Schalick falls hard to top-seeded Glassboro in SJ Group I title game, but game was closer than final score indicated; Sabb rushes for 4 TDs

GROUP 1 FINALS
South: Glassboro 47, Schalick 14
Central: Burlington City 28, Shore 20
North I: Butler 28, Kinnelon 14
North II: Cedar Grove 37, New Providence 17

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

GLASSBORO — When Kevin Leamy looked at the scoreboard at the end of the game Friday night, the lights he saw burning into the night showed Schalick on the short end of a 47-14 loss to Glassboro in the South Jersey Group I championship game.

But in the Cougars coach’s heart of hearts, and in the hearts of his players, he knew it wasn’t that kind of game.

The Cougars actually held a lead late in the second quarter — only the second time Glassboro has trailed all year — and seemed headed for a halftime lead until the No. 1 seed did No. 1 seed things and scored two touchdowns in the final 30 seconds of the half. And it was still a one-score game midway through the third quarter.

“The scoreboard is misleading to say the least,” Leamy said.

“One hundred percent the score does not reflect this game whatsoever,” chimed in linebacker Gary Simonini.
 
The Cougars came into the game with an aggressive mindset, but sometime In the second quarter they turned it up a notch with Leamy making the call that defined the game.

He turned to one of his assistants and said the Cougars could play it safe the rest of the game and try to keep it close or they could go for it and live with the consequences.

He conveyed the message to his players and they let it all hang out. They threw it deep, they took their shots, they went for it on fourth down. They already played a little mind game with their undefeated hosts, warming up at school and then arriving shortly before kickoff, and they figured a little physicality piled on top might just do the trick.

The Cougars didn’t lay down, but eventually got worn down and the Bulldogs scored three more touchdowns in the fourth quarter to set off the running clock.

“We weren’t going to give up, we were going to keep fighting regardless what the score is,” Leamy said. “There was a lot of shock from the other side. They weren’t expecting for this to be a game at any point. They thought it was going to be a blowout from the first quarter on. I think the kids made a statement that Schalick isn’t just a pushover.

“I couldn’t be more proud of this group of kids. For them to come out and give that kind of effort, I think everyone in attendance tonight saw the true story that isn’t on that scoreboard: This team has a lot of guts, we just don’t have as many dudes as they do.”

Among the dudes at Glassboro’s disposal , Amari Sabb rushed for 242 yards and scored four touchdowns on runs of 49, 24, 31 and 32 yards. Quarterback Jack O’Connell threw two touchdown passes to break the school record for passing touchdowns. He put up a 32-yarder to Mekhi Parker on the final play of the second quarter and a 27-yarder to Xavier Sabb in the fourth quarter to break the record.

“He’s a gamer,” Glassboro coach Timmy Breaker said. “Amari, when the lights are on, he’s gonna perform. He doesn’t mind it, he loves it. He’s one of those kids like when you’re looking to count on him he can give you, No. 1, everything he’s got and, No. 2, he loves to be the guy who makes the play that change the game. Every moment to shine he’s going to step in that light, for sure.”

Schalick quarterback Kenny Bartee was a certified dude as well. He played the whole game on a bad ankle that made walking difficult as late as Tuesday. He courageously ran it 18 times, rushed for one touchdown and threw a touchdown pass to Simonini for their first score. Leamy said he was “phenomenal.”

“It was a group effort (to get back on the field),” Bartee said, even more eager to play having missed the regular season game with Glassboro because of a concussion. “I told them Saturday after the (Paulsboro) game when it happened that no matter how much pain I’m in I’m going to play Friday. No matter how much therapy I’ve got to do, no matter how much icing and heating I’ve got to do, I’m playing Friday just to be here with my boys one last time.”

The teams battled to a scoreless first quarter thanks in part to Schalick defensive back Gio Alicea’s interception in the end zone –one of three picks the Cougars had in the game – but Glassboro broke the ice with Sabb’s first touchdown early in the second.

The Bulldogs missed the extra point, opening the door for the Cougars to take the lead if they could execute. They were handed a short field after making a fourth-down stop deep in Glassboro’s end and three plays later Bartee escaped traffic in the backfield and flipped a pass to a wide open Simonini at the 2 and he easily stepped into the end zone. Hunter Dragotta’s PAT gave the Cougars a 7-6 lead with 1:07 left in the half.

All that did was enflame the Bulldogs. They regained the lead when Sabb went up the middle for a 24-yard touchdown with less than 30 seconds left in the half and then after a Sabb interception Mekhi Parker pulled in a jump ball from O’Connell on the final play of the half to make it 20-7.

“Adversity is the best teacher,” Breaker said. “You always find out who your kids are, you always find out who your staff is when you hit adversity.

“I think we were down maybe one time this year, against Woodbury, and the kids they enjoy that part. I think Schalick was hooting and hollering and the kids saw that. We were down and they said now we know we’re not playing Glassboro football. They were able to bind together off that adversity. They did a great job of responding off of that.”

The Cougars, though, let everyone know they came to play.

“We all wanted it, we all wanted it for our seniors, we all wanted it for ourselves, we all wanted it for Schalick,” Bartee said. “We all wanted it because Schalick gets slept on. We wanted to make a name for ourselves. Although we didn’t win, as bad as the score looked, that’s not how the game turned out. Glassboro hasn’t played anybody as hard as they played us, so I feel like everybody gave their all today.”

“We all put our hearts on the field and that’s really it,” safety Dylan Sheehan said. “No matter what the score shows, that was a tight game. If you were watching the game I was watching we put our hearts out on the field and that’s the best we could do.”

Top photo: Glassboro’s Amari Sabb (3) rushed for 242 yards and four touchdowns in Friday’s South Jersey Group I championship game against Schalick. (Photo by Heather Papiano)

Glassboro 47, Schalick 14

SCORING SUMMARY
G – Amari Sapp 49 run (pass failed), 9:40 2Q
S – Gary Simonini 14 pass from Kenny Bartee (Hunter Dragotta kick), 1:07 2Q
G – Amari Sabb 24 run (Amari Sabb run), 29.8 2Q
G – Mekhi Parker 32 pass from Jack O’Connell (kick failed), 0:00 2Q
S – Kenny Bartee 1 run (Hunter Dragotta kick), 6:44 3Q
G – Amari Sabb 31 run (Sal Esgro kick), 4:24 3Q
G – Amari Sabb 32 run (run failed), 9:51 4Q
G – Xavier Sabb 27 pass from Jack O’Connell (Sal Esgro kick), 7:09 4Q
G – Davon Barr 12 run (Sal Esgro kick), 3:04 4Q

Jenkins, Elliott came back to Schalick fold after other plans in offseason, played big roles in getting the Cougars to the South Jersey Group I championship game

SJ GROUP I CHAMPIONSHIP
Friday
(6) Schalick (5-6) at (1) Glassboro (11-0), 6 p.m.

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PITTSGROVE – Ayden Jenkins and Evan Elliott didn’t know how much they missed football until they sat out through the summer and watched their teammates play in the season opener, and their team didn’t know how much it missed them until Saturday.

Both juniors played key roles in Schalick’s 35-28 win over Paulsboro that sent the Cougars into Friday’s SJ Group I championship game at Glassboro.

Elliott, the team’s fullback, volunteered at the start of the week to play center despite never playing offensive line in his life when the team’s regular snapper went out of town and played the whole game.

Jenkins, a slot receiver trained at multiple positions, went to fullback with Elliott’s move, but switched back to slot when Sherrod Jones got hurt in the first series and caught two touchdown passes on consecutive series in the second quarter.

“That’s just the type of kids they are,” head coach Kevin Leamy said. “They want to do whatever they can to win; that’s their goal. If it’s going to help us win, they will do anything.”  

But there was a time when they might not have been part of the picture at all.

Both had differing reasons for not playing and stayed away through training camp and the first couple games of the year. One was done with the school and was heading off to play another sport, the other was just done with the sport. 

But they ultimately came back and they’re glad they did.

“Extremely,” Jenkins said. “I don’t think I could’ve made a better choice to come back. I really think I would’ve missed out on a lot if I didn’t come back.”

“Definitely,” added Elliott.

It wasn’t a guarantee they would be back. Both went to Leamy after the season opener, but the new coach left it to their teammates to decide. Leamy put their return to a vote and the players voted unanimously to allow them back.

They haven’t disappointed since. Elliott has provided with Cougars with power in the backfield and Jenkins has been their version of a Swiss Army knife. 

“(They’ve added) a ton,” Leamy said. “You never know what would’ve been if they didn’t come out, but I know we are a much, much better team having those two kids on the team than not having them on the team.

“I don’t know what our record would’ve been or anything like that, but I do know we are a much better team with those two kids on the field than not having them on the field.”

Jenkins was outta here.

He was headed to Delsea to wrestle and had been wrestling all summer without practicing any football, and then fate intervened. Every time he tried to get the paperwork together something glitched in the process. The deal eventually fell through and Jenkins was back at Schalick.

“I am glad I came back to play football,” he said.

Give Elliott – and maybe the fullback’s mother – an assist on that. 

Elliott was about to give up the game altogether, frustrated by playing opportunities he didn’t see when he believed he had the talent to be out there. His mother convinced him to stick it out.

“She said I’m always going to regret it not playing,” he said. “I told her I was over it, but she knows I love playing. I’ve been playing since I was 5 years old; I just loved playing. She kept trying to (convince me).

“I was kind of angry. I wasn’t missing it in the summer because I didn’t get the opportunity to play the two years before, but when I came and watched them play I realized how much I did miss playing.”

The first person Elliott told when he changed his mind was Jenkins, who was still trying to get to Delsea. He basically told him if his Delsea plans fell through “you might as well just play football.”

Well, those Delsea plans did fall through and the two were back on the football field together again. But it wasn’t automatic.

They had to approach Leamy and then had to go through the team vote. Everything worked out

They watched the season opener together, were on the sideline for the second  game and then after being welcomed back to the fold got their required six practices in to be eligible for the Penns Grove game.

All roads converged Saturday.

Jenkins had 40 yards rushing, including a 28-yard burst to set up Gary Simonini’s game-tying 2-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, and three catches for 50 yards. His touchdown catches covered 25 and 24 yards on successive drives to give the Cougars a two-touchdown lead.

“One was a pre-snap read,” he explained. “It actually was supposed back side to Dylan (Sheehan), but we had a mismatch on my side so I called Pop (Kenny Bartee) to it and the second one was a broken play. I know all the positions, but I didn’t know my route on that play so I hesitated and ran out and turned it into a wheel for a touchdown.”
 
It was Elliott who approached Leamy about playing center because he didn’t know who would have done it if he hadn’t offered. After a week of practice, he played the whole game. The Cougars amassed nearly 300 yards of offense.

“I wasn’t nervous, but it was definitely challenging playing a whole new position; I’d never done anything like that before,” he said. “I did my best, a couple mistakes here and there, but I did the best I could. There definitely were some things I could do better, but I was proud of myself.”

He’ll remain at center for as long as the Cougars remain in the playoffs. Does that mean he’s an offensive lineman for the rest of his high school career? No, and no need for anyone to convince him otherwise.

“Definitely not,” he said. “I’m going back to fullback next year.”

Tale of the Tape

2-POINT CONVERSIONS: Amari Sabb, Glassboro 7; Mehki Parker, Glassboro 4; Xavier Sabb, Glassboro 3.

Schalick scores in the closing minutes to outlast a courageous Paulsboro effort that, in the end, just ran out of time

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PAULSBORO – Kevin Leamy admitted he really didn’t know what to expect from the team that was lined up on the other side of the field. The Schalick coach practiced his team all week like they were playing a Paulsboro team at full strength, but truthfully when you’ve facing a team that’s lost almost half the roster and potentially 12 starting positions it’s anybody’s guess what the product will be on game day.

And Paulsboro gave a courageous effort in Saturday’s South Jersey Group I semifinal for the hand it was dealt, missing 16 players suspended after last week’s altercation with Woodbury and losing their lead running to an ankle injury early in the game, but in the end Schalick was able to make adjustments on the fly and pulled out a 35-28 victory to reach the sectional final – against Glassboro – for the third straight year.

“I give (Coach Kevin) Harvey and that Paulsboro group a lot of credit,” Leamy said. “When something happens, like all those kids being suspended, it’s easy to throw in the towel and not give your best effort ,but they came out and played (hard).

“They caught us off guard a little bit in the first half. We didn’t know what to game plan for, we didn’t know what they were going to go do. We didn’t know who was going to play quarterback. They came out in that Wildcat and had us outnumbered at the point of attack a couple times and it took us a while to make an adjustment, but in the second half we made adjustments and was able to shut it down. 

“(His team has) built a lot of resiliency this year. They trust that we’re going to have an answer and when push comes to shove we’re going to put them in a position to win. I think they knew we were going to make an adjustment (and) they knew the adjustment was going to work, it just took us a little longer to make that adjustment.”

Six starters were among the 16 players suspended because of the fourth-quarter fight with Woodbury, including starting quarterback Malakhai McKenzie and several all-conference linemen. The Red Raiders took another hit during the game when running back Kyaire Harvey was carried from the field with an ankle injury after a 14-yard gain on the team’s second offensive snap.

That increased the burden of production on Jahsir Johnson, Jeremiah Carr and Zay Mears. Johnson played quarterback when the Red Raiders weren’t running the Wildcat. Carr scored three touchdowns, including the tying score early in the fourth quarter. And Mears had an 80-yard touchdown run after an interception in the end zone to give the Red Raiders a 14-7 lead.

The Cougars said Paulsboro’s personnel problems didn’t affect them during the practice week. They went about their business preparing as if the Red Raiders were going to have everyone available.

“We were ready to play their full roster, the team we played three weeks ago, and we practiced like it all week,” backup quarterback and linebacker Gary Simonini said. “It prepared us for what we did today.”

Schalick quarterback Kenny Bartee scored the game-winning touchdown on a 1-yard run with 2:04 to play. It capped a 14-yard drive made short when the Red Raiders interfered with Dylan Sheehan’s fair catch of a punt inside the Paulsboro 30.

Bartee also ran for another touchdown and threw a pair of second-quarter touchdown passes to Ayden Jenkins.

The Red Raiders got the last shot to win it after Bartee’s go-ahead touchdown, but they had to go 67 yards and they most assuredly would have gone for two had they scored. And they went down fighting. They had driven deep into Schalick territory, stopping the clock on occasion with a couple strategic spikes. 

The final spike came with 15 seconds to play and the ball at the 23. On what proved to be the final play of the game, Johnson took off towards the Schalick sideline where he was met head on by Sheehan.

Their collision came with about six seconds left and although it ended with Johnson physically out of bounds after contact, the clock kept running and ultimately expired with Paulsboro’s coaches on the field pleading they should have more time. The explanation given was Johnson was knocked sideways by the contact, his forward progress stopped in bounds and it didn’t matter if he ran out, the clock kept moving and it ran out.

“It was just me and him,” Sheehan said. “It was isolated. He had a choice to either run out of bounds or stay in. He decided to try to head-fake me, basically. I knew I could bait him to try it. That was my objective. It worked. He actually sent me out of bounds. He had to make a choice and he chose wrong.” 

The season ended for the Red Raiders on the Schalick 17.

“That’s wrong, man,” Paulsboro coach Kevin Harvey said. “We played our ass off today, man. It’s wrong. It’s wrong to give it to them like that. For it to come down to that, something like that. We had our chances, but I’ve never heard of that call.”

“I think it was the right call,” Leamy said.

As for the interference on the punt, Sheehan said he always knew he was going to signal a fair catch.

“As soon as I saw the ball up high and short I threw the fair catch (sign) early because I knew it and their guy made a mistake and hit me,” he said.

The penalty took the ball inside the 15 where the Cougars set off in their heavy package daring the Red Raiders to stop it. Not even a penalty to push them back near the 10 was going to deny the quarterback.

“The last drive with the game on the line, in my head I’m thinking win or go home and we’re not ready to go home yet,” Bartee said. “We made it our goal to get to the sectional championship; that was our goal and we plan on winning it.

“On that last drive I’m just thinking let’s win. Even if I have to go 100 carries, 100 yards, this is for my boys. We’re winning this game.”

Paulsboro tied the game at 28 on Johnson’s 39-yard pass to Carr with 10:41 left in the fourth quarter. But the Red Raiders were penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct on the touchdown, which brought the most brilliant coaching decision of the game.

Knowing the Red Raiders didn’t have reliable kicker, Leamy had the penalty assessed on the point after try instead of the kickoff. Now Paulsboro needed to go 18 yards to get the go-ahead points instead of 3 and Sheehan batted away the pass they had to throw keeping the game tied.

“That really helped us,” Leamy said. “I give (assistant coaches) Doug (Volovar) and Henry (Papiano) credit for that.”

“Ultimately Kevin made the decision, I just offered a suggestion; that’s what assistant coaches do,” Volovar said. “Thought the decision was simple. Would have been a terrible way to lose if we took the yardage on the kickoff, they converted (the try) and we lost by 2.”

Top photo: Schalick quarterback Kenny Bartee celebrates with lineman Noah Bermudez. (All photos by Heather Papiano)

Schalick 35, Paulsboro 28

SCORING SUMMARY
S-Kenny Bartee 6 run (Hunter Dragotta kick), 8:06 1Q
P-Jeremiah Carr 9 run (May Mears run), 4:46 1Q
P-Zay Mears 80 run (run failed), 10:44 2Q
S-Gary Simonini 2 run (Hunter Dragotta kick), 7:03 2Q
S-Ayden Jenkins 25 pass from Kenny Bartee (Hunter Dragotta kick), 5:33 2Q
S-Ayden Jenkins 24 pass from Kenny Bartee (Hunter Dragotta kick), 2:10 2Q
P-Jeremiah Carr 3 run (Jeremiah Carr run), 0:20 2Q
P-Jeremiah Carr 41 pass from Jahsir Johnson (pass failed), 10:41 4Q
S-Kenny Bartee 1 run (Hunter Dragotta kick), 2:04 4Q