Pennsville rallies in fourth quarter, but comes up one second short

Woodstown runs over Buena to win back-to-back games for first time since 2024

PENNSVILLE – Pennsville nearly put together a comeback for the ages, but in the end it turned out to be another near-miss.

The Eagles scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns, made a big goal line stand and were setting up for the winning touchdown with one second to play, but they couldn’t complete that one final play they needed and fell to Burlington City 24-22 on a windy Friday night in Lou D’Angelo Stadium. Burlington City never trailed in the game, but Pennsville made the Blue Devils earn their first win of the season.

“It’s just a lot of frustration,” Pennsville coach Mike Healy said. “We once again put ourselves in a hole like we’ve done a couple times this year. I can’t take it away from them that their willingness to fight ‘til the end is awesome and all, but until we are able to put together four full quarters of football, we’re not going to be able to be as good as we are. I still think there’s another level we can go to, but right now we’re kind of stopping ourselves from doing that.”

The Eagles (2-3) trailed 12-0 in the first quarter and at the end of another listless first half, and were down 18-7 entering the fourth quarter before things got crazy. They have trailed at halftime in four of their five games this season. Two of those games were two-point losses and one was an overtime win.

Their potential comeback started rolling when Pennsville quarterback Jake Layfield threw a 59-yard touchdown pass to Chase Johnson early in the fourth quarter and then passed to Aiden Collazo for the conversion to make it 18-15.

Tavion Miller negated all that work when he returned the kickoff 78 yards to put the visitors back on top by more than a touchdown and two-point conversion.

The margin didn’t matter to the Eagles. The way they were moving the ball in the second half, they had plenty of time to get what they needed.

Layfield marched them right back down with three straight completions to Lucas Thomas, Danny Knight and Johnson for 56 yards to get inside the 10. Collazo finished off the drive with two powerful runs to make it 24-22 with Dante Cummings’ PAT with 8:27 to play.

Miller hurt the Eagles again on the kickoff return, this time taking it down to the 30 setting up the Blue Devils for a score that would’ve surely decided the game. They had a first-and-goal from the 12 and then first-and-goal from the 2, but the Eagles turned them away.

On the first set of downs they pushed the visitors back to the 18 after a tone-setting sack by Ayden Epstein and a stop for a loss by Kaedynn Pena, but the Blue Devils kept the drive alive with a 16-yard completion on fourth down to the 2. This time, Tristan Horner and friends threw BC quarterback Mason Shansey for an eight-yard loss. The Blue Devils got it back to the 6, but they came away empty as Grady Sanders intercepted a fourth-down pass in the end zone that newcomer Jaivon Sydnor batted away from 6-foot-8 intended receiver Julian Corry.

“I saw he went out for the wheel from studying the film and having Grady back there at safety to help me, I knew I could make a play on the ball so he could help contribute too,” said Sydnor, playing in his first game for the Eagles after transferring from Salem. “I was trying to make a play but I know my brothers got my back.”

The Eagles had 2:58 and two time outs to go 80 yards for the winning touchdown or less to give Cummings a shot at a winning field goal attempt into a gusty wind. Layfield mixed three runs and three completions, including a nifty one-handed grab over the middle by Syndor to get it inside the 30 with less than 90 seconds to play.

“I felt a lot more confident going to the two minute offense,” Layfield said. “It gave me less time to think and more time to get involved, less time for the defense to be there. The pressure was fine, I wasn’t worried about that, I just needed to make sure my guys were going to be there. During that fourth quarter knowing once we got to that groove I could count on my guys it made it a lot easier.”

Layfield completed a pass to Lucas Thomas down to the 17, but the Eagles were called for holding behind the line, so instead of being inside the 20 they were back at the 38 with 1:03 left. They complained about the clock running over a play that went out of bounds and later a penalty, but they eventually got back into the red zone with 18 seconds left and called their final time out.

It didn’t go well coming back out. Layfield took a six-loss loss, then hustled everyone to the line before spiking the ball with one Michigan second to play. The snap was low and away on the final play, Layfield retrieved it and tried to salvage the play but his pass was rushed and nearly was intercepted by Corey Boykin short of the end zone as time expired.

“Unfortunately we came up short this time, but next time we won’t,” Collazo said.

Layfield completed 17 of 32 passes in the game for 234 yards and two touchdowns. He went over the 1,000-yard passing mark for the season with a nine-yard completion to Johnson on the first play of the fourth quarter. He was 5-of-6 for 118 yards in the two fourth-quarter touchdown drives, 9-of-13 for 161 yards the entire quarter.

“I’d have given up the 1,000 yards for the win,” he said.

SCORING SUMMARY
BC-Julian Corry 7 pass from Mason Shansey (run failed), 4:32 1Q
BC-Tavion Miller 4 run (pass failed), 2:11 1Q
PV-Lucas Thomas 34 pass from Jake Layfield (Dante Cummings kick), 7:19 3Q
BC-Darius Davis 8 run (run failed), 0:08 3Q
PV-Chase Johnson 59 pass from Jake Layfield (Aiden Collazo pass from Jake Layfield), 10:30 4Q
BC-Tavion Miller 78 kickoff return (run failed), 10:14 4Q
PV-Aiden Collazo 1 run (Dante Cummings kick), 8:27 4Q

Woodstown 42, Buena 8

WOODSTOWN — Mason Middlemiss threw a pair of touchdown passes to Andrew White and ran for another score as Woodstown rolled over Buena to win back-to-back games for the first time since the 2024 playoffs, coach Frank Trautz’ first year at the helm.

TyRell West and Cole Ware each scored on short runs in the first quarter, but were workhorses for the Wolverines all night. Middlemiss accounted for the next three scores and Noah Chiu scored their final touchdown when his tackle for loss resulted in a fumble that he fell on in the end zone.

“I thought we played really well tonight, executed and were able to once again put together four quarters of really good football,” Trautz said. “That’s two good weeks in a row. Obviously, building on the momentum from last week and was happy to put another good game together. We’ve just got to try to keep it rolling now.

“It’s about continuing to put good days together that turn into good weeks that turn into good results on Friday night. We’re learning to do that and that’s a good thing.”

WJFL Standings

FRIDAY’S RESULTS
Woodstown 42, Buena 8
Burlington City 24, Pennsville 22
SATURDAY’S GAMES
Penns Grove at Woodbury, 10 a.m.
Schalick at Paulsboro, 11 a.m.
MONDAY’S GAME
Overbrook at Salem, 3:30 p.m.