All 5 Salem County football teams in action this weekend, but Pennsville only one playing at home; Woodstown’s Hill cleared for full contact

SALEM COUNTY GAMES
Friday’s games
Salem at Pleasantville, 6 p.m.
Schalick at Wildwood, 6 p.m.
Lower Cape May at Pennsville, 7 p.m.
Saturday’s games
Penns Grove at Woodbury, 10:30 a.m.
Woodstown at Paulsboro, 10:30 a.m.

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE – The excessive heat this week has impacted the things Pennsville wanted to get done in the run up to Friday night’s football game with Lower Cape May, but Eagles coach Mike Healy is confident everything is in place for what really is an important early-season game.

The Eagles open their WJFL Royal Division schedule with their home opener. In a division that’s not likely to get more than one team in the playoffs, getting off to a good start in the division is important. Lower Cape May lost one division game in a 6-2 regular season last year and didn’t make it.

“It’s huge from that aspect, if we want to be in that conversation at the end of the year,” Pennsville coach Mike Healy said. “The short term goal is to go 1-0 each week, any coach is going to say that, but long term, you win your first division game and now you’re in that battle all season long and your destiny is in your hands. Obviously it’s a long season, a lot of things can happen, but it feels a lot better when you’re in control of things.

“Division winners are getting in the playoffs, so if we want to accomplish our long term goals then we have to take care of business on Friday. Obviously other things can happen, but it’s better to take care of the division and not have to worry about that.”

The Eagles are 1-0 for the third time in four years. They won their season opener last year, but didn’t win another game the rest of the season. This year, they’re a lot more settled in, showed to be more sound in their technique in the opener and are just more confident going forward. The last time they were 2-0 was 2020 – the last time they beat the Tigers.

“Definitely feeling more confident than we did last year just based on how we played,” Healy said. “Every team makes mistakes during a game, but we didn’t have huge gaping issues that were apparent to us that we’re trying to cover up.

“I feel like we did a very good job last week; obviously, I was happy. It’s a different team this week. They’re 1-1, so they won a game this year. We’ve got to step up to that and I think if we play the way we can play – we want to be confident, but not overconfident – I think the kids are feeling we’re going in the right direction.”

Like all the teams in this part of the state, the Eagles have hit a few speed bumps this week because of the weather, juggling practice schedules to accommodate high temperatures and heat index. As recently as Wednesday they had to wait until the evening to get outside and then they had to start without pads.

“We definitely have changed what we’ve had to do,” Healy said. “We’re not even really sure what time we’re able to get out each day, so we start with a meeting and then we have to wait until we get the OK from the trainer to go outside.

“We’ve had limited practice time and, really, we just had to kind of pick what are the most important things we need to get done to be ready for the game. Everyone’s at a disadvantage from it, so it really comes down to who can adjust and prepare themselves the best in the limited time they’re going to have.

“Considering the circumstance I think we got in what we need to get in. Would I want more time? Yes, any coach is going to say that, but I think we did a good job as a staff getting in what needed to be put in for the game and I think the kids did a good job adjusting to the schedule and kind of just going with the flow.”

The Eagles are the only Salem County team at home this weekend. It’s the only week this season just one county team plays at home.

SCHALICK (2-0) at WILDWOOD (1-0): The Cougars are off to their best start in six years and are looking to go 3-0 for the first time since 2016 (when they started 6-0) as they open the most favorable stretch of their schedule.

But for all their early-season success, they’re also looking to put together a complete game and it starts with their Horizon Division opener – and first road game – against a Wildwood team Schalick coach Mike Wilson says looks to be one of its best in years.

The Cougars are “close,” Wilson said, but they could be a little sharper. They scored on their opening drive each of their first two games to take the lead, then held on for dear life. Last week against Pitman they opened the game with a flawless 74-yard drive that consumed nearly nine minutes, but they weren’t as consistent the rest of the way and needed a bang-bang stop of a two-point conversion in the fourth quarter to save the win.

“In hindsight we won two games against two very good teams, two solid playoff teams, both that will make a lot of noise this year, win a lot of games,” Wilson said. “We’ve just got to get better. I know that’s a coaching cliche, but that’s what it comes down to.”

The Cougars ran the table in their division last year and have won six straight division games. Of the seven games remaining on the schedule the Cougars beat six of them a year ago and the one they didn’t is 0-2 this season and lost to Wildwood last week.

Schalick leads the series with Wildwood 14-1 and have won the last 10 in a row. Last year’s 29-12 win was the closest game of the winning streak.

SALEM (0-2) at PLEASANTVILLE (1-1): The Rams go into their third game under new coach Danny Mendoza looking to put it all together. In their first game the offense and special teams held their own but the defense let them down. Last week it was just the opposite.

More than anything, they need to be sharper in the second half. In the opener they trailed 14-13 midway through the third quarter, then got outscored 28-6. Last week against Camden, a Group III state semifinalist last year, one bad bust on a pass coverage late in the second quarter led to a touchdown and a 7-0 halftime deficit, but they were swamped 27-0 after halftime.

“We competed, we just made really, really bad mistakes at the really wrong times,” Mendoza said. “Against teams with that size and those kind of guys you have to be, not perfect, but you got to be definitely teed in on a different level to be able to take that game from them.

“(What they did in the first half) I’m proud of them, but we have to sustain it. We can’t just be a first-half football team. That’s what we’re working on, understanding how to be a second-half football team … We’ve got to clean everything up. This is a big week for us.”

Salem is scheduled to open division play next week against Penns Grove, but a developing non-football related issue may impact the venue of the game. It is Salem’s home game, but because of the Rams’ on-going stadium project, it was moved to Penns Grove and then last week was moved back to Salem’s Walnut Street Field for what would be the final high school game played there.

But safety concerns around the game make playing it there an open question. Salem police declined to comment, deferring to the high school. Salem High officials call it an “ongoing situation” and continue to collect information. Penns Grove remains willing to host the game.

Saturday’s games

WOODSTOWN (1-0) at PAULSBORO (0-1): The Wolverines have had this game circled on their calendar for nine months, ever since the Red Raiders knocked them out of the playoffs.

They blanked Paulsboro during the regular season, but the script flipped in the higher-staked rematch. If that game taught them anything, it was the importance of being sharp and winning the turnover battle, lessons they’re sure to recall when they hit the field Saturday.

“It’s been something we’ve talked about since Day One, coming up short in that game and how well they played and executed and we didn’t,” Woodstown coach John Adams said. “It’s been a big focus … on doing our job, executing and finishing.”

The Wolverines got good news Wednesday when running back James Hill was cleared to return to full contact practice. Hill had been rehabbing off-season knee surgery and was cleared to return to football without contact last month.

He was expected to get full clearance Sept. 13, but his recent evaluation came in time to fulfill his six full practice requirement to be available for Game 3 next week at Deptford. He practiced Wednesday in shoulder pads and helmets because of the heat and Adams said “he looked good, he’s moving around good” and is “itching” to get back to full duty.

When Hill does play, he’ll probably start out at outside linebacker and maybe get in the mix at receiver before transitioning into the backfield. He’s a 3,000-yard career rusher.

PENNS GROVE (0-2) at WOODBURY (1-0): The Red Devils take a different approach and a lot of motivation into their first road game of the year and Diamond Division opener against the defending Group I state champions.

For the first two weeks, the emphasis was ball security and eliminating turnovers, but the Red Devils had 13 in the first two losses (nine lost fumbles) and are minus-9 in turnover ratio. Four of the turnovers have been inside their opponents 30 – two after sizeable gains – and seven inside the 40. That doesn’t count a fourth-down stop inside the 15.

Opponents have turned five of the takeaways into touchdowns, either directly on the return or on the ensuing possession. The Red Devils have converted two of their takeaways into touchdowns, including  their only score against Pleasantville, and that’s the messaging going forward.

“Maybe I ought to change my emphasis from ball security to winning the turnover battle,” Penns Grove coach John Emel said. “We scored off our turnover so I think the key emphasis for me is turnovers lead to points and if we’re going to turn the ball over the other team is going to score more points than us. We need to get more turnovers and we need to protect the ball.

“I think we played better last week. Our defense can be pretty good. We cut down on the penalties, we played more disciplined, we limited big plays, but, again, we have to protect the football. We’re not good enough on offense to just waste possession and that’s what we’ve been doing.”

The Red Devils have plenty of motivation to break into the win column in this one. Woodbury has knocked them out of the playoffs each of the last two years and on a lesser scale the Thundering Herd rallied from a 12-0 deficit to beat them in the finals of the Taliaferro Foundation 7-on-7 tournament in June.

Photo credit: Lorraine Jenkins

Pennsville feeling good about season going into opener; all 5 county football teams in action this week

SALEM COUNTY SCHEDULE
Thursday’s games
Pleasantville at Penns Grove, 10 a.m.
Pennsville at Lindenwold, 6 p.m.
Haddon Heights at Woodstown, 7 p.m.
Friday’s game
Pitman at Schalick, 7 p.m.
Saturday’s game
Camden at Salem, noon

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE – Sky Eppes had never played running back on any level of organized football until Pennsville’s season opener last year against Lindenwold. But his first game – heck, his first carry – seemed to set him up as a natural.

The then-junior admittedly was a little nervous going into it, but the first time he ever carried the ball in a varsity game he broke off a 20-yard run. He had two other long runs later, went for 200 yards and two touchdowns on 24 busy carries and the Eagles won by outscoring their visitors 34-26 when the clock ran out on the Lions.

The boys in blue seemed to be on their way to something special. But it didn’t continue. That spectacular beginning would be their only win as a bad mixture of internal and external forces conspired to tear their season apart.
 
Eppes and the Eagles open the new season against the same opponent Thursday – this time on the road — hoping for similar first-game results and confident about the needle trending upwards as they move forward.

“We won the game, but they had the ball driving it with time running out for a chance to tie it up, so it wasn’t like it was an easy game or anything for us,” Eagles coach Mike Healy said. “Obviously, it was great to get a win, but we knew we had some issues. 

“This year I feel more confident going into it, for sure. I think we’re just better overall (on) offense and defense right now going into it. We think we’re better prepared this year, better ready to go. We’ve played much better this preseason. We’re limiting a lot of mistakes. We still have some, but we’re doing a better job of limiting them going forward.”

The issues of last year behind them, the Eagles have brought in some new coaches with links to their most recent decorated past and the players are buying into what the coaches are selling. Now, it’s a matter of executing when they get on the field.

Lindenwold spread the Eagles out last year and exposed their coverage issues, but the Lions showed to be heavy run last week in their 19-0 season opening loss at Sterling.  

“We just want to execute properly, that’s really what it is,” Healy said. “We feel if we execute properly we can be in and win any game this year. I’m very excited with the group we have going this year. We’re still a young team but we have more experience coming back. There’s definitely anticipation because we think we can accomplish better stuff this year.

“We’re not dealing with internal things right now. We’re all focused on what the goal is. Everyone seems to have bought into their role on the team and understand that if we’re going to be successful we need all 11 guys on that field to do their job each time. We’re playing more as a team instead of 11 individuals.”

Eppes was as much a victim of whatever implosion was going on with the Eagles as anybody. He got moved to running back because Healy wanted some speed in the backfield and the move paid off with the 200 yards against Lindenwold, but he had only 452 in the eight games that followed.

His best rushing game the rest of the year was 97 yards against Schalick. In his defense, he also was used as a receiver and had 115 yards receiving against Cumberland.

“I was hyped,” he said about his first game at running back. “I was like we’re going to have a good year … and turn Pennsville around and bring it back to where it was in 2014. But it didn’t happen that way.”

This year promises to be better because attitudes are different and the Eagles have a scheme in place designed to put Eppes and the offense in situations to be able to do better. Now, he wants to set school rushing and touchdown records – once he learns what they are – and for the offense to have big games every week.

“This is my senior year; I’m trying to run as hard as I can and put up numbers,” he said. “I want to hit a big score again, I want to go hit a big score on everybody.

“We had bigger linemen (last year) but it isn’t about how big and strong you are, it’s about the heart that we have. The heart we have in this team will go very far. The heart and compassion for this team is what’s going to bring us along.”

PLEASANTVILLE (0-1) at PENNS GROVE (0-1): After suffering seven turnovers in their season opener – six lost fumbles – the Red Devils spent the week working on the highest priority for the offense – ball security. They moved the ball well enough to win, rushing for 328 yards, but the turnovers killed them. 

There wasn’t an idle moment in practice this week when a Penns Grove player didn’t have a football tucked tightly on their person. The thing coach John Emel didn’t want to see was a ball on the ground or the Red Devils would have, um, the hot place to pay.

“We made it a point of emphasis,” Emel said. “We practiced a lot of ball security drills. It’s not something we don’t talk about. Everybody has a Big 3 keys to win – we’ve done it forever – and the No. 1 on our board is always been ball security. If you take care of the ball, you win the turnover battle, no matter what else happens you have a better opportunity to win the game.

“We didn’t do that; that’s disappointing. We’ve definitely got to be better. I’m optimistic we’ll go out and play a lot better on Thursday and we’ll fix the things where we made mistakes. It wasn’t just a bad game, it’s the worst turnover game we’ve ever had in my 20 years of coaching high school.”

The most positive takeaway from the game was the debut of freshman Karon Ceaser. The Red Devils’ first true freshman skill position starter in 20 years rushed for 155 yards and two touchdowns, but he wasn’t immune to fumbling either. The difference was he recovered his.

Pleasantville also is looking to get on the right track. The Greyhounds are coming off a 14-6 loss to Ocean City in the Battle at the Beach. They beat Penns Grove last year 26-2.

HADDON HEIGHTS (0-0) at WOODSTOWN (0-0): https://godaddy623.wordpress.com/2023/08/29/a-ware-of-history/

PITMAN (0-0) at SCHALICK (1-0): The Cougars’ dramatic season-opening win over their longest-tenured rival sets them up for another piece of history this week.

The Cougars have a chance to go 2-0 for the first time since 2017 when they opened the season with back-to-back shutouts of Wildwood and Riverside and set up what some observers think can be an even more historic start.

Coaches are notorious for not looking ahead (publicly, at least) so coach Mike Wilson’s focus this week was correcting the mistakes that were made in the opening – and there were some – and simply going 1-0 this week.

“It’s like I told the kids Saturday when we watched the film, we still haven’t played our best football yet,” Wilson said. “We did a lot of good things, but we left a lot of points on the field and made a lot of opening-game mistakes we’ve been fixing this week.

“The kids know we did a good job, but that’s over with now and we’ve got to get better. There’s a lot of room for growth. I expect us to make a big jump this week.”

Another thing the film revealed was just how good a game junior nose T.J. Hymer had. Hymer made the back-to-back stops on the goal line to keep Gloucester City from taking the lead at that point in the fourth quarter, but he did more than that.

“We knew T.J. played a great game, but he played probably the best football game of his life Friday night,” Wilson said. “What he did at nose Friday night, he played well, but watching the film, he played excellent. If I was grading his film, he would get high grades across the board.”

The Cougars lead the series 21-17. They have won 12 of the last 13 by some substantial margins, including an 11-game winning streak that was snapped in 2020.

CAMDEN (0-1) at SALEM (0-1): Now that they’ve sorted out where they’re going to play, the Rams can get back to the bigger business of fixing the things that went wrong in their opening-game loss to Executive Education.

The focus of the week has been tightening up their defense. The Rams were as close as 14-13 in the third quarter, then got outscored 28-6 the rest of the game.

“Our guys knew what we do, we just didn’t do it,” Rams coach Danny Mendoza said. “The discipline part of defense is what we need to focus on to get us on the right track. We’ve got guys who can make plays, we’ve just got to get those guys to do what we’re telling them.”

Now that he’s seen what his team has and needs at the speed of a real game, Mendoza can go about tweaking the defense to put players in more advantageous positions for their skill sets.

It’s a new experience for Mendoza, too. His experience has long been on offense, but the late timing of his hiring dictated Mendoza take the role of overseeing a defense for the first time. He’s brought a different look to the unit and it’s a work in progress for both sides.

“It’s a new role,” he said. “As an offensive guy you always make the defense the villain. Now, you have to even it out. The offense will always be solid, but we’ve got to make sure we’re just as solid on that side of the ball as well.”

The game was supposed to be part of the Mid-Atlantic Pigskin Classic at Wilmington’s Abessinio Stadium, but conflicts at the site led to both teams pulling out. The game now will be played at Salem’s Walnut Street Field, the Rams’ long-time stomping grounds that fell into disrepair and led to the school building an on-campus stadium.

Photo: Pennsville’s Sky Eppes (1) runs the ball back during a recent scrimmage against Haddon Heights. Eppes and the Eagles make their regular-season debut Thursday night at Lindenwold. (Photo by Lorraine Jenkins)