Schalick was looking to launch a season of high expectations with a big start, but instead found the opposite
WJFL SCORES
Patriot Division
Friday’s Games
Collingswood 30, Clayton 26
Diamond Division
Friday’s Game
Cedar Grove 41, Schalick 3 (BATB)
Saturday’s Games
Penns Grove at Paulsboro, 10 a.m.
Willingboro at Salem, noon
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
EGG HARBOR TWP. — The Battle At The Beach was no paradise for the Schalick football team Friday morning. That, ladies and gentlemen, was on the other sideline.
Quarterback Stephen Paradiso threw for 227 yards and four touchdowns as Cedar Grove had its way with the Cougars 41-3 in the Day Two opener of the BATB at Egg Harbor Twp. High School. The Labor Day weekend series opened in Ocean City Thursday night, but had to move inland due to a scheduling conflict with the stadium there.
“We were not ready to play and that falls on me completely,” Schalick coach Mike Wilson said. “As the head football coach I have to prepare my staff better, I have to prepare the players better. We weren’t ready to play and it showed today.
“Schematically we were well prepared. I think we were. We’ve got to go back and watch tape and obviously re-evaulate that because it didn’t work. But mentally. Personally I think a lot of the kids have been hanging on that 11-win season last year that carried on through the summer. We’ve had our off-the-field issues. We’ve not had a good week of practice. I’ve been doing this for 20 years, you don’t do it in practice you’re not going to do it today. So, the mistakes we made all week in practice we made today.”
It was an ill-fated trip for the Cougars from the start, even though they did have a 3-0 lead after an early takeaway.
Schalick senior quarterback Kenai Simmons didn’t make the trip, left back in Salem County as a “team internal decision” related to accountability and program protocols.
His absence threw sophomore Ayden Jenkins directly into the fire. Jenkins had been practicing to be prepared to play because Wilson said he didn’t want a situation similar to last year’s Gloucester Catholic game happening again, but he was told just three days ago he’d be drawing the start.
In that game, which Schalick won by three touchdowns to complete an undefeated regular season, Simmons went out early in the second quarter forcing Matthew LaMazza to run the offense the rest of the game. The Cougars reduced the offense that night on the fly to make it easier on their backup, but this time Jenkins had the full package at his disposal against a vastly stronger opponent.
Jenkins admitted he didn’t sleep very well overnight as he thought about the game ahead and his first play as a varsity quarterback — the first play from scrimmage in the game — resulted in a fumbled exchange with Levi Feeney-Childers in the backfield. Fortunately, the Cougars recovered, but for a loss and moved the ball only nine more yards on Jenkins’ first career completion to LaMazza.
“It was a lot of pressure on me,” Jenkins said. “This is my first year ever playing quarterback. I never played quarterback before. My goal was to show everyone I wasn’t just a backup quarterback and wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.”
The Panthers had prepared all summer for Simmons, but coach Rob Gogerty said they changed very little when they discovered Jenkins was the starter. They did pressure the sophomore hard. He completed 5 of 9 passes for 57 yards and had 13 rushes for 2 net yards.
“We prepared four months for the quarterback, so we really didn’t change much,” Gogerty said. “We just stuck to our guns, stuck to our reads, things like that. We had some spies set up for pass situations, which we kind of dropped them off. I think that was the biggest change with the quarterback not playing.”
Wilson didn’t throw his sophomore quarterback under the bus; truthfully, there was trouble across the board. The Cougars had less than 100 yards of net offense, only 39 yards rushing, and four fumbles. They finally lost a fumble in the fourth quarter when a center snap hit a player in the backfield who had gone in motion.
“Nothing against his effort; he’s played hard, he was locked in,” Wilson said. “But we as coaches have to do a better job of putting him in a better position to succeed.”
Wilson said the coach in him was preparing for Simmons not playing all season, but that didn’t seem likely. The senior easily could return to the starting spot next week against rival Cumberland.
But if that’s the case and they don’t have Simmons, Wilson is confident Jenkins can hold up against the gauntlet that is the WJFL Diamond Division schedule where every game projects to be as intense as this one.
“I’ve been in many programs before that have started sophomore quarterbacks,” he said. “But that’s on us to put that young man in a better position to succeed. We didn’t do that today offensively.
“I have full faith in our talent and our ability to play with anybody. I truly do. That’s why we scrimmage the way we do. That’s why we wanted to play this game against these guys. We have to do a better job. We did not put the best effort out there. That wasn’t Schalick football today.”
But it did start out well. Kicker Hunter Dragotta, Schalick’s MVP for the game, gave the Cougars a 3-0 lead midway through the first quarter with a 36-yard field goal. The drive was set up by Nick Lopergolo’s interception.
And then it went south in a hurry. The Panthers scored touchdowns the next five times they touched the ball and 41 straight points altogether. Paradiso threw two touchdown passes each to Jackson Morrice and team MVP Nick Russo among his 19 completions. Morrice also returned the second half kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown that devastated the Cougars.
Paradiso completed 9 of 11 passes in the second quarter and 11 of 13 with three touchdowns at one stretch in the game.
“I thought we came out of the gate a little slow,” Gogerty said. “I kind of expected that. It’s the first game of the year, we’re not really going live in the scrimmages and getting those looks, so I think it took us a quarter to really get going, especially Jackson and guys like that, but Nick made some big plays early on to kind of weather the storm a little bit until everyone kind of started clicking.”
EXTRA POINTS: Schalick is the third Salem County team to participate in the four-year history of the BATB. The other two — Salem (2-0) and Penns Grove — were 3-0 … Schalick had won 10 straight regular-season games. The Cougars’ last regular-season loss came to Cumberland on Oct. 22, 2022.
Cedar Grove 41, Schalick 3
| SCH (3) | CG (41) | |
| 6 | 1st Downs | 14 |
| 34-39 | Rushes-yards | 29-73 |
| 5-9-2 | Passes (C-A-I) | 19-27-2 |
| 57 | Passing yards | 227 |
| 4-1 | Fumbles-lost | 0-0 |
| 7-34.6 | Punts-avg | 1-29.0 |
| 8-53 | Penalties-yards | 4-35 |
| Schalick (0-1) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0- | 3 |
| Cedar Grove (1-0) | 7 | 20 | 7 | 7- | 41 |
SCORING SUMMARY
S-Hunter Dragotta 36 FG, 7:28 1Q
C- Nick Russo 49 pass from Stephen Paradiso (Sebastian Kovacs kick), 5:13 1Q
C-Jackson Morrice 27 pass from Stephen Paradiso (Sebastian Kovacs kick), 11:13 2Q
C-Anthony Tronio 5 run (Sebastian Kovacs kick), 8:26 2Q
C-Nick Russo 8 pass from Stephen Paradiso (kick blocked), 4:58 2Q
C-Jackson Morrice 94 kick return (Sebastian Kovacs kick)
C-Jackson Morrice 27 pass from Stephen Paradiso (Sebastian Kovacs kick), 4:20 4Q
| WJFL STANDINGS | ||
| DIAMOND | DIV | ALL |
| Glassboro | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Penns Grove | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Salem | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Schalick | 0-0 | 0-1 |
| Woodbury | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Woodstown | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| PATRIOT | DIV | ALL |
| Audubon | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Camden Cath. | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Collingswood | 0-0 | 1-0 |
| Overbrook | 0-0 | 1-0 |
| Paulsboro | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Pennsville | 0-0 | 0-1 |
| West Deptford | 0-0 | 0-1 |
Riverview Sports News 