Kenny Bartee turns two broken plays into touchdowns as the 7-0 Cougars shut out a Penns Grove team missing its top back.
PITTSGROVE — Believe it or not, given the way he takes over a game these days, Kenny Bartee didn’t like playing football when he was little. He wasn’t ashamed to admit he cried before he had to go onto the youth field, but he went anyway — and made the opposition cry
He’s still doing it today. Well, everything but the crying part.
Friday night, the Schalick junior quarterback rushed for 124 yards and scored two touchdowns leading the Cougars over Penns Grove 27-0 to remain undefeated and solidly atop the South Jersey Group 1 power points standings.
Both of his touchdowns came from creating something out of nothing.
“It gives me an adrenaline rush,” he said. “Back when I was little I never really liked football, so I always had to make plays like that. So that’s not really anything new.
“I didn’t like football at all. I was forced to play because I was pretty good at it. My mom said you’re too good to let this talent go to waste. I said mom, I got you. I would cry before games and then I would come out and score five touchdowns.”
His first touchdown against the Red Devils came on the last play of the first half on a play that looked like it wouldn’t develop before the clock ran out. He rolled right looking for a receiver, but finding none open, he pulled it down and went 16 yards for the score, blasting through a two-level roadblock the Red Devils set up at the 4.
It was do or die, since it was fourth down with four seconds on the clock. Had the Cougars’ regular kicker been available, coach Kevin Leamy admitted he would have tried the 33-yard field goal. But kicker Shawn Kelly was on the sideline in concussion protocol after trying to make a tackle on a kickoff last week at Cumberland, so they went for it and hoped for the best. They didn’t punt either.
“I could be a terrible coach and he makes me look good,” Schalick coach Kevin Leamy said. “He makes me look good. There were times we didn’t call the right play or we didn’t do the right thing and he makes the play; he makes everyone looks good. He does a lot of that.”
From Bartee’s perspective he didn’t want to go into halftime with just a 7-0 lead – on a special teams touchdown – and was “very determined” to get in the end zone on the play.
“I really wasn’t too happy about to go into halftime 7-0 on a team like this,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, that is a very good, very disciplined team, but we’re way better than that. We had a bunch of mistakes we didn’t capitalize on. So us going into halftime with 7-0 I wasn’t liking it, so I’m like I’ve gotta make something happen. We tried to throw. It was there, just miscommunication. OK, now I have to go get it. I’ve got to go get us one.”
Bartee’s second touchdown came on a 3-yard run midway through the third quarter, but it was the play before that showed more of his wizardry. He broke off a 27-yard run after picking up a shotgun snap that slid through his hands.
“I just trusted my teammates,” he said. “Once I picked up the ball they were looking at me to throw it. I just told them block for me.”
“He is a tough player,” Penns Grove coach Damian Ware said. “We’ve been watching him on film all year. I told the guys he’s going to get 70 percent of the touches. He’s a tough runner, a big strong kid with a little bit of speed, and he knows how to play football.”
Even if he didn’t like to earlier in his life.
The Cougars (7-0) got their other touchdowns on David Stewart’s 79-yard punt return in the first quarter and Ayden Jenkins’ 23-yard run midway through the fourth quarter.
Their defense, meanwhile, was relentless and didn’t yield Penns Grove anything. The shutout was their second of the year. They’ve allowed only 49 points and held five of their seven opponents to a touchdown or less.
The Red Devils (4-2) were missing their main weapon, freshman running back Jaivon Thomas, one of the top rushers in the state, with a collarbone injury. When the team came back to the field after warmups Thomas was carrying his pads and he watched the game from the Penns Grove sideline. He was hopeful of returning next week against Woodstown in what amounts to the WJFL Independence Division championship game.
The Red Devils tried to compensate with Terrell Thomas and several other backs and a bit more throwing, but they managed only 50 yards of offense — minus-5 net on 16 offensive snaps in the second half.
“Today was a day to see what some other guys have,” Ware said. “We knew all week he wasn’t going to play. He didn’t practice all week. We did some more passing stuff today because I wanted to work a little more passing in and we did well with a few passes in the first half. We sustained a couple drives in the first half and if we didn’t have big penalties I feel like we would’ve put some points on the board. But when you’re playing from a deficit and you have a guy who’s, what, the No. 9 rusher in the state not in the game it’s hard because we’re trying to establish offense and then we shoot ourself in the foot with a penalty.
“Ultimately, I got a lot of guys who are young, inexperienced, so some guys got some experience today and got a chance to play who normally wouldn’t have gotten a chance to play. They’re No. 1 for a reason and when we don’t have our No. 1 running back it’s tough. But I felt like we did some really good things. Today was a good barometer for us to see where we stack up and even without our best offensive player we still held our own.”
The Cougars played a little next-man-up as well. They lost their regular center on the opening series, moved tackle Will Johnson to the spot and put freshman quarterback Gabe McFarland — all 5-feet-7, 163 pounds of him — on the offensive line. McFarland played the rest of the game there and was part of three touchdown drives.
“He scored five touchdowns against Cumberland in the JV game and he played tackle today,” Leamy said. “He’s been playing a little bit of defense and he’s been playing well, so this past week, we were like we need some like depth. He’s not the biggest guy, but he’s been great at practice. He’s physical, he attacks, he does exactly what we coach him to do. He’s not the biggest, but he’s just determined.
“It’s funny, he doesn’t want to play like, he wants to play quarterback, he wants to be a skill player, and he’s good at that, too. He’s doing real well with the JVs, he’s doing phenomenal. The coaching staff goes to him and says if we need you (on the line) you willing to play. He said, coach, if you need me to play, I’ll play wherever you want me to play. It says a lot about this team and that environment that these kids have created. Next man up, they’re going to do whatever they need to do, even if it means our JV quarterback is playing center.”
| PG | SCH | |
| 5 | First downs | 17 |
| 24-19 | Rushing | 38-230 |
| 0-10-1 | Passes | 4-9-0 |
| 31 | Passing | 58 |
| 2-1 | Fum-Lost | 3-1 |
| 2-33.0 | Punts-Avg | 0-0 |
| 5-45 | Penalties | 4-55 |
| Penns Grove | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0- | 0 |
| Schalick | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6- | 27 |
SCORING SUMMARY
S-David Stewart 79 punt return (Dash Mayne kick), 4:29 1Q
S-Kenny Bartee 16 run (Dash Mayne kick), 0:00 2Q
S-Kenny Bartee 3 run (Dash Mayne kick), 6:32 3Q
S-Ayden Jenkins 23 run (pass failed), 6:51 4Q
Check out more photos from this evening’s game taken by Zachary Ahl
