Semifinal shocker

Woodstown falls to Glassboro in Group I semifinals on trick play with 50 seconds to go

GROUP I PLAYOFFS
Friday’s semifinals
Glassboro 14, Woodstown 10
Mountain Lakes 49, Shabazz 12
Championship game
At Rutgers
Nov. 26
Glassboro (9-3) vs. Mountain Lakes (10-2)

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WOODSTOWN — Some time later tonight Woodstown football coach John Adams is going to pop the film of Friday night’s game into the player, get to the final three minutes and wonder what do the Wolverines have to do to catch a break in the playoffs.

The Wolverines have gone deep in the playoffs each of the last three years and all three have ended short of the goal and in gut-wrenching fashion.

None were as painful as the fate that befell them Friday night.

By most accounts, the Wolverines seemed destined to get through to the state title game. But Glassboro broke their hearts with a trick play that went for 60 yards and a touchdown with 50 seconds left, propelling the Bulldogs to a 14-10 win in front of nearly 2,000 fans at Clint Ware Field.

Glassboro (9-3) will now play Mountain Lakes (10-2) next Sunday at Rutgers for the Group I state championship.

The Wolverines (9-3) have had the hardest luck in the playoffs. They were taken out by Woodbury in the final five minutes of the South Jersey Group I final two years ago and they lost to Paulsboro in the second round last year in a game where turnovers did them in. 

“The deeper you get in the playoffs the tougher they get,” Wolverines quarterback Max Webb said. “You can’t ever expect to have a blowout win in anything like that, so you have to expect these things when they come.

“It sucks. The last time on this field, last time playing for this high school, this team, it sucks. It’s not how you want to go out, but it’s what it is.”

Adams conceded this one was the hardest of the three heartbreaks to take because this one was right there for the taking.

“To have it end like that is just something that’s tough to swallow,” Adams said.

The play that broke the Wolverines’ heart Friday was a double pass from Kristopher Foster to Davon Barr to Xavier Sabb. 

The game seemed headed towards a wild Woodstown celebration after Jake Ware hit a 22-yard field goal to make it 10-8 and Damien Eichler sacked Foster inside the Glassboro 20 on fourth down with about four minutes to play. If the Wolverines could punch it in from there, they surely would have put it away.

“The whole crowd was going nuts,” Adams said. “I had double headsets and I could hear them through the headsets. It was insane how loud it was. And when Max ripped off that run on the bash that we called and we end up getting that first down, we were just saying ‘ball security’ and just keep running it and run the time down. Unfortunately, the ball security wasn’t there.”

Their fortunes turned on the next play. Webb went to fake a handoff to Bryce Belinfanti in a play that had worked so well for them all game but the ball got hung on Belinfanti’s hip on the takeaway and bounced free. Glassboro’s Damere Lassiter recovered it to give the Bulldogs life with 2:58 to go.

Foster moved his offense out towards midfield. On a second-and-15 from the 40, Bulldogs coach Timmy Breaker called for the double pass.

It was a play the Wolverines (9-3) had been working on in practice ever since Shore Regional and Woodbury caught them on it in the playoffs two years ago. This time Sabb got behind the corners who bit on the play and the freshman had open field in front of him when he pulled it in. Barr admitted he was nervous at first, but those butterflies went away as the play developed.

“Devon is the backup quarterback; we practice it all the time, all the time,” Breaker said. “We knew they were playing Xavier hard. A heluva call, one that’ll go down in the books. I’ve got to give big, big, big props to the kids. They executed it.”

Sabb also returned a punt in the third quarter 86 yards for a touchdown and Barr ran in the conversion to give Glassboro an 8-7 lead. The big return atoned for the punt he fumbled earlier in the quarter. 

“I was talking to the ref and was like if I get this in my hands I’m going to get a touchdown because a messed up the first one,” Sabb said. “Once I got it in my hands I wasn’t going to let anybody touch me. I was in my feelings a little bit (after the fumble), but I had more worry about the game than myself.”

Neither team yielded much in the first half, but Woodstown came away with a 7-0 halftime lead after Webb’s 1-yard sneak in the second quarter. It was the first touchdown Glassboro had allowed in the playoffs and the first one they had allowed in 14 quarters.

The Wolverines preserved their early lead with four takeaways, including interceptions by Carter Orlandini and Webb inside the 3 in the first half, but they were the ones with the turnovers in the second half.

“I think it’s a learning curve; it’s getting used to playing at this level.,” Adams said. “We got to the championship two years ago and we knew this feeling we’re having tonight and we learned from it. Two years later we end up conquering that and win the championship.

“I told them now it’s the next step, being able to finish in a game like this. Gotta learn from it and gotta hope the younger guys, just like these seniors did, have that chip on their shoulder that they want to get to this stage and you hope you get a chance again.”

Glassboro 14, Woodstown 10

GLASS		WOODS
6	1st Downs	15
28-29	Rushing	31-136
8-15-2	Passes	12-24-2
130	Passing	102
2-2	Fum-lost	2-2
2-30.5	Punts-avg	3-35.7
4-35	Penalties	2-20

Glassboro (9-3)	0	0	8	6 –	14
Woodstown (9-3)	0	7	0	3 –	10