By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP — Atlantic Tech football coach Chris Mancuso had a big smile on his face as he walked toward the busses parked behind Silver Eagle Stadium here on Thursday night.
And for good reason. His RedHawks team had just set a program record for points in a game during their 33-7 win over host Egg Harbor Township, and it was probably the most complete game the Hawks played in program history. Sure, that history is only two years old now, and EHT had just one victory coming in, but it was still a very solid win, on the road, against a Group 5 school.
And the way in which ACIT won that game should give the RedHawks a whole heap of momentum as they enter their offseason after a 3-5 campaign that saw them snap a five-game losing streak with the season-ending victory over EHT. It was quite a turnaround from last year, when the Eagles thumped ACIT, 42-13, and perhaps a bit of a signature win for a program that began just four years ago as a junior varsity team. ACIT played its first official varsity season last year and still has yet to play a home game while they construct a football stadium on school grounds. That field should be playable by next fall.
“This is our eighth away game in a row — and our 16th in a row going back two years — and that was one thing throughout the season that we had to get past,” said Hawks head coach Chris Mancuso, who was a prominent assistant under Chris Sacco when he led Pleasantville’s resurgence a few years ago before heading to Absegami and then becoming athletic director at Hammonton. “But our guys fought hard, worked hard. All the kids on the team, they just fight every game. From where we were at last year, to turn it around this year, they deserve every success they have. Especially these seniors. When they were freshmen it was the first time we started football, and a bunch of those guys are still on the team now. We have 16 seniors, and the core group came out to the weight room, lifted every day. They wanted to try out football, and that year we went to all the JV games and treated it like it was a varsity game. We had a makeshift 10-game schedule, and they played their hearts out every time.”
ACIT (3-5, 2-3 West Jersey Football League Memorial) is a legitimate varsity team now, and it showed why against EHT. The Eagles jumped out to a 7-0 lead when Leon Brown bulldozed his way through just about the entire RedHawks defense on a fourth-down play. The huge fullback came out of the scrum and rumbled 36 yards for a touchdown late in the first quarter. But after that it was all RedHawks, as they blitzed the Eagles (1-8, 1-4 WJFL Memorial) with 33 straight points.
Junior linebacker Landon Peddicord picked off a screen pass and returned it 22 yard for a touchdown to get ACIT within 7-6, and early in the second quarter the Hawks went ahead 14-7 on a 2-yard touchdown pass from Joey Handle to Xavier Pagan and a Peddicord run on the two-point conversion. Anthony Gaitano hauled in a pass from Handle later in the second quarter and turned it into a 38-yard touchdown to give ACIT a 20-7 lead heading into halftime.
“He’s a dawg,” senior offensive lineman Sergio Lopez said of Peddicord, an undersized outside linebacker who plays a lot bigger than he is. “They had a 7-0 lead, so that brought our energy back up and boosted us throughout the whole game.”
“We just wanted to have fun (tonight). That was the goal,” said Gaitano, of Brigantine. “We just wanted to have fun, that’s it. (Peddicord) is a dawg, he’s been working hard since he was a freshman. It’s crazy how much he’s grown, and he’s going to be here next year, so expect more from him.
“We’ve come a long way. This program has been alive now for four years and it’s nothing but God’s blessing.”
Any thoughts of a miraculous EHT comeback in the second half were dashed late in the third quarter when the RedHawks marched from their own 31-yard line after an Eagles punt and scored another touchdown, extending the lead to 26-7 when Peddicord busted loose on 3 rd-and-1 for a 39-yard run up the middle. After forcing a turnover on downs, ACIT scored again, extending its lead to 33-7 on a 49-yard pass from Handle to Pagan early in the fourth quarter.
Handle completed just seven passes, but three of them went for touchdowns and he finished with 134 passing yards, and junior running back Nasir Macon added 102 yards on 18 carries. Peddicord added 85 rushing yards and was in on 19 tackles, including six for loss.
“We started out last year and we went 2-6, and it’s just been an improvement, day by day. Seeing the work we’ve put in, it’s been a positive input on this season. It all starts at practice, seeing these guys work hard day in and day out. Seeing them putting the pads on and going full speed at practice — and being able to transfer that to the game — these kids have just submerged themselves in football, and I’m loving that,” Lopez said. “We just wanted to keep seeing improvement this year. Last year, we went 2-6, and now we’ve improved to 3-5, and I’m hoping in the future this team can just keep evolving. Starting this program means a lot to me and to all the seniors.”
WHAT’S NEXT: ACIT’s season is complete. Egg Harbor Township’s season is complete.
