By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
SWEDESBORO — Camden High football coach Rob Hinson knows his team doesn’t have a ton of depth so he’s been preaching throughout the preseason and early September about how important mental toughness is going to be.
He’s going to be asking a lot of his starters, he’s pushing them hard in practice, and he wants them to know they have to not only be physically strong, but mentally sharp throughout the season if they are going to get through a schedule that features the likes of Holy Spirit, Rancocas Valley, Timber Creek, Shawnee, Lenape and Camden Eastside.
Hinson’s Panthers responded on Friday night with a cool, methodical approach, swatting away adversity like an annoying fly at a summer barbecue. Camden had two first-half touchdowns called back, but simply pressed on, eventually grinding out a 30-0 win over host Kingsway after taking a 17-0 halftime lead.
Camden has put up 69 points in two games so far this season, and a big reason for that has been the play of senior quarterback Mahki Brunson. After throwing for four TDs in the season opener, on Friday night Brunson was 14-of-25 for 171 yards and a touchdowns.
“The first half we didn’t really do well, we weren’t executing, but in the second half we came out here and did what we had to do. What happened in the first half, I just had to let it go, and in the second half come out and do what I was supposed to do,” Brunson said. “The reason why our offense wasn’t clicking early was because I kept looking for the deep throws, and when I started checking it down, that’s when we started to make things happen. The line did great today. They did what they were supposed to do and gave me a lot of time in the pocket.”
“He’s a good quarterback. The one thing we want to do is make sure he’s a little quicker (in his decision making). That can go counter to what he does really well, which is improvise, but sometimes that can catch up to you. He’s not the biggest guy, so we want to eliminate those shots (defenders are taking on him),” Hinson said. “Even last week a little bit, trying to make things happen, he took a couple shots. We want to get the ball out a little quicker and save him for the season, because we’re going to need him. We have a brutal schedule and we want to get to the playoffs. Trying to beat these Group 5 and Group 4 teams, we can’t afford to lose him.”
He did throw two interceptions, but Camden’s defense had his back. The Panthers allowed just two total yards — that’s not a misprint — of offense in the first half, and for the game Kingsway rushed for minus-22 yards. This was a team that ran the ball 36 times for 126 yards and two touchdowns in the Dragons’ season opening win over Eastern.
It also helped that Camden got its rushing attack on track. The Panthers had six different ball carries who combined for 223 yards and three touchdowns on 37 carries, led by Christian Braxton, who had 136 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries.
“Last week, I didn’t think we ran the ball well,” Hinson said. “This week we ran it better, and next week (at Shawnee) I hope we can run it even better because I’ve been going against those guys for a lot of years. They send a lot of different looks, and if the quarterback hasn’t seen them it can be a lot to handle.”
On its second drive of the game, Camden had a 24-yard touchdown pass called back because of a penalty, but no matter, the Panthers just kept coming at the Dragons. On 4th-and-17, Brunson found senior Malik Redd for a first down, and then junior Jaiden Steele raced in from nine yards out to put the Panthers up, 7-0.
On Kingsway’s next possession, junior defensive back Ibn Muhammad had a 40-yard interception return for a touchdown called back because of a roughing-the-passer penalty. Again, the Panthers didn’t let the frustration get to them. Following a punt, Braxton raced 60 yards up the middle for a touchdown, and Redd ran the conversion in to put Camden up 15-0 early in the second quarter.
“It’s the toughness,” Hinson said, referring to his team’s ability to quickly move past calls that go against them. “We practice football a lot, but we also try to emphasize that mental toughness, too. They deal with a lot just to get to practice, they deal with a lot when we coach them because we coach them really hard, so hopefully we’re preparing them for situations like this where they’re not folding under adversity. They don’t fold outside of football, so I don’t want them folding during a football game.”
Camden was held in check for much of the second and third quarters as Kingsway coach Mark Hendricks made some adjustments, but eventually Hinson and Brunson were able to figure things out and put up two more touchdowns in the second half.
“Coach Hendricks is a great defensive coach, and he started sending a lot of pressure so you have to get the ball out quickly,” Hinson said. “They started sending pressure and that kind of slowed us down a little bit, but our offensive line held up long enough for us to do some things and my offensive coordinator made some really good calls.”
Steele added a rushing touchdown set up by another fourth-down conversion as the lead reached 24-0 late in the third quarter, and with four minutes to go Brunson put a bow on things when he hit a wide-open Braxton in the left corner of the end zone for a 7-yard touchdown pass.
“This wins says we’re good. We scored 30, but we could have scored more. The biggest thing we have to do next week is not have so many penalties and mental mistakes,” Brunson said. “But if we do make mistakes, we like to make them going 100 miles-per-hour. Our confidence level is a 10 out of 10 right now, we just have to keep going, and when we mess up, just keep going all the time.”
“They have 90 guys (sophomores through seniors) and then they have another 40 freshmen, we have about 50 guys total. But you can only play 11 at a time and we work really hard. Sometimes we work them too hard, as our guys are a little nicked up from our own practices, but we have to prepare for this kind of stuff,” Hinson said. “Being healthy is a big thing for us. And the other thing is, each week we’re seeing a different defense. It seems like what folks are trying to do to us now is blitz the hell out of us and get the ball out of Brunson’s hands, but we’re going to make adjustments to that. We’re going to mix things up a little bit and let our guys run around. We have dudes who can run around when they get the ball in their hands, so we’re going to shorten things up and let guys make plays.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Camden travels to Shawnee on Sept. 13 at 6 p.m. Kingsway hosts Timber Creek on Sept. 13 at 6 p.m.
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sullyglorydays@gmail.com
