Schalick’s Purnell returns with a vengeance — 3 TDs in four minutes — to help Cougars reclaim Hars-Lake Trophy

By Al Muskewitz

BRIDGETON — All Dez Purnell could do was watch last week’s game from his living room on somebody’s Facebook Live. And he cried. He wanted to be out there with his teammates more than anyone could know, but the officials ruled him out of bounds.

At that moment the Schalick senior running back/linebacker decided when he did get back on the field again he was going to make something happen and show people who he really was.

He was all over the place Thursday against one of the Cougars’ biggest rivals, especially in the second quarter.

Purnell scored three touchdowns in a stretch of 4 minutes, 16 seconds — two on offense, one on defense — and played like the Red Power Rangers he embodied as the Cougars dominated Cumberland 41-15 to win back the Hars-Lake Trophy.

He scored touchdowns on runs of 9 and 6 yards on back-to-back possession and then on Cumberland’s next snap returned an interception 35 yards for another score. The series took the Cougars from a 7-7 tie to a 28-7 halftime lead.

“I had to make a statement,” he said. “I had to let them know, like, y’all took 2 out and now he’s back. That’s really it.

“I knew that today it was going to be hell for them. I knew 100 percent of the way I was going to show them what I was going to show them what I was made of today. I’ve been letting off a bit of the gas pedal, but there’s not any more letting up in here.”

Purnell, whose teammates call him “Dooder,” was barred from last week’s game at Paulsboro for alleged unsportsmanlike language directed towards a Salem player at the end of that controversial game. A game official reported it and Schalick upheld the decision despite Salem coach Kemp Carr going to bat for the player.

Cougars head coach Kevin Leamy called the whole situation “unfortunate.” Purnell said he didn’t say what was alleged to have been said, but accepted the consequences and seems to have put it behind him.

He gained seven yards and a first down the first time he touched the ball Thursday night. He ended up rushing for 29 yards and was an aggressive part of a defense that held the Colts to negative rushing yardage in the first half and only 22 through the first three quarters. The touchdowns were his first in his two years with the Cougars.

“So, so happy for that kid,” Leamy said. “I told him before the game if we’re going to get opportunities down at the goal line you’re going to score.

“He’s a fantastic kid. He’s done everything right since he’s been here. He’s been the perfect captain and the perfect leader and I believe in him 100 percent. He showed last week by the way he practiced the reason we picked him to be captain. I thought he showed up. He responded exactly the way you would have hoped, conducted himself perfect, played his … off and the results spoke for themselves.

“I knew the way he practiced the past week and a half he just wanted to get back on the football field, so you knew as soon as he got back onto that field, he was going to do something special and he did … It’s really the way you would hope that a kid would handle adversity.”

Purnell wasn’t the only star of the show, although he was recognized as the Cougars’ Hars-Lake MVP. Quarterback Kenny Bartee accounted for 254 yards of offense, rushed for one touchdown and connected on a 78-yard pass play with Shawn Kelly for another. Kelly, the Cougars’ kicker, caught two passes for 112 yards. Speedster David Stewart opened the scoring with a 50-yard touchdown run and had 114 yards rushing and receiving.

The seniors all came out with colors of their favorite Power Ranger sticking out of their jerseys; Bartee in green, Stewart in orange. Many of them had matching shoes. Purnell knew all about the legacy of the Red one – traditional leader, cornerstone, enhanced strength, speed and durability; the leader – and he played like it.

SCORING SUMMARY
S-David Stewart 50 run (Shawn Kelly kick), 0:09 1Q
CU-ZayMere Hall 80 pass from Malik Jones (Jett Marguglio kick), 9:52 2Q
S-DezYon Purnell 9 run (Shawn Kelly kick), 5:33 2Q
S-DezYon Purnell 6 run (Shawn Kelly kick), 3:22 2Q
S-DezYon Purnell 35 interception return (Shawn Kelly kick), 1:17 2Q
S-Kenny Bartee 14 run (kick failed), 7:43 3Q
S-Shawn Kelly 78 pass from Kenny Bartee (Dash Mayne kick), 3:30 3Q
CU-Dereon Johnson 40 run (Dereon Johnson pass from Malik Jones), 10:10 4Q

Bartee, Cougars brave the elements for big win over Paulsboro

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PAULSBORO — Kenny Bartee is the kind of player who would do whatever it takes to advance his team’s success. He took a big one for the team in a really big game Saturday.

With Schalick’s usual kick returner dealing with some soreness, Bartee, the Cougars’ athletic junior quarterback, volunteered to go back to return the second half kickoff.

He did more than just secure the ball. He picked up the wet slow roller like a shortstop and once he got a head a steam returned it 75 yards for a touchdown that put the Cougars ahead for good in an eventual 16-8 win on a messy day at Paulsboro.

“It was just magical,” Bartee said. “I love playing kickoff return. David (Stewart) is usually back there, but he’s having a little injury himself so I told them put me back there I can do something big for us and that’s all I do. Follow my blockers, trusted myself, trusted them, they told ankle bite me, I broke the tackle, stayed up and scored.”

It doesn’t happen often, but it’s not out of the ordinary for Bartee to return kicks — and with success. He has had nine kick returns over his three-year career. He had a 17-yard return in the season opener against against Maple Shade for his only other one this year and he returned one 90 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter of last year’s season opener against Somerville.

Oh, by the way, he also played defensive end on the Cougars’ final defensive stand that ended with Gary Simonini knocking away the Red Raiders’ fourth-down pass from midfield with 1:15 to play.

“I always want to do what’s best for my team,” he said.

“It’s hard to argue with him volunteering,” Cougars coach Kevin Leamy said. “It didn’t surprise me at all (he asked) and it didn’t surprise me that he returned it for a touchdown. He’s that type of kid who when we need a play he’s going to make a play. That’s what he’s done for us all year. Every time he gets the ball in his hands he does something special with it.

Bartee also scored the Cougars’ first touchdown on a 45-yard run in the first quarter that for the longest time seemed would be the only touchdown of the game as both teams tried to deal with the conditions the best they could. He finished with 94 yards rushing.

The game, played in blowing winds and a steady rain that only subsided after the final whistle, pitted the top two teams in South Jersey Group 1 power points. The undefeated Cougars (5-0) solidified their claim on No. 1 with the victory, as well as the upper hand in the WJFL Diamond Division.

“We’re the best team in South Jersey Group 1,” senior linebacker Gary Simonini said as he made his way to the bus.

That wind played a huge factor in the decisions of both teams. It gave Cougars kicker Shawn Kelly two chances to set the school field goal record when he made attempts of 46 and 49 yards with the wind at his back in the first quarter; both kicks had plenty of leg, but pulled both to the left.

The Cougars actually gained defensive ground on the plays as the ball gets spotted at the 20 after missed attempts instead of where it was tried. Their defense then held the Red Raiders to a three-and-out after the first one and forced a fumble recovered by Freddie Allen in the red zone after the other.

The wind also was the deciding factor in Leamy’s curious decision to go for it, into the wind, on fourth-and 10 from their 10 on the possession following Allen’s fumble recovery midway through the second quarter. The play didn’t yield much and it set up the Red Raiders on a short field route to their touchdown.

“Punting into the wind was not ideal,” Leamy said. “The way (Kelly) punts the ball, he puts a lot of height under his punts. He was out here punting in pregame and it was going straight up in the air. At the end of the day we thought we had a good play called. If the kids executed it, it would have gotten the first down; they didn’t execute. Sometimes you take a risk and you don’t get the reward. That’s part of it.

“So many things can happen. The last thing we need is just give them a touchdown down there in our own end. We felt like we had a good play call. It didn’t quite work in our favor.”

Evan Elliott led another strong Schalick defensive effort. They gave up only 183 yards, made the Red Devils for the only touchdown they scored even in a short field, collected three turnovers and stood their ground with the game on the line.

Elliott caught Paulsboro’s Jeremiah Carr from behind to keep the Red Raiders out of the end zone from the 1 on their short-yardage scoring drive. He threw Carr for a 10-yard loss in the middle of the drive after Bartee’s kickoff return.

Then, he was in on the safety in the fourth quarter with Malachi Hill that ran Schalick’s lead to eight. And he flushed quarterback Jahsir Johnson for a five-yard sack and accompanying intentional grounding penalty that forced the Red Raiders into the fourth-down pass Simonini knocked down to seal the victory.

“I knew I had to do my job,” Elliott said. “I’ve got my boys behind me and they did a good job, too.”

“He played phenomenal on defense,” Leamy said. “He just took over that game defensively in the second half.”

SCORING SUMMARY
S-Kenny Bartee 45 run (Shawn Kelly kick), 4:48 1Q
P-Jeremiah Carr 1 run (Marques Eli run), 2:35 2Q
S-Kenny Bartee 75 kickoff return (Shawn Kelly kick), 11:47 3Q
S-Safety, tackle in end zone, 7:49 4Q