By MARK TRIBLE

South Jersey Glory Days Senior Football Writer

On X @Mtrible

CAMDEN — Career win No. 150 is one Rob Hinson won’t forget for a long, long time.

He has a team that refused to quit to thank for it.

Camden High snatched victory from the jaws of defeat — and the Kingsway Dragons — here on Friday night at Farnham Park. Jaythan Candelario’s 1-yard sneak with 32 seconds left sealed the 26-21 triumph.

It came after a forced fumble from Haleem Muhammad that set up the hosts 33 yards from paydirt.

“These kids really work their tails off,” Hinson said. “I’m happy. They wanted this one for me, they told me, ‘Coach, we gotta get you that buck-and-a-half.’

“I’m just happy we could pull it out.”

For much of the middle of this contest, it seemed the Panthers (2-0, 0-0 West Jersey Football League Colonial) were in control. Faced with an early 7-0 deficit, they reeled off three scores to make it 20-7 early in the third quarter. Former Winslow running back Roman Duckett’s 72-yard house call up the middle just 1 minute, 36 seconds into the second half felt like the start of a runaway.

However, Kingsway (1-1, 0-1 WJFL Classic) proved game for the challenge. The Dragons continually hit the big play and their big quarterback, David Oravetz (6-foot-4, 205 pounds), was a big reason why.

Oravetz, who’d thrown a 58-yard touchdown in the first quarter, found Christian White for a 37-yard score. While a foe pulled his facemask, the signal caller somehow released a perfect toss down the seam. On the next possession, Oravetz hit Cole DeNick on a screen for a 76-yard touchdown.

At 21-20 with 2:25 left in the third stanza, Kingsway had taken the spotlight.

“In a lot of ways, they had the game won,” Dragons boss Mark Hendricks said of his club. “It just comes down to one or two plays.

“You’ve got to close them out. You’ve got to hold onto the ball at the end of the game. You hold onto the ball, you win the game.”

The ample opportunities were there for Kingsway to pull the upset. Hendricks’ group stopped a 10-play drive in the early fourth quarter. Two plays after a punt, a gain of 43 yards ended with Ibn Muhammad’s strip and recovery.

Back in business, the Panthers moved into enemy territory before an incredible interception in the end zone came after a bobbled pass. Floyd Logan IV simply plucked the ball out of a receiver’s hands for the pilfer.

A three-and-out led to a punt back to Camden. George Wyche Jr. led a short drive that ended when his dive for the first down came up a yard short on 4th-and-6 for the Panthers.

That set the stage for Haleem Muhammad to do his thing. On the next snap, he used every bit of his 6-foot-2, 218-pound frame to find the ball and attack it. The method was a taste of his own medicine.

“I told the defense before we got on the field that we all gotta punch, including me,” Haleem Muhammad said. “Give it your all because you never know, one good thing can turn around the whole game.

“I saw it was a double team, I got through it and I just ripped the ball out.”

Seven plays later, Candelario made it in the end zone. The quarterback split time with Wyche Jr. in the contest — and even in the deciding drive.

Regardless of who handled the snap, the effort had been galvanized by the late turnovers and scrappy mindset to hit Hinson’s milestone.

Through cramps and penalty flags that perfectly illustrated early September high school football, the Panthers found a way. Jaiden Steele intercepted a last gasp heave to end the game in the final seconds.

“Coach Hinson always says, ‘character will reveal itself,’” Haleem Muhammad said. “So, everybody was digging deep to show that character.”

They certainly did.

Mark Trible is the host of the South Jersey Football Frenzy Show. You can check it out every Wednesday at 7 p.m. at facebook.com/sjglorydays. The show features highlights, analysis, rankings and more from high school football games throughout South Jersey.