Salem, Carey take it out on Woodstown after losing to the Wolverines last year and their Homecoming Game last week; Pennsville unloads on Lawrence to enhance its playoff hopes; Schalick falls to Glassboro; includes WJFL standings
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
WOODSTOWN — For Troy Carey, this one was personal.
Carey had a monster game against Woodstown last year, passing for an eye-popping 279 yards, but Salem lost to the other quarterback’s big game.
Friday night, the senior got a little payback on a lot of counts, rushing for 125 yards and two touchdowns and making some big plays on defense as the Rams crushed the Wolverines on their Homecoming and Senior Night, 47-0, a week after losing their own Homecoming game.
It was Salem’s first win in the rivalry since the 2020 season finale, its first at Woodstown since 2019 and its first at Clint Ware Field in the regular season since Thanksgiving 2017. There was talk on the sidelines Woodstown hadn’t lost at Homecoming in years.
“I was definitely hungry because last week was a tough game, I didn’t get any carries last week, but this week was definitely personal, for sure,” Carey said. “We lost our Homecoming (to West Deptford), so we had an opportunity to upset somebody else’s, so it was definitely big. It was personal this week, for sure.”
Carey was part of a balanced offense and a dominating defense. He, Cashmir Parsley and Isiah Santiago all scored a pair of touchdowns. Santiago, normally a receiver, played in the backfield for the first time and rushed for 71 yards. Parsley rushed for 68 yards and quarterback Desmund Thomas had 141 total yards and threw for a score on the final play of a 21-point first quarter.
The defense held Woodstown to minus-14 yards of net rushing and 45 yards total. It was the second opponent in three weeks the Rams held to negative rushing yards.
“I thought the defense played really well,” Rams coach Kemp Carr said. “Offense is for being cute and defense is for winning championship. The guys understood the call. For the most part there was good communication throughout. I heard a lot of pointing, a lot of talking, and that’s what it takes every game.”
Carey has played so many positions in his Salem career it’s hard to pigeon-hole him as any specific type player. You might call him a Swiss Army Knife. Carr just calls him “unicorn.”
He went for 34 yards the first time he touched the ball — on the first snap of the game — and scored on a 19-yard run two plays later. He had a 23-yard touchdown run in the final minute of the third quarter.
“He’s a unicorn, whatever we need him to do he’s willing to do and you can’t ask for anything more than that,” Carr said. “He plays wing, he plays quarterback, he plays running back, he plays Mike linebacker, defense and down line. When you have a unicorn like that you try to use him in the best place you can, but we have multiple of those guys.”
It was another tough night for the Wolverines (2-6), who fell out of the top 16 of the South Jersey Group I power points standings for the first time ever this week and are in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2010.
They were held to less than 50 yards of net offense and had four turnovers, three of which Salem (4-4) converted into touchdowns. They did have a big play on their first drive when freshman quarterback Frankie Hoerst connected on a 63-yard bomb to Sincere Cook-Reese, but the sophomore receiver was stopped short of the end zone and they ended up not scoring, missing a 26-yard field goal attempt.
There was a scary moment in the game involving the quarterback later in the quarter. Hoerst lay still on the 30-yard line after getting crushed by the Salem rush and losing a fumble. The game was delayed nearly 15 minutes while trainers and medical staff treated him for an apparent neck injury.
They stabilized his head and neck area before lifting him on a backboard to an awaiting stretcher. Woodstown coach Frank Trautz reported Hoerst was moving and talking as he was being treated. He did not have an update on the player’s condition immediately after the game.
It was just another in a series of injuries that have befallen the Wolverines this season. At one point this year they had nine starters out because of injury. As it was, they had fewer than a half-dozen of their opening day starters on the field against the Rams.
“It’s unfortunate you have a season (like that),” Trautz said. “You keep telling yourself we’ve made it through and we get some guys back and we can’t seem to stay healthy. It’s part of this game, unfortunately.
“We’re not making excuses here. We’re very confident in the guys we have playing, but it’s no doubt it takes a toll on you. As ironic it sounds I do think it’s still going to help us in the long run here with a lot of these kids who were forced to play different positions this year before stepping into roles they were not expected to play in.”
With backup quarterbacks Mason Middlemiss and Lucas Fulmer among those already sidelined, the Wolverines turned to “Q” for the “A” at the position. Noah Chiu, pronounced like the letter Q, plays a hard-nosed style of ball and did what he could despite being under constant pressure.
“Noah is as tough as they come,” Trautz said. “He’s one of those kids that every coach would take 100 of. He’d run through a brick wall for you. He’ll do everything you ask of him. Very tough. We asked a lot of him tonight and he didn’t flinch.”
Salem 47, Woodstown 0
| SAL (47) | WOOD (0) | |
| 11 | 1st Downs | 2 |
| 31-321 | Rushing | 19-(-14) |
| 5-7-0 | Passing | 2-9-1 |
| 88 | Passing yds | 59 |
| 2-0 | Fumbles-lost | 3-3 |
| 3-32.0 | Punts-avg | 4-29.5 |
| 12-101 | Penalties | 2-7 |
| Salem (4-4) | 21 | 6 | 13 | 7- | 47 |
| Woodstown (2-6) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0- | 0 |
SCORING SUMMARY
S-Troy Carey 19 run (kick failed), 10:36 1Q
S-Cashmir Parsley 2 run (Johnathan Bower kick), 1:07 1Q
S-Kaden Robinson 30 pass from Desmund Thomas (Antwuan Rogers pass from Desmund Thomas), 0:00 1Q
S-Cashmir Parsley 4 run (run failed), 4:40 2Q
S-Isiah Santiago 10 run (run failed), 6:42 3Q
S-Troy Carey 23 run (Johnathan Bower kick), 0:38 3Q
S-Isiah Santiago 4 run (Johnathan Bower kick)
Pennsville 44, Lawrence 6
PENNSVILLE — The homestanding Eagles played one of their most complete games of the season, dominating their Mercer County visitors on both sides of the ball on Senior Night.
Rylan Hardy scored three touchdowns, Robbie McDade scored two and Adrian Alleyne scored once. Perry Meranti had three two-point conversions.
The Eagles led 16-0 in the first quarter and 30-6 at halftime.
“We had everything clicking,” Eagles coach Mike Healy said. “You know how we’ve talked about getting to play all four quarters? We did that.”
Glassboro 35, Schalick 7
GLASSBORO — Schalick gave Glassboro all it could handle for the better part of three quarters, but then the Bulldogs remembered who they were.
The Cougars held their own with the defending state champions through the first half and into the third quarter, but Xavier Sabb got loose for two late fourth-quarter touchdowns to close out a 35-7 victory.
Schalick had the Homecoming crowd worried for a while. Glassboro scored first, but the Bulldogs answered with an 82-yard drive after a Jase Volovar interception capped by Gary Simonini’s 30-yard TD pass to Sherrod Jones.
The Bulldogs scored again, and the Cougars nearly got the tying touchdown right before halftime. David Stewart set them up with an interception and they got to the 2 with four seconds left but couldn’t punch it in.
They ran three plays, missed a receiver in the end zone on second down and were stopped on third down. They lined up for a field goal, but it was blocked, so instead of going into the halftime trailing 14-10 they remained down by a touchdown, but not feeling as hurt as the Bulldogs.
“We were right there all through the first half,” Cougars coach Kevin Leamy said. “We had a game plan that the kids executed great and frustrated them on offense. Kids made plays.
“Everything was going good in the first half. We played well in the second half, too, but you give them enough opportunities, those kids are going to make plays.”
The events of the first half must not have sat well with the Bulldogs (8-0) because they didn’t come out for the second half until there were 30 seconds left in the break.
It was a 20-7 game going into the final four minutes of the fourth quarter, but Xavier Sabb, who hadn’t caught a pass to that point, scored twice to put the game out of reach.
“I don’t think it was anything special,” Leamy said of the approach. “I think it was just a mentality that we came into the game with that we were going to force them to earn everything they get. Pressure them, force them to continue to make plays. Force them to run the ball.
“They run the ball really well, but they refuse to commit to it. They’re always going to revert back to throwing the ball because they have those three kids out there that they can get the ball to. I think we knew that going in and were going to say we dare you to run the ball, we’re going to try everything we have to take away that pass.”
Glassboro 35, Schalick 7
| Schalick (2-6) | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0- | 7 |
| Glassboro (8-0) | 14 | 0 | 7 | 14- | 35 |
SCORING SUMMARY
G-Amari Sabb 42 pass from Jack O’Connell (Sal Esgro kick)
S-Sherrod Jones 30 pass from Gary Simonini (Hunter Dragotta kick)
G-JoJo DeLecce 22 run (Sal Esgro kick)
G-Amari Sabb 3 run (Sal Esgro kick)
G-Xavier Sabb 22 pass from Jack O’Connell (pass failed)
G-Xavier Sabb 25 pass from Jack O’Connell (Mekhi Parker run)
WJFL Standings
| DIAMOND | ALL | DIV |
| Glassboro | 8-0 | 4-0 |
| Salem | 4-4 | 3-1 |
| Schalick | 2-6 | 2-2 |
| Woodbury | 2-4 | 1-2 |
| Woodstown | 2-6 | 1-3 |
| Penns Grove | 0-7 | 0-3 |
| PATRIOT | ALL | DIV |
| Paulsboro | 7-0 | 5-0 |
| West Deptford | 6-1 | 4-0 |
| Overbrook | 5-2 | 2-2 |
| Pennsville | 4-4 | 2-3 |
| Collingswood | 5-3 | 2-3 |
| Audubon | 2-4 | 1-3 |
| Camden Catholic | 0-8 | 0-5 |
FRIDAY’S GAMES
Glassboro 35, Schalick 7
Pennsville 44, Lawrence 6
Salem 47, Woodstown 0
Collingswood 28, Camden Catholic 24
SATURDAY’S GAMES
West Deptford at Paulsboro, 11 a.m.
Overbrook at Audubon, 11
Woodbury at Penns Grove, noon
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