Top-seeded Woodstown routs Dunellen, sets up SJ semifinal rematch with Penns Grove; Red Devils edge previously unbeaten Florence for first road playoff win since 2011 and fourth in program history

SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I PLAYOFFS
Friday’s games
No. 1 Woodstown 42, No. 8 Dunellen 6
No. 5 Penns Grove 6, No. 4 Florence 3
No. 7 Burlington City 60, No. 2 Middlesex 15
Saturday’s game
No. 3 Woodbury 40, No. 6 Riverside 8
Semifinals games
Penns Grove at Woodstown, Friday, 7 p.m.
Burlington City at Woodbury

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WOODSTOWN – The Woodstown football team got to wear its black jerseys again Friday night – this time with orange britches in honor of Halloween – and it was truly a scary sight for the visitors.

The Wolverines got a big Homecoming win when coach John Adams surprised them with the black jerseys for the first time against Salem and they worked like the charm they were again, this time in a 42-6 rout of Dunellen in the opening round of the South Jersey Group I playoffs.

“That pretty much set up the night,” running back Bryce Belinfanti said.

As if the Halloween-themed garb wasn’t scary enough, Belinfanti struck fear in the Destroyers’ defense every time he touched the ball. He scored five touchdowns, two of which covered 85 and 50 yards on successive possessions in the second quarter. He also scored on runs of 11 and 8 yards and a 24-yard pass from Max Webb.

The 80-yarder came shortly after Webb had a long touchdown run recalled by a holding penalty.

Playing just a half, he had 168 yards rushing (on only eight carries) and the TD catch was his only reception. Webb rushed for 62 yards. Alex Torres had 47 yards and their last touchdown on 10 carries.

Unlike the first time when Adams sprung the black jerseys on the players at the mid-day pep rally, this time he gave them a heads up on the color combination.

“I loved it,” Belinfanti said. “I thought it was going to be really cool. Like October 27th, black and orange, and our student section is great, so …

“I knew if we made it to the playoffs and if we were the first seed we’d probably break them out one more time. Not with the orange pants, I didn’t think. It looked pretty cool. The black jerseys had some orange on them, so it matched up pretty well.”

The Wolverines had another thing going for them. They were playing for a long-time booster and Woodstown alum Jimmy Lee Brooks who was recovering from injuries suffered in a recent car accident. Brooks, Class of ’72 and grandfather of former Woodstown captain Abu Hall, rarely missed a game, but being away for this one he requested whoever scored the first touchdown hold the ball up in salute.

Belinfanti honored the request when he scored on the opening drive and did it at least one other time in the game. It is said Brooks saw the gesture from his room in the rehab center where he was recovering.

With all that going for the Wolverines, the Destroyers, who passed Pennsville on the final weekend of the regular season for the final SJ-I playoff spot, didn’t stand a chance.

“It was a great night,” Belinfanti said. “All week we studied how their defense was going to act and what they were going to run to us. A lot of it had to do with game-planning. We knew the cutback was going to be there all night. It was a good night.”

The win sends the top-seeded Wolverines (7-2) to face fifth-seeded county rival Penns Grove (5-5) for the second time in three weeks. The Wolverines won the first meeting 21-6 to clinch the Diamond Division title, their first outright division title since 2013.

“I’m excited for it, to see how they play us differently,” Belinfanti said. “It’ll be a good game, yeah.”

Woodstown 42, Dunellen 6

PG scores rare road playoff win

FLORENCE – A lot of special things have to happen for a team to win a playoff game on the road, especially against an undefeated team with a lot of emotion and history behind it.

But Penns Grove got a lot of special things to happen. The Red Devils scored the game’s only touchdown in the third quarter and their defense was its typical unyielding self as they handed Florence its first loss in the final playoff game of Flashes coach Joe Frappoli’s 50-year tenure, 6-3.

Freshman Karon Ceaser scored the game’s only touchdown on a 38-yard run on the opening series of the second half. The Penns Grove defense allowed only 82 net yards. It was the third time in four games they have allowed their opponents three points or less.

“The defense played well,” Emel said. “Once we got the lead I felt like our defense played really well. That was the difference in the game – our defense in the second half and our ability to move the ball a little bit, enough to kind of shorten the game and work the clock. We’re going to have to clean up the penalties.”

The Red Devils overcame 90 yards in penalties in the first half (including offsides on the opening kickoff) to score their first playoff road win since 2011, a 36-8 first-round win at Paulsboro, and fourth in the history of the program. It was the first of coach John Emel’s 11 career playoffs wins to come on the road.

“We’re not real happy because we played fairly sloppy, but it’s our first road playoff win as a program since 2011,” Emel said. “We’ve won some neutral games and things like that, but that’s our first road win in the playoffs.”

Ceaser finished with 77 yards rushing on 11 carries and had an interception on defense. Bryce Wright had 102 yards on 23 carries and completed a pass to Knowledge Young for 18 yards.

Emel said his players are fired up to play Woodstown again.

“It’s good,” he said. “We’ve given ourselves an opportunity to play them again. Obviously we weren’t happy with way things went last week. Usually when that happens you’ve got to wait a while, you’ve got to wait until next season (to try again). It’s hard to beat a team twice. It’s hard to beat a good team once, so we’ll have our hands full.”

Penns Grove 6, Florence 3

Woodstown wins WJFL Diamond Division title outright, eyes No. 1 seed in Group I playoffs

DIAMOND DIVISION SCORES
Saturday’s games
Woodstown 21, Penns Grove 6
Woodbury 49, Salem 14
Paulsboro 14, Audubon 7 (OT)

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNS GROVE — John Adams delayed his traditional post-game huddle to take a picture. He wasn’t about to let this moment pass without immortalizing it for posterity.

The Woodstown coach backed up a couple steps on the midfield grass at Jim Devonshire Field, pointed his phone into the happy group in front of him and clicked.

He wanted, he said, a picture of the champions.

The Wolverines won the WJFL Diamond Division title outright Saturday with a 21-6 win over Penns Grove. It’s their first outright division crown since 2013.

The win also has them in line for a No. 1 seed in the South Jersey Group I football playoffs.

“We knew the division was on the line to win it outright, we knew the playoff seedings were on the line, and we were coming off that tough loss to Haddonfield where we kind of just let the wheels fall off the bus,” Adams said. “They ended up responding well coming off that loss and this is what I wanted to see heading into the playoffs – good team football.”

“Last year we shared the division; we came in this year wanting to win it all — we did that today,” receiver Garrett Leyman said.

“It means a lot knowing all the adversity we went through with hurt players, players ejected, and we won it outright this year, so that’s a big thing,” running back Bryce Belinfanti added.

Belinfanti rushed for 133 yards and scored Woodstown’s first and third touchdowns. His first score was the first touchdown the Red Devils (4-5) had allowed in 11 quarters.

In between the running back’s two scores, the Wolverines (6-2) extended their lead to 14-0 at halftime when, after pulling the stadium in with 16 straight running plays and 20 in their first 21 snaps, they quickly went to the air and hit three straight passes for 74 yards in about 60 seconds. Penns Grove coach John Emel called it the difference in the game.

The connections covered 24 yards to Carter Orlandini, 23 yards to Anthony Bokolas and 27 yards to Leyman for the touchdown with 1:34 left in the half.

“That definitely was important for our offense,” Leyman said, “because we like to run the ball down the field but if they stop it we have a backup now, so that’s nice. It just makes us way harder to stop. It’s definitely fun. Blocking almost the whole first half and then getting those plays it’s fun. It’s different.”

“Every week we practice our two-minute offense and the kids have done a really good job with it,” Adams said. “You never know when you’re going to need it, so at the end of the half there we called time out, let’s get one more possessions, we went to the two-minute offense and we executed exactly what we do in practice.

“We tell the kids we’re not a hurry-up offense, but when the situation presents itself we’re going to go with our two-minute and run what we run.”

The Wolverines have put more emphasis on the passing game this season, but those three were the only passes Max Webb completed in the game. He threw only two other passes in the game.

The touchdown pass came on a play Webb suggested for the playbook from his 7-on-7 arsenal that always worked for him. The Wolverines used it in a passing camp at Kingsway earlier this summer and they pulled it out of the archives Saturday. Leyman said when he saw the corner bite on it, he knew he was going to be wide open.

“It just shows our diversity that we can have in our offense,” Webb said. “I know we’re run first and that’s always how it’s been, but we can just flip the switch and throw it like anybody else in the state.

“It definitely surprised them. They looked like they weren’t ready for it, so it helped us a lot. I was happy it worked in our favor.”

Interestingly, the drive almost didn’t happen. Belinfanti fumbled the ball on the first play, but it came right back into his chest like a magnet and the Wolverines were able to retain possession.

Emel agreed scoring at the end of the half was a big momentum swing in a statistically even game with limited possessions, but the way Woodstown went about it didn’t catch the Red Devils by surprise.

“We knew they were going to do it,” he said. “It’s a matter of execution, so give them credit. They executed. They were able to pass protect and it was a combination on our part of (being) unable to get a pass rush or missed assignments and then on the back end blown coverage.”

Continuing in the good things happen in threes department, Penns Grove (4-5) was driving to cut into the 14-0 lead when the Wolverines’ defense made three straight stops for negative yardage to stop the threat. The Red Devils avoided being shut out by scoring in the final minute of the game.

“It was good to bounce back after our defense struggled a lot last week and it was good to be able to shut them out for the first three quarters and be able to lock it down for the win,” linebacker Jack Knorr said. “We had a lot of players step up who weren’t playing last week (like defensive linemen J.R. Reed and Andre Sinou) and it felt good to have them play well.”

Woodstown 21, Penns Grove 6

Scoring plays:
W – Bryce Belinfanti 2 run (Jake Ware kick), 6:21 1Q
W – Garrett Leyman 27 pass from Max Webb (Jake Ware kick), 1:34 2Q
W – Bryce Belinfanti 48 run (Jake Ware kick), 5:53 4Q
P – Karon Ceaser 5 run (run failed), 0:49 4Q

Cover photo: Woodstown quarterback Max Webb fires downfield in the two-minute drill on the way to a momentum-swinging touchdown near the end of the first half. (Photo by Ellen Sickler)