By BRIAN TORTELLA

Correspondent

On X @tortreports

PITTSGROVE — Jaxon Weber will remember the shot for a long time.

After all, it was the first game-ending shot of his career.

The Schalick junior’s game-winning shot on a penalty kick in overtime lifted the Cougars past Palmyra, 2-1, in a battle between the top two ranked teams by power points in South Jersey Group 1 competition (see video below) in what was a rematch of the 2023 South Jersey Group 1 final.

“It was awesome,” Weber said of the PK score that came due to a shove from Palmyra’s goalie after a save. “The adrenaline was everywhere and everyone I knew, we just had to contribute. Once we lost our man, we had to back him up. We knew we could hang with them the whole time because that’s what we were doing. Even when we lost to them in the first half, we were getting opportunities and hanging with them into the wind. We knew once we got that wind we had to attack, and that’s exactly what we did. We took advantage of them everywhere.”

On an extravagantly windy Columbus Day, Schalick (12-1, 7-0 in Tri-County Diamond) was able to overcome a 1-0 halftime deficit despite playing down a man for a majority of the game after a first-half red card. Louis Sepers, a senior, tied the game up in the 54th minute with a shot off his shoulder from a corner kick (see video below). There was no score until 33 minutes later, when Weber notched the game-winner.

“Everyone contributed,” Weber continued. “It’s not just that one shot. Everyone contributed to the whole match. Now we just have to move forward and keep going with our other matches. We should have a good shot (at the South Jersey title) but that also comes with our heads. We have to play smart, play conservative, and win out.”

In the first half the Cougars were playing against the force of the wind. In the second and overtime periods, the wind was in their favor — making moving the ball much smoother.

“The ball came from a corner kick,” Sepers said of his strike. “I was able to put it home, clean up the garbage. This is the third one off of a corner this season, we’ve been getting a little bit stronger from there. It felt really good to knock off Palmyra.”

Said Schalick coach Joe Mannella, “(Sepers) has been hitting penalties for us all year. He knew it was his. He’s made them all year, and he buried it.”

It was a particularly sweet victory for Sepers and the rest of the Cougars as they fell to Palmyra (9-4, 3-3 Burlington County Scholastic League) twice last season — including a 2-1 heartbreaker at home in the sectional final.

“One hundred percent, I don’t want to get knocked off this year by them,” Manella continued when asked about it being a “revenge” game. “It was devastating last year, we felt like we should’ve won. I think right now, we’re the team to beat. We’re not going to get too cocky, but we’re going to keep our heads that way and keep looking forward.”

It sure seems like the Cougars are now the team to beat in South Jersey Group 1 as they have a firm hold on the No. 1 seed in power points with five games remaining during the final two weeks of regular season competition. A come-from-behind victory over the current No. 2 seed playing a man down isn’t too shabby, either.

“Going down a man is something we haven’t faced all season, and against a team like this, I thought they responded really well to that,” Mannella said. “If you were watching the game, you couldn’t tell that we were down a man.”

Palmyra’s Cole McCamy scored the Panthers’ lone goal off a penalty kick after a hand ball by a Schalick player. It resulted in a red card violation for denying a goal-scoring opportunity. The carded player may have been trying to protect his face when the ball came his way on the right side of the goal — but the result is an automatic red card for hand-blocking a shot.

The Cougars only have one blemish on their record — a one-goal loss to Cinnaminson back in September. If they keep this up, they could win a sectional title, something Schalick hasn’t accomplished since the 2015, when they made it all the way to the state championship, going 21-2-1. They lost, 1-0, to Brearley in the state championship game after advancing that far via a PK shootout win over South River in the group semis.  

“We knew coming in that we had a lot of pressure on us,” added Mannella. “A lot was expected of us. And I think they answered the bell and are achieving everything we set our mind to.”

Click this link to watch the new ‘Sideline Snippets’ series, where correspondent Brian Tortella hands a Go-Pro video camera stick to players after the game and they talk about the victory:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBIE7fTNFQ4/?igsh=MXVqd2dpOXZlcW91Yw==

WHAT’S NEXT: Schalick travels to Glassboro on Friday at 4 p.m. Palmyra travels to Cinnaminson on Wednesday at 3:45 p.m.

Contact Brian Tortella: btortreportssj@gmail.com