By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
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SEWELL — Washington Township High graduated nearly all if of its offensive stars from last season’s 14-0 state championship team. And a bunch on defense, too.
But what it means to be a championship caliber team is you don’t rebuild, you reload.
The Minutemen have had guys chomping at the bit to get playing time, which wasn’t easy last year, and they’re showing this season that they are ready to make their own mark.
Last year, Elijah Cole and Drew Dorsey had eight carries and 33 yards — combined. On Friday night, they combined for 27 carries, 226 yards and four touchdowns as Township took an early gut punch from visiting Millville before recalibrating and cruising to a 39-20 victory in The Stucco Pros Game of the Week by dominating the final three quarters of action.
Millville star Reginald Holley made is presence felt on both sides of the ball early on, scoring on a 1-yard run and then returning an interception 95 yards early in the second quarter to give the Bolts a 14-0 lead.
But Washington Township’s offense answered with six straight touchdowns spanning from the second quarter to midway through the fourth, and the Minutemen defense put the clamps down on anything and everything the Thunderbolts tried to do. They limited Millville to 109 rushing yards and picked off four passes, including a pick-6 by Lucas McCabe in the second quarter that got Township right back into the game by cutting the deficit to 14-7.
From there, it was all Washington Township (2-0, 1-0 West Jersey Football League American), as its big offensive line leaned on Millville’s standout athletes, many of whom play both sides of the ball.
“We were working all week and we were prepared for the ups and downs,” said senior offensive lineman Gunner McFall. “This game really represented that for us. We weren’t really worried about it. After all their big plays, we just kept a level head and knew we were going to eventually put the ball in the end zone.
“We were trying to prevent the big play by them.”
“We’re getting experience. We have guys who can play. Last year, we had a ton of three-year starters, guys with experience, and you can’t replace that,” said senior defensive lineman Tyler Alicea. “But as these games go by, as you can see, we don’t blink when things go wrong. We know how to overcome adversity. That tells me a lot about the guys who are in there. They didn’t panic and they stick together.”
Township drove the length of the field late in the first quarter and as the second quarter began the Minutemen were looking to tie the game at 7. But that’s when Holley came up with the huge interception return for Millville (1-1, 0-1 WJFL American). It didn’t seem to have an effect on the Minutemen however. After McCabe’s early heroics got Township on the board, the Minutemen tied the game, 14-14, just before halftime on a 1-yard run by Isaac Parra.
In the third quarter, Township really got rolling. With 8:06 remaining, Cole went straight up the middle for a 3-yard touchdown that gave Washington Township the lead for good at 20-14. Dorsey and Cole kept trading touchdowns until late in the game, as Dorsey followed with a 6-yard run, Cole added a 59-yard scoring scamper to start the fourth quarter, and Dorsey followed with a 29-yard touchdown run that pushed the lead to 39-14.
“I’m rooting for them,” Alicea said of all the new facing making big plays. “It’s great to see what they are doing. I know they can play. I’ve seen them, they work hard in practice and to see them doing it on the stage they want to do it on makes us all feel good.”
Cole finished with 125 yards, Dorsey had 101, and Cody Halicks added 69 yards on eight carries. In all, Township rushed for 310 yards and five touchdowns on 46 carries — an average of nearly seven yards per carry.
“We’re feeling pretty good,” McFall said. “We just have to stay focused and poised. We’re ready to go.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Washington Township hosts Williamstown on Thursday at 6 p.m. Millville travels to Kingsway Regional on Friday at 6 p.m.
