PHOTO GALLERY: Football Alums Leave It All On The Field -- And Love It

There are folks waking up in Brick and in surrounding towns Sunday morning with a few more aches than usual.

They have some bruises. They are discovering muscles they forgot they had, now sore from a night of running and hitting and twisting and pushing and shoving.

“It was totally worth it,” said Anthony Menta, Brick Township Class of 2000.

For a few hours Saturday night, Menta and about four dozen of his fellow football-playing alumni from Brick Township and Brick Memorial squared off on the gridiron, smacking pads, throwing blocks and tackling in a football game. For most, it had been more than a few years since they had put on shoulder pads and hit other players.

And while Brick Memorial defeated Brick Township 20-6 before a crowd of more than 600 that included legendary coach Warren Wolf at the complex at Veterans Memorial Middle School, where they filled the stands and lined the fences like games of old, the final score wasn’t what mattered most to them.

“This was a bucket list item,” said Edward Hedden, Brick Memorial Class of 1990.

“To represent Brick on the field again is a great feeling,” said Russhon Anderson, Brick Class of 2004.

The game, presented by OT Football, is one of a series of alumni football games that have been taking place throughout the Shore area. The brainchild of Matt Malleo and Eddie Kapalko, a pair of Shore Conference football players who played on opposite sides of one of the biggest football rivalries at the Shore in Wall-Manasquan, the games give players who’ve moved on a chance to pull on the shoulder pads one more time while raising money for charity.

Malleo, a 2004 Wall graduate and defensive back, won a state title with the Crimson Knights and went on to play at the Hun School and then at Cornell University. Kapalko, whose family owns RKE Athletic in Belmar, was a lineman and graduated from Manasquan in 2011 with a state title. He played at Moravian College.

OT Football (OT stands for overtime: “Overtime happens after four quarters of football, and we here at OT football bring you full pads football games after your four years of high school are over!” the company says on its website) has produced a handful of games so far, with Wall and Manasquan being the first in 2014, and games between Middletown North and Middletown South and a Howell-Long Branch matchup joining the mix this year, in addition to the Brick-Brick Memorial showdown.

In the planning stages are alumni games pitting Red Bank Regional against Long Branch; Rumson vs. Red Bank Catholic; Lakewood against Toms River South; Steinert vs. Hamilton West; Keansburg against Keyport and most recently added is a Central Regional-Lacey alumni game, Malleo said Saturday night.

OT Football provides the gear -- shoulder pads, knee pads, hip pads and helmets, as well as jerseys that the players can purchase and pants. The company also provides officials and liabiity insurance for the facility providing the field, but players participate at their own risk: ”It is recommended that if you do not have health insurance, you should acquire it before participating or decide to coach instead of play.”

And there is a risk: A Brick Memorial player suffered a significant knee injury when he stepped wrong in the early going and had to be taken off the field on a stretcher, highlighting the risks of playing -- a risk that every athlete takes regardless of age.

But that risk didn’t deter the players who took the field.

“I was a little nervous actually,” said Kyle Watson, Brick Class of 2004, who handled the quarterbacking duties for the Dragons’ alumni. “It was exciting being back out there” despite taking some hits.”

“The first one was on the fumble,” he said, referring to a play in the first quarter that set up Brick Memorial’s first touchdown. “I was surprised at how well I took it.”

Especially since it was a hard-hitting game.

“Tomorrow is going to be rough,” said Anderson, who was on the receiving end of a few bone-jarring hits.

“This was an impassioned game,” Malleo said. Most of the games are friendly matches, with some tackling and some hits, but nothing like the fierce hitting that went on, particularly in the first half of the game. “It’s an impassioned rivalry.”

“Those guys (Brick Memorial) came out ready to raise hell,” said Menta with a chuckle. ”They are a really good team.”

“That first hit was a wave of emotion and excitement,” said Justin Zupan, Brick Memorial Class of 2005, who said his last time in shoulder pads “was against Brick in the Thanksgiving game in 2004.”

Lining up with players he’d watched as a younger player was a huge thrill, Zupan said. “Just to see everyone come together as a team was incredible.”

Anderson and others said one of the enjoyable parts of the game was being on the field with some of the other generations of players.

“I coached a number of them in high school,” Anderson said. “When they actually see you doing the things you’ve been teaching them in drills, they say, ‘Oh, I get it now.’ That has been a great feeling.”

The effort to get a Brick-Brick Memorial alumni game rolling began with Karen McGrath Rochinski of the Brick Memorial Football Parents Club. Rochinski, whose daughter is a tackle on the Mustangs’ junior varsity team, came across the OT Football website while doing some research on football, she said. The game raised money for the booster clubs of both schools.

She approached Brian Staub, the Brick Memorial JV coach, who floated the idea on Facebook and to old teammates, and the idea took off, she said.

“They couldn’t wait to play,” she said.

“This isn’t just passing the ball around,” Malleo said. “They’re amazed you can still play tackle football.”

Both teams practiced leading up to the big game, players and coaches said.

Ed Sarluca, a former Brick Memorial coach who volunteered his time on the sidelines Saturday night, said the Mustangs alumni got together 10 or 12 times leading up to the game.

“But you never had a full team,” he said. “You’d have 10 or 12 at a practice, because guys work and we had guys coming from Maryland and Maine to play in the game.”

Menta said the Dragons alumni practiced for about 2-1/2 weeks.

“I wasn’t going to play at first,” said Menta, who heard about the game as soon as it was announced. But he showed up to one practice, and friends convinced him to stand in for a couple of plays.

“I was sucked in,” he said. “It was fun. I always thought it would be fun to have my son watch me play, and though he’s only 13 months old and probably won’t remember it, I still have that.”

The time away from the game and the limited practice time showed in small ways. “We have 13 guys out there, two of you have to come off!” came the yells from one side line. “We need a tackle! We need another tackle!” could be heard from a defensive unit that was shorthanded on a play.

But there were flashes of skill that made you forget these guys were not teenagers, but businessmen and fathers. Like the lick Anderson took after catching a 25-yard pass from Watson. And the fumble scoop-and-return by Brian Staub for a Brick Memorial touchdown.

And the Brandon Darcy catch of a tipped Watson pass that led to Brick’s touchdown.

“It’s been 21 years since I did that,” Matt Stefanski, a 1990 Brick graduate said to one of Brick Memorial’s younger players who was defending on a pass intended for Stefanski in the end zone.

“He plays at Springfield (College), just down the road from UMass,” where Stefanski played college ball. “He was really surprised when I said that.”

“It was definitely a really cool experience,” said Zak Hinninger, a 2013 Brick graduate. “It was definitely hard-hitting. I got my bell rung a few times. But it was awesome putting on the pads again.”

“It was everything I hoped it would be,” said Andy Smith, a 1992 Brick Memorial graduate who spent his college years playing basketball at the University of Hawaii.

“I didn’t get hurt, there was a little bit of contact,” said Smith, who moved back to the area 2-1/2 years ago and now coaches basketball at Ocean County College. “It was a trip down memory lane.”

“It’s going to be hard getting up for work tomorrow,” Anderson said. ”Back then I didn’t mind the hits much. Getting old is tough,” he said with a laugh.

Walking off with a loss was tough, too.

“We’re Brick, we’re supposed to win. It’s a tough pill to swallow,” Anderson said.

Much more difficult than swallowing some Motrin will be on Sunday.

THE TEAMS

BRICK MEMORIAL: Ryan Cieplenski; Joe Cummings; David Dafeldecker; Dylan Davis; Gabe Gil; Kal Halim; Joe Hans; Quinn Hartdorn; Edward Hedden; Vernon Henderson; Michael Herman; Justin Hockaday; Jesse Hornblum; Matt Kampf; Anthony Lemore; Tommy Merola; Sabino Metta; Shawn Murray; Glen Pacyna; Kyle Poling; John Rutkowski; Rick Scialla; John Scialla; Thomas Sindel; Andy Smith; Brian Staub; Frank Todero; Justin Zupan.

BRICK: Russhon Anderson; Dan Atheras; William Caballero; Tim Cardosa; Anthony Chadwick; Daniel Crank; Joe Cusanelli; John Dahl; Brendan Darcy; Thomas Finelli; Anthony Flores; Rob Hauser; Zak Hinninger; FJ Lucchetti; Mike Mann; Anthony Menta; Jimmy Morgano; Wayne Niedermayer; Jim Page; Dan Rac; Hanieff Rodriguez; Ray Rossi; John Schiess; Dan Sizelove; Brett Skoog; Matt Stefanski; Craig Trolan; Chris Trolan; Kyle Watson.

(PHOTO CREDITS: Warren Wolf and Brick team photos by Mark Sleifer; Brick Memorial team photo via Ed Sarluca; the rest by Karen Wall)