Wolverines going back to sectional final after methodically putting down Penns Grove, awaits opponent

SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I
Friday’s game
Woodstown 34, Penns Grove 14
Saturday’s game
Burlington City at Woodbury

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WOODSTOWN – Max Webb and his Woodstown teammates have been wanting to get back to the sectional final for two years.

They did their part to make it happen Friday night. Now they wait to see who they’re playing and finish the job.

The Wolverines punched their ticket to the South Jersey Group I final Friday night by beating Penns Grove 34-14 for the second time in three weeks.

They won’t know who they’re playing until Saturday afternoon, but more than a few are not-so-secretly hoping it’s Woodbury, the team that broke their hearts the last time they played in the sectional final in 2021. Woodbury and Burlington City play Saturday morning and many of Woodstown’s players are expected to be there.

The Wolverines hoped to get back there last year for a rematch, but they were knocked out in this game by Paulsboro. 

“The biggest game of my lifetime right here,” Webb said. “Next week and here, as a matter of fact. Only one other time being in this position, maybe against the team we’re about to play next week, depending on what happens. We have a chance at revenge on the team that beat us two years ago. I can’t be more excited for me, for this team, for this town. It’s awesome.”

“After our lost against Paulsboro last year we were pretty down, but this year it feels really, really good,” two-way lineman Bump Carter said.

It’ll be their fourth trip to the sectional finals since the playoff format begin in 1984 and third under coach John Adams. They are looking for their first win (Delsea, Haddonfield, Woodbury).

“I told the kids right before the game you go through life to make mistakes and learn from them,” Adams said. “We came out here last year in the rematch against Paulsboro and we made mistakes; I said we have to learn from that. I thought the kids did a pretty good job learning from that and capitalizing on getting the W today.”

But it wouldn’t have happened if they weren’t sharp against the Red Devils, a team they beat in the final week of the regular season to win the WJFL Diamond Division title outright.

This one kind of followed the same script. It was a run-dominated first half with limited possessions. The Wolverines (8-2) put together methodical drives behind its offensive line and those same linemen kept the Red Devils (5-6) from getting anything going. As a result, the Wolverines had a 14-0 lead at halftime.

Quarterback Webb mixed the run and pass well. He threw for two touchdowns and ran for another. Bryce Belinfanti rushed for two scores, including a 61-yard burst in the fourth quarter to seal the win on a play the Wolverines had only put in prior to the last Penns Grove game.

Belinfanti finished with 145 yards. Webb rushed for 63 yards and completed 6 of 8 passes for 119 yards. He had 56 yards rushing in the first half, mostly bursting up the middle as the Wolverines exploited the Red Devils’ tendencies.

“They were real sharp on offense,” Penns Grove coach John Emel said. “Even though we didn’t give up a ton of huge plays, they were just really efficient. Our strategy was to try to take away Belinfanti and even though he had the big run the quarterback game was there and they took advantage of it.”

The Wolverines had three possessions in the first quarter and a half. They scored on the first one – on Webb’s first TD pass – and their next two were basically one 19-play touchdown drive that was split by the first of Garrett Leyman’s two first-half interceptions on the only play Penns Grove ran in the quarter to that point.

The Red Devils wanted to start fast and be within one score at halftime, but to that point in the game they had run only eight plays and trailed by two touchdowns.

While the Wolverines took their time getting to the end zone in the first half, they struck quickly in the second half. Webb hit Anthony Ford Dale on a 55-yard pass play on their first snap of the third quarter and Belinfanti broke off his 61-yarder on the first play after they regained possession.

“As soon as we got in the second half we wanted the hard play-action out of the gate and see if we could get the deep one on them, which we did,” Adams said. “And then we saw them adjust to no high safety and we were like if we can break Bryce through there he could be gone. Bryce hit that seam and he was gone.”

Penns Grove’s offense came to life in the second half, putting together two long touchdown drives that while impressive weren’t exactly conducive to driving a comeback.

Bryce Wright got the Red Devils on the board at the end of a 12-play, 68-yard drive that alternated runs between him and Karon Ceaser. And Ceaser scored their second touchdown at the end of a 10-play, 82-yard drive that featured the same two players.

Wright rushed for 116 yards on 24 carries and finished with 1,082 for the season. He’s the Red Devils’ first 1,000-yard rusher since 2020. Ceaser, a freshman, finished with 58 yards on 14 carries to surpass 900.

“I thought we played better in the second half; we kind of figured some things out,” Emel said. “We’re not a passing team and we threw two picks in the first half and they threw two touchdowns … and that was really the difference in the game. 

“To win in the second round in the playoffs and to win a championship you’ve got to be a complete team and those guys were a complete team tonight.”

Woodstown 34, Penns Grove 14

Scoring plays
W – Bobby Donahue 27 pass from Max Webb (Jake Ware kick), 8:38 1Q
W – Bryce Belinfanti 2 run (Jake Ware kick), 4:34 2Q
W – Anthony Ford Dale 45 pass from Max Webb (kick failed), 9:23 3Q
P – Bryce Wright 5 run (KaRon Ceaser pass from Bryce Wright), 2:11 3Q
W – Max Webb 1 run (Jake Ware kick), 8:06 4Q
W – Bryce Belinfanti 61 run (Jake Ware kick), 5:56 4Q
P – KaRon Ceaser 17 run (pass failed), 1:34 4Q

Woodstown, Penns Grove meet in rematch of the Diamond Division championship game two weeks ago, but it’s a whole new ball game

SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I
Sectional semifinals
Friday’s game
Penns Grove at Woodstown, 7 p.m.
Saturday’s game
Burlington City at Woodbury, 10:30 a.m.

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WOODSTOWN – The stakes were high the last time Penns Grove and Woodstown played. They’re even higher now.

All that was on the line when the teams played 12 days ago was the Diamond Division title, which is really a big deal if you know the strength of the division. But Friday night, they’ll be playing to keep their seasons alive and a spot in the South Jersey Group I championship game.

Both teams understand what’s at stake so there’s no sense dancing around it.

“Our kids know it’s a bigger game and that’s helping them approach it that way,” Woodstown coach John Adams said. “Everybody knows if you win you’re going to the South Jersey finals for Group I. A lot rides on the game. It’s not only being a division opponent, it’s a county rival. You stack it all up, the environment’s going to be fun at Woodstown Friday night.”

They say it’s tough to beat a team twice, but since 2003 when it comes to regular season rematches in the playoffs, among Salem County rivals at least, the winner of the regular-season game is 8-3. The home team in those games are 8-3 also.

That being said, the Wolverines know how difficult playoff rematches can be. Last year, they beat Paulsboro early in the regular season 18-0, then two months later had their hearts broken in the sectional semifinals 15-6.

“Our kids remember that and understand you can beat somebody in the season and the playoffs are a whole different animal and I think they’re preparing that way,” Adams said. “They’re basically preparing as if we’ve never played them before. It’s going to be a dogfight and that’s what we’re preparing for.”

The biggest battle is these type games is the psychological gymnastics that take place, especially when it’s only been a short time since they last met. You might have won the first game after a week preparing for a bunch of unknowns, but now the opponent is known, does complacency set in over the confidence of a past victory or do you fret over what that highly incentivized losing team changes from the first game.

And if you were on the losing side, do you make a bunch of changes or remain confident in the things you did in the first game and just work on fixing the mistakes that were made.

It was a battle the first time they played with the difference being three rapid-fire completions from Max Webb that produced a touchdown at the end of the half and gave the Wolverines a 14-0 halftime lead the Red Devils couldn’t overcome.

It’s doubtful the Wolverines will run their two-minute offense the whole game just because it worked in that situation two weeks ago, but it’s safe to say the Red Devils will have worked to be sharper against it this time around.

Penns Grove coach John Emel doesn’t think either team has changed “a whole lot” from that first game, but Adams expects both will throw in “a wrinkle or two” that wasn’t there the last time. That’s just the nature of the game.

“It’s way more psychological than physical with a rematch,” Adams said. “I think the team that lost the first go-round has an added incentive to win that next game. It’s like all right, you got us, we want to even the score.

“We tell our kids one of those touchdowns came because we caught them off-guard and caught them misaligned, but they’re going to be aligned this time, you’re not going to be able to catch them off-guard. That’s where it gets tough.”

The key for the Red Devils, Emel said, is starting fast and finishing like they have since their second half comeback on Paulsboro that launched their current 4-1 run. They’ve given up only two field goals in the last 14 quarters of those four wins.

“We’re a second-half team and we’re probably a second-half-of-the-season team,” said Emel, whose team started the year 0-3 and 1-4. “We’re playing our best football, not just in one week but over the last month plus, and during that stretch the defense has done really good and we’ve been able to close games out in the second half.

“When you’re playing a team as good as Woodstown who has the ability to score a lot of points in spurts we’ve got to get into halftime with the game close. We played pretty well in the second half the last time we played them, but what they did in the first half was too much to overcome.

“If we play well we have a good chance to win and that’s all you want as a coach. You don’t need to dp anything extraordinary and hope for a miracle. We just have to go out and play a good Penns Grove type game and we’ll have an opportunity at the end.”

Both teams should be at full strength. The Wolverines welcomed Corbin Walz back to practice Wednesday. The Wolverines’ starting defensive end and offensive lineman dislocated his elbow against Deptford in Game 3, but Adams said he “looked really good,” but wasn’t immediately certain how he’d be used in a game where it’s all hands on deck.

There is a chance for a lot more rematches going forward as three of the four teams in the South semifinals are Diamond Division rivals and Penns Grove played the fourth, Burlington City in its season opener.

“Only one of us is going to make it through in the next 10 days,” Emel said. “My message to our guys is ‘Why not us?’ We’re here, whatever’s happened up to this point has no bearing this weekend.

“It’s two teams that played recently but you get a fresh start. That’s the way our guys look at it. Because when you walked off that field we were kind of disappointed with the way it ended and we didn’t have to wait too long, so here we go again. It’s a new game and you’ve got to go out there and you’ve got to play one play at a time.”