West Deptford sophomore quarterback pressed into emergency duty with game on the line, throws winning TD pass on fourth down with 34 seconds to play to spoil Pennsville’s home opener
WJFL PATRIOT DIVISION
Camden Catholic 36, KIPP Cooper Norcross 0
Collingswood 12, Overbrook 6
West Deptford 29, Pennsville 26
SATURDAY’S GAMES
Paulsboro at Audubon, 11 a.m.
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PENNSVILLE — John Emel may have moved on to another program, but he didn’t forget to take his magic over Pennsville with him.
Emel ran his personal coaching winning streak over the Eagles to eight games Friday night when backup quarterback T.J. Cross hit Zamir Davis on a 32-yard fourth-down touchdown pass with 34 seconds left to give his new West Deptford team a 29-26 win in their WJFL Patriot Division opener.
Before moving to West Deptford in the offseason, Emel won the last seven games his Penns Grove team played against Pennsville.
“Every year’s different, different kids; tonight it was magic,” he said. “West Deptford football is always about the next man up. You hope it’s not fourth-and-6 on the road when you’re oh-and-1 looking for your first win.”
Of the eight, this one may have been the hardest to get. West Deptford trailed 20-7 midway through the third quarter but started putting together big plays and engineered their winning drive with a quarterback who had never completed a varsity pass.
Cross was pressed into action with 2:21 left — right after Pennsville regained a 26-21 lead — because starter Brady Cobb injured his surgically repaired collarbone on the previous possession that gave West Deptford its first lead of the game.
Cobb actually reaggravated the injury earlier in the drive, but it popped back into place allowing him to continue only to pop out again on his two-point conversion pass that put his team ahead 21-20 with 7:19 to play.
“They told me to get ready and I was ready to step up,” Cross said. “I’ve been practicing, I’ve been a quarterback for a while, and I was just ready to step up. My guys had my back. I just wanted to get the job done.”
Despite never playing a varsity game at quarterback before, Cross, a sophomore, got his team inside the Pennsville 30 with about a minute left, but the Pennsville defense stood its ground with back-to-back 1-yard losses to leave West Deptford to face a do-or-die fourth-and-4. Davis was wide open along the West Deptford sideline and Cross dropped the pass into his arms perfectly.
“There’s a lot of strategy that goes on at the end of the game,” Emel said. “When there was like three minutes left we were saying we got to let them score. Forget the fact that my backup quarterback was in. I feel like we can score if we have enough time. “I told (Cross) in the huddle it’s called split red 79 post wheel (and) he’s gonna be wide open. I don’t know if you can make the throw, but he’s gonna be wide open. That’s what we said and we didn’t lie; he was wide open. Just don’t drop it.”
“That kid won us that game today,” Cobb said. “He took the team on his back. He took his moment and rode with it. I’ve never seen anything like that. That was awesome.”
Pennsville had a chance for its own magical ending, but the bid ended when Davis intercepted Robbie McDade’s fourth-down pass with two seconds left.
The loss spoiled an exceptional outing from Pennsville running back Rylan Hardy that was part of an improved overall team effort from the week before. The junior rushed for 157 yards on 20 carries and scored three touchdowns. And he had another 44-yard run that would’ve given his team a 27-13 lead called back by a holding penalty.
And when the Eagles used Hardy as a decoy, McDade broke through for big gains. McDade scored on a 6-yard run to give his Eagles a 20-7 lead and finished with 86 yards rushing.
“He just flies around the field – on offense and defense,” Pennsville coach Mike Healy said. “He keeps his feet moving. He’s not the biggest kid but he runs physical. He’s very good at finding the hole. He knows what to do. He was awesome today.”
It was just spoiled by a bitter defeat.
“I told the kids there was nothing I can say to make you feel better after that,” Healy said. “That was just a gut punch.”
Cover photo: West Deptford quarterback T.J. Cross (7) goes through the handshake line after leading the Eagles to victory with a last-minute touchdown pass.
West Deptford 29, Pennsville 26
| WDEPT (29) | PVILLE (26) | |
| 12 | 1st Downs | 13 |
| 32-185 | Rush-yards | 42-258 |
| 6-8-0 | Passing (C-A-I) | 3-7-1 |
| 74 | Passing yards | 46 |
| 1-0 | Fum-Lost | 1-0 |
| 2-36.5 | Punts-avg | 1-37.0 |
| 3-15 | Penalties | 4-35 |
| West Deptford (1-1) | 0 | 7 | 6 | 16- | 29 |
| Pennsville (0-2) | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6- | 26 |
SCORING SUMMARY
P-Rylan Hardy 10 run (Luke Wood kick), 0:00 1Q
WD-Michael Joseph 16 pass from Brady Cobb (Aiden Paskiewicz kick), 5:30 2Q
P-Rylan Hardy 5 run (kick failed), 1:22 2Q
P-Robbie McDade 3 run (Luke Wood kick), 7:39 3Q
WD-Zamir Davis 32 run (kick failed), 2:11 3Q
WD-Cole Paskiewicz 46 run (Zamir Davis pass from Brady Cobb), 7:19 4Q
P-Rylan Hardy 10 run (pass failed), 2:21 4Q
WD-Zamir Davis 31 pass from T.J. Cross (Logan Rivell run), 0:34 4Q
| PATRIOT DIVISION | DIV | ALL |
|---|---|---|
| Collingswood | 1-0 | 2-0 |
| West Deptford | 1-0 | 1-1 |
| Audubon | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Camden Catholic | 0-0 | 1-0 |
| Paulsboro | 0-0 | 1-0 |
| Overbrook | 0-1 | 1-1 |
| Pennsville | 0-1 | 0-2 |
Riverview Sports News 