By MARK TRIBLE

South Jersey Glory Days Senior Football Writer

On X @Mtrible

BURLINGTON TOWNSHIP — Alex Grippo flashed his toothy grin once the final seconds had ticked off the clock and he’d visited with some supporters along the visitors’ bench.

“Delsea’s known for wearing down teams,” the senior back and linebacker said. “… Just ground-and-pound ’em, down the middle every time.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

The Wing-T offense hasn’t been broke in a long time down in Franklin Township, yet the Crusaders fixed it anyway as they entered the 2024 campaign. After a switch back to the old recipe a handful of weeks ago with former coach Sal Marchese calling the plays, the scheme is back.

And after Friday night, the rest of the Central Jersey Group 3 playoff field knows the Delsea we all remembered has returned, too.

By virtue of a 29-12 road win over Burlington Township, the seventh-seeded Crusaders (3-6) are into the second round. They’ll face No. 3 seed Cedar Creek (8-2), 39-14 winners over Triton.

“We’ve always believed we had the talent,” senior Penn commit Dan Russo said. “We started off a little slow and lost a couple close games.

“But definitely switching back to the offense we’re used to, that’s what’s Delsea football is. It’s about punishing people and breaking them down. That’s exactly what we did.”

Russo should know better than anyone. One of the bell cows on last year’s state championship team, the senior back and linebacker made his presence felt on every snap here Friday. He scored three touchdowns and grabbed two interceptions.

He simply wore out the Falcons (8-2) and did it with authority.

“He’s a fantastic player,” Burlington Township coach Steve Everette said. “The kid plays super hard. We were banging on him and banging on him and he was running and chasing our kids and only came out for two or three plays.

“That’s a tough-minded kid. That’s championship mettle … That is the reputation of Delsea. That is the tradition of Delsea.”

Everette and Co. won the toss and elected to take the ball to get ahead of the visitors. The ploy worked with an 11-play drive that found paydirt on a Giovanni Remi 4-yard run.

The Crusaders responded with a drive of their own, keyed by quarterback Jimmy Reardon’s 39-yard pass to Eric Grant. Russo plunged in on the next snap to make it 6-6.

Reardon came up huge with an interception to thwart the next Falcons drive. Russo did the same on the possession after that.

Then, Reardon hit the end zone on a 9-yard run with 2 minutes, 32 seconds left in the first half. The next drive for Burlington Township ended with another Russo pick.

That spelled trouble. The grind-you-down-as-you-watch-minutes-fly-off-the-clock offense clicked into full gear. All the Falcons could do was become yet another victim of Delsea modus operandi.

After a failed Falcons onsides kick attempt to start the second half, the Crusaders took over at the Township 41-yard line.

Eleven plays later, Russo ran in a score and Grippo tacked on a conversion for a 22-6 lead. The drive took up almost eight minutes of clock.

“I said if we can put together a nice drive, we can kind of break them,” first-year coach Jason Volpe said. “Obviously, we’d get a big chunk of momentum for the rest of the half.”

That pretty much secured the trip to the next round. Russo tacked on his third score in the final stanza. The Falcons added one of their own in the final minutes.

There were plenty of strong efforts on the red-and-white side Friday night. Not only did Russo and Grippo star, but Reardon also proved excellent. Grant had a pivotal catch on a low punt snap in the second quarter and boomed a kick that helped keep the field position edge. He also pilfered a pass in the fourth.

It looked like a vintage performance for a club that hit the reset button after a heartbreaker overtime loss to Mainland last week.

“We made some adjustments and did what we had to do,” Russo said. “In our mind, we’re 0-0 and playoffs are a new season.”

New season, same Delsea.

Everette said the truth repeatedly here once the dust cleared. …

“They’re a problem.”

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.