By BRIAN TORTELLA
Correspondent
On X @tortreports
PITMAN — Jaiden Ammons’ first goal of the season came back on Sept. 18 — an overtime, game-winning header against Pennsville.
Fast forward 48 days.
The Pitman senior made magic happen once again, scoring the game-winning goal on a header in the 79th minute of regulation to break a 1-1 tie as the eighth-seeded Panthers topped No. 9 Penns Grove, 2-1, in the first round of the NJSIAA South Jersey Group 1 playoffs on Tuesday afternoon.
Just before halftime, Pitman senior outside back Aydin Miranda went down with a scary knee injury and was carted off the field and taken to the emergency room.
“I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else,” Ammons said. “Me and the guys, buzzer-beater goal. It doesn’t get any better than that. I did it for my guy. That was the only thing motivating me.”
“Going through everyone’s mind, it was ‘man down,’” he continued. “It was a senior. That was literally his last game. If we didn’t win, that was his last game, so we had to do it for our guy, we had to thug it out, and we did. It’s very emotional. I wanted to win it for my guy, and I came through.”
The game-winning strike was Ammons’ sixth goal of the season — tying him for the team high. The goal came via a Jake Bowen-Ashwin corner kick.
“I really wasn’t expecting it to land on my head,” Ammons said. “I just closed my eyes and prayed for the best. Somehow, it landed on my head and it went in.”
Said coach Matt Newcomb: “We’ve proven that on set pieces we can be a little bit dangerous, so it’s nice when that pays off.”
According to Ammons, Miranda dislocated his knee, but is now in better standing. After the game, the players went on a FaceTime call with Miranda while he was in the hospital — appearing to be in a lot less pain.
“It’s an emotional game when something like that happens,” Newcomb said. “It’s really nice to get it back, and get it back for him. I tell the guys that they’re not playing for themselves, they’re not playing against the other team, they’re playing for the guy who went down. That was a pretty big motivator for them.”
Penns Grove freshman Juan Ortiz scored the lone goal for the Red Devils (8-10, 3-7 Tri-County Diamond) nine minutes into the second half, but Pitman’s Bowen-Ashwin responded with a strike of his own eight minutes later off a corner kick.
“I saw Jonas (Trum’s) kick, it was perfect,” he said. “It went over Nate (Newcomb’s) head, I saw it come to my foot, and I just put it in the net. We’ve been through a lot this year. We lost somebody in this game early on. We rallied and we won for him, that’s what we do.”
Pitman (10-8-1, 3-6-1 Tri-County Diamond) now has a date with Arthur P. Schalick High in the quarterfinal round on Friday. The Panthers fell to the Cougars by a 2-0 final twice this season, and they’ll be looking to avenge those defeats.
“Newcomb says you can’t beat the same team three times in a row, so we’ll see what Schalick has in store for us. We’ll see what happens,” Ammons said.
As always, coach Newcomb kept it modest when asked of his feelings about the third matchup:
“We’re looking forward to the competition,” he said.
Click this link to watch the ‘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/DCAVSJ2yaYS/?igsh=MWNhcTRtbHcwYmU3eg==
Contact Brian Tortella: btortreportssj@gmail.com.
