Schalick laying a claim to be in conversation for the best team in Group 1 after second straight dominant win; Bartee runs for 238 yards, 4 TDs

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PITTSGROVE — For the second week in a row Schalick opened the game with something unexpected. It didn’t work out as planned, but in the grand scheme of things it didn’t impact the end result.

The Cougars might not have been as prolific as they were in last week’s season opener, but once they got in gear they were just as dominant. And dominant was the operative word.

Quarterback Kenny Bartee rushed for a career-high 238 yards and four touchdowns, the defense held their opponent to less than 100 yards until the final play and it all added up to a 28-6 win over Burlington City in the WJFL Diamond Division opener for both teams.

“We started a little slow,” Cougars coach Kevin Leamy said. “It’s still September, the second week of the week, we don’t have to be good all the time right now.

“We have to learn from our mistakes. We have to continue to get better. And we have to be more consistent through games, not do it only in the second half or only in the first half. We just have to be more consistent. If we can figure that out by November, we’ll be all right.”

Bartee scored on runs of 28, 61, 17 and 56 yards for the second four-TD game of his career. He would have had a fifth and close to 300 yards rushing had another big run not been called back by a penalty. His first and third touchdowns were Bartee Bulldozers, runs in which he simply bowled over potential tacklers at various points in the run.

The first one he steamrolled BC’s Donato Perro at the goal line to get into the end zone. On the other he blew up a challenger in the backfield to open a running lane.

“I just felt like I had something to prove,” Bartee said. “Last week I didn’t have the game I wanted to have, so this week I came out with the mentality like I’m here for my team. This is going to be a really hard game, they were a really good team last year – they went 12-1 – I just gotta come out and prove to them that we are the best team in Group 1 and we’re going to show them.”

He also came in with a different pair of shoes. It had to be the shoes. He did all his damage in the old-school black cleats, scrapping the dazzling green-and-gold pair he sported in last week’s 63-6 rout of Maple Shade.

“Today I came in with my old cleats and I just felt great out here,” he said. “The cleats were hurting my feet. It was either SWAG or the feet not hurting, and I chose feet not to hurt.”

The Cougars never really got going until the second half. They had a 7-0 lead at halftime, but had almost as many yards in penalties as they did in total offense. It was a different story in the second half as they rolled up 290 yards of offense — all on the ground — and scored three touchdowns.

They showed they meant business right off the bat with Bartee going 61 yards on the second play from scrimmage. But it wasn’t just the quarterback being the big mover. Ayden Jenkins ran for 51 yards on seven hard-nosed carries in the third quarter.

“The linemen really locked in in the third quarter,” Jenkins said. “They did what they had to do. There were a couple holes, but they were making it happen. It’s hard to get going when it’s hot outside. I think the second half it really turned on. We got a little energy coming out of halftime.”

The defense was stout throughout. They kept Blue Devils quarterback Mason Shansey on the run all night, intercepted three passes, and held them to 81 yards of net offense until Darius Davis broke off an 82-yard run with 40 seconds left in the game to ruin the shutout.

“The way the defense played, we came out there and dominated,” said cornerback Gio Alicea, who had two of the three picks and now has three in two games. “On the pass we were playing pressure, every time he had to run, scramble, so he was getting nervous back there. He kept throwing it up and my defense got it.”

“All you need to know is we’re coming, we’re coming and we’re the best Group 1 team in South Jersey,” linebacker DezYon Purnell said. “Our chemistry is there. Everybody has been playing together since we were kids, since we were like 5-6. All our chemistry is just here. We’re locked in. That’s what makes the defense better, like the whole team is better.”

Most coaches would bristle at hearing a player throw down the “we are the best” gauntlet like Bartee and Purnell have. It might be OK to think it, they’d usually say, but keep it in the house. But Leamy likes the outward expression of confidence, even if it is his job to temper it a little.

“That has been their mentality the whole year,” Leamy said. “They’re 15-, 16-year old kids, they should feel like that; they should want to be the best in Group 1. The coaching staff counterbalances that by repeatedly saying that is not our goal. We have very different goals as the coaching staff than they do as kids, which I think is healthy.

“I want them to be confident, but our job is to humble them and to change those ways to make it more micro. We need to be good at practice. We need to be good day-to-day. We want them to be confident, we want them to be aggressive, but it’s our job to pull that into the right direction.”

For the second week in a row the Cougars tried to catch everyone off guard with a novel play at the start. Last week on their first snap of the season they opened with Bartee throwing a long pass to David Stewart for a touchdown that was called back by a penalty. This week they opened with an onsides kick the officials ruled didn’t go the requisite 10 yards before kicker Shawn Kelly, who followed the ball off the tee, touched it and awarded it to the Blue Devils; the Cougars insisted he didn’t touch it early.

In any event, it was a play the staff rolled out to show the players the confidence they had in their ability to respond.

“We want to send the message to the players that the coaching staff believes in them to win so we’re going to be super aggressive in putting them in situations to take advantage of things we feel going into the week we can take advantage of,” Leamy said. “We’re always going to push those boundaries to be aggressive because we believe they’re good enough to make the plays when they’re called.”

SCORING SUMMARY
S-Kenny Bartee 28 run (Shawn Kelly kick), 10:59 2Q
S-Kenny Bartee 61 run (Shawn Kelly kick), 10:55 3Q
S-Kenny Bartee 17 run (Shawn Kelly kick), 11:19 4Q
S-Kenny Bartee 56 run (Shawn Kelly kick), 2:39 4Q
BC-Darius Davis 18 run (pass failed), 0:40 4Q

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