Penns Grove looked at in different light after opening season 2-0 for first time since 2021
By Riverview Sports News
CARNEYS POINT – Through two games of the season the Penns Grove football team is starting to see what coach Damian Ware has been telling it since the day camp opened.
The Red Devils crushed their opponent for the second week in a row, this time pummeling Lindenwold 47-6 Saturday.
Suddenly, the team that was winless a year ago and hadn’t won more than two games in a season since 2023 is now 2-0 for the first time since 2021 and has a winnable Homecoming Game next week against Pitman. They haven’t been 3-0 since 2019, when they went 12-1 and lost in the Group 1 state semifinals.
“I told them after the game you guys are starting to understand it now,” Ware said. “We’re to a point sometimes when I don’t have to say anything and they kind of know what’s supposed to happen, when it’s supposed to happen, as far as our practice habits. They’re starting everything themselves. That’s the goal, to get everybody moving in the same direction at the same time, and they’re feeling the success from the structure, the organization and the systems that we have in place.
“They’re starting to run the system itself. That’s the key to get the engine running. When the internal parts are running the engine all we have to do is steer it a little bit.”
Freshman running back Jaivon Thomas didn’t have as many rushing yards as he did in the breakout debut, but he was just as impactful. The freshman rushed for 45 yards and two touchdowns on five carries and returned an interception for another score. He also had two special teams returns for 72 yards.
The Red Devils didn’t have an overly impressive amount of yardage for the score because they were working with a short field most of the game. Senior Terrell Thomas was their top rusher with 103 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries.
Quarterback Damion Robinson completed all three of his pass attempts for 39 yards with touchdown passes to Omari Robinson and Jerry Wooton. Savior Allah scored the Red Devils’ other touchdown on a 75-yard kickoff return to open the second half.
Omari Robinson also had a big game defensively. The sophomore had nine total tackles, six for loss, four sacks and a forced fumble. Jakai Ingram had eight tackles, three for loss and three sacks. They both were credited with a safety.
“It’s a start,” Ware said. “This is what we expected. It’s not that we didn’t expect to be 2-0, because we did expect to be 2-0 at this point. We have a lot of tougher opponents coming up on our schedule, so that’s where we’re really going to get tested and see if what we’ve been seeing and feeling is real or if we need to make some adjustments and keep learning.
“It’s going to be a learning process all the way through because a lot of these kids are young and they don’t have experience, they don’t know what it feels like to be successful. Now, it’s not like we’re the underdog. Now we’re 2-0, we’ve got a target on our back so it’s a different feeling now. So how do you handle that? Do you still come out and have that same hunger or do you start getting complacent. That’s the part of steering, not letting them get complacent and understand we have a higher standard to get to and this is just the start.”
Top photo: Terrell Thomas was Penns Grove’s leading rusher Saturday with 103 yards on 15 carries.
Underdogs no longer
