By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
HI-NELLA — With time winding down in the second quarter and host Sterling looking to put its foot on the gas pedal, Collingswood coach Mike McKeown had some advice for junior outside linebacker Ta’cere Redd — sell out if they run that screen pass to the sideline.
Redd did just that, jumping the route, picking off a pass and taking it more than 50 yards to the house. It was the second Collingswood touchdown in the span of 14 seconds, and with 26 ticks left in the first half the Panthers had an 18-14 lead on previously undefeated Sterling.
Instead of going into halftime trailing by eight points, Collingswood turned the tides in dramatic fashion, going into the locker room with a four-point lead. The Panthers rode that momentum through a dominant second half and pulled away for a 31-14 victory — one that showed Collingswood means business this season.
“We practiced that play all week. Ta’cere is a kid we got back from Camden Eastside and we practiced that play a lot this week. On the headset, when they called a timeout, I said, ‘I think they are going to run that rocket screen to the boundary.’ I said to Ta’cere, ‘jump it, man.’ And he jumped (the route) and took that thing to the house,” McKeown said. “He’s made some plays for us this year. Last week, he was unbelievable for us against Haddon Township. He now has three interceptions in the last two games, and that one changed the whole momentum of the game. Now, all of a sudden, we went into halftime with the lead instead of being down. In high school football, that’s a big difference.”
“Ta’cere, he played his butt off tonight. We were all hyped after that,” said senior quarterback John Antrilli. “We just come out, play football and try to get big wins. This was a huge win, and we just have to keep building on this momentum.”
Caden Luby — a sturdy 6-foot-1, 190-pound senior fullback — pounded his way into the end zone from a yard out to cap Collingswood’s first drive of the second half, and that score — his second of the game — put the Panthers ahead 25-14 and reduced any thoughts the Knights had of a comeback to far-fetched fantasy.
“We wanted to come here and win. We knew if we won this we’d go to the playoffs, and I can’t even remember the last time we went to the playoffs. We were slow to get off the ball, but once we got some momentum we just kept hitting it,” Luby said. “We switched a few plans (at halftime) and told everybody to lock in. We were excited to come out in the second half and show what we could do. We’re a tough, physical football team. This shows everybody that we’re the real deal, and we’re just going to keep bonding and getting better every week.”
Collingswood’s defense certainly locked in after the intermission. Sterling’s final six offensive possessions of the game ended with three punts, two interceptions and a turnover on downs. McKeown said he and his staff knew what to expect, and they weren’t surprised that Sterling jumped out to a 14-6 lead early on.
“Coach (Desmond) Wiggins really has this program turned around here at Sterling. I watched them on film and they are physical, they are big, they’re explosive. So we told our kids it was going to be a tough game. It’s a rivalry game that we used to play on Thanksgiving. I was a part of it, coach Wiggins was part of it — these kids don’t know about that. We tell our kids about how we used to play them on Thanksgiving and they look at you like you’re crazy,” McKeown said. “It’s not easy coming here and finding ways to win. They jumped on us early and they had the momentum. But my kids don’t give in. We’ve been young the last couple of years, but now these kids are juniors and seniors. Our schedule has been rough the past couple of years but that has paid off for us. They are used to tough games. We’ve been down early in just about every game this year, and I just tell my guys, ‘next play. There’s 120 plays in a game and if they get one or two of them, no big deal, we just have to go make a couple more.’”
Sterling (5-1, 4-0 West Jersey Football League Royal) scored less than four minutes into the game as senior quarterback Gary Battaglini Jr. hooked up with Tyheem Sallie on a 19-yard scoring strike. Then, after Collingswood (4-2, 1-2 WJFL Patriot) pulled to within 7-6 on a 1-yard rumble by Antrilli on the next possession, the Silver Knights extended their lead to 14-6 midway through the second quarter when Battaglini scored on a keeper.
After that, however, the Sterling defense got a steady diet of Collingswood junior running back Terrance Goffney — and the Panthers feeding carries to the 5-foot-7, 165-pound dynamo didn’t set well in the Knights’ stomachs.
Goffney ripped off a 70-yard touchdown run that was called back because of a holding penalty, and another holding call had the Panthers staring at 3rd-and-31 at their own 14-yard line. No problem, just give the ball to No. 23. Goffney raced around the right side and down the sideline all the way to the Sterling 10-yard line — a 76-yard run. Sterling picked off an Antrilli pass in the end zone to snuff that drive, but an interception by Redd with just more than three minutes left in the first half had the Panthers back in business. After a couple of runs by Goffney, Luby scored on a sweep to the right to cut the deficit to 14-12.
Goffney finished with a career-high 201 yards (with nearly 100 yards called back after penalties).
“It was 3rd-and-31 and (other coaches) were like, ‘should we pass it?’ I said, ‘just give the ball to No. 23 and see if he can break one,’” McKeown said. “Terrance is a junior and last year he was just coming into his own. He got so much better in the offseason. He’s worked his tail off — he’s been in the weight room, he’s been doing speed training, his mom and dad put a lot into him and he put a lot into his offseason training. He’s a different back this year. He’s little, so he’s hard to find back there. What he has this year is that home run ability. Last year, he was bouncing it outside and running into tackles. This year, he’s bouncing it and he’s gone. He’s a tough kid, he battles, he has great vision. He’s a straight-A student and one of those coachable kids who hard work has paid off for.”
“(Goffney and Luby) are hard, physical runners and whenever you need a yard to two, they’ll give you five. They are dawgs,” Antrilli added. “We just play hard, physical football. We’ll throw the ball and get some yards on you, but we want to run the ball down people’s throats.”
Sterling got the ball back with about 40 seconds left before halftime, and that’s when Redd changed the game for good with his pick-6.
“For us, this is one week at a time and now we’re 4-2. I told our guys we had to flip some games this year that we lost last year. We flipped the Haddon Township game, now got one back against (Sterling) and we have three more games on our schedule,” McKeown said. “Audubon is a huge rivalry game and they beat us last year, 7-0, so hopefully I can get my kids to turn around and focus right away on Audubon. Our goal is to get into the playoffs. We think we should be there, and hopefully things go right for us.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Collingswood travels to Audubon on Oct. 10 at 6 p.m. Sterling hosts Clayton on Oct. 10 at 6 p.m.
