Looking for better

Penns Grove has shown signs of progress, now it’s a matter of learning how to win

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNS GROVE – The Penns Grove football team had a lot of learning to do in coach Marc Maccarone’s first season last year. The Red Devils were picking up a new offense, a new defense and some new terminology – the typical stuff that comes with a coaching transition.

But there was one element they’re still trying to grasp and it’s what this season is all about.

PENNS GROVE

Aug. 30: Paulsboro

Sept. 6: Deptford

Sept. 12: at Glassboro

Sept. 20: Schalick

Sept. 26: at Woodstown

Oct. 3: Pennsville

Oct. 10: at Delran

Oct. 18: Woodbury

Oct. 25: at Salem

Learning how to win.

The Red Devils did win two games last year, including their season finale against Salem, but they lost five others they were in or led going into the fourth quarter and couldn’t close the deal. Any one of them would have gotten them to the playoffs.

It started in Game One with Paulsboro, when they were in position for the game-winning score but sacked on fourth down with 13 seconds left, and carried throughout the year.

But none of the “fourth-quarter fall-aparts” as Maccarone called them was as bad as the one at Woodbury when they were still entertaining hopes for the playoffs. They held a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter then were outscored 23-0 in the final nine minutes with all kinds of disasters.

“It felt terrible,” safety Messiah Allah said. “If there’s one game I can narrow down it was definitely the Woodbury game. That was tragic. I was devastated. “

“It was definitely a horrible feeling, for sure,” lineman Ray Brown agreed.

With that in mind, the Red Devils look at the 2025 season as a revenge tour of sorts.

“It just motivated you to want to do better,” Allah said. “(The game’s) close. It’s right there. You can just grasp it. it just motivates you to want to do more, to want to do better. It lights something inside of you that makes you want to do more. You want to do more. It’s right there.”

The Red Devils look to attack it with a lineup that may be short on experience but long on enthusiasm..

Mello Erickson-Hubbard, one of the team’s six seniors, returns for his fourth year as quarterback eager to embrace the role his position and standing commands. His passing skills have improved every year – he threw the first touchdown passes of his career last year – and with the work he’s done over the summer is “very confident behind my arm” coming into this season.

“I have to be a bigger leader than I have any other year and I have to put on a good image for the young guys,” he said. “As a leader I’ve got to make sure everybody doing what they’re supposed to do. I’ve got to make sure I’m doing my job and everybody is working as fluently as possible.”

Defensively, Brown will be hard to handle. He had 68 tackles, six sacks and four fumble recoveries last year, can play every spot across the front and will provide a formidable force with Isaiah Upshur. “I can’t take any plays off,” he said.

“He’s definitely a very difficult kid to block,” Maccarone said. “That’s not my quote, that’s coming from opposing coaches. I got that from a coach the other night after the scrimmage like ‘that kid’s almost unblockable.’”

Among the newcomers, Terrell Thomas gives the powerful runner they need in the backfield. The Red Devils are hoping the dominant form he showed in the youth leagues will translate to this level.

Of course, the key to it all is conditioning and eliminating the “too many” turnovers that plagued them last year. That’s what they’ve been working on since the end of last season. Between the full year with the coaching staff and what they’ve done so far Maccarone says “we’re a month ahead of where we were last year at this time.”

Win a couple games early and get some momentum and all of a sudden circumstances change.

“Improve on last year, that’s the key,” Maccarone said. “We’ve taken small steps and trying to improve every day. As long as we get better today than we were yesterday we’re moving in the right direction.”