Looking for answers

Penns Grove’s defense plays well enough to win, but turnovers continue to handicap offense

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNS GROVE – Teachable moments on the football field take on all forms and often reflect the personality of the coaches delivering them.

Pleasantville 14,
Penns Grove 6
NEXT: Penns Grove
at Woodbury,
Sept. 9, 10:30 a.m.

The players from Penns Grove huddled around coach John Emel near midfield Friday moments after the post-game handshake for a quick breakdown of a 14-6 loss to Pleasantville that stung a lot. Then they looked across the field and wondering which of the teams that played lost the game.

Down in the far end zone, the Greyhounds, who should have been high-fiving their way back to the buses celebrating their first win of the season, were doing 40-yard up-and-backs to understand the effort they had just given was just not acceptable.

Pleasantville coach Malachi Timberlake said it was the first time he has ever resorted to such tactics, but he needed to get a message across early in the season.

“I felt it needed to be done,” he said. “We’re happy to get the win, but to be great they all need to be on the same page.

“We’re not playing our best brand of football. It’s the same mistakes week after week. We’re going to be in dogfights every single week until we get better. I’m proud of them that they got the win, figured out how they got the win, but it’s just not good enough for our standards. We have a lot of talent and it’s not showing on the field. We’ve got to get our point across or it’s going to be a long season.”

Over on the other side, the Red Devils were left to wonder what might have been. Their defense gave them every chance to win the game, but their offense sputtered for the second straight week under the weight of six more turnovers – five, if you discount fumbling loading up for a Hail Mary on the final play..

The Red Devils held their visitors to 172 net yards and one offensive touchdown. They made four fourth-down stops (three with lost yardage) – five if you count the time they pressured the Greyhounds to jump offsides on fourth-and-1 that forced them to punt to start the fourth quarter.

Dameon Wilson made a fourth-down stop and recovered a fumble on consecutive series, Willie Slocum had a fourth-down sack and Bryce Wright had an interception.

“We played way better than we did last week defensively; you see the scoreboard,” Wilson said. “I feel like I played better as an individual. I did my job. I feel like my team did their job. We’ve just got to keep the good defense up. We’ve just got to be able to score, that’s it. The defense is fine, we’ve just got to be able to score.”

It looked like the Red Devils were going to get another stop in the red zone in the second quarter, but left-handed sophomore quarterback Ahmad Jones zipped a sharp spiral to Dwayne Carter between two Penns Grove defenders on fourth down from the 19 for the only touchdown of the half.

Francisco Aguirre kicked the extra point and the way both defenses were playing it looked for the longest time like that would be the margin of victory.

“I thought first half down 7-0, we really controlled the game,” Emel said. “(But) there are no moral victories. It was a playoff type game and we lost 14-6. We’ve got to find a way to win these type of games.

“I think we played better than last week, but, again, five turnovers. You ain’t gonna win with five turnovers. Hey, our defense is pretty good.”

The Red Devils did punch it in early in the third quarter when Wright turned the left corner and went 25 yards to make it 7-6. But the Greyhounds stopped the Devils’ lead back short of the end zone on the conversion to maintain the lead. Wright rushed for 60 yards on 14 carries, several times carrying the pile for additional yards.

The touchdown was one of the few highlights for Penns Grove’s offense. The Red Devils, who had more than 300 yards rushing in their opener against Burlington City, were held to 60 yards net by the Greyhounds.

Of course, they were down three linemen during the course of the game and the Greyhounds took away the outside making it a more physical game, but it was ball security that once again was their main shortcoming.

After seven turnovers in the opener, they had six against the Greyhounds. They lost six fumbles in the opener and four Friday. All of the turnovers stole momentum, but the biggest was a strip by Kwalil Shepperson in the fourth quarter that Gabriel Rodriguez pounced on in the end zone for an insurance touchdown with 62 seconds to play.

The Red Devils still had time to get a game-tying score. They worked it to midfield, but their hopes for getting off a Hail Mary on the final play of the game never materialized as sophomore quarterback Ramello Erickson lost the handle going back to make the pass.

“A lot of people are going to put it on the quarterback,” Emel said. “We’ve got a young quarterback, but it’s a team game. We’re not doing him any favors.”

NOTES: Penns Grove had a short week to prepare for Pleasantville, but it gets eight days now for defending state champion Woodbury next Saturday … The Thundering Herd had to rally from a 12-0 deficit to beat the Red Devils in the finals of the Adam Taliaferro Foundation 7-on-7 in June … The 0-2 start is Penns Grove’s first since 2016. You’ll have to go past 2010 to find the last time they started a season 0-3 … If you were a little confused about matching names with the program today, Pleasantville was wearing an old set of uniforms. The Greyhounds wore their new duds for their Battle at the Beach opener and they hadn’t gotten back from the laundry before they left for Thursday’s game.

Pleasantville 14, Penns Grove 6

P’VILLE (14)		PENNS GR. (6)
7	1st Downs	6
32-74	Rushes-yds	30-31
9-24-1	Passes	6-17-2
98	Passing yds	29
2-1	Fumbles-lost	7-4
4-27.0	Punts-avg	7-22.4
15-138	Penalties-yds	6-33

Pleasantville (1-1)	0	7	0	7 –	14
Penns Grove (0-2)	0	0	6	0 –	6

Scoring plays
P – Dwayne Carter 19 pass from Ahmad Jones (Francisco Aguirre kick), 5:48 2Q
PG – Bryce Wright 25 run (run failed), 9:28 3Q
P – Gabriel Rodriguez fumble recovery in end zone (Francisco Aguirre kick), 1:02 4Q

Sky-high confidence

Pennsville feeling good about season going into opener; all 5 county football teams in action this week

SALEM COUNTY SCHEDULE
Thursday’s games
Pleasantville at Penns Grove, 10 a.m.
Pennsville at Lindenwold, 6 p.m.
Haddon Heights at Woodstown, 7 p.m.
Friday’s game
Pitman at Schalick, 7 p.m.
Saturday’s game
Camden at Salem, noon

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE – Sky Eppes had never played running back on any level of organized football until Pennsville’s season opener last year against Lindenwold. But his first game – heck, his first carry – seemed to set him up as a natural.

Pennsville (0-0)
at Lindenwold (0-1),
Thursday, 6 p.m.

The then-junior admittedly was a little nervous going into it, but the first time he ever carried the ball in a varsity game he broke off a 20-yard run. He had two other long runs later, went for 200 yards and two touchdowns on 24 busy carries and the Eagles won by outscoring their visitors 34-26 when the clock ran out on the Lions.

The boys in blue seemed to be on their way to something special. But it didn’t continue. That spectacular beginning would be their only win as a bad mixture of internal and external forces conspired to tear their season apart.

Eppes and the Eagles open the new season against the same opponent Thursday – this time on the road — hoping for similar first-game results and confident about the needle trending upwards as they move forward.

“We won the game, but they had the ball driving it with time running out for a chance to tie it up, so it wasn’t like it was an easy game or anything for us,” Eagles coach Mike Healy said. “Obviously, it was great to get a win, but we knew we had some issues.

“This year I feel more confident going into it, for sure. I think we’re just better overall (on) offense and defense right now going into it. We think we’re better prepared this year, better ready to go. We’ve played much better this preseason. We’re limiting a lot of mistakes. We still have some, but we’re doing a better job of limiting them going forward.”

The issues of last year behind them, the Eagles have brought in some new coaches with links to their most recent decorated past and the players are buying into what the coaches are selling. Now, it’s a matter of executing when they get on the field.

Lindenwold spread the Eagles out last year and exposed their coverage issues, but the Lions showed to be heavy run last week in their 19-0 season opening loss at Sterling.

“We just want to execute properly, that’s really what it is,” Healy said. “We feel if we execute properly we can be in and win any game this year. I’m very excited with the group we have going this year. We’re still a young team but we have more experience coming back. There’s definitely anticipation because we think we can accomplish better stuff this year.

“We’re not dealing with internal things right now. We’re all focused on what the goal is. Everyone seems to have bought into their role on the team and understand that if we’re going to be successful we need all 11 guys on that field to do their job each time. We’re playing more as a team instead of 11 individuals.”

Eppes was as much a victim of whatever implosion was going on with the Eagles as anybody. He got moved to running back because Healy wanted some speed in the backfield and the move paid off with the 200 yards against Lindenwold, but he had only 452 in the eight games that followed.

His best rushing game the rest of the year was 97 yards against Schalick. In his defense, he also was used as a receiver and had 115 yards receiving against Cumberland.

“I was hyped,” he said about his first game at running back. “I was like we’re going to have a good year … and turn Pennsville around and bring it back to where it was in 2014. But it didn’t happen that way.”

This year promises to be better because attitudes are different and the Eagles have a scheme in place designed to put Eppes and the offense in situations to be able to do better. Now, he wants to set school rushing and touchdown records – once he learns what they are – and for the offense to have big games every week.

“This is my senior year; I’m trying to run as hard as I can and put up numbers,” he said. “I want to hit a big score again, I want to go hit a big score on everybody.

“We had bigger linemen (last year) but it isn’t about how big and strong you are, it’s about the heart that we have. The heart we have in this team will go very far. The heart and compassion for this team is what’s going to bring us along.”

PLEASANTVILLE (0-1) at PENNS GROVE (0-1): After suffering seven turnovers in their season opener – six lost fumbles – the Red Devils spent the week working on the highest priority for the offense – ball security. They moved the ball well enough to win, rushing for 328 yards, but the turnovers killed them.

There wasn’t an idle moment in practice this week when a Penns Grove player didn’t have a football tucked tightly on their person. The thing coach John Emel didn’t want to see was a ball on the ground or the Red Devils would have, um, the hot place to pay.

“We made it a point of emphasis,” Emel said. “We practiced a lot of ball security drills. It’s not something we don’t talk about. Everybody has a Big 3 keys to win – we’ve done it forever – and the No. 1 on our board is always been ball security. If you take care of the ball, you win the turnover battle, no matter what else happens you have a better opportunity to win the game.

“We didn’t do that; that’s disappointing. We’ve definitely got to be better. I’m optimistic we’ll go out and play a lot better on Thursday and we’ll fix the things where we made mistakes. It wasn’t just a bad game, it’s the worst turnover game we’ve ever had in my 20 years of coaching high school.”

The most positive takeaway from the game was the debut of freshman Karon Ceaser. The Red Devils’ first true freshman skill position starter in 20 years rushed for 155 yards and two touchdowns, but he wasn’t immune to fumbling either. The difference was he recovered his.

Pleasantville also is looking to get on the right track. The Greyhounds are coming off a 14-6 loss to Ocean City in the Battle at the Beach. They beat Penns Grove last year 26-2.

HADDON HEIGHTS (0-0) at WOODSTOWN (0-0): https://godaddy623.wordpress.com/2023/08/29/a-ware-of-history/

PITMAN (0-0) at SCHALICK (1-0): The Cougars’ dramatic season-opening win over their longest-tenured rival sets them up for another piece of history this week.

The Cougars have a chance to go 2-0 for the first time since 2017 when they opened the season with back-to-back shutouts of Wildwood and Riverside and set up what some observers think can be an even more historic start.

Coaches are notorious for not looking ahead (publicly, at least) so coach Mike Wilson’s focus this week was correcting the mistakes that were made in the opening – and there were some – and simply going 1-0 this week.

“It’s like I told the kids Saturday when we watched the film, we still haven’t played our best football yet,” Wilson said. “We did a lot of good things, but we left a lot of points on the field and made a lot of opening-game mistakes we’ve been fixing this week.

“The kids know we did a good job, but that’s over with now and we’ve got to get better. There’s a lot of room for growth. I expect us to make a big jump this week.”

Another thing the film revealed was just how good a game junior nose T.J. Hymer had. Hymer made the back-to-back stops on the goal line to keep Gloucester City from taking the lead at that point in the fourth quarter, but he did more than that.

“We knew T.J. played a great game, but he played probably the best football game of his life Friday night,” Wilson said. “What he did at nose Friday night, he played well, but watching the film, he played excellent. If I was grading his film, he would get high grades across the board.”

The Cougars lead the series 21-17. They have won 12 of the last 13 by some substantial margins, including an 11-game winning streak that was snapped in 2020.

CAMDEN (0-1) at SALEM (0-1): Now that they’ve sorted out where they’re going to play, the Rams can get back to the bigger business of fixing the things that went wrong in their opening-game loss to Executive Education.

The focus of the week has been tightening up their defense. The Rams were as close as 14-13 in the third quarter, then got outscored 28-6 the rest of the game.

“Our guys knew what we do, we just didn’t do it,” Rams coach Danny Mendoza said. “The discipline part of defense is what we need to focus on to get us on the right track. We’ve got guys who can make plays, we’ve just got to get those guys to do what we’re telling them.”

Now that he’s seen what his team has and needs at the speed of a real game, Mendoza can go about tweaking the defense to put players in more advantageous positions for their skill sets.

It’s a new experience for Mendoza, too. His experience has long been on offense, but the late timing of his hiring dictated Mendoza take the role of overseeing a defense for the first time. He’s brought a different look to the unit and it’s a work in progress for both sides.

“It’s a new role,” he said. “As an offensive guy you always make the defense the villain. Now, you have to even it out. The offense will always be solid, but we’ve got to make sure we’re just as solid on that side of the ball as well.”

The game was supposed to be part of the Mid-Atlantic Pigskin Classic at Wilmington’s Abessinio Stadium, but conflicts at the site led to both teams pulling out. The game now will be played at Salem’s Walnut Street Field, the Rams’ long-time stomping grounds that fell into disrepair and led to the school building an on-campus stadium.

Photo: Pennsville’s Sky Eppes (1) runs the ball back during a recent scrimmage against Haddon Heights. Eppes and the Eagles make their regular-season debut Thursday night at Lindenwold. (Photo by Lorraine Jenkins)

Soccer scrimmages

Penns Grove boys, Pennsville girls take the field in first scrimmages of camp

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

BRIDGETON – Some days you play good, and some days you learn good.

The Penns Grove boys soccer team learned good Tuesday. The Red Devils lost their first preseason scrimmage under new head coach Mano Massari 4-0 at Cumberland Regional, but the rebuilding group picked up a lot to digest.

“We played a really good team,” said Massari, a homegrown talent elevated to head coach following the retirement of longtime head coach George Rhea. “I knew going into this year there were some big holes to fill and we probably wouldn’t get to the success we had last year. That being said, we’ve been working really hard this off season.

“We have a lot of new guys, a lot of young freshmen, a lot of first-year players. Going into this scrimmage we were plugging players in, seeing where they exceled at and still had a lot to learn at. I don’t want to say it was a bad day, because it wasn’t. I always tell the guys there are two things that happen at the end of the game – we can win or we learn, and if we learn it’s still a win.”

The Red Devils lost three-quarters of their 14-4-1 sectional semifinalist of a year ago and were missing two of their top returnees Tuesday, but they showed “flashes” of the team it can be going forward. Massari had been getting good reports before leaving on his honeymoon and was pleased with what he saw when he returned to the team from the trip Monday.

They fell behind the cohesive Colts 3-0 in the varsity portion of the match and the JVs yielded another goal in the final 20 minutes. Although the Red Devils didn’t score, Jayden Merga had one of their best chances, a shot that was turned away at the lower corner.

“I was pleasantly surprised with the effort, the heart that we showed today,” Massari said. “We were throwing together some pretty nice passes. We were able to transition and counter-attack pretty well a couple times. Had some nice chances to score, just weren’t able to capitalize on them.

“When you play a good team, it benefits them, it benefits us. We’re seeing what’s out there, we’re seeing what we need to work on. We’ve got some work we need to do, but I know we’re ready for it and they’re ready for it. They’re completely bought in and so am I.”

PENNSVILLE GIRLS SPLIT: The Eagles opened their scrimmage schedule with a tri-scrimmage and beat Buena 3-0 and lost to Haddon Twp. 1-0.

Returning striker Taylor Bass kept her scoring touch from a year ago and found the net against Buena along with freshman Karsen Cooksey and Riley Bowman. They had a few scoring chances in the half with Haddon Twp.

“I was overall pleased with what I saw,” Eagles coach Sam Trapp said. “The girls worked really well together. They were focused on taking the drills we’ve been placing in practice and putting them into action in the game, and that was well demonstrated today.

“We had really good set up there working with our midfielders. They did a lot of nice passing and working together. Defensively, our goalie stepped up big time and really took a little bit of ownership.”

Sophomore keeper Mara Widener is playing the position for the first and held her own against heavy pressure from Haddon Twp.

“She stepped up and kind of gave us a little bit more to work off of today, which was exciting,” Trapp said. “She’s finding more confidence every time she steps in the goal and she’s trying to learn the position the best she can.”

The Eagles scrimmage again Thursday at home against Haddon Heights and at Gloucester City Sept. 5.

This week’s schedule

Here is the Salem County high school sports schedule for the week of Aug. 27-Sept. 2. The football games are regular season, all others are scrimmages. For additions or cancelations, email al.muskewitz@gmail.com

Aug. 28
GIRLS SOCCER
Schalick at Kingsway, 9 a.m.
Cumberland at Penns Grove, 10 a.m.
BOYS SOCCER
Clearview at Schalick, 9 a.m.
FIELD HOCKEY
Woodstown at Timber Creek, 9 a.m.
Deptford Twp. at Pennsville, 10 a.m.
GIRLS TENNIS
Williamstown at Pennsville, 10 a.m.
Woodstown at Ocean City, 11 a.m.

Aug. 29
FIELD HOCKEY
Salem at Hammonton, 4 p.m.
BOYS SOCCER
Penns Grove at Cumberland, 10 a.m.
Woodbury at Salem, 10 a.m.
GIRLS SOCCER
Pennsville at Buena, 10 a.m.
Salem at Woodbury, 10 a.m.
GIRLS TENNIS
Woodstown at Kingsway, 9 a.m.

Aug. 30
FIELD HOCKEY
Salem, Schalick, Bridgeton at Cumberland, 8:30 a.m.
GIRLS SOCCER
Schalick at Cumberland, 9 a.m.
Penns Grove vs. Gloucester Co. Christian at Paulsboro, 10 a.m.
BOYS SOCCER
Cumberland at Schalick, 9 a.m.
Williamstown at Woodstown, 9 a.m.
GIRLS TENNIS
Cumberland at Schalick, 9 a.m.
Woodstown at Timber Creek, 9 a.m.
Pennsville at Deptford Twp., 10 a.m.

Aug. 31
FOOTBALL
Pleasantville at Penns Grove, 10 a.m.
Pennsville at Lindenwold, 6 p.m.
Haddon Heights at Woodstown, 7 p.m.
GIRLS TENNIS
Delsea at Pennsville, 10 a.m.
Penns Grove at Haddon Twp., 10 a.m.
Salem at Bridgeton, 10 a.m.
GIRLS SOCCER
Gloucester City at Woodstown, 9 a.m.
Haddon Heights at Pennsville, 9 a.m.
Penns Grove at Salem, 10 a.m.
BOYS SOCCER
Salem at Bridgeton, 10 a.m.

Sept. 1
FOOTBALL
Pitman at Schalick, 7 p.m.
FIELD HOCKEY
Salem at Buena, 10 a.m.
BOYS SOCCER
Woodstown at Haddon Twp., 4:15 p.m.
GIRLS SOCCER
Haddon Twp. at Woodstown, 4:15 p.m.

Sept. 2
FOOTBALL
Camden at Salem, noon

Photo credit: Ellen Sickler

Bedeviled by turnovers

7 turnovers (6 fumbles) conspire to send Penns Grove to its first opening day loss since 2016

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNS GROVE – John Emel has seen it so many times before, but that doesn’t make it any more palatable when it’s happening to you.

Burlington City 33,
Penns Grove 22
Next: vs. Pleasantville, Thursday, 10:30 a.m.

It’s the first game of the season. Neither team really knows what the other is bringing. The difference will be who makes the least first-game mistakes.

The Penns Grove coach said as much when discussing Friday’s season opener two days ago.

In a reversal of last year’s opening game, his Red Devils were the ones with too many mistakes this time and they lost to Burlington City 33-22. It was their first loss on opening day since 2016.

They racked up close to 400 yards of offense and outgained the Blue Devils by nearly 120 yards, but they fell victim to six lost fumbles and an interception in what Emel called the worst display of ball security he’s seen as a coach.

“Keys to victory, No. 1 is ball security,” Emel said. “We know we’re young and inexperienced at the quarterback position, but too many older guys – and it wasn’t one guy, it was a combination … You’re not ever going to make those mistakes and win the game. That’s one of the worst in terms of efficiency I’ve seen since I’ve coached.”

One of the more frustrating aspects of it was several of the fumbles came after long runs. The Red Devils ran only one play in the first four minutes of the game – a lost fumble – and were down 13-0. Despite three lost fumbles in the half, they fought back to earn a 16-13 halftime lead, but the third quarter was their downfall.

All four of their possessions in the quarter ended in a turnover. They outgained the Blue Devils by 70 yards in the quarter and fell behind 27-16.

A fumble stopped the opening drive of the second half at midfield. The next possession was an interception on their first pass attempt of the game. The third was a fumble that City’s Dymear Hill returned 71 yards for a touchdown. And the fourth was a fumble in the red zone as they were looking to close the gap.

They did get back to within 27-22 early in the fourth quarter, but Burlington City answered on a touchdown pass from Ayden Shansey to Hill and then stopped the Red Devils on downs in the red zone to effectively put it away. Hill scored three touchdowns. Shansey threw four touchdown passes.

“It’s tough, man, it’s tough,” Emel said. “It’s frustrating. I don’t know how to say it. It hurts. It hurts to work hard and see kids struggle.

“Everything we worked on was there. It’s not really a game-planning thing, it’s an execution thing.”

The Red Devils moved the ball; the rushed for 328 yards in the game. KaRon Ceaser made an impressive varsity debut as their first true freshman skill position starter in nearly 20 years. He rushed for 155 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries and had one interception where he went over a receiver and nearly a second in the end zone. He had 94 yards rushing on 12 carries in the second half.

A year ago he was playing youth football. He said the experience of his first varsity game matched his expectations.

“Most definitely,” he said. “I knew I put the work in, hours in the weight room, practice. It felt good, but I have to stay humble, keep playing.

“I just kept my team up, tried to be a leader as a freshmen. It’s hard, they’re not going to listen to a freshman, but I tried my best.”

If he keeps running like that they’ll listen.

“I feel like he’s ready,” Emel said. “The one thing I will say about him is what he’s going to learn at this level, just like when you move to college and then the NFL, it’s more physically demanding; the game’s harder. Everybody was battling cramps, he was able to fight through. But once he’s able to play at that maximum level for the whole game I think he, just like a lot of guys, can be special.”

Top returning back Bryce Wright rushed for 119 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries, many of them carrying multiple tacklers before being brought down and made several big hits on defense. But he also had two of the fumbles.

“On the offensive side of the ball I think I could have done a lot better,” Wright said. “The No. 1 thing on the board is ball security and I think I lacked that today. We can’t win a game like that. Eight turnovers, that’s unacceptable. Eight-thirty on Monday we’re going to fix that, for sure.”

Burlington City 33, Penns Grove 22

BURL CITY (33)		PENNS GROVE (22)
14	1st Downs	17
34-63	Rushes-yds	48-328
9-20-2	Passes	2-4-0
188	Passing yds	41
0-0	Fum-Lost	7-6
3-31.0	Punts-avg	0-0
6-40	Penalties-yds	9-97

Burlington City	13	0	14	6 –	33
Penns Grove	8	8	0	6 –	22

Scoring plays
BC – Micah Anderson 19 pass from Ayden Shansey (Spencer Ostner kick), 9:53 1Q
BC – Dymear Hill 45 pass from Ayden Shansey (pass failed), 7:55 1Q
PG – KaRon Ceaser 3 (Bryce Wright run), 5:24 1Q
PG – KaRon Ceaser 10 run (Bryce Wright run), 5:06 2Q
BC – Malachi James 32 pass from Ayden Shansey (Spencer Ostner kick), 7:30 3Q
BC – Dymear Hill 71 fumble return (Spencer Ostner kick), 5:29 3Q
PG – Bryce Wright 1 run (run failed), 10:24 4Q
BC – Dymear Hill 44 pass from Ayden Shansey (kick failed), 7:28 4Q

Photo: Penns Grove’s KaRon Ceaser cuts around the corner to score his first varsity touchdown and the Red Devils’ first touchdown of the season.

Devil of an opener

Penns Grove opens season at home with Burlington City in a game that might loom large at end of the year

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNS GROVE – It might only be the first game of the season, but Penns Grove football coach John Emel is treating it as the most important game of the year.

Because it just might be.

It was last year.

FRIDAY: Burlington City
at Penns Grove, 10:30 AM

The Red Devils open their season Friday with a 10:30 a.m. home game with Burlington City. In a game that, even though early, truly could have end-of-season implications.

Emel is hoping the Red Devils have improved enough that it won’t come down to this again, but this game last year basically was the reason they got in the playoffs and the Blue Devils didn’t. Penns Grove won the head-to-head battle in the opener 48-14 giving them the tiebreaker to grab the last spot in the South Jersey Group I playoffs.

The Red Devils went on to lose to eventual state champion Woodbury in the first round of the South Jersey Group I playoffs, while Burlington City grabbed a 3 seed and won the SJ Group 1 regional invitational tournament.

“With the (WJFL) league we play in, this is a playoff game,” Emel said. “The winner of this game – I think we both feel the same way – whoever wins this game is going to, I don’t want to say qualify right away, but … will get ahead of the other one when it comes to qualifying for the playoffs.”

The game appears evenly matched with Penns Grove opening the season with a 55.82 strength index to Burlington City’s 55.23. The Red Devils were able to separate themselves in last year’s game by taking advantage of Burlington City mistakes and that will be a factor Friday.

“When a team like them is explosive on offense and has a veteran quarterback, you don’t want to give them extra possessions,” Emel said. “It’s going to be who’s going to make those first-game mistakes you see every year.

“I think they’re looking forward to getting a chance to get back at us. Even though we beat them pretty good (last year), the first game of the season you’re not looking past anybody. We’ve been preparing for them all season.”

The Red Devils do have a couple things going for them. They’re playing at home, where they’re 39- 17 in Emel’s nine years (including a 26-2 run from 2017-2020) and they haven’t lost a season opener since 2016. The two openers they’ve lost in Emel’s tenure have been by a combined eight points.

One of the biggest missions in the Red Devils’ camp this summer was determining their starting five on the offensive line. It shook out quickly with center Damani Brice, guards Isaiah Upshur and Tony Cooper, and tackles Wayne Scott and lone senior Misa Nieves.

Bryce Wright returns from a 600-yard rushing season to take over as the lead back, ready for a big year. The Red Devils have several other weapons, including Knowledge Young, Khiry Higgs and Karon Ceasar, the team’s first true freshman skill position opening day starter since 2005. Sophomore Remello Erickson is the quarterback with two previous starts under his belt.

The defense will be the strength of the team with a front seven that projects as good as any team around in Group 1.

The Red Devils have high expectations, but they still have to negotiate the tough WJFL Diamond Division, the SEC West of the league. All five teams from the division made the playoffs last year.

But they have to get past Burlington City first.

“All our scrimmages were away, so this is the first time we’ve been on the game field since last November, so it’s just an opportunity to start the season off on a high note,” Emel said. “You want to play at home. You want to play a good team at home and this is a quality opponent. The Red Devils and Blue Devils are going to get it on Friday.”

Devilish in openers

Penns Grove record in season openers under head coach John Emel

YEAR	OPPONENT	SCORE
2022	at Burlington City	W 48-14
2021	Bernards	W 40-20
2020	at Woodstown	W 48-7
2019	at Pennsville	W 68-7
2018	Pennsville	W 63-3
2017	at Deptford	W 51-34
2016	Deptford	L 27-20
2015	at Woodstown	W 18-6
2014	Woodstown	L 21-20

Photo: Penns Grove senior Nasir Stewart picks out the No. 52 jersey he has worn for three seasons as the Red Devils distribute game jerseys in the run up to Friday’s season opener with Burlington City.

This week’s schedule

Here is the Salem County high school sports schedule for the week of Aug. 20-26. The football games of Aug. 25 are regular-season openers, everything else listed is a scrimmage

Aug. 21
FOOTBALL
Buena at Pennsville, 10 a.m.

Aug. 23
GIRLS TENNIS
Millville at Schalick, 9 a.m.
Vineland at Pennsville, 10 a.m.

Aug. 24
FOOTBALL
Haddon Heights at Pennsville, 6 p.m.
Delsea at Woodstown, 7 p.m.
BOYS SOCCER
Pleasantville at Penns Grove, 10 a.m.
GIRLS TENNIS
Salem at Deptford Twp., 9 a.m.
Woodstown at Triton Regional, 9 a.m.
West Deptford at Pennsville, 10 a.m.

Aug. 25
FOOTBALL
Burlington City at Penns Grove, 10 a.m.
Gloucester City at Schalick, 7 p.m.
Salem vs. Executive Education Academy at Lafayette College, 7 p.m.
GIRLS TENNIS
Penns Grove at Pleasantville, 10 a.m.
Pennsville at Millville, 10 a.m.

Cover photo by Ellen Sickler

An overall good one

Pennsville has a positive first scrimmage, sophomore QB McDade has made ‘huge strides’ from last year; Penns Grove, Schalick also scrimmage Wednesday

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE – It was only one play early in the second series of the first scrimmage of fall camp but it was a perfect example of how far Robbie McDade has come in one year as Pennsville’s QB1.

The sophomore smoothly sucked Pemberton’s defense into the pocket, then softly deposited a screen pass into the waiting hands of Skye Eppes, who took it 41 yards to get the Eagles across midfield on the way to their first touchdown of the scrimmage with Pemberton and Bishop Eustace.

A year ago that play wouldn’t have happened. Not because McDade couldn’t necessarily pull it off, but with the kind of team they had at the time the Eagles wouldn’t have even called it. Now, with a more confident McDade pulling the trigger it’s part of the mix.

“He’s definitely taken huge strides and the biggest thing with him is the amount of work he’s put in in the offseason and how much he’s worked to step into that job and take a leadership role from there,” Eagles coach Mike Healy said. “He’s still a sophomore and making some mistakes, but he is, to me, doing way better than last year.

“I’m very happy with his progress so far and he’s getting better every day.”

McDade split time at quarterback with Randy Hall last year, but his time increased as the year went along. He wound up completing 25 of 52 passes for 363 yards and two touchdowns. When Hall decided not to return, McDade won the position by default, but he still had to show his stuff.

The scrimmage Wednesday was his first opportunity with the offense in his hands alone and he was looking forward to the experience. He completed 10 of 15 passes for 152 yards and a pair of touchdowns to Malik Rehmer.

“I was really excited,” the quarterback said. “Coming off a bad year last year I really wanted to step it up this year and show everybody what we’ve got. I knew what we had to get done and we did it. We’re just going to keep building on it and get better and better.”

The Eagles got the best of both opponents in the varsity portion of the scrimmage and Healy proclaimed it “overall a good scrimmage.” In addition to McDade’s numbers, Rehmer caught three passes for 54 yards and scored once against each team, and Eppes had 105 yards rushing and receiving. The first-team defense gave up 21 yards, didn’t allow a touchdown and Hunter Hiles had a 25-yard pick-six against Eustace.

“Scoring touchdowns is a lot of fun,” McDade said. “We’ve got to keep it up.”

Of course, it wasn’t perfect, but even when there was a negative play McDade bounced back with a positive result.

He fumbled rolling out on the first play against the Eustace defense, then came back with a 13-yard pass play to Eppes. Later in that aforementioned drive against Pemberton Eppes had a screen pass touchdown called back by a blindside block. The very next snap the Eagles called a wider screen and Rehmer took it to the house for his first touchdown.

“That was something I was really happy to see today because last year that’s not something we would have done,” Healy said. “We would have been upset and angry and then not executed the next play. That’s what we really needed to work on. Whether it’s a good call or a bad call, the call’s made, there’s nothing we can do, bounce back, get to the next play, make up for it and that’s what we did.”

The Eagles scrimmage again Monday at home against Buena. That 10 a.m. exercise will be more drive-driven as they work towards a dress rehearsal scrimmage with Haddon Heights Aug. 24.

**Pennsville quarterback Robbie McDade (3). (Top photo) McDade floats a soft pass over the Pemberton defense to Skye Eppes that goes for 41 yards.**

Schalick: Little bit of everything

LINWOOD – The Cougars saw “the good, the bad and the ugly” as they rotated a lot of players in their four-way exercise with West Deptford, Lower Cape May and host Mainland Regional.

They got 30 minutes with each team and saw “in limited small bursts what we wanted,” coach Mike Wilson said.

“It wasn’t all good, it wasn’t all bad and there were some ugly parts to it,” Wilson said. “Our goal was to get reps in by many people, get in and out healthy. It was exactly what a scrimmage was. We needed to get kids on tape.”

They had a big run against Group IV power Mainland called back for holding and scored against the other two teams. Quarterback Kenai Simmons played a limited number of snaps against each team but was “efficient” in the Cougars’ growing passing game with one incompletion.

“The last three years we could not do what we did today,” Wilson said.

Dylan Sheehan made two big catches, scoring a long touchdown against Lower Cape May and taking a slant for 60 yards against West Deptford.

“He was exactly what we thought he would be,” Wilson said of the sophomore receiver. “He was a freshman last year and played a little varsity at the end. We saw it in practice, but we really wanted to see it against other people and he stepped up and had a good day today.”

They’ll game scrimmage again Saturday 10 a.m. at Deptford Twp. The starters are expected to play at least two full quarters.

Penns Grove: ‘Happy with work we got’

MAPLE SHADE – The Red Devils were already back home by the time either of the other two county teams finished their scrimmages and by all accounts dominated their day.

Both teams got four series in the 8 a.m. exercise before doing situational work. The Red Devils were “a little sloppy” on offense, but their decision-making was adequate, had some big plays and they scored on their first two possessions. The defense coach John Emel called “as good as anybody in Group I in the state” was solid throughout against a scheme similar to what they’ll see in the season opener in nine days.

“It looked like a first scrimmage,” Emel said. “All in all, I was happy with the work we got. It’s a building block for the next one.”

The Red Devils will scrimmage again 10 a.m. Friday at Highland Regional, where Emel says they’ll be “trying to get game-quality reps but not try to show too much” to come out healthy for the opener.

Woodstown: Looking for ‘normal’ first one

WOODSTOWN – The Wolverines expect to do and see “normal first scrimmage things” in Thursday’s 9 a.m. workout with their visitors from Hammonton – 10 and 10 with the first and second groups and then some special teams work.

“We are just looking for the kids to execute our basic stuff,” Wolverines coach John Adams said. “We’re not going to show a lot, (just) see how they are hitting and facing another opponent.

“We want to see the quarterback command the offense, make sure people are in the right spots, make sure timing on motions and all are good and the line is blocking the right guys. Defensively, we want to make sure we are sound in getting lined up and making our standard checks and just see the kids play fast and physical.”

You know, normal first scrimmage stuff.

Ready for some football

Salem County teams scrimmage for first time Wednesday in the run-up to their season openers

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

Their season opener is still 10 days away and as far as the Schalick Cougars are concerned it can’t get here fast enough.

Well, that wait is almost over. It might not be a “real” game, but the Cougars get a chance to finally see what this year’s full squad looks like against somebody else Wednesday when they travel to Mainland Regional for their first scrimmage of preseason camp. Lower Cape May and West Deptford also will be there.

“Everything is going well,” Wilson reported earlier in the week. “We’re so much further along than we ever have been. We could play a game tomorrow if we had to.

“It’s Year 4 for us, the kids know the routine. Most of the junior class has been playing since they’ve been freshmen, so they’re used to the way we practice. We’ve gotten a lot of football stuff done. We’re ready to go. “

The Cougars are one of three Salem County teams scrimmaging Wednesday. Penns Grove gets the action started with an 8 a.m. joint practice at Maple Shade and Pennsville hosts Bishop Eustace and Pemberton at 2 p.m.

Woodstown hosts St. Joe’s of Hammonton in its first scrimmage Thursday (9 a.m.) and Salem goes for the first time Saturday at 5 p.m. in a tri-state scrimmage with Philly’s Olney Charter and host McKean in Wilmington.

In Schalick’s scrimmage the teams will get 30 minutes with each other however they want to play it. The Cougars’ rotation will start with Mainland. Their plan for that one is to go 10 plays on offense and defense with the varsity, 7 and 7 with the 2s, give the JVs some work and wrap up with some down-and-distance and goal-line work.

Wilson plans to approach it like an preseason NFL game. It won’t be quite like the Eagles’ exhibition opener with Baltimore where the starters didn’t play, but the Cougars will rotate a lot of players into the mix. The “real game” look will come Saturday against Deptford.

“There is a group of kids who are in our varsity group right now that we’re expecting some big things from,” Wilson said. “Right now, when we go first-team with subs we’re looking at 18 to 20 kids we’re considering varsity football players, all of whom have a legitimate shot to see the field Friday nights. We’ve got a lot of competitions going on right now.”

PENNS GROVE at MAPLE SHADE: Red Devils coach John Emel has a good idea what he’d like to get done in this early morning exercise – and it involves a little bit of everything and what he hopes will be a lot of live work.

“We want to get a lot of reps,” he said. “I want to see who can block and tackle. We want to feel good about our team going into Friday. We’re not going to run a lot of stuff, we’re going to shrink down the playbook and we’re going to give our guys an opportunity to play fast and be real aggressive. That’s what you want to see.

“We‘ve got to find out who can play football while we can still go live and we got an opportunity to go against somebody else. We haven’t played a game since early last November. This is the longest stretch we’ve had (off the field) so it’s an opportunity to go out there and play somebody else, so everybody should be excited.”

They certainly aren’t easing into it when it comes to their scrimmage opponents. Maple Shade played for the South Jersey Group I championship last year and Highland Regional, Friday’s foe in a more game-like exercise, is Group III.

In the past, they’ve had a regular preseason relationship with perennial South Jersey contender Delsea. Emel wouldn’t have it any other way.

“If you look at us the last few years, we always try to play a team better than we’ll play in the early part of the season or we play a team that gets us ready for the team we’re going to play,” he said. “We do try to scrimmage tough teams because I want my guys to get challenged when it doesn’t count, when there’s not a score or a loss.

“I want them to play somebody and get their butts kicked and that’ll make them better. I’m a big believer in that. It’s not good for your morale and maybe not your physical health, but you get better by losing, by failure. We want to simulate the game in the preseason so we can get better before that and we can see who can’t do what and who can do what.

“I don’t want a cupcake team. I’ve got a tough team and they’ve got to play a tough schedule so we have to get them ready.”

The Red Devils open their season Aug. 25 against Burlington City.

PENNSVILLE vs. BISHOP EUSTACE, PEMBERTON: The Eagles will see a little bit of everything from everybody, which will give them a better picture of the team they expect to be. It’s expected to be 10 plays on offense, 10 plays on defense and then rotating drives among themselves. The scrimmage was moved to 2 p.m. from an original 10 a.m. start.

“You just want the kids show they can be competitive and they’re doing what they’ve been taught, what we’ve been going over, spending so much time doing,” Eagles coach Mike Healy said. “And I want to know who are my players, who are they not.

“We’ve still got two scrimmages after that (but) I need to start getting an idea. I’ve got an idea who some are, but I need to figure this out.”

Photo: Penns Grove runs a play during Tuesday’s practice.

Scrimmage schedule

Here is a listing of this summer’s preseason scrimmage games for the Salem County high schools. A complete day-by-day regular-season schedule for the county schools, as well as schedules for football, field hockey, soccer and tennis can be found elsewhere on the website

Aug. 16
FOOTBALL
Schalick, West Deptford, Lower Cape May at Mainland Regional, 10 a.m.
Bishop Eustace, Pemberton at Pennsville, 2 p.m.
Penns Grove at Maple Shade

Aug. 17
FOOTBALL
St. Joseph Academy at Woodstown, 9 a.m.

Aug. 18
FOOTBALL
Penns Grove at Highland

Aug. 19
FOOTBALL
Schalick at Deptford Twp., 10 a.m.
Woodstown at Overbrook, 10 a.m.
Salem, Olney Charter at McKean (Wilmington), 5 p.m.

Aug. 21
FOOTBALL
Buena at Pennsville, 10 a.m.

Aug. 23
GIRLS TENNIS
Millville at Schalick, 9 a.m.
Vineland at Pennsville, 10 a.m.

Aug. 24
FOOTBALL
Haddon Heights at Pennsville, 6 p.m.
Delsea at Woodstown, 7 p.m.
BOYS SOCCER
Pleasantville at Penns Grove, 10 a.m.
GIRLS TENNIS
Salem at Deptford Twp., 9 a.m.
Woodstown at Triton Regional, 9 a.m.
West Deptford at Pennsville, 10 a.m.

Aug. 25
GIRLS TENNIS
Penns Grove at Pleasantville, 10 a.m.
Pennsville at Millville, 10 a.m.

Aug. 28
GIRLS SOCCER
Schalick at Kingsway, 9 a.m.
Cumberland at Penns Grove, 10 a.m.
BOYS SOCCER
Clearview at Schalick, 9 a.m.
FIELD HOCKEY
Woodstown at Timber Creek, 9 a.m.
Deptford Twp. at Pennsville, 10 a.m.
GIRLS TENNIS
Williamstown at Pennsville, 10 a.m.
Woodstown at Ocean City, 11 a.m.

Aug. 29
FIELD HOCKEY
Salem at Hammonton, 4 p.m.
BOYS SOCCER
Cumberland at Penns Grove, 10 a.m.
Woodbury at Salem, 10 a.m.
GIRLS SOCCER
Pennsville at Buena, 10 a.m.
Salem at Woodbury, 10 a.m.
GIRLS TENNIS
Woodstown at Kingsway, 9 a.m.

Aug. 30
FIELD HOCKEY
Salem, Schalick, Bridgeton at Cumberland, 8:30 a.m.
GIRLS SOCCER
Schalick at Cumberland, 9 a.m.
Penns Grove vs. Gloucester Co. Christian at Paulsboro, 10 a.m.
BOYS SOCCER
Cumberland at Schalick, 9 a.m.
Williamstown at Woodstown, 9 a.m.
Paulsboro at Penns Grove, 10 a.m.
GIRLS TENNIS
Cumberland at Schalick, 9 a.m.
Woodstown at Timber Creek, 9 a.m.
Pennsville at Deptford Twp., 10 a.m.

Aug. 31
GIRLS TENNIS
Delsea at Pennsville, 10 a.m.
Penns Grove at Haddon Twp., 10 a.m.
Salem at Bridgeton, 10 a.m.
GIRLS SOCCER
Gloucester City at Woodstown, 9 a.m.
Haddon Heights at Pennsville, 9 a.m.
Penns Grove at Salem, 10 a.m.
BOYS SOCCER
Salem at Bridgeton, 10 a.m.

Sept. 1
FIELD HOCKEY
Salem at Buena, 10 a.m.
BOYS SOCCER
Woodstown at Haddon Twp., 4:15 p.m.
GIRLS SOCCER
Haddon Twp. at Woodstown, 4:15 p.m.

Sept. 5
GIRLS SOCCER
Bridgeton at Salem, 4 p.m.
Clayton at Penns Grove, 4 p.m.
Pennsville at Gloucester City, 4 p.m.
Timber Creek at Woodstown, 4 p.m.
BOYS SOCCER
Gloucester City at Pennsville, 4 p.m.
Penns Grove at Clayton, 4 p.m.
FIELD HOCKEY
Woodstown at St. Joseph Academy, 9 a.m.
Our Lady of Mercy at Woodstown, 3:30 p.m.
Highland Regional at Salem, 4 p.m.
Millville at Pennsville, 4 p.m.