Here is this week’s Salem County sports schedule for the week of Oct. 21-26
OCT. 21 FIELD HOCKEY Salem at Gloucester Catholic Schalick at Deptford Woodstown at Overbrook GIRLS TENNIS Pennsville at Overbrook, 3:45 p.m. Pitman at Salem Woodstown at Schalick BOYS SOCCER Bridgeton at Penns Grove Salem at Camden County Tech CROSS COUNTRY State Tech Championship at Salem Tech VOLLEYBALL Cape May County Tech at Salem Tech
OCT. 22 BOYS SOCCER Glassboro at Woodstown Gloucester Catholic at Salem Tech Overbrook at Penns Grove Pennsville at Clayton Pitman at Schalick, 6 p.m. Salem at Wildwood GIRLS SOCCER Penns Grove at Overbrook Salem Tech at Gloucester Catholic Schalick at Pennsville Wildwood at Salem Woodstown at Glassboro GIRLS TENNIS Overbrook at Penns Grove Woodstown at Wildwood FIELD HOCKEY Pennsville at Overbrook Woodstown at St. Joe (Hamm.) VOLLEYBALL Washington Twp. at Salem Tech WOMENS COLLEGE BASKETBALL Cecil College at Salem CC, 6 p.m.
OCT. 23 FIELD HOCKEY Salem at Schalick GIRLS TENNIS Glassboro at Woodstown Salem at Overbrook Wildwood at Penns Grove CROSS COUNTRY Tri-County Showcase at Cumberland
OCT. 24 FIELD HOCKEY Woodstown at Hammonton BOYS SOCCER Gloucester Catholic at Pennsville Woodstown at Pitman Salem Tech at Salem Schalick at Penns Grove GIRLS SOCCER Penns Grove at Schalick Salem at Salem Tech Pennsville at Woodstown GIRLS TENNIS Schalick at Pennsville (conclusion of susp. match), 3:45 p.m. VOLLEYBALL Timber Creek at Salem Tech OCT. 25 FOOTBALL Woodstown at Glassboro, 6 p.m. Audubon at Camden Catholic Paulsboro at Clayton, TBA Collingswood at Pennsville Overbrook at West Deptford Woodbury at Schalick, 6 p.m. BOYS SOCCER Pennsville at Overbrook Salem Tech at Wildwood Catholic GIRLS SOCCER Salem at Paulsboro GIRLS TENNIS Woodstown at Pennsville FIELD HOCKEY Gloucester Catholic at Salem VOLLEYBALL Salem Tech at Gloucester Catholic
OCT. 26 FOOTBALL Salem at Penns Grove, noon GIRLS SOCCER Schalick at Williamstown, 10 a.m. MENS COLLEGE BASKETBALL Baltimore JUCO Jamboree Salem CC vs. Anne Arundel, noon Salem CC vs. Southern Maryland, 6 p.m.
Leyman has game of his life, plugged in at quarterback, throws 4 TD passes, picks two, returns one for TD, in Woodstown rout of Salem; Woodbury dulls Penns Grove’s playoff hopes with late rally
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
SALEM — Garrett Leyman has played a lot of games in a Woodstown uniform over the years, but he’s never had a game like he did Saturday.
The senior was responsible for five touchdowns on both sides of the ball as the Wolverines took it to Salem 42-13 to remain unbeaten and set up a WJFL Diamond Division title game at Glassboro next week.
Pressed into action as the Wolverines’ third quarterback this season Leyman threw four touchdown passes on the only varsity passes he’s ever thrown in his life. Then on defense he intercepted two passes and returned one of them for a touchdown.
Leyman threw two touchdown passes to M.J. Hall (55 and 48 yards) and one each to Bobby Donahue (49) and Rocco String (5). The first two completions gave him a passer rating of 866.80 and curiously it dropped with each successive completion. His 4-for-4 for 157 yards and four TDs total netted him a passer rating of 759.70 for the game.
If he isn’t somebody’s dot-com Player of the Week either the voting is flawed or nobody’s paying attention.
“After last week we faced a lot of adversity, I knew I needed to step up,” said Leyman, who was more of a run threat when he last played quarterback in eighth grade. “Coach chose me to play in Jack’s (Holladay) position, so I knew I had to go out and perform and I did.
“I wasn’t expecting it to go how it did, but I was confident going into today. It felt amazing.”
The Wolverines were into their third quarterback after losing starter Holladay to a sprained left shoulder in the first half of last week’s game at Haddon Heights. JV quarterback Lucas Fulmer played the rest of the game and completed the 17-8 victory.
It was the Fulmer’s first varsity action and while the backup checked all the boxes in his relief appearance it was Leyman’s experience and familiarity with the offense that led Trautz to start him against the Rams. Leyman was told he’d be playing quarterback Monday and had all week to prepare himself.
“He’s played a million football games for us; he’s just football smart, he’s got great football IQ and we can trust him in these situations,” Trautz said. “We know that he’s going to make the right decisions and you saw today. He commanded this offense, he was able to run it fully and he shined. It was nice to see him spin it.
“I’m not the least surprised with what he did today. He’s just a great player and he doesn’t back down from the moment. He elevates his game when the lights start shining the brightest.”
The Wolverines used a sanitized version of the playbook for Fulmer last week, but Leyman had full reign of it this week.
“We were going to run our offense the way we run it and take what they give us and we did a good job executing it,” Trautz said.
Salem moved the ball through the air, too. They immediately answered Woodstown’s first touchdown, working the ball downfield through a series of possession passes.
Rams quarterback Troy Carey was 12-of-15 in the first quarter and finished the game 25-for-35 for 241 yards and touchdowns to Kaden Robinson (5) and Terrance Smith (16). Robinson caught seven passes for 53 yards. Smith caught four for 103.
“It was just trusting our receivers, trusting them to make plays, putting the ball in their hands,” Carey said. “We work on certain plays every week just working to get better at things that affect our craft and just finding open men reading the defense.”
The win sets up a titanic battle of unbeatens between Woodstown and Glassboro Friday night. Whether Leyman gets the call again at quarterback depends on Holladay’s status during the week. Both Trautz and Holladay are hopeful of a return at some point this season.
Players on the Glassboro roster believe the Wolverines will be treating the showdown as “their Super Bowl” because of the recent history in the series; the Bulldogs beat them twice last year, once in overtime and once in the Group I state semifinals. The Wolverines, however, are approaching it, as usual, as any other game.
“It’s Week 8 for us,” the usually understated Trautz understated. “We’re going to attack it like we attack every week and we’re looking forward to the challenge next Friday.”
NOTES: Woodstown’s other touchdown was Bryce Belinfanti’s weekly long run, this one going for 94 yards … String’s TD catch was the first of his career … Salem had thrown only 78 passes in their first seven games. The 35 passes and 241 yards Cater threw for Saturday were the most by a Rams quarterback since 2022 when Jahki Coates threw 29 passes against Woodbury in 2022 and for 245 yards against Pleasantville. His game passer rating was 136.70 … The Rams will be looking to avoid their first winless season since 2012 (0-10) next week against Penns Grove.
Cover photo: Woodstown senior Garrett Leyman (10) rolls out in his first career start at quarterback. Leyman threw four passes – all for touchdowns.
Woodstown 42, Salem 13
WOOD(42)
SAL(13)
7
1st Downs
19
15-203
Rushing
17-31
4-4-0
C-A-I
24-35-2
157
Passing
241
1-1
Fum-lost
1-1
1-58.0
Punts
1-38.0
6-58
Penalties
3-35
Woodstown (7-0)
14
21
7
0-
42
Salem (0-8)
7
0
0
6-
13
SCORING SUMMARY WO-M.J. Hall 55 pass from Garrett Leyman (Jake Ware kick), 9:26 1Q S-Kaden Robinson 5 pass from Troy Cater (Andrew May kick), 2:21 1Q WO-Bobby Donahue 49 pass from Garrett Leyman (Jake Ware kick), 2:01 1Q WO-M.J. Hall 48 pass from Garrett Leyman (Jake Ware kick), 9:29 2Q WO-Garrett Leyman 33 interception return (Jake Ware kick) WO-Bryce Belinfanti 94 run (Jake Ware kick), 35.6 2Q WO-Rocco String 5 pass from Garrett Leyman (Jake Ware kick), 9:32 3Q S-Terrance Smith 16 pass from Troy Cater (kick failed), 9:12 4Q
Woodstown receiver M.J. Hall races towards the end zone with one of his two touchdowns catches Saturday. (Photo by Ellen Sickler)
Late miscues spoil PG upset bid
WOODBURY — KaRon Caesar’s 68-yard touchdown run on Penns Grove’s first play of the third quarter gave the Red Devils a nine-point lead and hopes for playoff contention. They carried that lead carried into the fourth quarter, but Woodbury took advantage of late Penns Grove mistakes to score three touchdowns in the final nine minutes to hand the Red Devils their sixth straight loss, 37-23.
Tim Holmes’ 34-yard touchdown pass to Jason Solomon cut Penns Grove’s lead to 23-21 with 9:06 left and then the mistakes set in for the Red Devils.
Penns Grove had Woodbury stopped later in the quarter but mishandled a punt and the Herd recovered at the 30. Holmes ran for 20 yards, then Marquis Taylor ultimately scored from 2 yards out to give the Herd their first lead since the game’s opening drive, 29-23 with 2:49 left.
Solomon iced the game with a 10-yard scoop and score with a fumbled pitch.
Caesar rushed for a career-high 228 yards with touchdown runs of 73, 14 and 68 yards.
Had the Red Devils held on, they would have earned their second win of the season with a shot for a third and possibly a playoff spot against struggling Salem next week. They currently hold the 20th spot in the South Jersey Group I power rankings that should be updated Sunday.
Woodbury 37, Penns Grove 23
Penns Grove (1-7)
7
9
7
0-
23
Woodbury (3-4)
7
7
0
23-
37
SCORING SUMMARY WO-Marquis Taylor 4 run (Fabian Gonzalez kick) PG-KaRon Ceaser 73 run (Tre Brown kick) PG-KaRon Caesar 14 run (Tre Brown kick) WO-Marquis Taylor 30 pass from Tim Holmes (Fabian Gonzalez kick) PG-Safety, QB tackled in end zone PG-KaRon Ceaser 68 run (Tre Brown kick) WO-Jasuan Solomon 34 pass from Tim Holmes (Fabian Gonzalez kick), 9:06 4Q WO-Marquis Taylor 2 run (Marquis Taylor run), 2:49 4Q WO-Jasuan Solomon 10 fumble return (Elijah Young pass from Marquis Taylor)
WJFL Standings
DIAMOND DIVISION
DIV
ALL
Glassboro (1)
4-0
7-0
Woodstown (2)
4-0
7-0
Schalick (5)
2-2
5-3
Woodbury (11)
2-2
3-4
Penns Grove (20)
0-4
1-7
Salem (21)
0-4
0-8
NOTE: Number in parenthesis is South Jersey Group I UPR power ranking through Oct. 19
FRIDAY’S GAMES Glassboro 20, Schalick 10 SATURDAY’S GAMES Woodbury 37, Penns Grove 23 Woodstown 42, Salem 13 NEXT WEEK’S GAMES FRIDAY Woodstown at Glassboro, 6 p.m. Woodbury at Schalick, 6 p.m. SATURDAY Salem at Penns Grove, noon
PATRIOT DIVISION
DIV
ALL
Camden Catholic (NPB-3)
5-0
7-0
Paulsboro (4)
5-1
6-2
West Deptford (G2-14)
3-2
4-4
Pennsville (10)
2-3
4-4
Audubon (16)
1-4
2-4
Collingswood (G2-18)
1-4
3-5
Overbrook (G2-23)
1-4
3-4-1
NOTE: Number in parenthesis is South Jersey Group I UPR power rankings through Oct. 19 (G2-Group 2, NPB-Non Public B)
FRIDAY’S GAMES Pennsville 35, Lawrence 8 Camden Catholic 55, Collingswood 0 Paulsboro 18, West Deptford 12 SATURDAY’S GAMES Overbrook 34, Audubon 6 NEXT WEEK’S GAMES THURSDAY Paulsboro at Clayton, 6 p.m. FRIDAY Collingswood at Pennsville, 7 p.m. Overbrook at West Deptford, 7 p.m. Camden Catholic at Audubon, 7 p.m.
SJ Group I power ratings
TOP 16
(as of Oct. 20)
SCHOOL
RECORD
POWER PTS
OSI
UPR
Glassboro
7-0
12.00
57.08
2.4
Woodstown
7-0
11.57
61.83
3.0
Shore
7-0
13.71
45.61
3.4
Paulsboro
6-2
11.81
48.65
4.0
Schalick
5-3
10.13
49.7
5.4
Haddon Twp.
5-1
11.58
41.19
6.2
Riverside
6-2
12.13
38.32
8.0
Middlesex
6-2
11.38
40.13
8.2
Burlington City
5-3
10.50
39.67
9-2
Pennsville
4-4
8.44
40.94
10.4
Woodbury
3-4
7.71
42.88
10.8
New Egypt
5-2
8.86
38.67
11.0
Manville
6-2
9.25
37.35
11.8
Clayton
4-2-1
8.00
34.00
16.8
Pt. Pleasant Beach
4-3
7.71
35.68
16.8
Audubon
2-4
7.83
34.78
17.0
20. Penns Grove (1-7) 18.0, 21. Salem (0-8) 19.4
PROJECTED PLAYOFF MATCHUPS (Based on current standings) SOUTH JERSEY Glassboro vs. Audubon Middlesex vs. Burlington City x-Paulsboro vs. New Egypt x-Schalick vs. Manville CENTRAL JERSEY Shore vs. Clayton Haddon Twp. vs. Woodbury Riverside vs. Pennsville Woodstown vs. Point Pleasant Beach x-Schalick jumps Paulsboro based on head-to-head
Here are the scores from Friday’s high school sports action involving teams from Salem County
FRIDAY, OCT. 18 FIELD HOCKEY Egg Harbor Twp. 0, Woodstown 0
BOYS SOCCER Salem Tech 2, Clayton 1 Salem at Gloucester Catholic Schalick 4, Glassboro 1 Woodstown 3, Overbrook 1
GIRLS SOCCER Clayton 5, Salem Tech 0 Gloucester Catholic at Salem Pennsville 3, Penns Grove 0 Woodstown 3, Overbrook 1 GIRLS TENNIS Pennsville 5, Salem 0 Pitman 5, Penns Grove 0 Schalick at Glassboro
Glassboro uses three big pass plays early to seize control, then shuts down Schalick in second half to remain undefeated; Pennsville crushes Lawrence to enhance playoff hopes
FRIDAY SALEM COUNTY FOOTBALL Pennsville 35, Lawrence 7 Glassboro 20, Schalick 10
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
PITTSGROVE – Every season when the West Jersey Football League schedule comes out the history buffs on the Schalick coaching staff, of which head coach Mike Wilson is a big one, start looking for that one game the Cougars call their “Stalingrad game.”
It’s the kind of game the Cougars look to play in close quarters and wait for their opponent who likes to play in the open field to become impatient.
Sometimes, though, the best laid plans just aren’t enough against superior forces. Instead of getting caught up in the Cougars’ “Rattenkrieg,” Glassboro played “Bombs Away” Friday night.
The Bulldogs hit their hosts with three big pass plays in the first half to either set up or score touchdowns to seize control of the scoreboard in an eventual 20-10 victory that kept them undefeated and sets up a presumptive WJFL Diamond Division title game next week with Woodstown.
“That was 100 percent the game plan, to shorten the game, the only thing we didn’t do, we gave up three big plays – again,” Wilson said. “We didn’t change anything. We stayed patient the entire game. No unnecessary risks. It came down to three big plays, which we coached all week. We just didn’t execute.”
In hopes of frustrating the Bulldogs (7-0) into making a mistake, the Cougars (5-3) wanted to play a ball-control style of offense, picking up three and four yards at a time, to chew up a lot of game clock and play field position. It’s the same approach they took when they played in Bulldogs in last year’s 20-0 Central Jersey Group I title game.
Glassboro beat the strategy Friday by holding the Cougars to a three-and-out on the opening possession and then connecting on a 52-yard pass from Kristopher Foster to Mekhi Parker on its first offensive play of the game. The bomb set up Kenny Smith’s 4-yard touchdown run seven plays later to open the scoring.
Later in the half, Foster connected on a 70-yard touchdown pass to Amari Sabb on the first play of the second quarter and a 63-yard scoring strike to Xavier Sabb 3:41 before halftime to make 20-3. Foster was 4-of-7 for 187 yards passing in the first half and threw for 206 yards in the game.
“We trust the players we’ve got,” Glassboro coach Timmy Breaker said. “We knew they were going to load the box. On film they blitz, blitz, blitz, blitz, blitz, so we came out to take a shot first play of the game.”
Xavier Sabb’s touchdown catch was a thing of beauty. He turned in one direction on the pattern to counter the cornerback, Foster put the ball on his other shoulder and Sabb twisted back in midair to catch it and go.
“I really closed my eyes, honestly,” he said. “I just trusted my hands. I knew he was going to dive at me so I picked my legs up and it was over after that.”
“Special kid, special talent and you’ll see a lot of that from him,” Breaker said. “He’s a gamer. Explosive. At any point in time in the game he can take over the game.”
Schalick scored 10 points in the second quarter on Hunter Dragotta’s 32-yard field goal and Kenai Simmons’ 18-yard touchdown pass to Dylan Sheehan.
The Cougars shut out Glassboro in the second half – even made a goal line stand after the Bulldogs returned the second half kickoff 67 yards to the 19 – but they couldn’t generate any offense as the Bulldogs cranked up the defense.
Glassboro held Schalick to just nine yards of net offense in the second half.
“Take those three plays out it’s 10-0,” Wilson said. “That’s the kind of game we wanted to play. We moved the ball decently here and there. Defensively I thought we played well outside of those plays. In a game like that it just came down to a couple plays and we lost them again.”
Cover photo: Glassboro’s Xavier Sabb (0) had a 63-yard touchdown catch against Schalick. (Photo by Heather Papiano)
Pennsville bounces back
LAWRENCE – Moments after his team lost to Paulsboro last Saturday, Pennsville coach Mike Healy told his players there was still plenty in the season to play for, but now there was no room for error.
The Eagles bounced back on a long road trip to Mercer County Friday night. They played as if their playoff lives depended on it, jumped out to a big halftime lead and eventually put away Group IV Lawrence 35-7.
“We were very honest with the kids that we didn’t have any more wiggle room, we had to get the job done,” Eagles coach Mike Healy said. “The big thing for us is from the opening kickoff we showed up.
“I told them before the game we need to be physical the entire game and we need to be aggressive all game, we need to play with effort the entire game. I thought for the first half today we really showed up and did those things. We’ve had some games where we’re lacking one of those things, but I thought today we played up to our potential.”
Quarterback Robbie McDade ran for one touchdown and threw a pair of touchdown passes to Luke Wood and Rylan Hardy rushed for two scores. Hardy remains on track to become the Eagles’ first 1,000-yard rusher since Nick Bard in 2017 (1,657 yards).
The Eagles were up 22-0 with 2:03 left in the first half. They made it 28-0 with 14 seconds left and after the Cardinals fumbled the first play after the kickoff McDade threw his second TD pass to Wood with five second left in the half to make it 35-0.
“It was a pretty cool end to the half,” Healy said
WJFL Standings
DIAMOND DIVISION
DIV
ALL
Glassboro (4)
4-0
7-0
Woodstown (1)
3-0
6-0
Schalick (6)
2-2
5-3
Woodbury (11)
1-2
2-4
Penns Grove (20)
0-3
1-6
Salem (23)
0-3
0-7
NOTE: Number in parenthesis is South Jersey Group I UPR power ranking through Oct. 12
FRIDAY’S GAMES Glassboro 20, Schalick 10 SATURDAY’S GAMES Penns Grove at Woodbury Woodstown at Salem
PATRIOT DIVISION
DIV
ALL
Camden Catholic (NPB-3)
5-0
7-0
Paulsboro (5)
5-1
6-2
West Deptford (G2-13)
3-2
4-4
Pennsville (12)
2-3
4-4
Audubon (13)
1-3
2-3
Collingswood (G2-16)
1-4
3-5
Overbrook (G2-25)
0-4
2-4-1
NOTE: Number in parenthesis is South Jersey Group I UPR power rankings through Oct. 12 (G2-Group 2, NPB-Non Public B)
FRIDAY’S GAMES Pennsville 35, Lawrence 8 Camden Catholic 55, Collingswood 0 Paulsboro 18, West Deptford 12 SATURDAY’S GAMES Audubon at Overbrook
Former Rosemont basketball coach, assistant AD hired to become Salem CC’s next athletics director
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
Salem Community College has tapped former Rosemont College basketball coach and assistant AD Bob Hughes as its new athletics director to succeed retiring Bob Bunnell.
HUGHES
He is expected to officially start the position Nov. 4, but will be on campus next week to start the transition. Bunnell retires at the end of the year.
Salem CC president Dr. Mike Gorman was authorized to make the hire by the college’s board of trustees at its last meeting. Hughes will be ratified at the upcoming board meeting.
“He has a sense of enthusiasm and his coaching experience gives him perspective that I think is important,” Gorman said. “He’s anxious to start this stage of his career.”
Hughes, 43, was the Ravens’ men’s basketball coach from 2012 to this past spring when he stepped down “to pursue other opportunities.”
He left as the program’s all-time leader in wins, which included nine straight playoff appearances from 2014-22 and the program’s first NCAA Division III Tournament appearance in 2019. But he had reached a crossroad whether to remain in coaching or pursue a future as an administrator.
“My family and I had a tremendous 12-year run leading this program,” Hughes wrote on his farewell post to Rosemont on X in April. “I am enterally grateful to the faculty, staff, administration and most importantly the student-athletes for making this now middle-aged man’s childhood dreams come true … Next play.”
While basketball will always be part of his life, he said Friday the move to Salem is about “focusing 100 percent on the administration and trying to grow the athletic department.”
“As you know, coaching is a huge time commitment,” he said. “At this time of year I’d be starting to be giving up every single Saturday for the next 20-some weeks, and that doesn’t include recruiting.
“I have an young family and this was an opportunity to move into an administrative role, really, to focus more on my family and have more time with my family. I have no interest in giving up any more Saturdays at this point than I have to.”
As an administrator, he served as Rosemont’s interim athletic director in 2021 and 2022, where he oversaw a $400,000 departmental budget and supervised a staff of four full-time and 37 part-time employees.
He also implemented Rosemont’s first DEI and sexual awareness programs from student-athletes in 2019 and worked with the AD to create a new athletics strategic plan, which was adopted by the board of trustees in June 2017.
Bunnell came aboard at Salem in 2018 to restart the Mighty Oaks’ athletics program that had been dormant for the previous five years. The resumption of athletics it was believed would increase enrollment and raise the profile of the school.
It was a complete rebuild, from starting several sports, hiring coaches, buying uniforms, finding players to fill those uniforms, securing playing venues and turning what basically was a multi-purpose venue for the county into a collegiate arena. “There wasn’t even an S on the floor of the gym,” he said.
Then once they got up and running they had a COVID pandemic to deal with.
But through the “extremely supportive” Gorman and a campus community that “really embraced athletics,” it “made this rather challenging effort easier to accomplish.”
The Mighty Oaks now offer baseball, softball, men’s and women’s basketball, and look to get men’s soccer back up and running next year.
“Tremendously proud to (go from) not even having a basketball to having teams that are competing at the regional level and successfully and having All-American and great academic athletes and a very strong coaching staff,” Bunnell said. “To go from no athletes to about 90 is pretty good.
“Obviously we didn’t do everything I wanted to do. I wanted to have both men’s and women’s soccer and, at the time when we started, cross country going. I’m really hard on myself. I wish that I had finished the job I set out to do, but it’s time for me to move on.”
And at the end of the year it lands in Hughes’ hands.
“What Bob Bunnell has done there has been terrific … it really tees up the next person to grow and stabilize some of the programs. There’s no reason with the foundation from an administrative perspective, with a foundation from an operational perspective Bob has put in place, that it can’t grow, that it can’t improve and that it can’t be a consistent source of excellence for the college moving forward.
“I’m excited to dig in and find out what we can do. The question isn’t what do they want to do as much as what can we do.
“One of the things that drew me to Rosemont 12 years ago, it was a program that was three years old when I took it over. I look at this the same way. You have someone who came before you and laid that foundation and now you can say let’s take this thing out and test it, let’s see what it can do and how far we can take it.”
Here are the scores and highlights from Thursday’s high school action involving Salem County teams FIELD HOCKEY Schalick 9, Overbrook 1: Ava Scurry and Luci Virga both had three goals and two assists as the Cougars remained unbeaten (14-0-1). Phoebe Alward had two goals and two assists and Addi Shimp scored once.
Scurry, who plays multiple sports for the Cougars but is a field hockey player at heart, has scored a goal in six straight games with three hat tricks in the stretch. Her second goal Thursday was the 50th of her career.
That wasn’t the only milestone in the game. Alward picked up her 50th point of the season to surpass 100 points in her career.
Clearview 7, Woodstown 0: Alaina Lomonaco had a hat trick and Ella Candy scored twice. It was Lomonaco’s third game of three goals or more this season and gave her a single-season career-high 16 goals on the year.
It isn’t easy being a first-year head football coach and in Salem County it’s been particularly challenging
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
Every football coach who comes into a new situation brings with him enthusiasm and optimism. He usually gets his first win even before the team takes the field, winning the introductory press conference.
Winning on the field, well, that takes a little longer as he tries to make headway against the reality of the underlying circumstances that brought him to the position in the first place.
It isn’t easy being a first-year head football coach and in Salem County it’s been a particularly bumpy ride.
This year has seen the largest turnover of head coaching spots among the county’s five football-playing schools since 2006 – three (Penns Grove, Salem, Woodstown) – and for two of them it’s been a tough go.
Woodstown’s Frank Trautz has had the best of it, going 6-0 with two regular season games remaining after being promoted from within an already winning staff. But it hasn’t been quite so rosy for Penns Grove’s Marc Maccarone or Salem’s Kemp Carr, two outside hires who are 1-6 and 0-7, respectively, going into this weekend’s games.
But the struggles have been the norm for new Salem County coaches. Of the 18 first-year head coaches over the last 21 years, only four have had winning first-year campaigns – Seth Brown (Schalick), Ryan Wood (Pennsville), Montrey Wright (Salem) and Trautz – but they’re the unicorns. Eleven have had losing seasons and three have broken even.
Only eight have gotten to the playoffs in their first year, with Trautz expected to join that list this year. The Wolverines are currently the No. 1 team in the South Jersey Group I power points standings.
“Where a school is hiring a football coach it’s rarely a good situation,” said Schalick head coach Mike Wilson, who went 0-7 his first year with the Cougars to 11-1 last season. “Most of the time the program has struggled and there’s a reason why they’re looking for a coach. There’s not too many programs where you just hand it off and they keep it rolling. It does happen, but usually it’s not a great job when you get that first job; there’s a lot of work to do.”
The chart below documents the struggles of Salem County’s most recent first-year coaches. It’s not an indictment on their coaching ability. Almost all of them have gone on to produce multiple winning/championship seasons once they got their program in place; Carr and Maccarone won championships at other postings. It’s just an illustration of how hard it is to get it started.
“The coach can only control so much,” Wilson said. “They need the support of the school, the administration, the community, the parents; it’s a total group effort. And you need patience because a year turnaround doesn’t happen. You need patience, your school needs patience and if you don’t have support of those other things there’s only so much you can do.
”It really comes down to how much does the school, the administration and the community want football to be successful, because if you’re trying to build a program you need all those things. It takes time and patience. Just show up and play football from August to November, you can’t do that anymore.”
Once that first-year coach gets his program blueprint established and starts to taste a little success, a whole new set of challenges present themselves. The next goal becomes finding a way to maintain that success. That, friends, is a whole different conversation.
Cover photo: Salem County’s three new head football coaches (from left) Woodstown’s Frank Trautz, Salem’s Kemp Carr and Penns Grove’s Marc Maccarone.
First Year Salem County Football Coaches (Since 2003)
Pennsville tennis coach gets his 300th coaching win with the Eagles girls team in a 5-0 sweep of Millville
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
MILLVILLE – Pennsville tennis coach Dan LaMont isn’t big on talking about undefeated seasons, winning streaks or personal milestone, but he hit one Wednesday that was too big to ignore.
The Pennsville girls team swept Millville 5-0 to give LaMont his 300th career coaching victory with the program. He has 333 all-time girls tennis coaching wins when you add in his 33 in three years at Schalick (1998-2000).
“It’s cool, especially having Brynn Buechler, one of my players, coaching with me now,” LaMont said of the milestone. “It’s nice as a get a little older (thinking) about all the great girls that I’ve had. Oh my gosh, it’s just been phenomenal.”
He figures he has just as many wins with the Pennsville boys, just don’t ask him the total.
“I’m not good with numbers,” he said. “We got something this year about active high school tennis coaching records and it made me kind of think of what I do have. I knew it was coming up, but it wasn’t any kind of countdown, because I’m horrible with numbers.”
Within those 300 Pennsville girls wins are two state titles, two runner-up finishes, seven sectional titles. The Eagles played in the South Jersey Group I sectional final for the tenth time on LaMont’s watch Tuesday at Pitman.
“This is a well-deserved achievement for Coach LaMont,” Pennsville athletics director Jamy Thomas said. “There are not many coaches around that put in the time and energy to high school sports as he does and his record proves that hard work truly does pay off. Hopefully he sticks around for 300 more wins.”
LaMont’s coaching tenure goes back to 1992 when he was an assistant the first time at Pennsville. His first year as the Eagles’ head coach was 2006; he was an assistant there for two different stretches beforehand. He doesn’t remember his first head coaching victory, but he does recall that first season.
“I don’t know if I remember the first win, but I do know it was the year after Donna Martin won a state title and we lost a lot from that team, but we still had a nice year,” LaMont said.
Penns Grove scores in first 20 seconds of the match, goes on to beat Pennsville in boys soccer, includes Wednesday’s Salem County results WEDNESDAY BOYS SOCCER Penns Grove 2, Pennsville 0 Pitman 6, Salem 0 Woodstown 4, Salem Tech 0
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
PENNSVILLE – If you missed the start of Wednesday’s Penns Grove-Pennsville soccer game, even by a minute, you missed half of the goals in the game.
SCHULTZ
Junior midfielder Joey Schultz packed a pass from Sebastian Hernandez into the upper right corner 21 seconds into the match to send Penns Grove on its way to a 2-0 victory that garnered the Red Devils some valuable power points.
“I can’t remember one happening that fast, to be honest with you,” Penns Grove coach Mano Massari said. “I’ve been here about nine years coaching, started four years here as a player, I’ve never seen one that fast.”
The goal wasn’t a case of the Red Devils simply kicking the ball into the Pennsville end, chasing it down and putting it away before anyone knew what hit them.
Pennsville went long with the opening kick as it’s been known to do when it gets the first ball. The Red Devils gained possession and Hernandez made a long run up the right wing with Schultz trailing right behind.
Hernandez drew in a couple defenders, saw an open space and pushed a Bangu ball to Schultz who had peeled off towards the six in the box and beat Eagles keeper Coen Rinnier.
“We’ve been working on that a lot, transitioning from defense to offense,” Massari said. “We feel like we’ve lacked doing that early in the season. We’ve been practicing transitioning up together as one and what we’ve been practicing’s been working, and it showed there in the first 20 seconds of the game. That’s why we practice these things.”
Schultz remembers getting an assist that early in a game with his club team before, but he’s never scored that quickly before. He was looking forward to seeing the replay on the game film.
“That spark came through,” he said. “It really made me feel good. It brought a lot out of me. It makes me want to take this a little more serious, I guess.”
It certainly got the Eagles’ attention. No one ever expects to be in catch-up mode that quickly into a match.
“I had barely turned around and the ball was in the back of our net,” Pennsville coach Derek Foglein said. “We talked about the fact that this season when we’ve been on the front foot and we’ve jumped on teams it made the difference and when good teams come out and jump on us it makes a difference. Ultimately, that was a huge difference there.
“That first goal, when you blink and now you’re chasing the game … We knew they were a really strong defensive team so trying to find one goal was going to be hard enough and now we need to find at least one to send it to overtime.”
The early goal gave the Red Devils confidence and calmed them. They made it 2-0 with 17:42 left in the half on an own goal credited to Edward Swank. The Eagles settled into the second half, but had a two-goal deficit to overcome.
Schultz wasn’t in at the finish. He hurt his right ankle playing a 50-50 ball early in the game and eventually was lifted for precautionary reasons. The Red Devils have another big game Thursday night at Pitman, a match that could keep their dream of landing a first-round home playoff game alive.
The Red Devils started the season 1-3 and lost their leading scorer to a broken leg, but they’ve won three of their last five and are now tenth in the South Jersey Group I power points standings. They’re about a half-point out of the final first-round home game in the bracket.
“We want to make it to the dance, we want to make it to the playoffs,” Massari said. “Ideally I’d like a home playoff game. I want these guys to experience that; they deserve it. We put ourselves in a hole in the beginning of the year, starting to get hot at the right time.
“I don’t want to look too far ahead. I’d like us to just focus on tomorrow. I feel good about where we’re at, I feel good about the way we’re playing, but I’m trying to get them to understand we’re not looking past our next opponent.”
WOODSTOWN 4, SALEM TECH 0: Adrian Ibarra scored twice, Bryce Ayars scored for the second game in a row and Blake Bialecki netted a goal. The win takes Wolverines coach Darren Huck to within three of 300 career coaching wins.
PITMAN 6, SALEM 0: Brayden Carr scored two goals and assisted on both of Lucas Razze’s goals to lead the Panthers (7-5-1).
Cover photo: Penns Grove’s Sebastian Hernandez pushes the ball upfield against Pennsville Wednesday.
GIRLS SOCCER Gloucester at Schalick Penns Grove at Paulsboro Pennsville 6, Salem 0 Woodstown 7, Salem Tech 0: The Wolverines (9-4-1) got goals from seven players, including Talia Battavio’s 57th career goal. Their last six wins have all been by shutout. GIRLS TENNIS Schalick 4, Haddon Heights 1 Pennsville 5, Millville 0: Eagles coach Dan LaMont gets his 300th career win with the Pennsville girls program. (Related story posting soon)
Here are the results of Tuesday’s high school action involving Salem County teams
GIRLS TENNIS Group I Sectional Finals Pitman 4, Pennsville 1 (see related story) Regular Season Schalick 3, Wildwood 2 SALEM 5, PENNS GROVE 1 Cassidy Werkheiser (S) def. Amaris Butler, 6-3, 6-3 Tytiana Miller (S) won by forfeit Tahirah Davenport-White (S) def. Janiyah Cummings, 6-3, 6-4 Destiny Carr-Heaven Jones-McCullough (S) def. Emma Griffin-Makala Washington, 6-1, 6-0 JaNye Hubbard-Bianca Gibson (S) def. Elif Sagir-Gabriela Roman, 6-0, 6-1 Records: Salem 1-8, Penns Grove 0-10.
FIELD HOCKEY Pennsville 2, Deptford 0: Kylie Harris and Makenzie Widener scored first-half goals for the Eagles (5-7-1) Glassboro 2, Salem 1: Jocelyn O’Brien scored her second goal of the game with 6:03 left in the third quarter to snap a 1-1 tie. Kashira Patterson gave Salem (5-4-1) a 1-0 lead with a first-quarter goal. Schalick 2, St. Joe (Hamm.) 2: Ava Scurry (28th) and Phoebe Alward (15th) scored goals as the Cougars remained unbeaten (13-0-1).
CROSS COUNTRY Calhoun County boys champion Karson Chew of Woodstown finished second in the boys race at the TCC Batch Meet at Kingsway. He ran 18:16.07. Teammate Jacob Marino was sixth (18:31.61).
Woodstown’s Abby Marino, the county runner-up, was the fastest Salem County finisher in the girls race, coming in fourth at 21:04.09. Salem Tech’s Sarah Seiden was eighth (22:45.31).
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