Turnaround complete

Pennsville plays its most complete game of the year, wins regional consolation tournament final to complete turnaround, secure winning season

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE — If playing in the regional consolation tournament is meant to be a reward for barely missing the playoffs and a springboard to the next football season, Pennsville is getting a lot of bounce.

The Eagles completed one of the biggest turnarounds in their program’s history Thursday night when they beat Keansburg 35-0 in the South Jersey Group I consolation tournament finals.

The Eagles were a messy 1-8 a year ago and finished 6-4 this year for their first winning season since 2016. They were in the hunt for a South/Central Jersey Group I playoff spot, but got nosed out on the final weekend of the regular season and were the first team out.

It’s their biggest one-year turnaround since going 9-3 in 2013 after going 4-6 the season before.

“To go from (nearly) winless to having a winning record is … awesome,” Pennsville coach Mike Healy said. “I couldn’t be more proud and happy for these kids. It was just a completely different mindset this year and the way they worked. The way this team had to come together and really put in the work necessary to (do this) has been awesome and I could not be more proud of them.”

The Eagles were guaranteed a .500 season regardless of how they made out against the Titans (4-6), who traveled more than 100 miles from Monmouth County to play. But there’s just something special about an outright winning season.

“It was important to us to be able to say we had a winning season this year,” Healy said. “I just told them in there that’s something to be proud of. That also raises expectations for us, too, now. We told them yesterday you want to try to leave this program better than you were, so these seniors leaving 6-4 we told the next guys that’s not OK for them, we want to constantly improvement.”

Sky Eppes made the most of his final high school game. He rushed for 167 yards and tied his career high with four first-half touchdowns as the Eagles opened a 35-0 halftime lead.

He scored on runs of 5, 14, 8 and 67 yards to finish with 802 yards and 19 rushing touchdowns for the season and 1,464 yards 25 TDs for his four-year career. He also recovered a fumble to kill the Titans’ opening possession and intercepted a pass in the drive between his first and second touchdowns.

“I just wanted to try to go out with a bang and dominate and set the record high for the freshmen, the sophomores and juniors coming up for next year,” Eppes said. “We want them to go up to the playoffs. We didn’t make it this year, but I feel like they have a good chance to make it next year.

“Coming from 1-8 to 6-4, that’s a huge improvement, a really high bar to set. We could’ve come out this year and went like 2-7, but instead we came out and did 6-4, so that’s a big jump. I’m so happy they turned it around and didn’t lay over on their heads like we did last year. Hopefully next year they go to the playoffs, maybe go 10-0.”

It was the Eagles’ most complete game of the year. 

They consistently moved the ball on offense and scored on their last five possessions of the first half. It had the ball for all but one play in the running clock of the third quarter. The defense, meanwhile, posted its first shutout since mid-October 2021. It had three takeaways and held the Titans to 90 net yards, most of it coming on a 53-yard completion on their next to last play of the game.

“The defense did their jobs today and stuffed it the best we did all year; we just shut them down, honestly,” junior linebacker Connor Ayars said. “Everyone was hyped about this championship and they really wanted this win to finish 6-4. It’s really a step up from last year. We’re headed for big things in the future, for sure.”

Pennsville 35, Keansburg 0

KBURG		PVILLE
4	1st Downs	12
22-(-3)	Rushing	30-281
5-9-2	Passes	4-6-0
93	Passing	44
1-1	Fum-lost	0-0
4-21.5	Punts-avg	1-45.0
3-30	Penalties	4-45

Keansburg (4-6)	0	0	0	0 –	0
Pennsville (6-4)	14	21	0	0 –	35