Pennsville has a positive first scrimmage, sophomore QB McDade has made ‘huge strides’ from last year; Penns Grove, Schalick also scrimmage Wednesday
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PENNSVILLE – It was only one play early in the second series of the first scrimmage of fall camp but it was a perfect example of how far Robbie McDade has come in one year as Pennsville’s QB1.
The sophomore smoothly sucked Pemberton’s defense into the pocket, then softly deposited a screen pass into the waiting hands of Skye Eppes, who took it 41 yards to get the Eagles across midfield on the way to their first touchdown of the scrimmage with Pemberton and Bishop Eustace.
A year ago that play wouldn’t have happened. Not because McDade couldn’t necessarily pull it off, but with the kind of team they had at the time the Eagles wouldn’t have even called it. Now, with a more confident McDade pulling the trigger it’s part of the mix.
“He’s definitely taken huge strides and the biggest thing with him is the amount of work he’s put in in the offseason and how much he’s worked to step into that job and take a leadership role from there,” Eagles coach Mike Healy said. “He’s still a sophomore and making some mistakes, but he is, to me, doing way better than last year.
“I’m very happy with his progress so far and he’s getting better every day.”
McDade split time at quarterback with Randy Hall last year, but his time increased as the year went along. He wound up completing 25 of 52 passes for 363 yards and two touchdowns. When Hall decided not to return, McDade won the position by default, but he still had to show his stuff.
The scrimmage Wednesday was his first opportunity with the offense in his hands alone and he was looking forward to the experience. He completed 10 of 15 passes for 152 yards and a pair of touchdowns to Malik Rehmer.
“I was really excited,” the quarterback said. “Coming off a bad year last year I really wanted to step it up this year and show everybody what we’ve got. I knew what we had to get done and we did it. We’re just going to keep building on it and get better and better.”
The Eagles got the best of both opponents in the varsity portion of the scrimmage and Healy proclaimed it “overall a good scrimmage.” In addition to McDade’s numbers, Rehmer caught three passes for 54 yards and scored once against each team, and Eppes had 105 yards rushing and receiving. The first-team defense gave up 21 yards, didn’t allow a touchdown and Hunter Hiles had a 25-yard pick-six against Eustace.
“Scoring touchdowns is a lot of fun,” McDade said. “We’ve got to keep it up.”
Of course, it wasn’t perfect, but even when there was a negative play McDade bounced back with a positive result.
He fumbled rolling out on the first play against the Eustace defense, then came back with a 13-yard pass play to Eppes. Later in that aforementioned drive against Pemberton Eppes had a screen pass touchdown called back by a blindside block. The very next snap the Eagles called a wider screen and Rehmer took it to the house for his first touchdown.
“That was something I was really happy to see today because last year that’s not something we would have done,” Healy said. “We would have been upset and angry and then not executed the next play. That’s what we really needed to work on. Whether it’s a good call or a bad call, the call’s made, there’s nothing we can do, bounce back, get to the next play, make up for it and that’s what we did.”
The Eagles scrimmage again Monday at home against Buena. That 10 a.m. exercise will be more drive-driven as they work towards a dress rehearsal scrimmage with Haddon Heights Aug. 24.
Schalick: Little bit of everything
LINWOOD – The Cougars saw “the good, the bad and the ugly” as they rotated a lot of players in their four-way exercise with West Deptford, Lower Cape May and host Mainland Regional.
They got 30 minutes with each team and saw “in limited small bursts what we wanted,” coach Mike Wilson said.
“It wasn’t all good, it wasn’t all bad and there were some ugly parts to it,” Wilson said. “Our goal was to get reps in by many people, get in and out healthy. It was exactly what a scrimmage was. We needed to get kids on tape.”
They had a big run against Group IV power Mainland called back for holding and scored against the other two teams. Quarterback Kenai Simmons played a limited number of snaps against each team but was “efficient” in the Cougars’ growing passing game with one incompletion.
“The last three years we could not do what we did today,” Wilson said.
Dylan Sheehan made two big catches, scoring a long touchdown against Lower Cape May and taking a slant for 60 yards against West Deptford.
“He was exactly what we thought he would be,” Wilson said of the sophomore receiver. “He was a freshman last year and played a little varsity at the end. We saw it in practice, but we really wanted to see it against other people and he stepped up and had a good day today.”
They’ll game scrimmage again Saturday 10 a.m. at Deptford Twp. The starters are expected to play at least two full quarters.
Penns Grove: ‘Happy with work we got’
MAPLE SHADE – The Red Devils were already back home by the time either of the other two county teams finished their scrimmages and by all accounts dominated their day.
Both teams got four series in the 8 a.m. exercise before doing situational work. The Red Devils were “a little sloppy” on offense, but their decision-making was adequate, had some big plays and they scored on their first two possessions. The defense coach John Emel called “as good as anybody in Group I in the state” was solid throughout against a scheme similar to what they’ll see in the season opener in nine days.
“It looked like a first scrimmage,” Emel said. “All in all, I was happy with the work we got. It’s a building block for the next one.”
The Red Devils will scrimmage again 10 a.m. Friday at Highland Regional, where Emel says they’ll be “trying to get game-quality reps but not try to show too much” to come out healthy for the opener.
Woodstown: Looking for ‘normal’ first one
WOODSTOWN – The Wolverines expect to do and see “normal first scrimmage things” in Thursday’s 9 a.m. workout with their visitors from Hammonton – 10 and 10 with the first and second groups and then some special teams work.
“We are just looking for the kids to execute our basic stuff,” Wolverines coach John Adams said. “We’re not going to show a lot, (just) see how they are hitting and facing another opponent.
“We want to see the quarterback command the offense, make sure people are in the right spots, make sure timing on motions and all are good and the line is blocking the right guys. Defensively, we want to make sure we are sound in getting lined up and making our standard checks and just see the kids play fast and physical.”
You know, normal first scrimmage stuff.
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