 49

First quarter

RBC: Sabino 52 run (Jacobson kick)

R: Shaw 74 pass from Hutchins (Spengler kick)

RBC: Brown 36 run (Jacobson kick)

Second quarter

RBC: Cooper 39 run (Jacobson kick)

RBC: Rahman 68 pass from Brown (Jacobson kick)

RBC: Portella 11 run (Jacobson kick)

Third quarter

RBC: Bauman 37 pass from Brown (Jacobson kick)

Fourth quarter

RBC: Jackson 7 run (Jacobson kick)

Individual statistics

PASSING – RBC: Brown 5-11-0-145. R: Hutchins 4-9-1-85, Goldsbery 0-3-0-0.

RUSHING – RBC: Portella 12-140, Jackson 11-26, Cooper 6-58, Brown 2-39, Stolfa 1-17. R: Falzon 12-52, Campanella 5-63, Reilley 5-25, Hutchins 5-11, Murphy 1-18, Herbert 1-4, Molnar 1-0, Godkin 1--2.

RECEIVING – RBC: Rahman 2-83, Bauman 1-37, Haynes 1-14, Stolfa 1-11. R: Reilley 2-5, Shaw 1-74, Campanella 1-6.

INTERCEPTIONS – RBC: Cimini.

Danny LoGiudice has covered local sports across New Jersey since 2014. Contact him at dlogiudice@gannettnj.com or @danny_logiudice on Twitter.