Woodstown, Woodbury expecting another epic battle as they meet for South Jersey Group I title in a rematch of the 2021 sectional final
GROUP I SECTIONAL FINALS
Friday’s Games
South: Woodbury Thundering Herd (6-3) at Woodstown Wolverines (8-2), 7 p.m.
Central: Glassboro Bulldogs (7-3) at Schalick Cougars (11-0), 7 p.m.
North I: Mountain Lakes Herd (8-2) at Hawthorne Bears (8-2), 6 p.m.
North II: Shabazz Bulldogs (7-3) at Butler Bulldogs (9-1), 7 p.m.
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
WOODSTOWN – Every year it seems the Woodstown football season has been on a collision course with Woodbury.
The Wolverines are either thinking about playing the Thundering Herd, preparing to play the Thundering Herd or playing the Thundering Herd.
It’s been that way ever since they hastily put together a late-season game in 2018, but it has become even more meaningful for the Wolverines since the Herd broke their heart in the 2021 South Jersey Group I finals.
And they meet again in the same situation Friday. Senior quarterback Max Webb last week called it “the biggest game of my lifetime.”
“We have a chance at revenge on the team that beat us two years ago,” he said. “I can’t be more excited for me, for this team, for this town.”
As if the game needed any more hype, the Wolverines plan to break out an orange-on-orange uniform color scheme for the first time this season and the spirited student section plans on white-out conditions.
The Wolverines gained a small measure of that revenge they’re looking for earlier this year when they beat the Herd 27-21 in overtime in a game that got contentious at the end. That feeling probably won’t be complete, however, until they knock them off in a game as meaningful as the one in 2021 that comes Friday.
It’ll be a little different Woodbury team than the Wolverines faced five weeks ago. Quarterback Dante Viccharelli didn’t play because of a shoulder injury and running back Anthony Reagan Jr. was limited after getting hurt early in the second half.
Both are back at full strength, but Viccharelli is at wide receiver as Jayden Johnson has grown in the quarterback role. Over the last four games he has thrown for 820 yards and 12 touchdowns. In that same period, Ibn Muhammad has caught 19 passes for 459 yards with a pair of touchdowns in each of the last three games. Marquis Taylor has caught 12 passes for 339 yards and five touchdowns in the same stretch.
“They’re a tough physical team that can do it both through the air and on the ground,” Woodstown coach John Adams said. “Just like last week, another hard rematch. It’s just a big game.
“The kids know it’s going to be a heavyweight fight. I think our kids are amped up for it.”
The Wolverines have gone through their share of adversity as well. They started the year with the anticipation of getting injured running back James Hill back, but Hill injured his other knee the week he was expected to return.
But Bryce Belinfanti has emerged as a game-breaking lead back, rushing for 1,459 yards and 20 touchdowns. And Webb gives them a dual threat as a rusher (393 yards) and passer (698 yards, 8 TDs), spreading it around to Zach Bevis (12-189), Belinfanti (15-182) and Anthony Ford Dale (12-145).
It’ll be the Wolverines’ fourth trip to the sectional finals in school history and third under Adams. They’re still looking for their first win having suffered losses to Delsea, Haddonfield and Woodbury.
“We want to get over that hump and get a win in this game,” Adams said. “The history of Woodstown has never had a sectional championship in this game. That’s over 100 years of football. I know the playoffs were only as recently as the 80s, but that’s a lot of time we haven’t had a sectional championship here. In the past it’s been can we get to this game. Now we need to get over that hump.”
They appeared headed that way in the game with Woodbury until the Herd snatched it away with the go-ahead touchdown on fourth-and-1 with 3:55 to go and then an interception with 1:35 left.
“It’s been in all our heads since then,” Webb said earlier this summer.
“We still talk about it,” Adams said. “We talk about things that happened in the past. Like last week we talked about we lost a rematch with Paulsboro (last year) and we’re still talking about that. We’re still talking about (Woodbury) beat us in this game 8-6 and we felt like we let it slip away because we were up at halftime. We want to keep that motivation going.”
The survivor draws the winner of the Glassboro-Schalick Central Jersey final in the state semifinals. It sets up the Wolverines to play a third Salem County team this season or their third regular-season rematch in as many weeks.
“We won’t worry about that until after (this game) and if we’re moving on we’ll put our attention on that,” said Adams, who did allow in a general sense he was impressed with what both those teams have done. “But right now there’s no game next week without getting past Woodbury.”
Battle royal
The last five games between Woodstown and Woodbury
| DATE | WINNER | SCORE |
| Oct. 6, 2023 | Woodstown | 27-21 (OT) |
| Oct. 8, 2022 | Woodbury | 28-6 |
| Nov. 20, 2021 | Woodbury | 8-6 |
| Nov. 14. 2020 | Woodstown | 6-0 |
| Nov. 8, 2018 | Woodbury | 28-21 |
Riverview Sports News 