Penns Grove wins final game on final-play Hail Mary; Thomas goes over 1,000 yards rushing
CARNEYS POINT — Suddenly, it was 2023 all over again.
Penns Grove got a second chance to end its season with a win and get its freshman running back through a milestone, just like it did three years ago, and once again made good on both counts — and this time both of what they were shooting for came down to the wire.
After sloshing through the rain for three quarters and trailing by 10 with five minutes to play, the Red Devils scored two touchdowns in the final two minutes to beat Collingswood 24-22 Friday.
They won it on a play they had been practicing all year, but hadn’t called until the final six seconds of the season. Wildcat quarterback Jaivon Thomas swung a pass to Jerry Wooton in the backfield and Wooton found Savior Allah wide open downfield for a 43-yard touchdown as time expired.
Thomas also was on a quest to become a 1,000-yard rusher as a freshman. He reached the milestone on a 28-yard run with 2:15 left in the fourth quarter. He rushed for 117 yards in the game and finished his freshman season with 1,042 yards.
Thomas needed 75 yards to reach the milestone. The Red Devils season appeared to be over when they lost to Salem in the first round of the Central Jersey Group 1 playoffs. But coach Damian Ware found a consolation game with Ciollingswood, giving the Red Devils a chance to end the season with a .500 record, Thomas a shot at 1,000 yards rushing, and end Ware’s first season as head coach with a win.
The game-winning play came on the final play of the season. It was literally do or die and the Red Devils needed something to happen.
They got the ball at the 50 with 13 seconds left and no timeouts after stopping Collingswood on fourth down. Thomas threw a 12-yard pass to Allah on the first play. The Red Devils then were hit with a delay, pushing it back to the 43 with six seconds left.
Thomas, who played quarterback the whole second half after Avery Batts hurt his ankle, suggested to Ware that Wooton throw a pass to him on the final play, but coach Damian Ware nixed the idea because he knew Collingswood would be keying on the freshman. So the coach called the pass-pass even though they hadn’t run all season, and it couldn’t have worked better.
Allah got way behind the defense when the safeties came up on Wooton and he had nothing but green grass in front of him once he pulled in the pass. The Penns Grove bench erupted when the receiver reached the end zone.
“We knew we had to have something tricky,” Ware said. “We had it. We work on it all the time in practice, but we haven’t run it all year. That’s the first time we ran it in a game. Today we pulled it out and it came through for us. I wasn’t surprised he was that open because every time we run it in practice it works.
“I tell them all the time you play to the finish. You don’t want it to come down to the final second every game, but you have to always play to the finish. As we were walking off the field I said to a couple guys, ‘y’all thought we were gonna lose, didn’t you,’ and they said no, no, we knew we were going to come up. We just had to stop messing up.”
The whole scenario played out similarly to 2023 when the Red Devils scheduled a game after losing in the playoffs in hope of going out with a win and getting freshman running back KaRon Ceaser a 1,000-yard season.
In 2023, Ceaser was 95 yards short of the milestone when the Red Devils season appeared to come to an end with a South Jersey Group 1 semifinal playoff to Woodstown, but then-coach John Emel found a consolation game with Riverside. It also gave the Red Devils a chance to end its season with a win, a .500 record and close Emel’s 10-year run with the program with a win before leaving for West Deptford.
They got a 51-22 win to finish 6-6, Ceaser got his milestone and Emel went out with a win.
Friday’s win snapped a five-game losing season after the Red Devils opened the season 4-0 and helped them end the year 5-5. They were winless.
This story will be updated.
| COLL | PG | |
| 9 | First Downs | 9 |
| 31-175 | Rushing | 27-143 |
| 3-7-0 | Passes | 3-8-1 |
| 22 | Passing | 86 |
| 2-1 | Fum-Lost | 2-2 |
| 0-0 | Punts-Avg | 0-0 |
| 2-20 | Penalties | 10-82 |
| Collingswood | 8 | 8 | 0 | 6- | 22 |
| Penns Grove | 6 | 6 | 0 | 12- | 24 |
SCORING SUMMARY
C-Terrance Goffney 2 run (Jaydon Wesley pass), 4:40 1Q
PG-Jaivon Thomas 27 run (run failed), 0:21 1Q
C-Jaydon Wesley 3 run (Jaydon Wesley run), 5:07 2Q
PG-Savior Allah 72 kickoff return (run failed), 4:54 2Q
C-Jaydon Wesley 9 run (pass failed), 4:56 4Q
PG-Jaivon Thomas 19 run (run failed), 2:00 4Q
PG-Savior Allah 43 pass from Jerry Wooton (no attempt), 0:00 4Q