Red Devils rally

Devils make Raiders see red, rallying from 19-0 halftime deficit to beat Paulsboro with TD in final 75 seconds

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNS GROVE — Bryce Wright couldn’t be more proud of his teammates.

Last week, the Penns Grove junior running back stood in the cold rain and muck of a loss at Haddon Heights and as hard as it might have been to hear at the time passionately begged his teammates to play hard in the game all the way until the clock hit zeroes.

That’s exactly what they did Saturday. The Red Devils could have phoned it in down 19 points at halftime against a storied program that hadn’t been winless this late in the season in generations, but instead they buckled down and staged one of their greatest rallies for a 22-19 win over Paulsboro.

It was third time since 2000 Penns Grove has come from three scores down to win a game and its biggest halftime deficit.

“I’m so proud of my team,” Wright said. “My team, they came out, and they did what I asked. I asked them to fight to zero-zero left on the clock. We were down 19-0, but we came back. I told them at half, yo, let’s go, there’s no reason for any heads to be down; we can do this. I told my team that and we came back out here and we executed.

“I think it should have happened when I told it to them in the game the first game. I’m just so proud my team came out here and did what I asked. I love my team.”

The Red Devils (2-4) brought it back in a manner that fit their personality, just pounding it and pounding it on the ground, but they got the go-ahead touchdown on a pass. Wright found freshman Jaden Days in the front right corner of the end zone from 15 yards out with 1:14 to play and then Wright roared in on the two-point conversion to make it 22-19.

It was the only pass they threw in the second half and only the third they completed in the game. It was only the second catch of Days’ career and his first touchdown.
 
Wright didn’t even see the receiver on the play until someone called his name and then he let it fly with Sharif Green challenging in coverage. Days was about two yards in bounds when he came down with it and he wasn’t about to let it go.

“At first I didn’t even see him open; he raised his hand up and I’m like let me get it there,” Wright said. “At practice he works real hard. He goes up and gets it and I gave him his chance and he showed me what he could do.”

“We talk about keeping your head up and waiting for my opportunity,” Days said. “I thought they were going to throw it out of bounds. It was a good ball by Bryce; that was really it. You’ve got to keep on fighting. We came back with a win. Keep on fighting. Keep your head up.”

The Red Devils had three meaningful possessions in the second half and scored on all three. The drives were 52 yards on 14 plays (including penalties) over 6:47, 75 yards on 17 runs (with no penalties) over 8:10 and 39 yards on two plays over 19 seconds.

Wright ran in the first touchdown from the 9. He scored the second on a fourth-and-goal quarterback sweep from the 6 with 2:54 to play, a call Penns Grove coach John Emel called “the play of the game.” He went in standing up.

“With our style of play people would say you can’t come back down 19-0, the game’s over,” Emel said. “You’ve got to play a perfect half and we did. I would say we could come back without throwing a pass, but we did save one for the end.

“You’ve got to go with what got you there. We’re not a good passing team, we struggle throwing the ball, everyone can see that. And when they know you’re throwing, that’s even harder. We’re saying we’re going to give the ball to Bryce, we’re gonna run outside and try to make something big happen.

“There was no doubt in my mind we could score on another possession, but if we don’t score there, the game’s over.” 

Penns Grove got the ball back at the Paulsboro 39 with 1:33 left and no time outs after a short punt. The Red Devils ran a reverse with Knowledge Young for 24 yards on the first play to get in the red zone, then went for the go-ahead score.

“What do they always say, you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take; you gotta keep playing ‘til the end,” Emel said. “You gotta keep playing or you’ll never make a comeback. You gotta go out there and keep fighting. I was proud of the way we played the second half even if we came up short once we got it to 19-14, but when you get that close and you can taste it you’ve got to finish it.”

Once the Red Devils got the lead, they never gave Paulsboro a chance to break their hearts. On the final threat from midfield, they forced quarterback Roman Onorato into three incompletions and then Dameon Wilson and Nasir Stewart broke in and threw Onorato for a 13-yard loss on fourth down to seal the victory.

The sack left the Red Raiders with minus-8 yards of net offense on 17 plays in the second half. 

“I looked at the clock, I knew it was the last play, it’s what we needed,” Stewart said. “I put my head down and went to go get it for my team to come out on top. It was do or die. It was the easiest play all game to me.”

Paulsboro built its halftime lead on three big plays, but outside of those it didn’t really do anything great.

The Red Devils were happy with running the ball and controlling the clock. They had the ball for nearly 11 of the game’s first 14 minutes, but were down 14-0 because Paulsboro’s Keros (Super Duper) Cooper had touchdown bursts of 56 and 91 yards in the space of three offensive snaps.

Freshman Jeremiah Carr made it 19-0 with a spectacular one-handed interception that he returned 85 yards for a touchdown on the final play of the half.

That sent the Red Devils into the locker room to do a little soul searching.

“I huddled my guys up in the room, all just one-on-ones, told everybody to put our heads down, we can do it,” Stewart said. “We have done this before. It’s time to come back.”

Penns Grove 22, Paulsboro 19

PAULS (19)		PGROVE (22)
6	1st Downs	16
25-163	Rushing	47-176
3-9-0	Passes	3-7-1
23	Passing	32
1-0	Fum-lost	1-0
4-20.0	Punts-avg	2-41.0
3-15	Penalties	6-45

Paulsboro (0-5)	6	13	0	0 –	19
Penns Grove (2-4)	0	0	8	14 –	22