One of the most prolific performances in the history of New Jersey scholastic football history came to an end with a loss, but it will be remembered more for its achievements.
Ashante Worthy left an impression with his skills while running and passing the ball for Freehold High School.
Worthy and his teammates fell just short of capping an outstanding season when Freehold suffered an overtime loss to Long Branch High School, 43-42, in the NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group 4 state playoff championship game at High Point Solutions Stadium at Rutgers University in Piscataway on Dec. 2.
This is the first NJSIAA sectional championship for the Long Branch football program since 1999.
Worthy, Freehold’s senior quarterback, left it all out the field in his final performance for the Colonials.
“I was trying to get it done for my team,” he said. “Unfortunately, we could not do that. Life is not fair, and things happen. So we just got to get through it as a team and move on.”
Worthy ran for 271 yards on 39 carries and rushed into the end zone six times in Freehold’s devastating overtime loss.
“I went out with a bang — that’s it,” he said. “I wanted to leave it all out there for my team, but unfortunately, I could not do that. It was not enough.”
Worthy this fall set the modern-day state single-season rushing record with 2,860 yards. He broke Jonathan Taylor’s record of 2,815 yards from last year when he was a senior at Salem High School in South Jersey. Taylor now stars at running back for the University of Wisconsin.
Besides keeping the Colonials’ drives alive with his legs, Worthy also threw for 141 yards for a total of 412 yards on offense.
Worthy finished his exceptional season with 2,106 passing yards to become the first player in state history to rush and pass for more than 2,000 yards in a season.
Worthy finished the season with 4,966 yards of total offense and finished with 41 rushing touchdowns and 20 passing touchdowns, breaking another state single-season record with 61 touchdowns.
Worthy finished his Colonials career with 6,400 rushing yards, which is second all-time in the Shore Conference.
Freehold had a chance to win the game late in the fourth quarter. Worthy led the Colonials down the field with the game tied at 35-35. On the third-down play, Worthy threw his only interception of the game with 30 seconds left in regulation.
The Colonials were penalized three times for defensive pass interference on the ensuing drive, setting up Long Branch in field-goal position with only three seconds left on the clock.
Freehold head coach David Ellis said the Colonials were hoping to just shift the momentum and head into overtime.
“We were hoping just to get one more point,” he said. “We were hoping just to block the kick or do something to get a little advantage.”
Long Branch failed to cash in on the game-winning field goal, sending the contest into an extra session.
Worthy scored his sixth rushing touchdown of the game just three plays into overtime with a 6-yard run into the end zone. Jake Hurler delivered on the extra-point kick to give Freehold a 42-35 lead.
But Long Branch came right back on its possession in OT when Pasa Fields caught a 6-yard pass from Juwan Wilkins.
Long Branch opted to go for the victory and did not kick the conversion. Instead, Wilkins connected on a pass to Elijah Sherin for a two-point conversion to give Long Branch the championship.
“[Long Branch] has a lot of great players over there,” said Ellis, whose team ended the year at 8-4. “We could hold them back a little bit, but at the end of the game, those guys were tough to cover and we made some mistakes in other areas, and they took advantage of it.”
Following Long Branch’s victory, Freehold’s players were visibly distraught. The coaching staff at Freehold impressed upon the players that they did their best and they left it all out on the field.
“We fought hard for four quarters and overtime, and sometimes you just come up short, Ellis said. “That is what happened.”
