On life in uncharted territory, playing a third straight regular-season rematch, the underlying secret to the Wolverines’ success, and more
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
WOODSTOWN – Playing this deep into the high school football season is a whole new experience for the Woodstown football program. It’s an exciting time for the Wolverines, for sure, but instead of getting off track in uncharted territory they are approaching it as they have every game this year – business as usual.
The Wolverines won their first South Jersey Group I title in school history last week and host Glassboro Friday two wins away from a state championship. But if you watched them practice this week, you’d think they were getting ready for a game in early October.
“It’s like every other week, preparing the same,” quarterback Max Webb said. “Obviously it’s for a little higher stakes, but we’re not doing anything special. It’s just like every other week.”
That doesn’t mean they aren’t intense as they go about it.
“There’s definitely a different tone to the team in our work ethic and drive since the playoffs have started because we know it’s win or go home,” record-setting running back Bryce Belinfanti said. “What we’re doing right now is something that’s hard to be done again so we have to make it count.”
So what’s like being in uncharted territory?
“It’s awesome,” Wolverines coach John Adams said. “I said to the kids we’re not used to this, I think 2018 was the first time they started doing the regional championships, which is this round, and if we win this one you move onto the state championship, which has only been one year in the making so far.
“We can’t be satisfied with just getting over that hump last week. We’ve got to make sure we’re focused on Glassboro and not coming off a big-win hangover like what happened to us walking into Haddonfield (after beating Woodbury in the regular season).
“It’s fun. It’s special. The kids are going to remember being one of the only sports out here. You look around there’s no other teams playing right now. It’s pretty special.”
THE SECRET: The Wolverines may be riding the momentum of their first sectional championship, but they’ve been on this track for a long time.
Over the last four years they are 30-11 – 26-7 in the last three, with three playoff trips and two appearances in the sectional final. The secret to that success can be traced to the fact most of the players have been playing together since they were 6 and playing for the Woodstown Pirates youth program.
“It’s definitely part of it,” Webb said. “We’ve run something close to this offense since we were little, so growing up in it definitely helps with our comfort level of what we’re doing now.”
“It makes us have so much more chemistry than the other team,” receiver/defensive back Anthony Ford Dale said.
It was Ford Dale who techniqued Woodbury receiver Marquis Taylor out of the back of the end zone to deny his potential game-tying touchdown catch in the fourth quarter of last week’s sectional final game.
A good feeder program is the key to any sustained success, and that’s what they’ve got here. Adams went to one of their games over the weekend and thought he was on his own sideline.
“A lot of these guys grew up playing for the Woodstown Pirates and it just so happens that our Junior Woodstown Pirates, our Senior Woodstown Pirates and us all play Glassboro this week in the playoffs,” Adams said. “The majority of these guys went through that program, they grew up in that program.
“Some of our kids go and coach for them. You go over there and you hear all the terminology that we’re using, so when you hear the coaches yelling stuff out that’s the same term we use. It’s just neat to see.
“That group – Jack Knorr, Max Webb, James (Hill), Bryce (Belinfanti), Damien (Eichler) and all those guys – have always grown up winning down there at that level so we knew when they came to high school we had a group of kids who knew how to win.”
THREE’S COMPANY: If the Wolverines didn’t know better, they’d swear they were playing in the NFC East or within some other division in the NFL.
This week’s Group I state semifinal game against Glassboro is the third week in a row the Wolverines will be playing a regular-season rematch, something akin to playing the Giants, Dallas and Washington in home-and-home series like they do in the pros.
Woodbury won three rematches on its way to winning the first ever Group I state title – Penns Grove, Maple Shade and Salem – but not in consecutive weeks. Woodstown beat Diamond Division rivals Penns Grove and Woodbury each for the second time in the second and third rounds and will be looking to avenge a regular-season loss to Glassboro.
“It shows how tough our division in that we’re seeing these teams so deep in the playoffs,” Webb said. “It definitely helps because we know what they’ve got and we know what they’re going to show against us. It helps us prepare for it a little bi more
The prep to the rematches are easier, Belinfanti said, because you’re immediately familiar with the opponent’s tendencies and personnel, but the game itself will “definitely be harder, especially if you won the first one.”
“It’s a challenge, definitely,” Belinfanti said. “Our coach always says it’s hard to beat a team twice. We love the challenge. Three rematches in a row would be huge to win, for sure.”
END ZONE A DEAD ZONE: The Wolverines have outscored their opponents 118-40 during their current four-game winning streak, but they may find touchdowns hard to come by Friday night.
Glassboro has shut out all three of its opponents in the playoffs this year and hasn’t given up more than one touchdown in any of its last eight games, including a 13-7 overtime win over Woodstown. The last team to find the end zone against the Bulldogs was Buena in the third quarter of a 39-6 loss – that’s 13 quarters of 0s.
“They haven’t played an offense that’s the caliber of us yet,” Belinfanti said.
“We know what we’ve got and we’ll handle all that,” Webb said. “I’d put it on a lot of things that we can score on almost any team in the state.”
IN LIVING COLOR: The Wolverines’ color scheme for the state semifinals is blue on white.
Glassboro (8-3) at Woodstown (9-2)
Tale of the Tape
| RUSHING | |||
| WOODSTOWN | ATT | YDS | TD |
| Bryce Belinfanti | 200 | 1641 | 21 |
| Alex Torres | 50 | 284 | 4 |
| Max Webb | 92 | 456 | 7 |
| GLASSBORO | |||
| Davon Barr | 99 | 640 | 3 |
| Dominic Barr | 49 | 369 | 5 |
| Amari Sabb | 40 | 281 | 5 |
| Ziaire Tate | 53 | 257 | 2 |
| PASSING | |||
| WOODSTOWN | C-A-I | YDS | TD |
| Max Webb | 57-94-5 | 783 | 9 |
| GLASSBORO | |||
| Kristopher Foster | 55-106-3 | 821 | 12 |
| RECEIVING | |||
| WOODSTOWN | REC | YDS | TD |
| Bryce Belinfanti | 15 | 162 | 1 |
| Zach Bevis | 13 | 200 | 3 |
| Anthony Ford Dale | 13 | 155 | 1 |
| Anthony Bokolas | 6 | 87 | 1 |
| Garrett Leyman | 6 | 67 | 1 |
| GLASSBORO | |||
| Xavier Sabb | 26 | 422 | 5 |
| Amari Sabb | 13 | 160 | 4 |
| Davon Barr | 7 | 47 | 0 |
| Brysheen Ferguson | 3 | 127 | 2 |
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