Back-to-back gut punches in the playoffs the last two years has the fire to win a state title burning even hotter within Woodstown
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
WOODSTOWN – Max Webb is about to begin his fourth season as the starting quarterback for a team that has been together since they were toddlers. He’s played a lot of games in that stretch, a lot of big games, and won a bunch, too.
But there’s one thing that’s eluded him in all that time – a state championship – and that void is the white-hot ember that drives him and his teammates as Woodstown opens camp for the 2023 football season Monday.
Webb and the Wolverines have been close the last two years, but have had their run fall short in gut-wrenching fashion. He knows this is his last shot at it. Maybe the best shot at it. For all the seniors in the core group that has gotten them here it’s now or never time.
And that’s the fire that burns deep within each one.
“We all want to get back really bad,” Webb said during one of the Wolverines’ summer workouts. “We’ve been pretty good these past four or five years and we put in all this hard work and stuff like that. We’re really trying to get back there and trying to finish the job this time.”
The Wolverines have been good enough to play for it, but have had it snatched from them in the most frustrating of ways.
Two years ago they lost to Woodbury in the South Jersey final 8-6, with the Thundering Herd scoring the game-winning touchdown on fourth-and-1 with 3:55 left and then sealing the Wolverines’ fate with an interception return to the 2 with 1:35 to go.
As if that feeling weren’t bad enough, last year they were the No. 1 seed only to be taken out by a Paulsboro team they beat in the regular season 15-6 in the South Jersey semifinals. That game was close until the final two minutes.
“It’s been in all our heads since then,” Webb said of the desire to get over the hump. “Being the 1 seed and coming up short in the semifinals was tough for us because we were expected to make it to the championship again.”
“It’s all fire,” head coach John Adams said. “It’s always in the back of your mind how close you came.”
The Wolverines have a lot going for them this time. For starters, they return the majority of their team, the core of which has been playing under the program’s triple option principles since they were tykes and, Webb said, “have that brotherhood like we know each other like the back of our hands.” Even the underclassmen have quality experience.
The line is loaded with prospects, big and strong, Webb has gotten better every year and, in the biggest boost to the summer, they’re expected to have dynamic running back James Hill back.
“The good thing is sometimes you have teams that get that far and you gradate them, you don’t have a chance to get that far and build off it,” Adams said. “It’s nice to have those core seniors who have been here for four years, who’ve been through those type of games and know how bright the lights are in those types of games, to now hopefully take that step to where now it’s expected and they settle in and it’s just like another game for them and we go out and try to finish it this year.”
It can’t be overstated what having Hill back means for their prospects. The back who Webb called “one of the best athletes Woodstown’s ever seen” suffered a major knee injury during the wrestling season, but underwent intense rehab that has him on schedule to return to the field in late August.
Hill rushed for 1,600 yards last year and has produced more than 3,000 yards and 31 touchdowns rushing the last two seasons, and gives Webb “another better target I can throw to with good hands.”
What? Throw? At Woodstown? Believe it. Adams has said he’d like to throw the ball upwards of 15 times a game this season. That’s music to Webb’s ears.
“That’d be awesome,” the quarterback said. “I couldn’t tell you the last time this high school has thrown it 15 times a game, so being given that opportunity is awesome.”
Webb has thrown only 171 passes over the past three seasons – 107 last year with a 13.1 yard per completion average – but everyone who has watched Webb’s progress is confident he can handle it. In a game against Haddonfield last year, he was 11-of-14 for 145 yards and a touchdown. He was 8-of-17 for 138 yards in the playoff game against Paulsboro.
“Max has done a tremendous job in the off-season, working with private quarterback coaches and working on 7-on-7s, to the point he can throw the ball really, really, really well,” Adams said. “We’re excited to see what he can do. His knowledge of everything and how much the game has slowed down for him at the high school level is going to make him even better.”
With the pieces apparently in place, it’s just a matter now of the Wolverines getting it done. The anticipation is palpable. Even now Webb allows himself to think what it will be like if the Wolverines were to hoist the champion’s trophy at the end of the year. A guy can dream can’t he?
“There would be so much joy, relief coming off your shoulders, just for all the hard work you’ve put in for the last four years,” he said. “But mainly it’d be joy just because it’s a once in a lifetime thing with all your friends you’ve grown up with. You can’t get much better than that.”
The quest begins Monday.
Photo: Woodstown senior quarterback Max Webb (L) and coach John Adams share a light moment during a recent summer workout.
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