Woodstown wins WJFL Diamond Division title outright, eyes No. 1 seed in Group I playoffs
DIAMOND DIVISION SCORES
Saturday’s games
Woodstown 21, Penns Grove 6
Woodbury 49, Salem 14
Paulsboro 14, Audubon 7 (OT)
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PENNS GROVE — John Adams delayed his traditional post-game huddle to take a picture. He wasn’t about to let this moment pass without immortalizing it for posterity.
The Woodstown coach backed up a couple steps on the midfield grass at Jim Devonshire Field, pointed his phone into the happy group in front of him and clicked.
He wanted, he said, a picture of the champions.
The Wolverines won the WJFL Diamond Division title outright Saturday with a 21-6 win over Penns Grove. It’s their first outright division crown since 2013.
The win also has them in line for a No. 1 seed in the South Jersey Group I football playoffs.
“We knew the division was on the line to win it outright, we knew the playoff seedings were on the line, and we were coming off that tough loss to Haddonfield where we kind of just let the wheels fall off the bus,” Adams said. “They ended up responding well coming off that loss and this is what I wanted to see heading into the playoffs – good team football.”
“Last year we shared the division; we came in this year wanting to win it all — we did that today,” receiver Garrett Leyman said.
“It means a lot knowing all the adversity we went through with hurt players, players ejected, and we won it outright this year, so that’s a big thing,” running back Bryce Belinfanti added.
Belinfanti rushed for 133 yards and scored Woodstown’s first and third touchdowns. His first score was the first touchdown the Red Devils (4-5) had allowed in 11 quarters.
In between the running back’s two scores, the Wolverines (6-2) extended their lead to 14-0 at halftime when, after pulling the stadium in with 16 straight running plays and 20 in their first 21 snaps, they quickly went to the air and hit three straight passes for 74 yards in about 60 seconds. Penns Grove coach John Emel called it the difference in the game.
The connections covered 24 yards to Carter Orlandini, 23 yards to Anthony Bokolas and 27 yards to Leyman for the touchdown with 1:34 left in the half.
“That definitely was important for our offense,” Leyman said, “because we like to run the ball down the field but if they stop it we have a backup now, so that’s nice. It just makes us way harder to stop. It’s definitely fun. Blocking almost the whole first half and then getting those plays it’s fun. It’s different.”
“Every week we practice our two-minute offense and the kids have done a really good job with it,” Adams said. “You never know when you’re going to need it, so at the end of the half there we called time out, let’s get one more possessions, we went to the two-minute offense and we executed exactly what we do in practice.
“We tell the kids we’re not a hurry-up offense, but when the situation presents itself we’re going to go with our two-minute and run what we run.”
The Wolverines have put more emphasis on the passing game this season, but those three were the only passes Max Webb completed in the game. He threw only two other passes in the game.
The touchdown pass came on a play Webb suggested for the playbook from his 7-on-7 arsenal that always worked for him. The Wolverines used it in a passing camp at Kingsway earlier this summer and they pulled it out of the archives Saturday. Leyman said when he saw the corner bite on it, he knew he was going to be wide open.
“It just shows our diversity that we can have in our offense,” Webb said. “I know we’re run first and that’s always how it’s been, but we can just flip the switch and throw it like anybody else in the state.
“It definitely surprised them. They looked like they weren’t ready for it, so it helped us a lot. I was happy it worked in our favor.”
Interestingly, the drive almost didn’t happen. Belinfanti fumbled the ball on the first play, but it came right back into his chest like a magnet and the Wolverines were able to retain possession.
Emel agreed scoring at the end of the half was a big momentum swing in a statistically even game with limited possessions, but the way Woodstown went about it didn’t catch the Red Devils by surprise.
“We knew they were going to do it,” he said. “It’s a matter of execution, so give them credit. They executed. They were able to pass protect and it was a combination on our part of (being) unable to get a pass rush or missed assignments and then on the back end blown coverage.”
Continuing in the good things happen in threes department, Penns Grove (4-5) was driving to cut into the 14-0 lead when the Wolverines’ defense made three straight stops for negative yardage to stop the threat. The Red Devils avoided being shut out by scoring in the final minute of the game.
“It was good to bounce back after our defense struggled a lot last week and it was good to be able to shut them out for the first three quarters and be able to lock it down for the win,” linebacker Jack Knorr said. “We had a lot of players step up who weren’t playing last week (like defensive linemen J.R. Reed and Andre Sinou) and it felt good to have them play well.”
Woodstown 21, Penns Grove 6
| WOOD | PG | |
| 11 | 1st Downs | 10 |
| 34-179 | Rushing | 43-172 |
| 3-5-0 | Passes | 1-2-0 |
| 74 | Passing | 40 |
| 3-0 | Fum-lost | 2-1 |
| 3-33.3 | Punts-avg | 5-35.4 |
| 2-20 | Penalties | 6-55 |
| Woodstown (6-2) | 7 | 7 | 0 | 7 – | 21 |
| Penns Grove (4-5) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 – | 6 |
Scoring plays:
W – Bryce Belinfanti 2 run (Jake Ware kick), 6:21 1Q
W – Garrett Leyman 27 pass from Max Webb (Jake Ware kick), 1:34 2Q
W – Bryce Belinfanti 48 run (Jake Ware kick), 5:53 4Q
P – Karon Ceaser 5 run (run failed), 0:49 4Q
Cover photo: Woodstown quarterback Max Webb fires downfield in the two-minute drill on the way to a momentum-swinging touchdown near the end of the first half. (Photo by Ellen Sickler)
Riverview Sports News 