Unofficial (but generally pretty accurate) UPR rankings has Penns Grove holding the final spot in the South Jersey Group I playoffs heading into final regular-season game; official list has Red Devils 20th
By Riverview Sports News
Penns Grove’s hopes for a spot in the Group I football playoffs may not be as far off as the final nine minutes of its game Saturday at Woodbury might have led one to believe.
In the South Jersey Group I power ratings updated Sunday by Gridiron New Jersey, the official supplier of the state’s UPR rankings that determine the 16-team playoff brackets, the Red Devils were No. 20, one full UPR point behind current No. 16 Audubon. The outlet noted its rankings would change “slightly” when it finalizes Strength Index Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Central Jersey Sports Radio index, which has been one of the most accurate unofficial UPR sources, has the Red Devils in a more favorable position. It lists them at No. 16, four-tenths of a point ahead of No. 17 Highland Park.
The Red Devils (1-7) wrap up their regular season Saturday at winless Salem (0-8) and will have to win the game to at least meet the minimum wins qualification for playoff consideration.
Their position looked strong early in the second half Saturday. They grabbed a nine-point lead early in the third quarter and carried it into the fourth. They held a two-point lead with less than six minutes to play, then misplayed a punt and fumbled a pitch that led to Woodbury touchdowns.
Woodstown, Schalick and Pennsville all seem safely in the field. If Pennsville gets in, it will be the Eagles’ first playoff appearance since 2019.
Here are the rankings according to the two groups:
SJ Group I power ratings
TOP 16
(as of Oct. 20)
SCHOOL
RECORD
POWER PTS
OSI
UPR
Glassboro
7-0
12.00
57.08
2.4
Woodstown
7-0
11.57
61.83
3.0
Shore
7-0
13.71
45.61
3.4
Paulsboro
6-2
11.81
48.65
4.0
Schalick
5-3
10.13
49.7
5.4
Haddon Twp.
5-1
11.58
41.19
6.2
Riverside
6-2
12.13
38.32
8.0
Middlesex
6-2
11.38
40.13
8.2
Burlington City
5-3
10.50
39.67
9-2
Pennsville
4-4
8.44
40.94
10.4
Woodbury
3-4
7.71
42.88
10.8
New Egypt
5-2
8.86
38.67
11.0
Manville
6-2
9.25
37.35
11.8
Clayton
4-2-1
8.00
34.00
16.8
Pt. Pleasant Beach
4-3
7.71
35.68
16.8
Audubon
2-4
7.83
34.78
17.0
20. Penns Grove (1-7) 18.0, 21. Salem (0-8) 19.4. Source: Gridiron New Jersey
PROJECTED PLAYOFF MATCHUPS (Based on current standings) SOUTH JERSEY Glassboro vs. Audubon Middlesex vs. Burlington City x-Paulsboro vs. New Egypt x-Schalick vs. Manville CENTRAL JERSEY Shore vs. Clayton Haddon Twp. vs. Woodbury Riverside vs. Pennsville Woodstown vs. Point Pleasant Beach x-Schalick jumps Paulsboro based on head-to-head
CENTRAL JERSEY RADIO RANKINGS South Jersey Group I Top 16 1. Glassboro, 2. Woodstown, 3. Shore, 4. Paulsboro, 5. Schalick, 6. Middlesex, 7. Haddon Twp., 8. Riverside, 9. Burlington City, 10. Woodbury, 11. Pennsville, 12. New Egypt, 13. Manville, 14. Clayton, 15. Audubon, 16. Penns Grove.
If this scenario remains, Penns Grove would play Glassboro or Woodstown in the first round of the playoffs, depending on who wins that game Friday night.
Here is this week’s Salem County sports schedule for the week of Oct. 21-26
OCT. 21 FIELD HOCKEY Salem at Gloucester Catholic Schalick at Deptford Woodstown at Overbrook GIRLS TENNIS Pennsville at Overbrook, 3:45 p.m. Pitman at Salem Woodstown at Schalick BOYS SOCCER Bridgeton at Penns Grove Salem at Camden County Tech CROSS COUNTRY State Tech Championship at Salem Tech VOLLEYBALL Cape May County Tech at Salem Tech
OCT. 22 BOYS SOCCER Glassboro at Woodstown Gloucester Catholic at Salem Tech Overbrook at Penns Grove Pennsville at Clayton Pitman at Schalick, 6 p.m. Salem at Wildwood GIRLS SOCCER Penns Grove at Overbrook Salem Tech at Gloucester Catholic Schalick at Pennsville Wildwood at Salem Woodstown at Glassboro GIRLS TENNIS Overbrook at Penns Grove Woodstown at Wildwood FIELD HOCKEY Pennsville at Overbrook Woodstown at St. Joe (Hamm.) VOLLEYBALL Washington Twp. at Salem Tech WOMENS COLLEGE BASKETBALL Cecil College at Salem CC, 6 p.m.
OCT. 23 FIELD HOCKEY Salem at Schalick GIRLS TENNIS Glassboro at Woodstown Salem at Overbrook Wildwood at Penns Grove CROSS COUNTRY Tri-County Showcase at Cumberland
OCT. 24 FIELD HOCKEY Woodstown at Hammonton BOYS SOCCER Gloucester Catholic at Pennsville Woodstown at Pitman Salem Tech at Salem Schalick at Penns Grove GIRLS SOCCER Penns Grove at Schalick Salem at Salem Tech Pennsville at Woodstown GIRLS TENNIS Schalick at Pennsville (conclusion of susp. match), 3:45 p.m. VOLLEYBALL Timber Creek at Salem Tech OCT. 25 FOOTBALL Woodstown at Glassboro, 6 p.m. Audubon at Camden Catholic Paulsboro at Clayton, TBA Collingswood at Pennsville Overbrook at West Deptford Woodbury at Schalick, 6 p.m. BOYS SOCCER Pennsville at Overbrook Salem Tech at Wildwood Catholic GIRLS SOCCER Salem at Paulsboro GIRLS TENNIS Woodstown at Pennsville FIELD HOCKEY Gloucester Catholic at Salem VOLLEYBALL Salem Tech at Gloucester Catholic
OCT. 26 FOOTBALL Salem at Penns Grove, noon GIRLS SOCCER Schalick at Williamstown, 10 a.m. MENS COLLEGE BASKETBALL Baltimore JUCO Jamboree Salem CC vs. Anne Arundel, noon Salem CC vs. Southern Maryland, 6 p.m.
Here are the scores from Friday’s high school sports action involving teams from Salem County
FRIDAY, OCT. 18 FIELD HOCKEY Egg Harbor Twp. 0, Woodstown 0
BOYS SOCCER Salem Tech 2, Clayton 1 Salem at Gloucester Catholic Schalick 4, Glassboro 1 Woodstown 3, Overbrook 1
GIRLS SOCCER Clayton 5, Salem Tech 0 Gloucester Catholic at Salem Pennsville 3, Penns Grove 0 Woodstown 3, Overbrook 1 GIRLS TENNIS Pennsville 5, Salem 0 Pitman 5, Penns Grove 0 Schalick at Glassboro
Glassboro uses three big pass plays early to seize control, then shuts down Schalick in second half to remain undefeated; Pennsville crushes Lawrence to enhance playoff hopes
FRIDAY SALEM COUNTY FOOTBALL Pennsville 35, Lawrence 7 Glassboro 20, Schalick 10
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
PITTSGROVE – Every season when the West Jersey Football League schedule comes out the history buffs on the Schalick coaching staff, of which head coach Mike Wilson is a big one, start looking for that one game the Cougars call their “Stalingrad game.”
It’s the kind of game the Cougars look to play in close quarters and wait for their opponent who likes to play in the open field to become impatient.
Sometimes, though, the best laid plans just aren’t enough against superior forces. Instead of getting caught up in the Cougars’ “Rattenkrieg,” Glassboro played “Bombs Away” Friday night.
The Bulldogs hit their hosts with three big pass plays in the first half to either set up or score touchdowns to seize control of the scoreboard in an eventual 20-10 victory that kept them undefeated and sets up a presumptive WJFL Diamond Division title game next week with Woodstown.
“That was 100 percent the game plan, to shorten the game, the only thing we didn’t do, we gave up three big plays – again,” Wilson said. “We didn’t change anything. We stayed patient the entire game. No unnecessary risks. It came down to three big plays, which we coached all week. We just didn’t execute.”
In hopes of frustrating the Bulldogs (7-0) into making a mistake, the Cougars (5-3) wanted to play a ball-control style of offense, picking up three and four yards at a time, to chew up a lot of game clock and play field position. It’s the same approach they took when they played in Bulldogs in last year’s 20-0 Central Jersey Group I title game.
Glassboro beat the strategy Friday by holding the Cougars to a three-and-out on the opening possession and then connecting on a 52-yard pass from Kristopher Foster to Mekhi Parker on its first offensive play of the game. The bomb set up Kenny Smith’s 4-yard touchdown run seven plays later to open the scoring.
Later in the half, Foster connected on a 70-yard touchdown pass to Amari Sabb on the first play of the second quarter and a 63-yard scoring strike to Xavier Sabb 3:41 before halftime to make 20-3. Foster was 4-of-7 for 187 yards passing in the first half and threw for 206 yards in the game.
“We trust the players we’ve got,” Glassboro coach Timmy Breaker said. “We knew they were going to load the box. On film they blitz, blitz, blitz, blitz, blitz, so we came out to take a shot first play of the game.”
Xavier Sabb’s touchdown catch was a thing of beauty. He turned in one direction on the pattern to counter the cornerback, Foster put the ball on his other shoulder and Sabb twisted back in midair to catch it and go.
“I really closed my eyes, honestly,” he said. “I just trusted my hands. I knew he was going to dive at me so I picked my legs up and it was over after that.”
“Special kid, special talent and you’ll see a lot of that from him,” Breaker said. “He’s a gamer. Explosive. At any point in time in the game he can take over the game.”
Schalick scored 10 points in the second quarter on Hunter Dragotta’s 32-yard field goal and Kenai Simmons’ 18-yard touchdown pass to Dylan Sheehan.
The Cougars shut out Glassboro in the second half – even made a goal line stand after the Bulldogs returned the second half kickoff 67 yards to the 19 – but they couldn’t generate any offense as the Bulldogs cranked up the defense.
Glassboro held Schalick to just nine yards of net offense in the second half.
“Take those three plays out it’s 10-0,” Wilson said. “That’s the kind of game we wanted to play. We moved the ball decently here and there. Defensively I thought we played well outside of those plays. In a game like that it just came down to a couple plays and we lost them again.”
Cover photo: Glassboro’s Xavier Sabb (0) had a 63-yard touchdown catch against Schalick. (Photo by Heather Papiano)
Pennsville bounces back
LAWRENCE – Moments after his team lost to Paulsboro last Saturday, Pennsville coach Mike Healy told his players there was still plenty in the season to play for, but now there was no room for error.
The Eagles bounced back on a long road trip to Mercer County Friday night. They played as if their playoff lives depended on it, jumped out to a big halftime lead and eventually put away Group IV Lawrence 35-7.
“We were very honest with the kids that we didn’t have any more wiggle room, we had to get the job done,” Eagles coach Mike Healy said. “The big thing for us is from the opening kickoff we showed up.
“I told them before the game we need to be physical the entire game and we need to be aggressive all game, we need to play with effort the entire game. I thought for the first half today we really showed up and did those things. We’ve had some games where we’re lacking one of those things, but I thought today we played up to our potential.”
Quarterback Robbie McDade ran for one touchdown and threw a pair of touchdown passes to Luke Wood and Rylan Hardy rushed for two scores. Hardy remains on track to become the Eagles’ first 1,000-yard rusher since Nick Bard in 2017 (1,657 yards).
The Eagles were up 22-0 with 2:03 left in the first half. They made it 28-0 with 14 seconds left and after the Cardinals fumbled the first play after the kickoff McDade threw his second TD pass to Wood with five second left in the half to make it 35-0.
“It was a pretty cool end to the half,” Healy said
WJFL Standings
DIAMOND DIVISION
DIV
ALL
Glassboro (4)
4-0
7-0
Woodstown (1)
3-0
6-0
Schalick (6)
2-2
5-3
Woodbury (11)
1-2
2-4
Penns Grove (20)
0-3
1-6
Salem (23)
0-3
0-7
NOTE: Number in parenthesis is South Jersey Group I UPR power ranking through Oct. 12
FRIDAY’S GAMES Glassboro 20, Schalick 10 SATURDAY’S GAMES Penns Grove at Woodbury Woodstown at Salem
PATRIOT DIVISION
DIV
ALL
Camden Catholic (NPB-3)
5-0
7-0
Paulsboro (5)
5-1
6-2
West Deptford (G2-13)
3-2
4-4
Pennsville (12)
2-3
4-4
Audubon (13)
1-3
2-3
Collingswood (G2-16)
1-4
3-5
Overbrook (G2-25)
0-4
2-4-1
NOTE: Number in parenthesis is South Jersey Group I UPR power rankings through Oct. 12 (G2-Group 2, NPB-Non Public B)
FRIDAY’S GAMES Pennsville 35, Lawrence 8 Camden Catholic 55, Collingswood 0 Paulsboro 18, West Deptford 12 SATURDAY’S GAMES Audubon at Overbrook
Here are the scores and highlights from Thursday’s high school action involving Salem County teams FIELD HOCKEY Schalick 9, Overbrook 1: Ava Scurry and Luci Virga both had three goals and two assists as the Cougars remained unbeaten (14-0-1). Phoebe Alward had two goals and two assists and Addi Shimp scored once.
Scurry, who plays multiple sports for the Cougars but is a field hockey player at heart, has scored a goal in six straight games with three hat tricks in the stretch. Her second goal Thursday was the 50th of her career.
That wasn’t the only milestone in the game. Alward picked up her 50th point of the season to surpass 100 points in her career.
Clearview 7, Woodstown 0: Alaina Lomonaco had a hat trick and Ella Candy scored twice. It was Lomonaco’s third game of three goals or more this season and gave her a single-season career-high 16 goals on the year.
It isn’t easy being a first-year head football coach and in Salem County it’s been particularly challenging
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
Every football coach who comes into a new situation brings with him enthusiasm and optimism. He usually gets his first win even before the team takes the field, winning the introductory press conference.
Winning on the field, well, that takes a little longer as he tries to make headway against the reality of the underlying circumstances that brought him to the position in the first place.
It isn’t easy being a first-year head football coach and in Salem County it’s been a particularly bumpy ride.
This year has seen the largest turnover of head coaching spots among the county’s five football-playing schools since 2006 – three (Penns Grove, Salem, Woodstown) – and for two of them it’s been a tough go.
Woodstown’s Frank Trautz has had the best of it, going 6-0 with two regular season games remaining after being promoted from within an already winning staff. But it hasn’t been quite so rosy for Penns Grove’s Marc Maccarone or Salem’s Kemp Carr, two outside hires who are 1-6 and 0-7, respectively, going into this weekend’s games.
But the struggles have been the norm for new Salem County coaches. Of the 18 first-year head coaches over the last 21 years, only four have had winning first-year campaigns – Seth Brown (Schalick), Ryan Wood (Pennsville), Montrey Wright (Salem) and Trautz – but they’re the unicorns. Eleven have had losing seasons and three have broken even.
Only eight have gotten to the playoffs in their first year, with Trautz expected to join that list this year. The Wolverines are currently the No. 1 team in the South Jersey Group I power points standings.
“Where a school is hiring a football coach it’s rarely a good situation,” said Schalick head coach Mike Wilson, who went 0-7 his first year with the Cougars to 11-1 last season. “Most of the time the program has struggled and there’s a reason why they’re looking for a coach. There’s not too many programs where you just hand it off and they keep it rolling. It does happen, but usually it’s not a great job when you get that first job; there’s a lot of work to do.”
The chart below documents the struggles of Salem County’s most recent first-year coaches. It’s not an indictment on their coaching ability. Almost all of them have gone on to produce multiple winning/championship seasons once they got their program in place; Carr and Maccarone won championships at other postings. It’s just an illustration of how hard it is to get it started.
“The coach can only control so much,” Wilson said. “They need the support of the school, the administration, the community, the parents; it’s a total group effort. And you need patience because a year turnaround doesn’t happen. You need patience, your school needs patience and if you don’t have support of those other things there’s only so much you can do.
”It really comes down to how much does the school, the administration and the community want football to be successful, because if you’re trying to build a program you need all those things. It takes time and patience. Just show up and play football from August to November, you can’t do that anymore.”
Once that first-year coach gets his program blueprint established and starts to taste a little success, a whole new set of challenges present themselves. The next goal becomes finding a way to maintain that success. That, friends, is a whole different conversation.
Cover photo: Salem County’s three new head football coaches (from left) Woodstown’s Frank Trautz, Salem’s Kemp Carr and Penns Grove’s Marc Maccarone.
First Year Salem County Football Coaches (Since 2003)
Pennsville tennis coach gets his 300th coaching win with the Eagles girls team in a 5-0 sweep of Millville
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
MILLVILLE – Pennsville tennis coach Dan LaMont isn’t big on talking about undefeated seasons, winning streaks or personal milestone, but he hit one Wednesday that was too big to ignore.
The Pennsville girls team swept Millville 5-0 to give LaMont his 300th career coaching victory with the program. He has 333 all-time girls tennis coaching wins when you add in his 33 in three years at Schalick (1998-2000).
“It’s cool, especially having Brynn Buechler, one of my players, coaching with me now,” LaMont said of the milestone. “It’s nice as a get a little older (thinking) about all the great girls that I’ve had. Oh my gosh, it’s just been phenomenal.”
He figures he has just as many wins with the Pennsville boys, just don’t ask him the total.
“I’m not good with numbers,” he said. “We got something this year about active high school tennis coaching records and it made me kind of think of what I do have. I knew it was coming up, but it wasn’t any kind of countdown, because I’m horrible with numbers.”
Within those 300 Pennsville girls wins are two state titles, two runner-up finishes, seven sectional titles. The Eagles played in the South Jersey Group I sectional final for the tenth time on LaMont’s watch Tuesday at Pitman.
“This is a well-deserved achievement for Coach LaMont,” Pennsville athletics director Jamy Thomas said. “There are not many coaches around that put in the time and energy to high school sports as he does and his record proves that hard work truly does pay off. Hopefully he sticks around for 300 more wins.”
LaMont’s coaching tenure goes back to 1992 when he was an assistant the first time at Pennsville. His first year as the Eagles’ head coach was 2006; he was an assistant there for two different stretches beforehand. He doesn’t remember his first head coaching victory, but he does recall that first season.
“I don’t know if I remember the first win, but I do know it was the year after Donna Martin won a state title and we lost a lot from that team, but we still had a nice year,” LaMont said.
Penns Grove scores in first 20 seconds of the match, goes on to beat Pennsville in boys soccer, includes Wednesday’s Salem County results WEDNESDAY BOYS SOCCER Penns Grove 2, Pennsville 0 Pitman 6, Salem 0 Woodstown 4, Salem Tech 0
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
PENNSVILLE – If you missed the start of Wednesday’s Penns Grove-Pennsville soccer game, even by a minute, you missed half of the goals in the game.
SCHULTZ
Junior midfielder Joey Schultz packed a pass from Sebastian Hernandez into the upper right corner 21 seconds into the match to send Penns Grove on its way to a 2-0 victory that garnered the Red Devils some valuable power points.
“I can’t remember one happening that fast, to be honest with you,” Penns Grove coach Mano Massari said. “I’ve been here about nine years coaching, started four years here as a player, I’ve never seen one that fast.”
The goal wasn’t a case of the Red Devils simply kicking the ball into the Pennsville end, chasing it down and putting it away before anyone knew what hit them.
Pennsville went long with the opening kick as it’s been known to do when it gets the first ball. The Red Devils gained possession and Hernandez made a long run up the right wing with Schultz trailing right behind.
Hernandez drew in a couple defenders, saw an open space and pushed a Bangu ball to Schultz who had peeled off towards the six in the box and beat Eagles keeper Coen Rinnier.
“We’ve been working on that a lot, transitioning from defense to offense,” Massari said. “We feel like we’ve lacked doing that early in the season. We’ve been practicing transitioning up together as one and what we’ve been practicing’s been working, and it showed there in the first 20 seconds of the game. That’s why we practice these things.”
Schultz remembers getting an assist that early in a game with his club team before, but he’s never scored that quickly before. He was looking forward to seeing the replay on the game film.
“That spark came through,” he said. “It really made me feel good. It brought a lot out of me. It makes me want to take this a little more serious, I guess.”
It certainly got the Eagles’ attention. No one ever expects to be in catch-up mode that quickly into a match.
“I had barely turned around and the ball was in the back of our net,” Pennsville coach Derek Foglein said. “We talked about the fact that this season when we’ve been on the front foot and we’ve jumped on teams it made the difference and when good teams come out and jump on us it makes a difference. Ultimately, that was a huge difference there.
“That first goal, when you blink and now you’re chasing the game … We knew they were a really strong defensive team so trying to find one goal was going to be hard enough and now we need to find at least one to send it to overtime.”
The early goal gave the Red Devils confidence and calmed them. They made it 2-0 with 17:42 left in the half on an own goal credited to Edward Swank. The Eagles settled into the second half, but had a two-goal deficit to overcome.
Schultz wasn’t in at the finish. He hurt his right ankle playing a 50-50 ball early in the game and eventually was lifted for precautionary reasons. The Red Devils have another big game Thursday night at Pitman, a match that could keep their dream of landing a first-round home playoff game alive.
The Red Devils started the season 1-3 and lost their leading scorer to a broken leg, but they’ve won three of their last five and are now tenth in the South Jersey Group I power points standings. They’re about a half-point out of the final first-round home game in the bracket.
“We want to make it to the dance, we want to make it to the playoffs,” Massari said. “Ideally I’d like a home playoff game. I want these guys to experience that; they deserve it. We put ourselves in a hole in the beginning of the year, starting to get hot at the right time.
“I don’t want to look too far ahead. I’d like us to just focus on tomorrow. I feel good about where we’re at, I feel good about the way we’re playing, but I’m trying to get them to understand we’re not looking past our next opponent.”
WOODSTOWN 4, SALEM TECH 0: Adrian Ibarra scored twice, Bryce Ayars scored for the second game in a row and Blake Bialecki netted a goal. The win takes Wolverines coach Darren Huck to within three of 300 career coaching wins.
PITMAN 6, SALEM 0: Brayden Carr scored two goals and assisted on both of Lucas Razze’s goals to lead the Panthers (7-5-1).
Cover photo: Penns Grove’s Sebastian Hernandez pushes the ball upfield against Pennsville Wednesday.
GIRLS SOCCER Gloucester at Schalick Penns Grove at Paulsboro Pennsville 6, Salem 0 Woodstown 7, Salem Tech 0: The Wolverines (9-4-1) got goals from seven players, including Talia Battavio’s 57th career goal. Their last six wins have all been by shutout. GIRLS TENNIS Schalick 4, Haddon Heights 1 Pennsville 5, Millville 0: Eagles coach Dan LaMont gets his 300th career win with the Pennsville girls program. (Related story posting soon)
Here are the results of Tuesday’s high school action involving Salem County teams
GIRLS TENNIS Group I Sectional Finals Pitman 4, Pennsville 1 (see related story) Regular Season Schalick 3, Wildwood 2 SALEM 5, PENNS GROVE 1 Cassidy Werkheiser (S) def. Amaris Butler, 6-3, 6-3 Tytiana Miller (S) won by forfeit Tahirah Davenport-White (S) def. Janiyah Cummings, 6-3, 6-4 Destiny Carr-Heaven Jones-McCullough (S) def. Emma Griffin-Makala Washington, 6-1, 6-0 JaNye Hubbard-Bianca Gibson (S) def. Elif Sagir-Gabriela Roman, 6-0, 6-1 Records: Salem 1-8, Penns Grove 0-10.
FIELD HOCKEY Pennsville 2, Deptford 0: Kylie Harris and Makenzie Widener scored first-half goals for the Eagles (5-7-1) Glassboro 2, Salem 1: Jocelyn O’Brien scored her second goal of the game with 6:03 left in the third quarter to snap a 1-1 tie. Kashira Patterson gave Salem (5-4-1) a 1-0 lead with a first-quarter goal. Schalick 2, St. Joe (Hamm.) 2: Ava Scurry (28th) and Phoebe Alward (15th) scored goals as the Cougars remained unbeaten (13-0-1).
CROSS COUNTRY Calhoun County boys champion Karson Chew of Woodstown finished second in the boys race at the TCC Batch Meet at Kingsway. He ran 18:16.07. Teammate Jacob Marino was sixth (18:31.61).
Woodstown’s Abby Marino, the county runner-up, was the fastest Salem County finisher in the girls race, coming in fourth at 21:04.09. Salem Tech’s Sarah Seiden was eighth (22:45.31).
Pitman hands Pennsville first loss of season, snapping its 22-match winning streak, in South Jersey Group I title match; Panthers win first sectional title in 18 years
NJSIAA SECTIONALS South: Pitman 4, Pennsville 1 Central: New Providence 4, Highland Park 1 North Jersey I: Glen Rock 4, Pascack Hills 1 North Jersey II: Hanover Park 4, Glen Ridge 1 STATE FINAL FOUR Mercer County Park, Thursday Pairings TBA
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
PITMAN – The Pennsville girls tennis team loaded the bus when it was over and quickly put Shertel Park in their rearview mirror. No sense sticking around to watch someone else’s celebration at their expense.
“There was just way too much orange,” one was heard to say.
Top-seeded Pitman did something Tuesday no team has been able to do this season – find a way to put the Eagles away. It handed the Eagles their first loss of the season, snapping their 22-match winning streak, in a 4-1 victory for the South Jersey Group I championship.
The Panthers now travel up the turnpike to the State Final Four at Mercer County Park Thursday. Their semifinal opponent won’t be determined until Wednesday when the Final Four is reseeded. All four finalists won their sectional finals 4-1.
“I told the girls that wasn’t the best version of Pennsville, Pitman did not see the best version of Pennsville today,” Eagles coach Dan LaMont said. “I just felt we could have competed.
“We’re disappointed, we’re really disappointed. I told them I hope it hurts, I hope it stings, but you know what, you wake up tomorrow, the sun rises and we’ve got a match to play. We’re going to come back tomorrow, go out to Millville and we’re going to see what we can do.”
The Eagles knew the sectional final was going to be a tight match. Pitman was solid, athletic and driven and certain matches had to go their way to get the outcome they desired.
Pitman won matches at the critical No. 2 doubles and No. 2 singles spots to move into position to clinch their first sectional title in 18 years. That came when No. 1 singles Anna Fisicaro closed out Megan Morris, 6-2, 6-0.
“I really thought we were up 2-0 from the beginning, no disrespect to the Pennsville girls, and we needed to find one more,” Pitman coach Gene Reid said. “That was the joke on the sideline, we need Anna to win one more game. That was a great position to be in.”
The No. 2 doubles team of Abby Heil and Jess Bretz that got things started rallied from a 3-2 deficit to win the first set, then dominated the second set, losing only a handful of points. The win was especially personal for Bretz, who was a teammate of Pennsville’s Lily Edwards and Gabi Farino on the 2023 Pennsville LL Senior Softball World Series team.
“I think the biggest thing is the bragging rights,” Bretz said, “but it feels great because we’ve been working for this for three or four years now and to finally get that championship feels amazing.”
Edwards won Pennsville’s only point, taking a straight-set victory at No. 3 singles to remain undefeated on the season. The junior has won 27 matches in a row since losing to Pitman’s Colette Rollins (Tuesday’s No. 2) in last year’s tournament.
But she conceded it was a hollow victory given the results unfolding around her.
“It means a lot, but at the same time it doesn’t because I already knew what had happened on the other courts,” she said. “It’s a weird approach to it.”
Cover photo: Pennsville’s Lily Edwards returns a shot during her No. 3 singles match against Pitman Tuesday. (Photo by Brian Tortella)
SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I FINALS PITMAN 4, PENNSVILLE 1 Anna Fisicaro (Pi) def. Megan Morris, 6-2, 6-0 Colette Rollins (Pi) def. Regan Witt, 6-2, 6-2 Lily Edwards (Pe) def. Ava Mollehhauer, 6-1, 6-0 Kendall Bennett-Amanda Bradley (Pi) def. Emma Cornette-Izzy Schrenker, 6-2, 7-5 Jessica Bretz-Abigail Heil (Pi) def. Naomi Hess-Morgan Holt, 6-4, 6-1 Records: Pennsville 16-1, Pitman 19-2
