Boys Soccer – Wall’s Petillo, Middletown South’s Shawn McCann Share Week 2 Player of the Week Award

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Week 2 Surf Taco Players of the Week

Shawn McCann, Middletown South; Jake Petillo, Wall

It is fitting that soccer would be the sport to provide the Player of the Week feature with its first tie. It happens on the pitch from time to time and it happened in the Week 2 poll, with a pair of juniors putting up the numbers on the field and the internet.

After an eye-opening 2-0 start, Middletown South dropped three straight games and it appeared as though the fast start might have been a fluke. Not so: the Eagles rebounded in a big way last week by taking down Marlboro and earning a draw vs. Manalapan. Shawn McCann got involved in both results by scoring a goal in each, including the first goal in that big 2-0 win over Marlboro.

McCann continued his hot stretch with a goal in Middletown South's big, 2-1 win over Middletown North this past Wednesday.

As for the other winner, Jake Petillo has stepped up for a Wall team that hopes to be rounding into form. Wall picked up three crucial wins last week, knocking off Shore, Monmouth and Toms River East. Petillo contributed to the scoring in all three, starting off with an assist in the 2-0 win over Shore. He then picked up a goal in the 2-0 win over Monmouth and capped the week by scoring one and assisting the other in a 2-1, comeback win over Toms River East.

This week's Player of the Week contest went down to the wire, with both Petillo and McCann collecting 19.5 percent of the votes. Long Branch senior Anthony Vasquez was not far off from making it a three-way tie, finishing only 17 votes behind the two winners. Southern's Aidan Antonio (14 percent), St. Rose's Jack Tiernan (13) and Rumson-Fair Haven's Ronan Hogg (12) all finished with double-digit percentages as well in this week's tight race.

Both McCann and Petillo will be awarded with their own $25 Surf Taco gift card for capturing this week's Player of the Week award.