Battle of the Beach pairs Schalick with Cedar Grove in this year’s fourth annual showcase in Ocean City
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
PITTSGROVE – Mike Wilson would watch the Battle at the Beach games on television whenever practice week prep would allow. He always wanted to play in it, but never had the chance.
Well, the Schalick football coach can cross that off his bucket list now.
SCHALICK
His Cougars, coming off one of the best years in school history and still loaded with talent, will get one of the Friday games in this year’s fourth annual Battle in Ocean City. They are scheduled to play Cedar Grove in an all-Group I matchup Aug. 30 at 10 a.m. in Carey Stadium. All that awaits is approval from their board.
“I think it’s good because it’s a showcase weekend,” Wilson said. “John (Emel), Mike (McKeown), (Clyde) Folsom, those guys have done a great job of organizing a great weekend. Just to have the opportunity to play in a showcase weekend like that is a big deal. It’s good for the kids. It’s good for the school.
“I’ve watched plenty of it on TV. Usually we’re playing that weekend, so I don’t have time to get down there myself. But last year I watched St. Joe Prep on TV. I watched Mainland play on TV. I played on that field growing up … the ferris wheel in the background … the beach in the background. I played there in high school, played there in youth football. It’s one of the best fields in New Jersey. It’s a great atmosphere.”
It’s just another chance for Schalick administrators to give their athletes a special experience. Later this winter the Cougars’ basketball team will play Clayton in the Wells Fargo Center before a Sixers game.
“To me, as an athletics director, that’s what you’re supposed to do – try to provide opportunities out of the norm for your kids to enhance your programs,” AD Doug Volovar said at the time of the basketball announcement. “That just seems like it’d be a great opportunity as an athletics director to give your kids a chance to do something different, to being a part of something special.”
CEDAR GROVE
While Schalick will be making its Battle debut, Cedar Grove has been there before. The Panthers played in it in 2022 and got crushed by Salem.
The Panthers went 8-2 last year and lost to eventual sectional champion Shabazz in the first round of the North Jersey-2 playoffs. Schalick won its first 11 games before losing to Glassboro in the Central Jersey final.
Other Battle at the Beach games that have been previously announced are George Washington (Phila.)-Glassboro, Winslow-Montclair, Willingboro-Oakcrest, Irvington-Eastside Camden, Millville-Holy Spirit, Mainland-Camden, Washington Twp.-Northern Highlands and Rancocas Valley-Pascack Valley.
Penns Grove is likely to play in the event, but no matchup has yet been made.
New challenge awaits as the Penns Grove football coach is approved as West Deptford’s next coach tonight (UPDATED)
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
PENNS GROVE – John Emel has been at Penns Grove for virtually his entire high school coaching career. He likely could have stayed at the Salem County school forever. It would take something extraordinary to lure him away.
Extraordinary has arrived.
Emel was approved Monday night to become the next head football coach at West Deptford High School. He will succeed Jason Morrell, who stepped away from the Eagles’ sidelines after six seasons to move into administration.
“It’s just an opportunity to go to a place that … is a premier job in the state of New Jersey,” Emel said. “They’ve won seven sectional titles in 21 years; we’ve won three here in the last 12; it’s comparable. It’s a Group II school. With a bigger school you get some more assistant coaches, more players, a freshman program … That’s an advantageous situation.”
There were seven initial interviews, cut to four, then two, and Emel rose to the top of the list in every aspect in all three rounds. He was approved with a minimal amount of pushback from the board 6-1 with two abstentions in the roll call vote.
“I’m excited for the challenge,” said Emel, who didn’t attend the two-plus-hour meeting but listened in remotely. “It’s a great community and they’ve got great kids, and I know that from being there before. That’s the two things that I’m sure about so I’m ready to get to work.”
Emel, 39, had an “emotional” conversation with Penns Grove athletics director Anwar Golden earlier in the day. It was that working and personal relationship he has with Golden, a former Salem High teammate, that made his decision so difficult.
He plans to meet with his new team Tuesday and start the conditioning program there over the winter break while continuing to teach at Penns Grove until the end of the school year.
The change does not impact his position as president of the the West Jersey Football League Coaches Association and he will continue as director of the Battle of the Beach football series. Penns Grove and Schalick are both expected to play in that event in 2024.
Emel has been coaching high school football for 20 years, 18 at Penns Grove and the last 10 as the Red Devils’ head coach. He was the second-longest tenured head coach at his current school in Salem County, a distinction that now falls on Pennsville’s Mike Healy.
The move to West Deptford marks a return to the only break in his tenure. He was an Eagles assistant for two years (2012-13) before returning to Penns Grove as head coach in 2014.
“I only left there because of my love for this place,” Emel said. “When I was there as an assistant that was the kind of place I could stay forever … So it’s very similar to this.”
That admiration is the driving force in West Deptford never playing Penns Grove as long as he is the coach there.
“I want them (Penns Grove) to win every game,” he said. “The reason I went to West Deptford (previously) was because I knew we would never play Penns Grove. I’ve had opportunities to go (other nearby programs) and turned them down because I didn’t want to compete against this place.”
With the opening, Penns Grove is expected to post the position to find what Golden called “the best candidate for the school district and for the students to lead the football team on the field and off the field.” It plans to appoint a committee whose members are “engrained and entrenched in Penns Grove High School” to ascertain the best fit. There is no timetable.
The successful candidate will be taking over what Emel called “a big job” in a community “that demands a ton of attention and work into the program” but with an administration that is “super supportive of football.”
He set the standard. His Red Devils teams were 70-41, made the South Jersey Group I playoffs every year and won at least one playoff game five of the last six years. They won three division titles and two of the school’s three sectional crowns (2018 and 2019) during a three-year stretch in which they went 35-3 with a 25-game winning streak. He currently has five players in college football at the Division II level or higher.
He tried to be as much a mentor to his players as he was a coach, and many of his former players have messaged best wishes and words of encouragement since the news was released.
“It’s been productive,” Golden said of the Emel Era. “He was ahead of the curve. He was always available communication wise, he did what he needed to do from a coaches perspective, he was a competitor. He advocated extremely well for the team and the district and represented us well as a coach among his peers. He definitely gave us an edge about things.”
This past season the Red Devils went 6-6 with a win over a Group I state finalist after a 1-4 start and trailing 19-0 at halftime of their sixth game. They played for the WJFL Diamond Division title on the last weekend of the regular season and produced two 1,000-yard rushers who are both eligible to return with most of the 32 players he finished last season with. The JV team went undefeated and they have a weight room Emel calls one of the best setups in South Jersey.
“The future is bright here; there’s a lot to look forward to,” he said. “So it’s (the move) not even about next year. It’s just an opportunity long term. I was comfortable staying here and I really like my administration here. It’s nothing to do with all that stuff. … It was time for a new challenge.”
Penns Grove coach John Emel accepts the runner-up trophy on behalf of his team during this summer’s Taliaferro Foundation 7-on-7 tournament. Emelwas approved Monday to become West Deptford’s head coach.
Pennsville appeal to WJFL approved, moving into what should be a more competitive division for a team on the rise that went 6-4 last season
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
Pennsville enjoyed its best football season in eight years this fall and were rewarded for it by being moved into a weak division with more travel when the initial West Jersey Football League division reshuffle was announced last month.
The Eagles knew they were going to appeal .
They had that appeal heard and approved 6-0 Friday and now they will play in a division more closely aligned with their upward trend and program goals.
“When you look at what we’re trying to do as a program, the West Jersey Football League was set up to help teams that were at all areas and all levels, whether you were trying to rebuild your program, whether you were trying to maintain your program or whether you were trying to be a competitive program,” Pennsville athletic director Jamy Thomas explained. “We want to be a competitive program. That division we were in was not going to allow us to continue to do that for the next two years.”
Basically, the Eagles changed places with WJFL newcomer Mastery Charter and – pending the outcome of other appeals – are now set to play in a division that includes Audubon (5-5), Camden Catholic (3-7), Collingswood (4-6), Overbrook (6-4), Paulsboro (1-7) and West Deptford (3-8). The other teams in that alignment are a mix of Group I and Group II programs that had a combined record of 22-37 last season.
They initially were assigned a division with Buena (0-8), Clayton (5-5), Gateway (2-8), Gloucester Catholic (2-7), Lindenwold (1-9) and Pitman (6-4). The other teams in that alignment had a combined 16-41 record.
Mastery Charter was 2-5 as an independent this past season, 4-8-1 over the last two years. In terms of the WJFL geographic footprint, Pennsville would only add one-tenth of a mile to its prospective travel had it played all its games in the new division on the road. Mastery Charter, which does not have its own field, would have traveled a total of 58 miles in its initial placement; it now travels 112 miles.
The outcome of other appeals was not immediately known. WJFL member schools now have until Dec. 20 to vote to approve the changes.
“I’m very excited about it,” Pennsville coach Mike Healy said of the change. “I think it’s going to give us more opportunities to get in the playoffs, the big reason we wanted to move up.
“We bring back most of our team and we really want to kind of help our competition level because we believe we’re ready to start handling that.”
Given the relative strength of the division, the initial alignment would have made it difficult to bank power points necessary for playoff consideration. Essentially, the Eagles could have won their new division and not made the playoffs, which teams in stronger divisions could have a lesser record and not even won a division game and made the postseason field.
Pennsville finished tied for second in the Royal Division and was the first team out of this year’s South/Central Jersey Group I playoffs, but won the regional consolation tournament.
“That was the concern we had,” Healy said. “Just looking at how the playoffs have shaken out the last couple years, the number of wins, whether right or wrong, is not the most important thing. It’s who you’re playing, the group of schools you’re playing and their competitiveness.”
The Eagles graduate only four seniors, but they could not use their projection of experience as an argument towards their appeal. There is no guarantee they will have immediate success in their new division, but the alignment will better allow them to pursue those goals.
“I see the trajectory of our team moving up; we need to challenge ourselves,” Thomas said. “We want to be a playoff team and a South Jersey contender and a state contender and we have to do that from a division that provides us those challenges throughout the regular season to get better.”
Salem County products Harris, Husser have traveled a long road to reach today’s Division II national semifinals
TODAY: Division II semifinals: Kutztown (12-2) at Colorado School of Mines (13-0), 3:30 p.m.
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
Justin Harris has waited a long time to play in a game like the one he’ll be in today. When the former Salem defensive back was recruited to Kutztown out of high school way back in 2018, he was told he would play in big games, in front of big crowds and play for championships.
All of that has happened, but none will have been as big as what these Golden Bears will experience two time zones from home today.
Harris is part of a special group of Kutztown players who have come through the COVID era of college sports and accepted the extra years for the chance to play in the Division II national semifinals at top-seeded Colorado School of Mines.
“It’s just a great moment, a great feeling to be here,” Harris said. “We feel like we belong here.”
Harris has been through a lot in his career. He arrived in 2018 and spent the year getting accustomed to the speed of the college game and learning the playbook. He got on the field as the starting nickel in 2019 as a redshirt freshman and even though the Bears lost in the PSAC championship game they did make the playoffs. COVID turned the world upside down the next year and he was off the field again.
Things started getting back to normal in 2021 and the Golden Bears reached the D-II Elite 8, getting their hearts broken by Shepherd on a walk-off Hail Mary. Last season didn’t go the way any of them wanted, but they returned in 2023 more determined than ever and raised the bar for Kutztown teams in the future.
The Golden Bears (12-2) have won 12 in a row and beaten a ranked opponent each of the last four weeks. They’re in the national semifinals for the first time in school history.
“It‘s definitely been worth it,” Harris said. “Coming back for this last year, I felt like I left a lot on the table as a player (last season). I knew we had the talent to get back into that playoff spot and compete for championships again and that’s exactly what we’re doing right now.”
Any of the half-dozen players who came in together in 2018 and are still on the roster could have packed it at any point along the way, but it was important to them to finish it out together.
Tight end Tyreek Husser is another one of those “old heads.” The former Woodstown quarterback hasn’t been in the program as long as Harris, but he’s gone through all the post-COVID ups and downs.
His first year was actually the COVID year, but he couldn’t afford to let that slow him down. He was in the middle of a position change. He credited the players who were already in place with helping him on his journey.
“We all took that as a chance to get better, get bigger, learn the playbook,” he said. “Even the guys who were here before us they all used that as a way to refine themselves and become better.
“We’re a little younger this year, but some people have been through that COVID year. We understand what the system is, how things should run, what we want to get out of certain plays. I think that’s what’s starting to come to fruition now, that understanding of what our system and our scheme is and how we operate in our scheme.”
He called this season “nothing short of amazing.”
The key to keeping it going is staying grounded, focused on the game they’re playing this week and not get ahead of themselves. The deeper you go in the playoffs, the harder that gets.
It’s not lost on anyone that the winner of today’s game will play either Harding or Lenoir-Rhyne for the national championship next Saturday in McKinney, Texas..
“It’s hard not to think about that,” Harris said. “Those are just conversations we have with our roommates when we’re just chilling. That’s also what makes the moment so much greater because these are actually conversations that we’ve had before and we’re living in it now.
“We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but we’re definitely confident in ourselves on Saturday that we can pull out this W and get back on another flight and go to Texas and take it on to whoever that opponent might be.”
One of the perks playing in the Division II semifinals is the trip comes with a plane ride, it’ll be a new experience to many Kutztown players
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
There’s a lot about playing in the Division II national semifinals that is new to a lot of the players on the Kutztown football team, not the least of which is the way to get there.
HUSSER
Life in Division II athletics doesn’t usually come with flying around the country, but the Golden Bears are leaving on a jet plane Thursday for their biggest game in program history at top-seeded Colorado School of Mines.
It’s not another long ride on a bus. This time it’s a flight halfway across the country – and there’s a big group of players who have never flown before.
“That’s what I’m really looking forward to about this game, other than winning, which is No. 1,” Tyreek Husser, a senior tight end from Woodstown, said. “That’s been something we’ve been talking about all week. There’s a decent amount of guys who haven’t flown in a plane before, so I’m glad I’m not the only one and I can share that experience with some of the other guys.
“Once we found out we were flying we’ve all been talking about it, trying to find little tips and tricks to get through it. I’m a little nervous, but I feel once you get up in the sky the nerves will go away. It’ll be more nerves for the game.”
HARRIS
Justin Harris, a defensive back from Salem and the longest tenured of the four Salem County players on the team, is an experienced flyer and has advice to comfort the first-timers.
“I’d tell them to make sure you’re in a comfortable fit, you don’t want to be uncomfortable in an already uncomfortable situation,” he said. “Get some headphones, listen to your favorite music. Get a neck pillow, for sure, and just rock out with your music. The flight isn’t too long, maybe like four hours. We’re used to those six-hour bus rides.”
The Bears better get used to it. If they beat the Orediggers Saturday, there’s another plane ride in their future – to the national championship game in Texas.
Coming up: Kutztown veterans Harris and Husser have come through a lot to reach this weekend’s opportunity
WJFL Diamond Division gets even tougher with 4 county teams, last two Group I state finalists, Pennsville out on its own, may appeal
WEST JERSEY FOOTBALL LEAGUE 2024-25 Salem County alignments (2023 record in parenthesis) Division 6: Glassboro (9-4), Penns Grove (6-6), Salem (2-8), Schalick (11-1), Woodbury (7-4), Woodstown (9-3). Division 15: Buena (0-8), Clayton (5-5), Gateway (2-8), Gloucester Catholic (2-7), Lindenwold (1-9), Pennsville (6-4), Pitman (6-4).
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
Just when you thought it might not have been possible to make the West Jersey Football League’s Diamond Division any tougher, the league went ahead and did it.
Barring the approval of any appeals, Salem County’s five high school football teams will be scattered across two divisions for the next two years, with four of them assigned to what already was the most demanding Group I division in the state.
South Jersey Group I champion Woodstown, Central Jersey runner-up Schalick, Penns Grove and Salem will be aligned with 2022 state champion Woodbury and 2023 state runnerup Glassboro in what currently is called Division 6, basically the Diamond Division. All six teams were playoff teams this past season and had a combined record of 44-26.
“We’ve always been a loaded division; welcome to the party, Schalick and Glassboro,” Penns Grove coach John Emel said. “They kept the tradition of keeping all the best Group I schools together. I’ll make a prediction right now: The team that goes to the state finals comes out of that division.”
Schalick and Glassboro are new to the division, while Paulsboro was moved out in this round of WJFL reshuffling after going 1-7 this past season.
Schalick was promoted for its success the last two seasons. The Cougars, 0-7 in coach Mike Wilson’s first season in 2020, won the Horizon Division each of the last two years while posting overall records of 7-3 and 11-1. They lost to Glassboro in the Central Jersey championship game.
“With the amount of kids we have coming back, we’re ready for the jump,” Wilson said. “It’s playoffs in the regular season; it’s going to be fun. It absolutely is a top-heavy division, it’s going to be all good teams, but with the program we have coming back, I think we’ll be fine.”
The only negative for Wilson, a staunch traditionalist, is the possibility of his team playing three Saturday games within the division depending on how the schedule falls. Woodbury, Penns Grove and Salem traditionally play their home games on Saturdays.
“I’m more upset about that than anything else,” he said. “I grew up always playing Friday night. I’ve only played a handful of Saturday games. That’s the only thing I don’t like about the whole thing. Everything else is fine. We’ll play whoever you give us.”
Salem coach Danny Mendoza was less concerned about the stoutness of the division as the size of it. Five teams is comfortable, but six or more, he said, takes the flexibility of scheduling out of coaches’ hands.
“It’s not about it being tougher, it’s about it being to a point where you can’t balance your schedule,” he said. “They’ve pretty much made your schedule for you.
“We’re not scared of anybody, we’re not scared of competition. You look at our schedule last year, we ran from no one. we ran from zero people. This isn’t along the lines of ducking any smoke or competition. It’s along the lines of giving our guys a chance to go play other teams and test our waters. This is insane.”
Pennsville, meanwhile, is the county team on the outside. The Eagles went from 1-8 to 6-4 this past season and were the first team out of the South Jersey Group I playoff alignment, but they assigned one of the league’s seven-team divisions – Division 15 – with Lindenwold, Gloucester Catholic, Clayton, Pitman, Buena and Gateway.
“I thought we’d be with more of the teams we were last year (in the Royal Division) still,” Eagles coach Mike Healy said. “It’s a completely new division. We hoped we’d be in a higher division, but that’s not how it turned out.”
Pitman and Gateway are the only teams they played last year in Royal Division. The teams in the new division were a combined 22-45 last season, with only the upward-trending Eagles (6-4) and Pitman (6-4) posting winning records. The Eagles may have a better chance to win a division, but harder to build a lot of power points.
“It’d definitely be exciting to have a chance to win the division, for sure,” Healy said.
Schools have a chance to appeal the alignment before Dec. 15. Pennsville is “definitely” considering it largely based on geography and competitive balance.
Woodstown falls to Glassboro in Group I semifinals on trick play with 50 seconds to go
GROUP I PLAYOFFS Friday’s semifinals Glassboro 14, Woodstown 10 Mountain Lakes 49, Shabazz 12 Championship game At Rutgers Nov. 26 Glassboro (9-3) vs. Mountain Lakes (10-2)
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
WOODSTOWN — Some time later tonight Woodstown football coach John Adams is going to pop the film of Friday night’s game into the player, get to the final three minutes and wonder what do the Wolverines have to do to catch a break in the playoffs.
The Wolverines have gone deep in the playoffs each of the last three years and all three have ended short of the goal and in gut-wrenching fashion.
None were as painful as the fate that befell them Friday night.
By most accounts, the Wolverines seemed destined to get through to the state title game. But Glassboro broke their hearts with a trick play that went for 60 yards and a touchdown with 50 seconds left, propelling the Bulldogs to a 14-10 win in front of nearly 2,000 fans at Clint Ware Field.
Glassboro (9-3) will now play Mountain Lakes (10-2) next Sunday at Rutgers for the Group I state championship.
The Wolverines (9-3) have had the hardest luck in the playoffs. They were taken out by Woodbury in the final five minutes of the South Jersey Group I final two years ago and they lost to Paulsboro in the second round last year in a game where turnovers did them in.
“The deeper you get in the playoffs the tougher they get,” Wolverines quarterback Max Webb said. “You can’t ever expect to have a blowout win in anything like that, so you have to expect these things when they come.
“It sucks. The last time on this field, last time playing for this high school, this team, it sucks. It’s not how you want to go out, but it’s what it is.”
Adams conceded this one was the hardest of the three heartbreaks to take because this one was right there for the taking.
“To have it end like that is just something that’s tough to swallow,” Adams said.
Glassboro quarterback Kristopher Foster barks signals to start the offense. Later he started the double pass that produced the Bulldogs’ game-winning touchdown. (Photo by Kara Knorr)
The play that broke the Wolverines’ heart Friday was a double pass from Kristopher Foster to Davon Barr to Xavier Sabb.
The game seemed headed towards a wild Woodstown celebration after Jake Ware hit a 22-yard field goal to make it 10-8 and Damien Eichler sacked Foster inside the Glassboro 20 on fourth down with about four minutes to play. If the Wolverines could punch it in from there, they surely would have put it away.
“The whole crowd was going nuts,” Adams said. “I had double headsets and I could hear them through the headsets. It was insane how loud it was. And when Max ripped off that run on the bash that we called and we end up getting that first down, we were just saying ‘ball security’ and just keep running it and run the time down. Unfortunately, the ball security wasn’t there.”
Their fortunes turned on the next play. Webb went to fake a handoff to Bryce Belinfanti in a play that had worked so well for them all game but the ball got hung on Belinfanti’s hip on the takeaway and bounced free. Glassboro’s Damere Lassiter recovered it to give the Bulldogs life with 2:58 to go.
Foster moved his offense out towards midfield. On a second-and-15 from the 40, Bulldogs coach Timmy Breaker called for the double pass.
It was a play the Wolverines (9-3) had been working on in practice ever since Shore Regional and Woodbury caught them on it in the playoffs two years ago. This time Sabb got behind the corners who bit on the play and the freshman had open field in front of him when he pulled it in. Barr admitted he was nervous at first, but those butterflies went away as the play developed.
“Devon is the backup quarterback; we practice it all the time, all the time,” Breaker said. “We knew they were playing Xavier hard. A heluva call, one that’ll go down in the books. I’ve got to give big, big, big props to the kids. They executed it.”
Sabb also returned a punt in the third quarter 86 yards for a touchdown and Barr ran in the conversion to give Glassboro an 8-7 lead. The big return atoned for the punt he fumbled earlier in the quarter.
“I was talking to the ref and was like if I get this in my hands I’m going to get a touchdown because a messed up the first one,” Sabb said. “Once I got it in my hands I wasn’t going to let anybody touch me. I was in my feelings a little bit (after the fumble), but I had more worry about the game than myself.”
Max Webb (12) breaks into the end zone for a touchdown that gave Woodstown a 7-0 halftime lead.
Neither team yielded much in the first half, but Woodstown came away with a 7-0 halftime lead after Webb’s 1-yard sneak in the second quarter. It was the first touchdown Glassboro had allowed in the playoffs and the first one they had allowed in 14 quarters.
The Wolverines preserved their early lead with four takeaways, including interceptions by Carter Orlandini and Webb inside the 3 in the first half, but they were the ones with the turnovers in the second half.
“I think it’s a learning curve; it’s getting used to playing at this level.,” Adams said. “We got to the championship two years ago and we knew this feeling we’re having tonight and we learned from it. Two years later we end up conquering that and win the championship.
“I told them now it’s the next step, being able to finish in a game like this. Gotta learn from it and gotta hope the younger guys, just like these seniors did, have that chip on their shoulder that they want to get to this stage and you hope you get a chance again.”
Glassboro 14, Woodstown 10
GLASS
WOODS
6
1st Downs
15
28-29
Rushing
31-136
8-15-2
Passes
12-24-2
130
Passing
102
2-2
Fum-lost
2-2
2-30.5
Punts-avg
3-35.7
4-35
Penalties
2-20
Glassboro (9-3)
0
0
8
6 –
14
Woodstown (9-3)
0
7
0
3 –
10
Scoring plays W – Max Webb 1 run (Jake Ware kick), 4:15 2Q G – Xavier Sabb 86 punt return (Davon Barr run), 2:35 3Q W – Jake Ware 22 FG, 5:30 4Q G – Xavier Sabb 60 pass from Davon Barr (run failed), 0:50 4Q
Jake Ware steps into his 22-yard field goal that gave Woodstown a 10-8 lead in its Group I state semifinal game with Glassboro.
On life in uncharted territory, playing a third straight regular-season rematch, the underlying secret to the Wolverines’ success, and more
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
WOODSTOWN – Playing this deep into the high school football season is a whole new experience for the Woodstown football program. It’s an exciting time for the Wolverines, for sure, but instead of getting off track in uncharted territory they are approaching it as they have every game this year – business as usual.
The Wolverines won their first South Jersey Group I title in school history last week and host Glassboro Friday two wins away from a state championship. But if you watched them practice this week, you’d think they were getting ready for a game in early October.
“It’s like every other week, preparing the same,” quarterback Max Webb said. “Obviously it’s for a little higher stakes, but we’re not doing anything special. It’s just like every other week.”
That doesn’t mean they aren’t intense as they go about it.
“There’s definitely a different tone to the team in our work ethic and drive since the playoffs have started because we know it’s win or go home,” record-setting running back Bryce Belinfanti said. “What we’re doing right now is something that’s hard to be done again so we have to make it count.”
So what’s like being in uncharted territory?
“It’s awesome,” Wolverines coach John Adams said. “I said to the kids we’re not used to this, I think 2018 was the first time they started doing the regional championships, which is this round, and if we win this one you move onto the state championship, which has only been one year in the making so far.
“We can’t be satisfied with just getting over that hump last week. We’ve got to make sure we’re focused on Glassboro and not coming off a big-win hangover like what happened to us walking into Haddonfield (after beating Woodbury in the regular season).
“It’s fun. It’s special. The kids are going to remember being one of the only sports out here. You look around there’s no other teams playing right now. It’s pretty special.”
THE SECRET: The Wolverines may be riding the momentum of their first sectional championship, but they’ve been on this track for a long time.
Over the last four years they are 30-11 – 26-7 in the last three, with three playoff trips and two appearances in the sectional final. The secret to that success can be traced to the fact most of the players have been playing together since they were 6 and playing for the Woodstown Pirates youth program.
“It’s definitely part of it,” Webb said. “We’ve run something close to this offense since we were little, so growing up in it definitely helps with our comfort level of what we’re doing now.”
“It makes us have so much more chemistry than the other team,” receiver/defensive back Anthony Ford Dale said.
It was Ford Dale who techniqued Woodbury receiver Marquis Taylor out of the back of the end zone to deny his potential game-tying touchdown catch in the fourth quarter of last week’s sectional final game.
A good feeder program is the key to any sustained success, and that’s what they’ve got here. Adams went to one of their games over the weekend and thought he was on his own sideline.
“A lot of these guys grew up playing for the Woodstown Pirates and it just so happens that our Junior Woodstown Pirates, our Senior Woodstown Pirates and us all play Glassboro this week in the playoffs,” Adams said. “The majority of these guys went through that program, they grew up in that program.
“Some of our kids go and coach for them. You go over there and you hear all the terminology that we’re using, so when you hear the coaches yelling stuff out that’s the same term we use. It’s just neat to see.
“That group – Jack Knorr, Max Webb, James (Hill), Bryce (Belinfanti), Damien (Eichler) and all those guys – have always grown up winning down there at that level so we knew when they came to high school we had a group of kids who knew how to win.”
THREE’S COMPANY: If the Wolverines didn’t know better, they’d swear they were playing in the NFC East or within some other division in the NFL.
This week’s Group I state semifinal game against Glassboro is the third week in a row the Wolverines will be playing a regular-season rematch, something akin to playing the Giants, Dallas and Washington in home-and-home series like they do in the pros.
Woodbury won three rematches on its way to winning the first ever Group I state title – Penns Grove, Maple Shade and Salem – but not in consecutive weeks. Woodstown beat Diamond Division rivals Penns Grove and Woodbury each for the second time in the second and third rounds and will be looking to avenge a regular-season loss to Glassboro.
“It shows how tough our division in that we’re seeing these teams so deep in the playoffs,” Webb said. “It definitely helps because we know what they’ve got and we know what they’re going to show against us. It helps us prepare for it a little bi more
The prep to the rematches are easier, Belinfanti said, because you’re immediately familiar with the opponent’s tendencies and personnel, but the game itself will “definitely be harder, especially if you won the first one.”
“It’s a challenge, definitely,” Belinfanti said. “Our coach always says it’s hard to beat a team twice. We love the challenge. Three rematches in a row would be huge to win, for sure.”
END ZONE A DEAD ZONE: The Wolverines have outscored their opponents 118-40 during their current four-game winning streak, but they may find touchdowns hard to come by Friday night.
Glassboro has shut out all three of its opponents in the playoffs this year and hasn’t given up more than one touchdown in any of its last eight games, including a 13-7 overtime win over Woodstown. The last team to find the end zone against the Bulldogs was Buena in the third quarter of a 39-6 loss – that’s 13 quarters of 0s.
“They haven’t played an offense that’s the caliber of us yet,” Belinfanti said.
“We know what we’ve got and we’ll handle all that,” Webb said. “I’d put it on a lot of things that we can score on almost any team in the state.”
IN LIVING COLOR: The Wolverines’ color scheme for the state semifinals is blue on white.
Glassboro (8-3) at Woodstown (9-2) Tale of the Tape
Woodstown junior running back was going to play a big role in offense this year, but comes into his own a year ahead of schedule
NJSIAA GROUP I SEMIFINALS Friday’s Games Glassboro Bulldogs (8-3) at Woodstown Wolverines (9-2), 7 p.m. Shabazz Bulldogs (8-3) at Mountain Lakes Herd (9-2), 7 p.m. Championship game At Rutgers Nov. 26 or Nov. 29 (if Shabazz wins North)
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
WOODSTOWN — Bryce Belinfanti came into his junior season expecting he would be an important part of Woodstown’s offense, with a larger role at the start of the year already mapped out but ultimately as a complementary piece when record-setting running back James Hill returned from rehabbing his knee injury.
It was going to be a chance to show everyone the kind of back he could be and he’d continue in that mindset once Hill returned even if it were in a reduced role as he waited for his chance to be the Wolverines’ full-time lead back next year.
Well, next year came a lot faster than anyone thought.
Hill was expected to return in the third game of the year, but the week he was due back he hurt his other knee in gym class and eventually would undergo another season-ending surgery.
Fortunately for the Wolverines, everyone, including the running back himself, had gotten comfortable with Belinfanti in the role as lead back, so there really wasn’t much of a transition as much as it was keeping on more of the same. If anything, it removed any doubt about the distribution of carries and Belinfanti has emerged as the back he always thought he could be.
He has gone on to have one of Salem County’s most productive rushing seasons in the last 15 years. His 1,641 yards eclipsed the Woodstown school rushing record Hill set last year and is the fourth-best year by a Salem County back since at least 2010 when best records are available. He certainly will add to those totals Friday night when the Wolverines host Glassboro in the Group I state semifinals.
He is the most prolific running back left in the Group I playoffs and the second most prolific running back left in the state playoffs in any classification to only Trashon Dye of Group V Passaic Tech (1,849).
“I came into the year looking to prove myself, to show that I can play, too,” Belinfanti said. “They knew I could play, but I could be a running back, too. I knew when James came back I was still going to get a good amount of touches and we were going to run different formations and all, and I was excited because it would be hard to stop the two of us.
“When we got that news (of Hill’s new injury) I was sad because I love playing with James. When I knew James was out I knew that I didn’t want to let my teammates down, that I didn’t want them to feel like (it) was going to affect our season and feel down on themselves. I just knew we had the offensive line to do it and I always knew I could do this. When it was time, I was just ready to work, ready to play, to show who I am.”
The plan all along was to have Hill and Belinfanti in the backfield at the same time, a sort of thunder-and-lightning duo with complementary running styles, so teams couldn’t key on one over the other. They started sliding pieces of that plan into the offense as early as late last season when the two flipped positions, with Hill moving to slot receiver and Belinfanti to running back to get him experience in that role.
But it’s funny how fate has a way of intervening sometimes. What is it they say about the best laid plans? When thunder-and-lightning became a rain of one, the Wolverines incorporated some schemes to take advantage of Belinfanti’s vision and skill set.
“We were really gearing to do a lot of things with them in the backfield at the same time, to open it up even more because who are you going to key on,” Wolverines head coach John Adams said. “When James went down it was (to Belinfanti) you’re in the role we were going to start to use you in just full-time now without another guy to share the handoffs with and he’s done a great job.
“He’s been a guy that we always knew could run the ball. He has been one of those kids who growing up you knew he had it and he was just waiting for his time. He was a really, really good back when you watched him in elementary school and middle school growing up and (when his turn came) he really stepped up.”
Belinfanti carried the ball 10 or more times only twice in his varsity career prior to this season, but proved capable of handling a bigger load in the first two games when he had 20 carries in each game and went for 132 and 186 yards. Hill was expected back the next week against Deptford, but was held out after hurting his other knee in gym class earlier in the week. The Wolverines only needed Belinfanti for a half and he had 92 yards on six carries.
When the word came down on Hill it saddened everyone. It was all on Belinfanti’s shoulders now, but he never wavered. He had every confidence he’d deliver in a role “I’ve been waiting for my whole life.”
The Wolverines played Glassboro the next week and the Bulldogs kept Belinfanti out of the end zone while winning 13-7 in overtime. (The Bulldogs will be Woodstown’s third straight regular-season rematch when they play Friday). It was the last time anyone kept him out of the end zone. In the seven games since he hasn’t rushed for fewer than 140 yards and scored at least one touchdown every game.
He had a season-high 203 yards against Woodbury on 30 carries – a load that even caught Adams by surprise – in the regular season and scored four touchdowns (five, if you count his TD catch) against Dunellen – all in the first half – in the opening round of the playoffs.
He carried it 27 times when the Wolverines played Woodbury again last week, breaking the school record with a 182-yard game to lead the Wolverines to their first South Jersey Group I title in school history. He didn’t know about the record until they told him in the locker room after the game.
“It’s unbelievable what he’s been able to do this year,” senior quarterback Max Webb said. “I think his mindset has always been the same. Everybody wants to be that guy. Even though the first two years he wasn’t very that guy because we’ve had James, but he’s always kept that mindset and he was ready for the moment.”
By all accounts it has been a breakout year for Belinfanti. Riding behind the fire trucks in last week’s victory parade through town was a fun memory he’ll never forget, but there’s still one thing missing. That would be the prize that awaits the winner of the next two games.
“The big gold trophy, that’s what I really want,” he said. “I feel like my life would be complete if we got that.”
Belinfanti’s Breakout Year
OPPONENT
ATT.
YDS
TDS
Haddon Heights (W 34-7)
20
132
2
Paulsboro (W 28-7)
20
186
2
Deptford (W 49-7)
6
92
2
Glassboro (L 13-7)
18
85
0
Salem (W 27-0)
17
160
3
Woodbury (W 27-21)
30
203
2
Haddonfield (L 48-16)
19
147
1
Penns Grove (W 21-6)
19
141
2
x-Dunellen (W 42-6)
8
168
4
x-Penns Grove (W 34-14)
16
145
2
x-Woodbury (W 21-14)
27
182
1
TOTALS
200
1641
21
x-Playoffs. NOTE: He had a touchdown reception vs. Dunellen.
Salem County 2023 Rushing Leaders
PLAYER
TOTAL
Bryce Belinfanti, Woodstown
1740
Bryce Wright, Penns Grove
1278
Pop Jackson, Salem
1245
KaRon Ceaser, Penns Grove
1085
Reggie Allen, Schalick
836
Sky Eppes, Pennsville
802
NOTE: List updated 11/22/23
Salem County 1,000-Yard Rushers (Since 2010)
PLAYER
TOTAL
YEAR
Jonathan Taylor, Salem
2815
2016
Zaire Jones, Salem
1792
2017
Bryce Belinfanti, Woodstown
1740
2023
Nicholas Bard, Pennsville
1657
2017
James Hill, Woodstown
1636
2022
Nasir Robinson, Penns Grove
1618
2019
Jonathan Taylor, Salem
1383
2015
James Hill, Woodstown
1374
2021
Nick Elmer, Penns Grove
1341
2012
Nasir Robinson, Penns Grove
1295
2020
Bryce Wright, Penns Grove
1278
2023
Dylan Cummings, Pennsville
1248
2013
Anthony Robertson, Penns Grove
1244
2012
Kenai Simmons, Schalick
1225
2022
Tyreese Snipe, Schalick
1215
2017
Michael Johnson, Schalick
1210
2011
Dione Alston, Salem
1199
2014
Samej Moore, Penns Grove
1148
2016
Nasir Robinson, Penns Grove
1141
2018
Tyrell Hart, Schalick
1137
2012
Zaire Jones, Salem
1106
2016
Tyrell Hart, Schalick
1105
2013
Craig Ransome, Penns Grove
1103
2014
KaRon Ceaser, Penns Grove
1085
2023
Nicholas Bard, Pennsville
1083
2016
Samej Moore, Penns Grove
1082
2017
Tyreese Snipe, Schalick
1065
2016
Zaire Jones, Woodstown
1062
2015
Kyle Philo, Schalick
1053
2010
Craig Ransome, Penns Grove
1035
2013
Dione Alston, Salem
1030
2013
Jay Brown, Penns Grove
1021
2010
Sources: Multiple. NOTE: Penns Grove’s Aaron Hayward rushed for 1265 in 2008, Salem’s A.B. Brown had 2012 in 1983. (List updated 11/22/23)
Riverview Sports News 