By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
PISCATAWAY — During the Group 2 state championship game at Rutgers University’s SHI Stadium on Wednesday night, Camden High football coach Rob Hinson gave one of his assistant coaches an earful on the sideline — a brief talking to that was laced with a few, shall we say, superlatives.
There were 13 seconds left and Camden was beating Malcolm X. Shabazz High by three scores.
Such is the level of intensity the Camden Panthers have been playing with the last eight weeks as they’ve been one of the hottest teams in the state. Camden completely bulldozed its way through the sectional and state level playoffs, allowing more than one score only to Haddonfield.
Shabazz — a team that came in with a 12-1 record, mind you, and a playoff scoring average of 35 points per game — was no match for a streaking and motivated Camden team, as the Panthers rolled to a 27-8 victory and the program’s first championship in the new NJSIAA format that plays down to one champion in each of the five public school groups plus two parochials.
Just a few seconds before being doused with the water bucket, Hinson was fuming because the Panthers didn’t have the right personnel on the field for what turned to be the Bulldogs’ final play.
“This means everything. I came over here to The High and (last year) we lost in the sectional championship game. But coach Hinson made us believe. He believed in all of us, and he made everybody believe,” said senior safety Talib Shakir, a Camden Eastside transfer and Colgate University commit who has been on an incredible run of play throughout the playoffs. “I believed in my teammates. This means everything. I’m going off to college, so this was my last game with the guys. I won’t play high school ball anymore, so this means everything to me.
“This feels great. I can go to college and say I’m a state champion, but now I have to put in even more work.”
Camden certainly put in the work against the Bulldogs. They stopped Shabazz on the opening drive of the game, and after scuffling a bit through a scoreless first quarter, Camden struck first thanks to Shakir. He stepped in front of a screen pass early in the second quarter and raced 54 yards for a touchdown that gave Camden a 7-0 lead.
“I was watching film and I had No. 1, and I just read it. The quarterback didn’t throw a great ball, but even if he did I was going to get a pick-6 anyway. I watch too much film; the other guys call me a film junkie. That’s my fourth one — I have four pick-6s. One of my favorite players is (former Baltimore Ravens safety) Ed Reed, he took it to the crib too many times,” Shakir said. “We had to be great, and we were going to do everything we can (to be great). Do your job, and everybody will be alright.”
Later in the quarter, Panthers signal caller Ahmad Jones found Ibn Muhammad over the middle for a 21-yard touchdown pass that staked Camden to a 14-0 halftime lead.
That was plenty, the way the Panthers’ defense was playing. Roman Duckett — who won a state championship last year with Winslow — added a 3-yard touchdown run in the third quarter in which he plowed over two Shabazz defenders, and early in the fourth quarter Wasi Muhammad caught a 10 yard scoring pass from Jones as the lead swelled to 27-0.
“This is amazing. My freshman year, I didn’t even think I was going to play football. But I started working — and it was a hard challenge, but now that we’ve won, it’s a lot of emotions. I stay up at night thinking about it. I was laying in my bed this morning thinking about how we made it here. But it took a village to get here, it wasn’t just me. It was all of my teammates,” said senior lineman Joseph White, a Syracuse University commit. “We all knew we had to do our jobs. We knew if we focused on doing our jobs, we’d get the outcome that we wanted. We had to do our jobs individually and then it would come together as a team.”
Jones threw for 112 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and Camden rushed 40 times for nearly 200 yards, as Duckett led the way with 93 yards on 16 carries. Meanwhile, Camden’s defensive limited Shabazz’s high-powered offense to just 52 rushing yards and forced five turnovers, including two interceptions by Jaiden Steele.
Camden capped a historic run for South Jersey, as all five public school state champions hailed from either Atlantic, Gloucester or Camden counties. Joining Camden as champions in the last six days were Washington Township, Cedar Creek, Glassboro and Winslow.
“This is history right here,” Shakir said. “Coach kept telling us we had to make history. We’re conference champs, sectional champs and now state champs. It means everything to come back to the city of Camden with (a championship) under our belts. South Jersey football is different.”
“A lot of people doubted us, but everybody in Camden believed in us, so that built our motivation up to get through this playoff run and win the state championship. That’s love. That’s just straight love. They believe in us, they come out to every game and support us, win or lose. (Our fans) have been through this whole journey with us,” White said. “Everybody doubted South Jersey, they think that North Jersey has all the best teams, but this year we showed them that we can ball, too. We showed that South Jersey can win championships — we won all five.”
The Camden players seemed reluctant to exit the field nearly 20 minutes after the final whistle, and for good reason. They wanted to soak in every second of their historic victory.
“I’m going to tell this story to my kids,” White said, “how I’m one of the first state champions in Camden High history. I’m going to keep telling this story down the line.”
