Cougars remain undefeated behind Bartee’s 3 TDs, 6 fourth-down stops by defense
| SOUTH JERSEY GROUP ! | CENTRAL JERSEY GROUP 1 |
| Schalick 21, Shore 0 | Audubon at Paulsboro, Sat. |
| Pennsville 49, Delaware Valley 21 | Woodstown at Salem, Sat. |
| SECTIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP | SECTIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP |
| Friday, Nov. 13 | Nov. 13 or Nov. 14 |
| Pennsville at Schalick | Woodstown-Salem vs. Audubon-Paulsboro |
PITTSGROVE — In the 50 years Schalick High School has been in existence, no group of senior football players has ever reached the distinction of this year’s upperclassmen.
For the first time in school history, an entire football class will be graduating having never known what life was like not playing for a sectional championship. Winning one would further cement their legacy.
Junior quarterback Kenny Bartee ran for 172 yards and three touchdowns and the defense made six fourth-down stops in pitching another shutout Friday as the Cougars blanked Shore Regional 21-0 to reach its football sectional final for the fourth year in a row.
“The kids keep doing and playing the way they’re supposed to play and they keep winning,” Cougars coach Kevin Leamy said. “I give them a lot of credit. This is exactly where they wanted to be and they’re putting themselves in a position to finish what we haven’t been able to do the past three years.”
For the first time the finals berth won’t be against a team named Glassboro. The undefeated Cougars, 11-0 for the second time in school history, will host Pennsville next Friday night for the South Jersey Group 1 title, a crown that has eluded them the last three years. The 2023 team that started this run also started the year 11-0.
“It’s huge for the kids,” Leamy said. “They’ve all been a part of it the past three years. They’ve been in Glassboro the past three years and walking off that field after getting your butt kicked every single time it’s not an easy feeling and it sits with you and it stays with you. Those kids are hungry and they’re excited to finally get their excited to win that sectional title.”
“It’s going to be different this year,” senior defensive back David Stewart said.
The whole first half was played in the rain, which made working an offense difficult,. Leamy admitted the Cougars didn’t play as well in the weather and he had hoped, but Bartee found a way to make it happen. He scored on runs of 13 yards in the first quarter, 73 in the second and 13 in the fourth. The 73-yarder came on the first snap after the defense had another of its fourth-down stops. He’s now rushed for 1,488 yards and 21 touchdowns this season, which may be the most by a Schalick runner since Paul Gause set the school record of 1,848 yards.
“It was very, very rough,” Bartee said of playing in the rain. “My hands were slippery, the ball was slippery, I was overthinking things, but at the end of the day you gotta do what works. They saw I wasn’t getting snaps off with motion, so they just gave me the ball and let me run.
“I had a bunch of fumbles and I told the coach trust me, I got you. I just had a bad play let me make it up. (On the long run) they called my number, my linemen came to play, DezYon Purnell had a great block and after that it was off to the races.”
And after that, the defense did the rest.Their fourth-down denials began right from the start when Purnell and Evan Elliott led a charge that stopped burly Blue Devils back Cole Torres on fourth-and-short from the Schalick 31. The Cougars also turned them over on down at their 14 and 27 in the half. And three times more in the second half – once at the Schalick 28 and twice around midfield.
On the do-or-die downs, the Blue Devils had two running plays for zero net yards, three incomplete passes and a Stewart interception.
The Cougars held Torres, a 1,300-yard rusher coming off a 322-yard, five-touchdown game in his playoff opener, to 98 yards on 27 carries. The Blue Devils have lost all four games Torres was held under 100 yards this season.
“This whole week they were beating into our heads No. 10, No. 10, No. 10,” Stewart said referring to Torres’ jersey number. “He’s a great football player, but when you put a great football player against us they have to get shutdown no matter what. By all means they have to get shut down.”
“The defense played phenomenal,” Leamy said. “I told them after the game we gave them every opportunity to win this game. We turned the ball over inside the red zone way too many times. We did not execute in the weather as well as I would have liked and we gave them a lot of opportunities with great field position, but every time we did the defense buckled down and didn’t let them get anything.”
Not to be overlooked was the play of Freddie Allen. The freshman linebacker had his name called all night for making tackles and breaking up passes.
“He’s been phenomenal all year and this game it stuck out more,” Leamy said. “Every time they tried to throw the ball it was at him and he wasn’t having it. If they did catch it, it was for like four yards. He play phenomenal.”
“He was always in the right spot,” Stewart praised.
And now the Cougars are in the spot they’ve always wanted to be.
“We’re just playing as hard as we can because we don’t want it to be over,” Purnell said. “We want this season to be as memorable as possible. We want to break history here at Schalick.”
| SHOR | SCHAL | |
| 6 | First Downs | 10 |
| 28-86 | Rushing | 35-188 |
| 8-19-2 | Passes | 2-4-0 |
| 33 | Passing | 13 |
| 2-0 | Fum-Lost | 7-3 |
| 3-40.3 | Punts-Avg | 4-38.0 |
| 7-50 | Penalties | 7-70 |
| Shore | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0- | 0 |
| Schalick | 7 | 7 | 0 | 7- | 21 |
SCORING SUMMARY
S-Kenny Bartee 13 run (Shawn Kelly kick), 6:05 1Q
S-Kenny Bartee 73 run (Shawn Kelly kick), 2:45 2Q
S-Kenny Bartee 13 run (Shawn Kelly kick), 11:47 4Q