Wolverines win first South Jersey Group I sectional title in school history, edge Woodbury to avenge loss in 2021 title game
GROUP I SECTIONAL FINALS
Friday’s Games
South: Woodstown 21, Woodbury 14
Central: Glassboro 29, Schalick 0
North I: Mountain Lakes 35, Hawthorne 14
North II: Shabazz 40, Butler 13
State Semifinals
Nov. 17
Glassboro (8-3) at Woodstown (9-2), 7 p.m.
Shabazz (8-3) at Mountain Lakes (9-2), 7 p.m.
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
WOODSTOWN — In the more than 100 years Woodstown has been playing football, the Wolverines had never won a sectional championship. You won’t believe where they found the play that finally got them over the hump.
Max Webb threw a 33-yard pass to emerging receiver Anthony Bokolas on the first play of the fourth quarter for what proved to be the winning touchdown in the Wolverines’ 21-14 win over Woodbury in the South Jersey Group I final Friday night.
The Wolverines (9-2) will now host Glassboro (8-3) next week for a chance to play in the Group I state title game. The teams played earlier this year with the Bulldogs winning 13-7 in overtime. It’ll be the Wolverines’ third straight regular-season rematch in this year’s playoffs.
Woodstown had been to the sectional final three times before, twice with coach John Adams, but had always come up on the short end. Friday night’s win in front of a Clint Ware Field crowd of more than 1,500 earned the Wolverines a measure of revenge for the Thundering Herd breaking their hearts in the 2021 final.
“We’ve talked about doing this for a while,” Adams said. “We joked around with the coaching staff saying maybe the third time’s a charm. We talked about how not only us but a couple other programs haven’t been able to conquer this step and it’s special to try to get this for the town, for the school and I’m super proud that our kids were able to do it.”
“This is the biggest win for this town, this organization, this community,” Webb said. “You can’t put into words how big of a win this was, especially knocking off the Group I state champions last year. It’s awesome.”
The touchdown that won it snapped a 14-14 tie. It was a play the Wolverines had deep in their playbook and practiced every day but had never run out of the formation they planned to plug it into, so Adams simply drew it up on his play board on the sideline to see what it looked like before sending it into Webb to call.
Bokolas, a junior, was wide open down the right side and Webb hit him in the numbers.
“Coach Adams drew it up right on his paper right there, 127 waggle,” Bokolas said. “He told me to run a corner, that’s what I ran, wide open for the touchdown. He drew it up at halftime. Whenever they need me, I’m ready.”
“We’ve had that play all season; it’s in the playbook, way down there,” Webb said. “Maybe he forgot about it and just pulled it out in the biggest game of our season so far. It worked perfect.”
“One of my coaches up top asked if we could run one of the plays that we have – and we have traditionally ran – out of that formation,” Adams said. “I said we never practiced it out of that formation – in the past we have – but I was like I’ve got to see it. I grabbed a pen from an assistant coach and drew it up. It speaks to how well our kids are in tune to what we do in practice, that they can quickly make an adjustment and run something like that they haven’t run out of that formation before.”
The Herd threatened to retie the game on the ensuing possession. They got it inside the 5 and appeared to score on fourth down with less than five minutes left, but receiver Marquis Taylor was ruled to have stepped out of bounds before he came back in to catch Jayden Johnson’s pass in the back of the end zone – and took a hit from Jack Knorr for his trouble.
“I held my breath; I didn’t know (if Taylor was in or out of bounds),” Webb said. “I was just hoping it was on them.”
“I saw him go out of bounds,” defensive back Bryce Belinfanti said. “I was praying the refs saw it.”
Adams said the receiver was about a foot out of bounds on his route. The official rightfully dropped his hat to mark the spot. Woodbury coach Anthony Reagan Sr. didn’t argue it.
The Wolverines took over and ran out the clock. Belinfanti basically sealed the victory with a 59-yard burst into the red zone setting up Webb for the victory formation.
Woodbury held a 14-7 halftime lead despite possessing the ball some two and a half minutes less than it took Woodstown to score on its opening drive.
Webb drove the Wolverines 62 yards in almost nine and a half minutes with Belinfanti scoring from the 3. But Woodbury (6-4) took less than two minutes to tie it and then took the lead on a 74-yard burst by Anthony Reagan Jr.
Reagan had 129 yards in the first half, but came out with a knee injury late in the third quarter and didn’t return, taking a big weapon out of the Herd’s offense.
“He’s been dealing with an MCL sprain, so we tried to give him some time to get it together and came out here and gave a valiant effort but when we lost (him), the whole dynamic of our football team changes,” Reagan Sr. said.
The Herd got the ball to start the third quarter with a chance to get the two-score cushion they were looking for to take total control, but Woodstown’s defense held firm. The offense took over and put together another time-consuming tournament drive to tie the game.
“The biggest thing is we couldn’t get those two scores,” Reagan said. “In a game like this, they don’t necessary have to come out of their element when it’s only a one-score game. If we’d have gotten to a two-score game, that whole game changes.”
Belinfanti ended Woodbury’s next possession with an interception and that set the Wolverines on their way for the go-ahead touchdown to Bokolas.
Belinfanti rushed for 192 yards for Woodstown. Webb also was a big weapon with his legs, particularly on the opening drive. He had 41 yards on the opening drive and finished with 56 in the game. They both scored a touchdown.
When the game was over the Wolverines collected the sectional trophy, ran in for a quick shower, then boarded team buses to get on the fire trucks to parade around town for a celebration 100 years in the making.
“Second fire truck ride,” Webb said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Woodstown 21, Woodbury 14
| WBURY | WTOWN | |
| 8 | 1st Downs | 17 |
| 21-195 | Rushing | 44-252 |
| 4-9-1 | Passes | 5-8-1 |
| 49 | Passing | 53 |
| 0-0 | Fum-lost | 1-0 |
| 2-35.5 | Punts-avg | 1-47.0 |
| 7-45 | Penalties | 3-15 |
| Woodbury (6-4) | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 – | 14 |
| Woodstown (9-2) | 7 | 0 | 7 | 7 – | 21 |
Scoring plays
WT – Bryce Belinfanti 2 run (Jake Ware kick), 2:34 1Q
WB – Anthony Reagan 33 run (Jayden Johnson kick), 0:38 1Q
WB – Anthony Reagan 74 run (Jayden Johnson kick), 1:29 2Q
WT – Max Webb 4 run (Jake Ware kick), 2:50 3Q
WT – Anthony Bokolas 33 pass from Max Webb (Jake Ware kick), 11:49 4Q
Riverview Sports News 