Woodstown rebounds from tough loss in opener, scores a late touchdown to turn back Clayton
CLAYTON – The last time Woodstown’s football team stepped onto Haupt Field, the Wolverines pulled off a victory to bring a positive close to an otherwise disappointing 2025 campaign. They returned to the scene Thursday night, this time hoping to jump start a new season.
The Wolverines bounced back from a season-opening overtime loss six days earlier to beat Clayton 7-6. Mason Middlemiss scored the tying touchdown on a quarterback sneak and Jack Bucksar kicked the go-ahead extra point with four minutes left in the game.
“It’s always good to get the first win of the season,” Woodstown coach Frank Trautz said. “We definitely are going to use this hopefully to jump-start our season now and get it rolling.”
Trautz called it an “old-school, smashmouth, grind-it-out, physical football game.”
The Clippers found the end zone first, converting an turnover into a touchdown drive midway through the second quarter, but Wolverines’ defensive back Andrew White broke up the conversion attempt in the back of the end zone to keep it 6-0. The Wolverines’ defense held them out the rest of the game and Noah Chiu sealed the win with an interception after they took the lead.
“I thought our defense played their tails off all night,” Trautz said. “They really came to play tonight. I was super proud of them. (Assistant coach Matt Smart) called the defense, did a great job, so it was awesome.”
Clayton’s defense was having the same kind of success, but the Wolverines put together a drive in the fourth quarter punctuated by several big runs by Middlemiss, Nehemiah Carter and Cole Ware dragging tacklers to set up the winning touchdown.
“I think our guys were very focused all week, eager to get back on the field after what happened last week,” Trautz said. “They’re a big, physical football team. We knew it was going to be that kind of a dogfight and it was.
“I thought our kids really answered the bell well and rose to the challenge. Another away game, a tough opponent, coming off an overtime loss, I thought we handled it well and it’s kind of the message I said to the kids last week: We’ve got to learn how to win these tough, close games and this was a big step forward in to doing that.”
Woodstown (1-1) 0 0 0 7- 7 Clayton (1-1) 0 6 0 0- 6