West Deptford puts up season-high 58 points, collects nearly 400 yards of offense as Emel gets big win against his alma mater

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WEST DEPTFORD — Coaches try to tell their players that every game carries the same weight, whether it’s a long-time rivalry or some random team in the middle of the schedule, but you know there are some games that are just bigger than others.

On the emotional scale, the games that get West Deptford coach John Emel’s heart racing a little more are, no matter where he’s coaching, the ones he gets to face Salem.

He played there as a high schooler and cut his coaching teeth there before getting his first head coaching job at Penns Grove. On Friday night, for the 13^th time as a head coach, he got on that emotional rollercoaster again and this time it was happy reunion as his team rolled over the Rams 58-19.

“I’m a graduate of Salem, my brother’s a graduate of Salem; we bled Salem Blue while we were players and all through college,” Emel said. “Once I went to Penns Grove that was always the most emotional game.

“To tell you the truth, I was a lot more nervous, not necessarily to play Salem, but to play (Rams) coach (Kemp) Carr. Have tremendous respect for him. Coached with him for eight years. Battled against him when he was an assistant coach, but this is the first time we went against each other as head coaches. He’s got passion. He was an assistant coach when I was a player at Salem. We were in the same huddle for eight years trying to get guys ready at Penns Grove.

“Playing him and playing Salem, all those things mean something, so you want to perform well. I know I was ready to go and I feel like I coached a pretty good game on offense.”

Indeed. The Eagles (4-3) scored their most points in a game this season – the most since putting 70 on Sterling in 2022 – and amassed nearly 400 yards of offense. They scored all seven times they possessed the ball and answered the Rams’ first touchdown by returning the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown.

But Emel wasn’t the only person on the West Deptford sideline to whom the game meant something special.

Senior running back Bryce Wright went 1-2 against the Rams when he played for Emel at Penns Grove and Friday was his last chance to even the score. He responded by rushing for 122 yards and three touchdowns. Last year, in a different uniform, he went for 118 yards and a touchdown against the Rams.

“Me being down in the rivalry 2-1 just made me go out there and give it my all,” Wright said. “It’s my last year I get to play my rival so I had to go 100 percent. I definitely think I ran harder this game. A lot of the kids on the other side of the ball I know them personally, so roughing up on them is like childhood days.

“Last night (Emel) was like yeah, bud, you know it’s personal for us. Man, we’ve got to go out here and get a big one, four hard quarters of football, and that’s what we gave him.”

The game was entertaining for a while. The Eagles jumped out to a 15-0 first-quarter lead, but the Rams didn’t fold.

One of the biggest faults of the Rams all season had been their ability to move the ball between the 30s but not being able to finish. They went about their business Friday alternating quarterbacks Troy Carey and Quimere Bergen on virtually every snap with an occasional direct snap to Pop Jackson as a change of pace.

“It’s a rhythm thing,” Carr said. “Both of the guys have their talents and their skills so we wanted to try to use them.”

The Rams got into the red zone three times in the first half and Carey got them in the end zone twice. Jackson pushed in from the 2 and Carey threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Kaden Robinson.

“It felt good (getting into the end zone),” Carey said. “Guys were working together, we played together as a team. Everything was working well.”

But the Eagles answered both times – once on an 88-yard kickoff return by Zamir Davis and once on Brady Cobb’s TD pass to Michael Joseph with 29 seconds left in the half.

It was the time the Rams didn’t get in from the red zone, however, that had Carr upset. Jamaal Shockley raced 72 yards with the kickoff after Joseph’s score to set the Rams up at the West Deptford 5. On what amounted to the final play of the half, freshman Isiah Santiago dropped Carey’s pass in the front left corner of the end zone.

The halftime horn sounded shortly after the ball hit the ground, but Carr contended – and his sideline replays confirmed — there should have been time on the clock. That would have been enough to take another shot at the end zone or give Andrew May a shot at a field goal. Instead, they went into the break down 30-13.

“We didn’t get in when we should have gotten in,” Carr said. “You’ve got to score there and that’s the point. I don’t want to talk about us getting it in. I want to talk about we didn’t get it in and we should’ve gotten it in and we had the ball with 1.9 seconds on the clock and they said the time expired. That’s what makes me mad.”

The Rams had high expectations for the second half, but those were quickly dashed when Kaden Robinson mishandled the second half kickoff and Bergen fumbled in the next series while absorbing a 13-yard loss. The Eagles recovered both miscues and converted both times for a 44-13 lead.

“We’ve got to do those things better,” Carr said. “We do those things better and we’re in a different situation. Everybody can see we can play football … It’s like I’ve said: You can’t build a house from the ceiling down. You’ve got to build from the foundation. We saw some good things and we’ll take the good things that we did.”

West Deptford 58, Salem 19

SCORING SUMMARY
WD-Cole Paszkiewicz 41 run (Brady Cobb kick), 9:15 1Q
WD-Bryce Wright 13 run (Zamir Davis run), 2:31 1Q
S-Pop Jackson 2 run (Andrew May kick), 10:17 2Q
WD-Zamir Davis 88 kickoff return (Brady Cobb kick), 10:03 2Q
S-Kaden Robinson 17 pass from Troy Carey (kick blocked), 5:20 2Q
WD-Michael Joseph 10 pass from Brady Cobb (Bryce Wright run), 28.9 2Q
WD-Bryce Wright 6 run (pass failed), 9:10 3Q
WD-Zamir Davis 4 run (Michael Joseph pass from Brady Cobb), 6:05 3Q
WD-Bryce Wright 26 run (kick failed), 8.8 3Q
S-Pop Jackson 84 kickoff return (kick failed), 0:00 3Q
WD-Logan Rivell 2 run (Bryce Wynn run), 1:11 4Q

NOTE: Number in parenthesis is South Jersey Group I UPR power ranking through Oct. 7

THURSDAY’S GAME
Glassboro 40, Cinnaminson 10
Delran 38, Penns Grove 8
FRIDAY’S GAMES
Schalick 28, Gloucester City 21
West Deptford 58, Salem 19
SATURDAY’S GAMES
Willingboro at Woodbury, 11 a.m.
Woodstown at Haddon Heights, 11 a.m.

NOTE: Number in parenthesis is South Jersey Group I UPR power rankings through Oct. 7 (G2-Group 2, NPB-Non Public B)

FRIDAY’S GAMES
Audubon 7, Collingswood 0
West Deptford 58, Salem 19
SATURDAY’S GAMES
Camden Catholic at Overbrook, 11 a.m.
Pennsville at Paulsboro, noon

Rams score first and hold first halftime lead, but fall in first-ever meeting with Middle Twp.; Schalick-Paulsboro to be played Monday, 4 p.m.

SATURDAY’S GAMES
Middle Twp. 13, Salem 7
Clayton 42, Overbrook 42
Schalick at Paulsboro, ppd.

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

SALEM — Kemp Carr looked over his Salem football team during pre-game warmups Saturday and thought this was going be a different team this week.

“At times” it was different as the Rams returned several injured regulars to the lineup and have grown closer after a 16-hour Friday bonding experience. But, alas, they still can’t shake some of the shortcomings that have plagued them throughout the season and lost to Middle Twp. 13-7 to remain winless through six games.

“I’m looking for 48 minutes to be a different team,” Carr said. “We got three guys back. The guys we started with at the beginning of the summer are finally starting to get here, and that’s huge when you don’t have personnel issues. 

“That’s the first thing: Do I line up with the strongest team I can possibly line up with? Two is can we execute? Three, can we go win the game?”

If Saturday is any indication, the Rams are getting closer to No. 1, but they have work to do on the other two elements – and No. 2 directly impacts No. 3.

The most frustrating element to the Rams’ start is their ability to move the ball between the 30s, but can’t punch it into the end zone. They’ve scored only four touchdowns all season.

They got the ball inside the 10 twice, inside the 20 three times and had five plays inside the 30 in the fourth quarter and had only seven points to show for it. That was Pop Jackson’s 6-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter that gave the Rams their second lead of the season.

They missed a field goal attempt and turned it over on downs in the other two situations.

“We can’t move the ball inside the 10 and don’t score,” Carr said. “We just ran the ball all the way down the field with no problem. We did a lot of good things to get down there. We’ve got to compound those things and do them even better. 

“We’ve got to block better, we’ve got to run harder and that’s the things that we’re not sustaining and finishing drives. It’s been an all-year situation. We get down there and don’t complete the task. I don’t just want to flip field position and pin a team back. We need to come out with bonus points on the scoreboard saying we got seven points.”

The way the game started it looked like the Rams were shifting the focus of their offense to Pop Jackson the way it did last season. Last season, coach Danny Mendoza looked to Jackson on a rainy day at Rutgers to jump start his struggling offense. Jackson responded with 249 yards and two touchdowns on 33 carries and it stayed The Jackson Show the rest of the year.

On this day, he ran it six times for 60 yards on the Rams’ second possession of the game and pin-balled his way into the end zone from the 6 for the first touchdown of the game and their first lead since scoring first on Cinnaminson in their second game. He wound up with a season-high 146 yards on 22 of the team’s 35 carries. He also went 42 yards with one of Quimere Bergen’s jump passes, bouncing off multiple defenders and dragging several others inside the 15. 

Kemp was quick to caution reading anything more than the Rams taking what they were given in the game.

“He was one of our workhorses, of course, but he’s not the only guy,” Kemp said. “We’ve got other guys. We want to utilize everybody. We’re a more dangerous team when we use a lot of guys. If you put all your eggs in one basket and just have one donkey you’re going to be in trouble. You have to be versatile.”

Even Jackson disputed the notion.

“The offense has weapons; I’m just a weapon to the offense,” he said. 

Middle Twp. took the lead with two third-quarter touchdowns. The Panthers tied the game on a short-field touchdown, then after holding the Rams on downs near midfield set off to get the go-ahead score.

Salem’s defense made three fourth-down stops in the first half (including a missed field goal attempt) and appeared to have stopped the Panthers at the 13 with another one. Quarterback Tommy Gontz appeared down short of the line to gain, but stretched and made it less than the length of the football.

On the next snap, Remi Rodriguez changed into the end zone from the 14 with 23.9 seconds left in the quarter. Rodriguez rushed for 140 yards on 22 carries.

“I thought he (Gontz) was well short of the line,” Kemp said. “The film may say different, but my eye at real speed tells me I thought he was short.”

Bergen drew his first career start for the way he played in relief of injured Troy Carrey last week against Schalick and the moment was a little too big for the freshman. Carrey returned under center in the third quarter right after the Panthers got the go-ahead score. The junior got the Rams in position to get the tying touchdown – twice – but neither drives came to fruition. 

Carrey took a big shot on the first drive but his pass to the end zone, one of the best he’s thrown all year, was just off the fingertips of Kaden Robinson. The second drive ended when Middle tipped away a fourth-down pass intended for Omarion Pierce.

The Panthers took over with 4:01 to play and held it the rest of the game.

If the Rams looked like a closer bunch during their Senior Day game, credit the trip Kemp took them on Friday. After being in school all day, the Rams went to a gaming education center in Wilmington, had a nice meal together, then went to the Penns Grove-Pennsville game as a team.

“I saw something magical last night,” Kemp said. “We spent all day together. That’s what matters to me, the brotherhood outside the game. To me, that’s magical. That’s where the stuff happens. The Xs and Os are going to come. You know, you only need one spark to start a wildfire, you only need one snowflake to have an avalanche. You just have to get there.”

Middle Twp. 13, Salem 7

SCORING SUMMARY
S-Pop Jackson 6 run (Andrew May kick), 33.6 1Q
MT-Ayden Howell 18 pass from Tommy Gantt (PAT kick), 8:47 3Q
MT-Remi Rodriguez 14 run (kick failed), 23.9 3Q

Schalick game on again

PAULSBORO — The first-ever regular season meeting between Schalick and Paulsboro is on again and it has been rescheduled for 4 p.m. Monday.

The game was originally scheduled for Friday night, but was postponed due to a security concern being investigated by the host school district. Paulsboro officials learned of a threat specific to the football game circulating on social media and took action. The perpetrator reportedly has been arrested.

Now, the game will go forward at Paulsboro without restrictions.

“The waiting game is over, so now we can get ready to play a football game,” Schalick coach Mike Wilson said. “The waiting is the horrible part.”

It’ll put the Cougars is a short week – they play at Gloucester City Friday – but Wilson said none of their plans with change.

“You control the controlables, so we play Paulsboro on Monday and we move forward from there,” he said. “We’re going to keep our same schedule on game day. We’re going to keep everything as normal as possible.”

The teams have met four times previously, all in the South Jersey Group I playoffs. Monday’s game carries serious playoff seeding implications as both teams are currently in the top seven of the SJ Group I power points standings.

NOTE: Number in parenthesis is South Jersey Group I UPR power ranking through Sept. 28

SATURDAY’S GAMES
Schalick at Paulsboro, ppd.
Middle Twp. 13, Salem 7
NEXT WEEK’S GAMES
MONDAY
Schalick at Paulsboro, 4 p.m.
THURSDAY
Delran at Penns Grove, 6:30 p.m.
FRIDAY
Glassboro at Cinnaminson, 6 p.m.
Schalick at Gloucester City, 6 p.m.
Salem at West Deptford
SATURDAY
Willingboro at Woodbury, 10:30 a.m.
Woodstown at Haddon Heights, 11 a.m.

SATURDAY’S GAMES
Schalick at Paulsboro, ppd.
Clayton 42, Overbrook 42
NEXT WEEK’S GAMES
FRIDAY
Audubon at Collingswood
Salem at West Deptford
SATURDAY
Pennsville at Paulsboro, 10:30 a.m.
Camden Catholic at Overbrook, 11 a.m.