Cougars score 63 straight points after having opening-play TD called back and falling behind, Stewart scores 4 TDs in first 18 minutes

FRIDAY’S WJFL SCORES
(Diamond, Independence Divisions)
Schalick 63, Maple Shade 6
Pennsville 28, Woodstown 21 (OT)
New Egypt 23, Buena 22
Deptford 30, Woodbury 6

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PITTSGROVE — When Schalick’s David Stewart talked about his goals for the season ahead, he let it be known deep down he really wanted to be first team all-state on defense.

If he keeps doing what he did in the Cougars’ season opener Friday night, he just might end up as a two-way honoree, if there is such a thing.

The speedy senior scored four touchdowns in 18 minutes of gametime in the Cougars’ 63-6 pasting of Maple Shade. He would have had a fifth, too — all in the first half — had a 64-yard catch from Kenny Bartee on the first snap of the season not been called back by an odd pass interference penalty.

He scored on runs of 18, 6 and 58 yards and had a 38-yard punt return helping the Cougars open a 42-6 halftime lead.

“The offense tonight, everything came together,” Stewart said. “All of our guys were blocking, everything just really came together and started working. Even though we had some mess-ups in the beginning, which happens, we just came together as a team and I just started running the ball, started getting the yards, started scoring.

“That’s just the way it ended up working out tonight and it definitely changed my perspective on a lot of things, because now I know I can go out, score a lot, get yards when the team needs, so it does change my perspective. Now, I really want to go for first team on offense and maybe defense, too. I don’t know if you can only get one, but go for both.”

Stewart finished with 114 yards rushing on seven carries. The Cougars rushed for 309 yards as a team. Head coach Kevin Leamy joked the line blocked so well against the Wildcats even his 40-year-old body could have gotten through the holes, but Stewart is dangerous anytime he gets the ball in his hands.

He runs from in the backfield, he runs from the outside. He catches passes and runs. He picks off passes and returns kicks. Doesn’t matter. He gets in the clear, he’s gone.

“We have a lot of kids who can carry the football,” Leamy said. “Obviously he looked phenomenal (tonight). All he needs is a step. He’s that special kid where he can accelerate to 100 before anyone else. He gets a step he’s just different.”

Bartee, meanwhile, watched the Cougars’ two preseason scrimmages from the sidelines while a nasty gash on his left big toe was healing. All the while he couldn’t wait to get back on the field and do something big when he finally did.

It didn’t take long. The Wildcats won the toss and deferred putting Schalick’s offense on the field to start the game. 

The Cougars had been itching to run the play they called to open the game since Monday. Stewart got behind the defense and Bartee laid a long throw into his arms in the open field for a season-opening score. The play was called back when the officials said Stewart wasn’t lined up properly and it turned into pass interference when he caught the ball.

“The first play tonight was about sending a statement to tell everybody we’re here,” Bartee said. “Last year we folded a little bit, but we’re here to make a statement. Our initial goal was to make a big play and then run the ball down their throat. It was definitely a mood killer (to be called back) because we practiced this play so much to perfect it, came here and perfected it and then it got called back. We just had to get back on the field and just play.”

“I’m happy that it worked because now know we can come out with a big play if we need to,” Stewart said. “It not working hurts your soul a little bit because it was a big play.” 

They eventually lost the possession on a fumble and the Wildcats responded with a 39-yard touchdown pass. It was their longest play of the game.

Stewart answered with his first touchdown and it was all Schalick the rest of the way. They scored 63 straight points. They set up the running clock for the entire second half on cornerback Gio Alicea’s 54-yard pick-six on the final play of the second quarter.

“When I caught it I was like, get to the end zone, don’t let anybody tackle me,” he said. 

Bartee ran 31 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter and the Cougars turned it over to the JVs for a little fun in the fourth.

Freddie Allen broke off a 26-yard touchdown run on the JV’s first snap to open the quarter and later senior Shawn Kelly, who had been kicking extra points all game, scored his first touchdown since eighth grade when he hauled in a 32-yard pass from Gabe McFarland.

Leamy told him if the Cougars didn’t the get the first down when they put him in the game they would let him test his ample leg for a long field goal. He thwarted those plans when he caught McFarland’s pass along the far sideline and raced into the end zone.

“I loved it,” Kelly said. “I love playing receiver. It’s so much fun. I do it at practice all the time. It’s like practice. I’m just going out there, catching the ball – touchdown. I liked the touchdown way more (than the field goal option). I wanted the touchdown 100 percent.”

SCORING SUMMARY
MS-Brayden Howard 39 pass from Donovan Overby-Washington (kick blocked), 9:24 1Q
S-David Stewart 18 run (kick blocked), 5:50 1Q
S-David Stewart 6 run (Shawn Kelly kick), 11:00 2Q
S-David Stewart 38 punt return (Shawn Kelly kick), 8:52 2Q
S-David Stewart 58 run (Shawn Kelly kick), 5:55 2Q
S-Kenny Bartee 22 run (Evan Elliott pass from Ayden Jenkins), 4:29 2Q
S-Gio Alicea 54 interception return (Shawn Kelly kick), 0:00 2Q
S-Kenny Bartee 31 run (Shawn Kelly kick), 3Q
S-Freddie Allen 21 run (Shawn Kelly kick), 11:32 4Q
S-Shawn Kelly 32 pass from Gabe McFarland (Shawn Kelly kick), 4Q

Schalick scrapped the 7-on-7s, spent all summer working to perfect the things it does best to ‘take the next step’

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PITTSGROVE – Say what you will about 7-on-7 not being real football, but a lot of teams take advantage of the platform over the summer to work on their passing game – on both sides of the ball – even if the big linemen aren’t there to provide protection.

Schalick used to be one of those teams and it still might be in the future, but this summer the Cougars took a step back from the traditional offseason exercise, doing what head coach Kevin Leamy called “staying low key and just putting in a lot of … old-fashioned hard work and getting prepared.”

The Cougars did four years of 7-on-7s when Mike Wilson was head coach, and they continued last year in Leamy’s first season, but given their approach to offense and the experience of the team they had, the thought was to just keep things in-house and work on making what they do best even better. As such, they didn’t see another color uniform after last year’s South Jersey Group 1 championship game until their first preseason scrimmage against Delsea on Aug. 18.

“Time will tell if it was good,” Leamy said. “We feel like it was the right decision. The kids are on board with it. Everyone has bought in to the reason why we haven’t done it. Now time will tell whether we’re the idiots who are the only ones not doing it or maybe we’re on to something.

“For us, my No. 1 thing is I had a schedule that worked really well that was allowing kids to be kids for their summer and we were going to limit the amount of times we were here. But when you limit time you only have so much time to get things done. So, in my view, taking that extra day we would’ve done a 7-on-7 and making it a practice we were able to get a lot more done in terms of football than you could ever get done in a 7-on-7.”

The Cougars have always been run heavy anyway. They looked to bring more passing into the offense a couple years ago when the coaching staff at the time realized how much not having that part of the game cost them in the playoffs. They’ve always had the weapons to make it work, but that’s not their bread-and-butter.

The skill position players didn’t really miss it and neither did the linemen who weren’t a part of it anyway.

“We know what we have, we know what we are, we know our identity,” backup quarterback and middle linebacker Gary Simonini said. “We can throw the ball if we need to any time we want, but 7-on-7 I feel really distracts people from the game and it wastes a lot of crucial time to where you can be learning in the summer before the season gets to the nitty gritty as opposed to just like going out to these 7-on-7s where you just see guys running unrealistic plays that you’re never going to see on a Friday night.

“We’ve got a lot of guys returning. We know how these plays look. Now, it’s about perfecting them and fine tuning them and making adjustments. It’s not about everyone else, it’s about us. If we can be our best, that’s all we have to worry about.”

That self-examination was particularly good for this team. Last year was their first season under Leamy and that came with the usual learning curve on both sides. Now, the players have a better understanding of the playbook and expectations and the good core of returning players can work on honing the plan rather than learning it while blending the “decent amount of freshmen” they have, several of whom are likely to play, into the fold without the pressure of competition or hype of 7-on-7. 

“Staying together and running the plays as a team with everybody together I think helped us,” lineman Aiden Torres said. “When we did 7-on-7 last year and were running our plays the line didn’t have a real look to see what was going on so we had a lot of missed blocks, mistakes; we were all over the place. I think this year us staying together more as a team and getting more of a scout, and looks at what we needed to see and do, helped us.”

That’s not to say they won’t do 7-on-7 again. Leamy said he reviews every year and a lot of it depends on the type of team and leadership it has.

“We just felt this was best for us for this year for this group,” Leamy said.

Whatever the Cougars do on offense this season it will all run through quarterback Kenny Bartee. The athletic junior missed the team’s two preseason scrimmages with a nasty gash on his big toe, but he’ll be ready to go for the season opener against Maple Shade. Last year he rushed for 703 yards and 11 touchdowns while throwing for 613 yards and six scores. 

Their next biggest weapon is David Stewart. The senior track star is a threat to break a long one whether it’s catching a pass or breaking off a run. He caught nine passes for 189 yards last year, with a long of 73, and was the team’s second leading rusher with 373 yards on 41 carries.

But they also return playmakers Ayden Jenkins, Dez Purnell and Gary Sinomini, who combined for 356 yards on 139 carries, and most of the offensive line is back. The Cougars graduated a lot of points in record-setting kicker Hunter Dragotta, but they shouldn’t miss a step with Shawn Kelly.

“The biggest thing is it’s Year Two, they know what to do really well,” Leamy said. “Bartee is just in a so much better spot right now than he was last year. He understands the offense more, he’s throwing the ball better, his footwork is better, his reads are better. Everything in light-years better than it was last year.

“The idea is that we take that next step from where we ended last year, which was a really good spot, instead of starting back from the beginning where we had to work our way up throughout the season.”

Most of the offensive starters double up on defense. It will be anchored by the front six that includes Torres and Noah Bermudez up front and middle linebackers Simonini (53.5 tackles) and Purnell (80 tackles). Stewart brings his speed to the secondary, where he had four interceptions last year, and is looking to produce an all-state kind of year.

“I think we’re looking way better than people expected us to,” Stewart said. “People come out here and expect to roll over us because we’re from the country, we’re not that big, but it’s football. We’re going to come out here to hit and play no matter what.”

The Cougars got off to a slow start last year and went through a rough patch in the middle of the season, but they still played in the sectional final for the third year in a row. With a solid group of returnees and an offseason to work exclusively on themselves, they go into this season with high expectations looking for more.

“Overall I think we’re where we need to be,” Leamy said. “The biggest thing, it’s Group 1 football, the biggest thing is depth. Everyone understands it’s going to be the-next-man-up and everyone’s ready to go. Everyone’s ready to play.”