Cougars needed to be flawless to win the South Jersey Group I title game, but early miscues and top-seeded Glassboro never gave them a chance
GROUP I SECTIONAL FINALS
South: Glassboro 40, Schalick 9
Central: Woodstown 31, Shore 0
North I: Butler 42, Mountain Lakes 7
North II: Cedar Grove 35, New Providence 14
NOV. 15 STATE SEMIFINALS
Woodstown (10-1) at Glassboro (11-0), 6 p.m.
Butler (11-0) at Cedar Grove (12-0), 7 p.m.
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
GLASSBORO – Schalick coach Mike Wilson knew it was going to take a near flawless effort for his Cougars to get past top-seeded Glassboro in the sectional title game Friday night. As much as they wanted it, It just didn’t happen.
The Cougars mishandled fourth-down snaps on their first two possessions and the Bulldogs converted both into Xavier Sabb touchdowns to take early control of an eventual 40-9 victory for the South Jersey Group 1 sectional crown.
Glassboro (11-0) will now host Central Jersey champ Woodstown next week in the Group 1 semifinals. Woodstown beat Shore Regional 31-0 in its first playoff shutout in more than 40 years.
The Cougars (8-4) actually had three mishandled fourth-down snaps in the first half, leading to 32 yards in losses and three Glassboro touchdowns. The Bulldogs also had two defensive touchdowns on back-to-back snaps in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach.
“You have to play a perfect game, we shot ourselves in the foot,” Wilson said. “We fought in the second half … what are you going to do?
“Our kids played their (butts) off. They played hard. The effort’s there. Great group of kids. They did a lot for the program and they’ve done a lot of good things over the last four years.”
Schalick quarterback Kenai Simmons was under seize all night. The Bulldogs came after him with such fury they eventually sent him to the sidelines with a leg injury after being fallen on twice by massive Glassboro lineman Brandon Simmons. It forced the Cougars to bring in backup Gary Simonini for the final 3:37 of the half.
“I knew what it was like, I played against them three times and every time they probably had at least three, four sacks on me a game,” Simmons said after his final high school game. “In trying to get ready for this game, I planned on getting out of the box a little bit more, but a couple of their guys kept me in the box. If we complete a couple more of those passes we have a better ballgame in the first half.”
The pressure Glassboro brought Friday was “way more” than it did in their regular-season win over the Cougars, Brandon Simmons said. The Bulldogs held Schalick to 86 total yards and they got almost half of that on a 34-yard pass to Dylan Sheehan in the fourth quarter. They had more than a dozen plays that went for negative yardage.
“We learned from our mistakes,” he said. “We realized we gave him too much time in the pocket, he felt too comfortable. I talked with the D-line, we’ve all been talking all week, once we put so more pressure on him it makes our DBs’ and linebackers’ job way easier.
“We knew we kind of screwed them over a little bit last time we played them by giving them by giving them too much time in the pocket, so we knew we had to help the team out and put more pressure on them.”
Schalick trailed 27-3 at halftime with only 11 yards of net offense. Quarterback Simmons, who left the field at halftime under his own power, returned to the lineup to start the second half and the Cougars came out looking to make something happen. They recovered the onsides kick to open the half and put together a 10-play, 50-yard drive for their only touchdown – a 2-yard pass from Simmons to Jace Volovar.
“We always play to win,” Wilson said. “We were not thinking we were going to lose that ball game. We were like, this is how we get back in the game. We weren’t going to roll (over).”
Glassboro put it out of reach with two defensive touchdowns on back-to-back snaps 21 seconds apart midway through the fourth quarter. The first was a 33-yard fumble return by Devon Barr after Simmons and Dorian Kelsey flushed Kenai Simmons from the pocket and into something that looked like a pass but was allowed to come back as a fumble. The other was a 38-yard interception return by Sabb on another deep ball thrown under pressure.
“This is probably one of the top two defensive games we ever had,” Sabb said. “They couldn’t run the ball. (and0 throwing the ball was a nightmare. They had a couple special plays, but outside of that … That quarterback, he likes to run a lot and we checked him out early, so once we took that away it was about over.”
“We wanted to play physical,” Glassboro coach Timmy Breaker said. “We wanted them to feel the physicality in the beginning of the game and the boys did a heck of a job doing it.”
While the loss ended Schalick’s season, in some ways this may have been a better year than last year’s 11-1 campaign. The Cougars moved into the strongest Group I division of the WJFL and played better competition all season long. Their four losses have come from three of the four teams playing for a berth in the Group I title game, teams that are a combined 33-1 — Cedar Grove, Woodstown and Glassboro (twice) – and that one loss came from within the group.
“We played fantastic this year against much better competition,” Wilson said. “We rose to the occasion. We go to back-to-back sectional championship games; that’s not easy to do.
“Big picture, can’t be upset. Obviously you don’t want to lose games and it’s going to kill us to look at the tape and see could’ve, would’ve, should’ve, but the bottom line is these kids have done a lot.”
Glassboro 40, Schalick 9
| SCHAL | GLASS | |
| 7 | 1st Downs | 12 |
| 26-36 | Rushing | 17-93 |
| 7-15-2 | C-A-I | 10-19-0 |
| 52 | Passing | 139 |
| 5-1 | Fum-lost | 4-3 |
| 3-23.7 | Punts | 0-0 |
| 7-60 | Penalties | 11-101 |
| Schalick (8-4) | 0 | 3 | 6 | 0- | 9 |
| Glassboro (11-0) | 14 | 13 | 0 | 13- | 40 |
SCORING SUMMARY
G-Xavier Sabb 16 run (kick failed), 10:42 1Q
G-Xavier Sabb 29 pass from Jack O’Connell (Amari Sabb run), 7:06 1Q
S-Hunter Dragotta 30 FG, 10:26 2Q
G-Kenny Smith 1 run (Sal Esgro kick), 7:29 2Q
G-Amari Sabb 29 pass from Jack O’Connell (kick failed), 3:54 2Q
S-Jace Volovar 2 pass from Kenai Simmons (pass failed), 5:01 3Q
G-Davon Barr 33 fumble return (Sal Esgro kick), 7:21 4Q
G-Xavier Sabb 38 interception return (kick failed), 7:00 4Q
Riverview Sports News 