Looking for answers

Penns Grove’s defense plays well enough to win, but turnovers continue to handicap offense

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNS GROVE – Teachable moments on the football field take on all forms and often reflect the personality of the coaches delivering them.

The players from Penns Grove huddled around coach John Emel near midfield Friday moments after the post-game handshake for a quick breakdown of a 14-6 loss to Pleasantville that stung a lot. Then they looked across the field and wondering which of the teams that played lost the game.

Down in the far end zone, the Greyhounds, who should have been high-fiving their way back to the buses celebrating their first win of the season, were doing 40-yard up-and-backs to understand the effort they had just given was just not acceptable.

Pleasantville coach Malachi Timberlake said it was the first time he has ever resorted to such tactics, but he needed to get a message across early in the season.

“I felt it needed to be done,” he said. “We’re happy to get the win, but to be great they all need to be on the same page.

“We’re not playing our best brand of football. It’s the same mistakes week after week. We’re going to be in dogfights every single week until we get better. I’m proud of them that they got the win, figured out how they got the win, but it’s just not good enough for our standards. We have a lot of talent and it’s not showing on the field. We’ve got to get our point across or it’s going to be a long season.”

Over on the other side, the Red Devils were left to wonder what might have been. Their defense gave them every chance to win the game, but their offense sputtered for the second straight week under the weight of six more turnovers – five, if you discount fumbling loading up for a Hail Mary on the final play..

The Red Devils held their visitors to 172 net yards and one offensive touchdown. They made four fourth-down stops (three with lost yardage) – five if you count the time they pressured the Greyhounds to jump offsides on fourth-and-1 that forced them to punt to start the fourth quarter.

Dameon Wilson made a fourth-down stop and recovered a fumble on consecutive series, Willie Slocum had a fourth-down sack and Bryce Wright had an interception.

“We played way better than we did last week defensively; you see the scoreboard,” Wilson said. “I feel like I played better as an individual. I did my job. I feel like my team did their job. We’ve just got to keep the good defense up. We’ve just got to be able to score, that’s it. The defense is fine, we’ve just got to be able to score.”

It looked like the Red Devils were going to get another stop in the red zone in the second quarter, but left-handed sophomore quarterback Ahmad Jones zipped a sharp spiral to Dwayne Carter between two Penns Grove defenders on fourth down from the 19 for the only touchdown of the half.

Francisco Aguirre kicked the extra point and the way both defenses were playing it looked for the longest time like that would be the margin of victory.

“I thought first half down 7-0, we really controlled the game,” Emel said. “(But) there are no moral victories. It was a playoff type game and we lost 14-6. We’ve got to find a way to win these type of games.

“I think we played better than last week, but, again, five turnovers. You ain’t gonna win with five turnovers. Hey, our defense is pretty good.”

The Red Devils did punch it in early in the third quarter when Wright turned the left corner and went 25 yards to make it 7-6. But the Greyhounds stopped the Devils’ lead back short of the end zone on the conversion to maintain the lead. Wright rushed for 60 yards on 14 carries, several times carrying the pile for additional yards.

The touchdown was one of the few highlights for Penns Grove’s offense. The Red Devils, who had more than 300 yards rushing in their opener against Burlington City, were held to 60 yards net by the Greyhounds.

Of course, they were down three linemen during the course of the game and the Greyhounds took away the outside making it a more physical game, but it was ball security that once again was their main shortcoming.

After seven turnovers in the opener, they had six against the Greyhounds. They lost six fumbles in the opener and four Friday. All of the turnovers stole momentum, but the biggest was a strip by Kwalil Shepperson in the fourth quarter that Gabriel Rodriguez pounced on in the end zone for an insurance touchdown with 62 seconds to play.

The Red Devils still had time to get a game-tying score. They worked it to midfield, but their hopes for getting off a Hail Mary on the final play of the game never materialized as sophomore quarterback Ramello Erickson lost the handle going back to make the pass.

“A lot of people are going to put it on the quarterback,” Emel said. “We’ve got a young quarterback, but it’s a team game. We’re not doing him any favors.”

NOTES: Penns Grove had a short week to prepare for Pleasantville, but it gets eight days now for defending state champion Woodbury next Saturday … The Thundering Herd had to rally from a 12-0 deficit to beat the Red Devils in the finals of the Adam Taliaferro Foundation 7-on-7 in June … The 0-2 start is Penns Grove’s first since 2016. You’ll have to go past 2010 to find the last time they started a season 0-3 … If you were a little confused about matching names with the program today, Pleasantville was wearing an old set of uniforms. The Greyhounds wore their new duds for their Battle at the Beach opener and they hadn’t gotten back from the laundry before they left for Thursday’s game.

Pleasantville 14, Penns Grove 6

P’VILLE (14)		PENNS GR. (6)
7	1st Downs	6
32-74	Rushes-yds	30-31
9-24-1	Passes	6-17-2
98	Passing yds	29
2-1	Fumbles-lost	7-4
4-27.0	Punts-avg	7-22.4
15-138	Penalties-yds	6-33

Pleasantville (1-1)	0	7	0	7 –	14
Penns Grove (0-2)	0	0	6	0 –	6

Scoring plays
P – Dwayne Carter 19 pass from Ahmad Jones (Francisco Aguirre kick), 5:48 2Q
PG – Bryce Wright 25 run (run failed), 9:28 3Q
P – Gabriel Rodriguez fumble recovery in end zone (Francisco Aguirre kick), 1:02 4Q