Final scrimmages

Woodstown, Pennsville see encouraging signs in final scrimmages of camp; both open their seasons Thursday

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WOODSTOWN – The first thing Woodstown coach John Adams thought when he saw the Delsea team his Wolverines were scrimmaging Thursday night get off the bus was it might be a tough go for his charges.

It didn’t get any easier when the Crusaders stifled Woodstown’s opening possession and then broke off an 87-yard touchdown run on their second play from scrimmage.

But then Adams saw something that bodes well for the Wolverines when their regular season gets underway next week. 

They didn’t back down.

The Wolverines immediately answered two of Delsea’s three touchdowns and their defense stopped the defending South Jersey Group III champions on the final series of the varsity half to keep the margin a respectable 21-13.

“I loved the battle from our kids,” Adams said. “When they walked in, we were like … they were big; they had great size. But I thought we battled. It seemed like we answered against one of the best teams in the state.

“It was good seeing our kids fight from a deficit and still fight and be able to answer back.”

The Wolverines put together a 65-yard drive to answer Delsea’s first score. They went three-and-out after the second, then put together a 70-yard, nine-play drive after the third.

It was evident with Delsea’s size the Wolverines weren’t going to have much success running the ball, especially with star James Hill still two weeks away from rejoining the offense. So, they went up top and quarterback Max Webb was right on time.

The senior hit his first five throws and finished 8-of-10 for 95 yards with touchdown passes of 13 yards to Garrett Leyman to answer Delsea’s first score and 9 over the middle to Anthony Ford-Dale to answer the third. He also had two nice runs to get out of trouble.

Leyman caught three passes for 30 yards, Ford-Dale caught three for 33 and Zach Bevis had two for 32. The varsity rushed for 58 yards on 16 carries.

“We told the kids we’re not going to be able to run the ball on everybody and I thought we did a fantastic job in the pass game tonight,” Adams said. “Max looked lights out, scrambling for first downs, knowing where his receivers were. The pass blocking was pretty good for him.

“I was really, really pleased with how we executed offensively, because we knew with their size we were going to have trouble running the ball in between the tackles on them. And that’s the goal we wanted this year. We can’t just rely on the run, so being able to come out against a team like that and knowing we do have the passing game and were able to execute it well was phenomenal.”

The Wolverines open the regular season at home Thursday against Haddon Heights.

“It’s game week now,” Adams said. “Now it means something.”

Eagles encouraged going forward

PENNSVILLE – Pennsville scrimmaged the team Woodstown opens its season against next week and although the Eagles came up short in the varsity portion of the exercise 18-14, coach Mike Healy saw “enough good stuff on there to make me happy and give me encouragement.”

The Eagles opened up their passing game with some downfield throws and quarterback Robbie McDade connected twice with Malik Rehmer for long touchdown passes.

They hooked up on a 45-yard pass to open the scoring, then connected on a 70-yarder for another score.

“Malik’s a very good receiver; he’s going to go up and get the ball,” Healy said. “He’s got all the attributes you want and Robbie just has a lot of trust in him to go get the football. That confidence to know he’s going to go get the ball is huge for a young quarterback.

“We were a very young team last year. We’re still young this year, but we’re definitely seeing more chemistry develop between all the players really. We’re starting to see the confidence go up a little bit, too. They’re realizing we can do some things. It’s just a consistency issue more than anything else.”

The Eagles open their season Thursday at Lindenwold, a team they beat 34-26 in last year’s opener for their only victory of the season.