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
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.
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, they were plays the staff rolled out to show the players they have confidence 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’rei called.”
BC SCH 8 First Downs 16 13-82 Rushing 42-368 9-24-3 Passing (C-A-I) 1-7-0 81 Passing Yards 35 1-1 Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-26.5 Punts-Avg. 4-35.0 4-30 Penalties-Yards 16-145 Burlington City 0 0 0 6- 6 Schalick 0 7 7 14- 28
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