WOODBURY – When Woodstown was relegated to the WJFL Independence Division in the latest shuffling of teams, it meant the Wolverines were headed into a brave new world of teams they hadn’t been used to playing. They seem to be adjusting just well, thank you.
The Wolverines, forever fixtures in the Diamond Division before the realignment, won their second straight game in their new division Saturday, overrunning Woodbury 34-8.
“Any win’s a good one,” Woodstown coach Frank Trautz said. “We’re happy to be 2-0 in the division, but there’s still a lot of football to be played.”
And they’re tied for first with Penns Grove, another Diamond Division stalwart that got moved down to the Independence Division.
Trautz called the game against the Thundering Herd the “most complete game we’ve put together” so far this season. Quarterback Mason Middlemiss ran for one touchdown and passed to Andrew White for another, Ty West ran for two touchdowns and Cole Ware scored at the end of a steady drive. Ware also intercepted a pass. They led 15-0 after the first quarter, 21-0 at halftime and 28-0 entering the fourth quarter.
“We got back to playing tough, disciplined, physical football today and when you’re able to do that and you’re not committing penalties it’s going to put your in position to win games, and that’s really what I was happy to see today,” Trautz said. “We had a really good week of practice. The kids wanted to get that taste out of their mouth from last week. They just played their butts off today, really executed the gameplan well, the defense is flying around. This puts us back on the right track.”
PAULSBORO 12, PENNSVILLE 0
PAULSBORO – Pennsville had been moving the ball at a pretty good clip this season, but Saturday the Eagles ran into a determined Paulsboro defense and hurt themselves with untimely penalties and suffered a 12-0 loss.
“It was a tough game,” Pennsville coach Mike Healy said. “Defensively they’re a tough team, but we didn’t help ourselves. We had penalties. We didn’t take care of little things.
The Red Raiders scored on a 97-yard touchdown play in the second quarter and a gave up another score in the fourth quarter after a long interception return.
The Eagles had a couple chances to score, but negative plays put them in long-yardage situations where the Red Raiders could just send the defense.
“It obviously was frustrating with how much offensively we’ve moved the ball this year, but they’re a really good team and defensively they fly around and make plays,” Healy said. “They’ve got some good kids there and we didn’t take advantage of our opportunities. If we don’t make mistakes we win that game, but when you play a good team like that you can’t afford to make mistakes like that.”