Courier-Post from Camden, New Jersey • Page 25

TTTTT 11 iv TO' iTK "Wk r-fc. n1 yv defee toes wiiiin gBOTGl anfiro lino rtlnrasf fliA ttrknla nimo Thotr By PHIL ANASTASIA Of the Courier-Post PENNSAUKEN A relentless defense led Pennsauken to a 14-0 victory over Wil-lingboro in the championship game of the South Jersey Group 4 football tournament. The win secured the first sectional title for Pennsauken, the No. 1 team in the Top Ten Poll, and improved the Indians' record to 10-1. Willingboro ended its season with an 8-3 mark.

The game pivoted on the matchup of the Pennsauken defense, which had allowed only 54 points and had posted four shutouts, against the Willingboro offense, which entered play with 1 9 1 points scored. It was a mismatch. for the conversion. With 8:51 to play, Pennsauken led 14-0. James completed 47-yard pass to Long and Willingboro reached the Pennsauken one-yard line with more than five minutes remaining.

But Faucette fumbled and linebacker Stepfon Holsey recovered. The Chi-1 meras' final possession ended when, Bundy intercepted a James pass. "They didn't let us do the things we like to do," said Willingboro Coach Joe DeVito. "When we did do something right, maybe move the ball a little bit, we'd make a crucial mistake. You can't do that and win against a team like Pennsauken.

"One key was their physical superiority based on the two-platoon system. They had one guy (Hicks) going both ways, and our of James. "We tried to string it out, forced James to take the inside, where the linebackers could get him. We wanted to control the game with the defense and hope to force a mistake, maybe get a break to pick up the offense." The break came early in the fourth period, when James rolled left from his own three-yard line. Linebacker Joe Johnson corralled James, forcing a fumble.

Safety Barry Butler picked up the football at the two-yard line and stepped in the end zone for a touchdown. Willingboro fumbled on the first play on its ensuing series. John Rodia recovered and Pennsauken drove 35 yards in five plays for a touchdown. Ivan Hicks scored on a keeper left, then passed to Brian Watson GROUP 4 FINAL Willingboro gained 204 yards and nine first downs, but 80 yards and five first downs came in a second-quarter consuming drive that ended when Chuck Faucette missed a 36-yard field goal attempt. Quarterback Ron James managed only 42 yards on the ground and completed only two passes.

Halfbacks Eric Bosley and Mel Long combined for less than 30 yards. The Chimeras committed turnovers on each of their last five possessions. j'; "It's been the defense all year and it was the defense again today," said right corner- back Bill Adair, who along with left corner-back Wayne Bundy keyed the containment wore us down, just beat us up inside." Leaders of the Pennsauken defense were linebackers Holsey and Johnson, backs Adair and Bundy, linemen Kurt Ro(an, Bill Wesley and Tim Smalls. Rodia, Wesley and Butler recovered fum- bles; Hicks and Bundy lifted interceptions bringing the season total of thefts by the Pennsauken defense to 22. Pennsauken took the opening kickoff ground out four first downs, reaching the Willingboro 12-yard line before DeVito.

called timeout. The Chimeras went to a. goal-line type defense and subsequently .7. stopped Ron Overton for no gain and threw Please see INDIANS, Page Straiig leads rally as 'Mainland wins GROUP 3 FINAL ii tvtYmf trell and Tim Kelly, who battled for the recovery at the 26. "That was the turning point, and it was my fault," said losing Coach Larry Mauriello.

"I thought for sure they would have tried an onsides kick, so I ordered our prevent defense. This left Tony back there by himself. It was dangerous, sure, but it was something we had to guard against. The wind hurt us." It didn't take Strang and Company long to eat up the opportunity. Calvin Robinson, who rushed for 92 yards in 21 carries, made five yards to the 21 and Strang negotiated a beautiful touchdown pass to Mastera for the winning points with 5:50 left.

"It was an out-and-up pattern," explained Strang of the pass that Mastera caught in perfect stride just inside the flag at the goal line. "they had intercepted us earlier on the out pattern, so we went with a little hitch that time." Strang closed the scoring with a two-point conversion pass to Kelly. MAINLINERS More than 3,500 attended the hard-fought game "I thought Overbrook was the best team in South Jersey until today," said Mauriello. "Now, I think we're three points below the best team'. Don Shanteau, Kevin O'Dowd and Mastera recorded Mainland interceptions Short and Whittington duplicated for Overbrook Mumford finished senior season with 1,205 yards rushing Loss ended a 14-game winning streak for Overbrook and prevented Rams from Please see MAINLAND, Page 8B By1 WALT BURROWS Of the Courier-Post PINE HILL Quarterback Doug Strang scored a touchdown and passed for another in the space of 1:16 here yesterday to lead Mainland High-School to a 15-12 come-from-behind victory over previously unbeaten Overbrook and the South Jersey Group 3 championship.

1 It was a rock'em-sock'em type of a football game, with neither team able to sustain an edge in a scoreless first half, although the Mustangs had three opportunities go astray on two missed field goals and a fumble. Overbrook, its offense controlled in the first half, exploded in the third period, thanks to a 62-yard run by halfback Tony Mumford. He darted through the right side of his own line, cut diagonally across field, got a nifty block from Clyde Holmes and bid the field goodbye. There was 1:48 left in the third period after Roy Brannigan's attempted kick went wide, and the Rams, No. 2 in the latest Top Ten Poll, had a 6-0 lead.

Bob Whittington, an outstanding two-way performer all day, gave Overbrook an opportunity to increase its lead by intercepting a Strang pass on the first play following the ensuing kickoff and returning it 19 yards to the Mainland 14. Mumford, who rushed for 139 yards in 16 carries, bulled to the five and Charlie Short (13 carries, 50 yards) plunged to the four as the third period ended. Mumford wasted little time four seconds to be exact in making it 12-0 by knifing over tackle for the touchdown. An attempted pass for the extra point failed. Mainland, a veteran club, then began to show its true character.

The Mustangs bounded back, going 68 yards in a 10-play drive that included four first downs and an accurate display of passing by Strang. The 6-2, 197-pound senior, who rushed for 69 yards in 17 carries and accounted for an additional 130 yards by going 9-for-14 through the airlanes, hit Jim Mastera and Tim Kelly with 17- and 11-yard comple- tions, respectively, to help the No. 4-ranked Mustangs reach the Overbrook seven. Dropping back to pass and finding all his receivers covered, Strang threaded his way through to the one, where be bended and twisted his way past two Overbrook defenders for a touchdown. Jim (Jooper's conversion made it 12-7 with 7:06 to play, Then came the chess game.

Overbrook looked for an onsides kick and employed its onsides prevent defense, 10 players up close and Mumford deep in case the Mainland strategy was to kick deep. The kick went high and deep into the wind, 1 which caught the ball and brought it back toward the kicker. Realizing he had to cover the ball, Mumford raced up and had it glance off his leg and back to the Mustangs' Joe Cot- Break away C-P photography by Sam Kushner Tony Mumford of Overbrook High School breaks into the clear en route to a 62-yard touchdown against Mainland yesterday in the South Jersey Group 3 playoff game. Mumford scored twice, the other coming on a four-yard run. Game-WinnerC-P photography by Sam Kushner Mainland High School quarterback Doug Strang lets loose with the winning 21 -yard touchdown pass to Joe Mastera yesterday in the South Jersey Group 3 championship game against 'Overbrook.

Mainland won, 15-12. Northern stuns Hawks with last-ditch pass and had to punt with 1:29 to play. Jeff Gurtcheff's boot rolled dead on the Township 47, Warrington got the winning drive started by hitting Drewrey with a pass over the middle that covered 19 yards to the 29. He then passed to Mike Bergeron for fiv yards, but the Greyhounds had spent their timeouts anrr the clock kept ticking down. It was finally stopped whetr the Greyhounds jumped offside.

Drewrey, on the option, passed to Bergeron for sil' more yards down to the 23 with 29 seconds left. By the time the Greyhounds got another play off, the clock had By DON BENEVENTO Of the Courier-Post COLUMBUS Chris Warrington heaved a 23-yard desperation touchdown pass to Mark Preeschl with no time left on the clock yesterday to lift Northern Burlington High School to the South Jersey Group 2 championship with a stunning 12-7 victory over Haddon Township. i The play capped a frenzied final 1 1 1 of play that saw the third-ranked Greyhounds drive 47 yards for the winning score. The win ended their season at 11-0 and left them as the only unbeaten team in South Jersey. Fifth-rated Township finished at 9-2.

"It was a perfect pass," said Preeschl, who caught the ball deep in the end zone. "Not too hard and not too soft. It was just there. My thoughts were just to hang onto it and make sure my feet were inbounds. It reminded me of Roger Staubach, All I saw was the official's hands go up, and everybody, even myself, was screaming." Bekier recovered on the 26-yard line.

Moments before the winning touchdown pass, the Hawks had held Northern inside the five-yard line. The Greyhounds had driven relentlessly down to the two before, on a third-down play, Warrington bobbled the snap and Township's John Walter crushed him for a two-yard loss. Northern Coach Charlie Pirrello said he thought about going for a go-ahead field goal, but the players convinced him to go for the touchdown. "It was unanimous in the huddle," said Pirrello. "They all wanted to go for the touchdown, and it was their season and their championship on the line, so I said, 'Let's go ahead with The decision was made to have Drewrey attempt an option pass.

But he threw the ball into the dirt and the Greyhounds, with just 2:32 to play, appeared to be dead. The Hawks left the door open for the Greyhounds to come back, however, when they failed to get a first down GROUP 2 FINAL i The crowd reaction also was Warrington's first indication that the impossible had happened. "1 got hitafter I threw the ball," said Warrington. "So I didn't know what happened. I heard the crowd yelling, and I said, 'all That single play wiped out a gutty performance from the Haddon Township defense, which had twice thwarted Northern's bid to wrestle the lead away in the fourth quarter.

The Hawks took the lead' on Steve Brady's nine-yard touchdown pass to Mike Ressa and Matt. Bekier's extra-point kick late in the. second period. Northern had a shot at taking over midway through the fourth period, but halfback Willie Drewrey, South Jersey's record-breaking scorer, who rushed for 127 yards and a six-yard, first-period touchdown, fumbled. ticked to inside five seconds.

Walter then appeared to have come up with a big defensive play for the Hawks when he batted down another Warrington pass attempt with one second remaining. But as Hank Kearns, Northern's defensive pointed out, it turned out to be a lifesaver for the Grey- i hounds. Please see NORTHERN, Page 9B Pauls defeat Glassboro, win 2nd straight crown 4 jr" for an 8-0 lead with 1:45 left in the first quarter. Glassboro's mistakes continued as Paulsboro's Jim Tortella intercepted senior quarterback David Young only three plays later and returned the ball to the Bulldog 16. It was the first of six Glassboro turnovers, "including four interceptions by Young, who struggled through a four-for-22 afternoon.

With junior running backs Zachary Worthy and Dick alternating carries, the Red Raiders made it 14-0 on Dick's one-yard plunge. Pie-tras then passed to senior end Mark Cooper for a two-point conversion at the 10:16 mark of the second period. Please see PAULS, Page 9B By CURT HOLBREICH Of the Courier-Post i GLASSBORO Paulsboro High School took advantage of Glass-boro's sloppy first quarter and used -a rugged defense to defend its South Jersey Group 1 football title with a 16-6 victory yesterday. It was the Red Raiders' second consecutive victory over the Bulldogs (7f4), whom they defeated, 21-19, Thanksgiving Day. "We made an awful lot of mistakes in the first quarter," Glass- boro Coach John Aveni said.

"I don't remember us executing so poorly all season and Paulsboro turned them into good opportunities." The Bulldogs' troubles started midway through, the first period GROUP 1 FINAL when they failed to cover a Paulsboro (9-2) punt from their own 32-yard line. Red Raider punter Bob Dobzanski chipped the ball over the Glassboro line and teammate Brian Dick downed it at the one-yard line. On the next play, the Bulldogs' Jack Sampson ran wide to the short side but Dobzanski broke through and tackled Sampson for a safety. Steve Beebe's ensuing free kick squibbed short and Paulsboro took over with excellent field position on the Glassboro 49. It took the Red Raiders 15 plays to go the distance before senior quarterback John Pie- tras scared from the one-yard line Pulled down Courier-Post photography by Sam Kushner Jack Sampson of Glassboro High School is caught in the grasp of Paulsboro's Bob Dobzanski, who makes the tackle during yesterday's South Jerey Group 1 charnpion: game.

Paulsboro won, 1 6-6, tctlake the title for a second straight year..