By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
sullyglorydays@gmail.com
The Williamstown High football team started the 2024 season with a win over Seneca and ended it with a win over Camden Eastside in a postseason consolation game.
Sandwiched in between were eight straight losses.
In 2023, the Braves were 0-9 and scored more than one touchdown in only three games. The 2022 record — 2-8. The last winning record for Williamstown came in the covid year of 2020, when it went 7-2.
That was back when the Braves had guys like current Dallas Cowboys player Donovan Ezeiruaku and Turner Inge, who went on to play at Villanova.
Williamstown has fallen on hard times the past four years — but are the Braves back?
The last two weeks might be serving as notice that Willy town is starting to get its ducks back in a row. The Braves lost four of their first five games to start this season and fans might have been thinking, ‘here we go again!’ But these young ball players are starting to find their sea legs, and they’ve built some confidence with wins over Rancocas Valley — a team ranked as one of the best in South Jersey for much of the season before star quarterback Sayvien Adams went down with a knee injury — and Cherokee.
Last week, Williamstown let a lead slip away against Cherokee before rallying for a 21-14 victory. An Elijah Campbell 3-yard touchdown run gave the Braves the lead, and a young, athletic, aggressive defense made it stand up as freshman defensive back Josh Quann picked off a pass in the final minute to seal the victory.
Legendary coach Frank Fucetola is back after a difficult time in his personal life that forced him to step away from the sidelines for a few years, the Braves are starting to pick up a few wins. The stands were packed last week for homecoming, and it’s starting to feel like old times again.
“The guys are bringing it every week, getting better and better. Coach Fuce always says, ‘don’t be great at the beginning of the season, keep getting better as the season goes on, go into the playoffs and make some noise,’” said senior center Logan Kennedy. “We just really want it, and we’ve been showing it (lately). I can’t stand having a losing record, it’s horrible. Coach Fuce brings the energy every day and he never lets it (get quiet) in the weight room.”
“We always have that fight. I think everybody on this team has that dawg in them,” said senior defensive lineman Ruben Lozada. “I see a lot of improvement, and I see a lot of people showing heart. I feel like we’re on a really good roll right now. We’ve won games back-to-back, and I want to win out the rest of the season. I know everybody else does, too. We’ll be in the playoffs, and it’s time to show out; not just now, but when we get to the playoffs we have to continue to show out and continue to do what we’re doing. From the freshmen to the seniors, I’m proud of everybody on this team.”
“We’re coming. Look out, South Jersey. It’s a different culture over here now,” said sophomore quarterback Tyson Forman. “Coach Fucetola has brought the echoes of the past when we were one of the top teams in South Jersey, and (the guys now) feel like we’re next.”
You’ll have to forgive these Braves for being a little brash after two straight wins; they are young and excited to start seeing some check marks in the win column. It’s been a tough grind for four years now, and they’re starting to see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel.
Are the Braves still going to make a lot of mistakes that young football teams generally are plagued by? Yes. Are they a good team that can possibly make some noise in this year’s state playoffs? Well, maybe.
Williamstown has some really nice pieces to the puzzle who are starting to gain some experience and confidence. The Braves have gone from 1-4 to 3-4 and they are young and good at key positions. Forman is completing better than 50 percent of his passes and has thrown for nearly 600 yards in seven games, and he’s only thrown three interceptions. Fellow sophomore Trey Alexander is a budding star at running back, as he’s racked up 558 yards on 99 carries and has scored eight touchdowns. Nearly 6 yards per carry from a sophomore at a Group 5 school is something to take notice of.
Junior Kysheem Prunty is starting to make a name for himself on both sides of the ball. He leads the team as a receiver with 15 catches for nearly 300 yards, and on defense he has 30 tackles. Williamstown also has a couple of really nice prospects at defensive end in junior Diar McBeth (36 tackles, 3 sacks) and sophomore Aiden Ezeiruaku (name sound familiar? 26 tackles, 3 sacks, 9.5 tackles-for-loss). Williamstown’s top six tacklers are all underclassmen. The Braves even have a pretty good punter in junior JohnGuerry Biosrond, a luxury not a lot of high school teams have.
Despite all that talent, the Braves are just now starting to put it all together, so it’s going to be a big challenge to make a run in the playoffs this year, but Forman said this team is starting to embrace that underdog mentality — even though their predecessors in blue-and-black were more the bullies on the block.
“We just had to stay together. When push comes to shove, we stayed together,” he said. “After that RV game — going into that week we had the motto of ‘Braves vs. Everybody.’ We had nothing to lose and our backs were up against the wall, but we felt like, ‘why not us?’”
No matter what happens the rest of the way, this is a tight-knit group that seems as though it’s starting to put the pieces together to be a factor in South Jersey once again in the years to come.
“I love this organization — no matter how bad past seasons have gone, or how things are going — I will never leave. I love this team to death,” Lozado said. “I’ve been playing (in Williamstown) since I was a little kid. I’ve always been a Brave. I never want that to change.”
