By MARK TRIBLE

South Jersey Glory Days Senior Football Writer

On X @Mtrible

LINWOOD — Late in the second quarter here at Mainland Regional High, the No. 1 team in South Jersey had no fire.

They had no juice. They had no collective intensity. In fact, the only thing they seemed to have was an earful from their head coach.

Winslow’s Bill Belton pleaded with his top-ranked Eagles to wake up and get it together.

Then, in a span of 2 minutes and 18 seconds, his uber-talented bunch did just that. Winslow scored three touchdowns to take a 7-0 deficit and turn it into a 21-7 halftime advantage. The Eagles never looked back in a 47-24 rout of the Mustangs.

“I think we just started slow today, we came out very, very sluggish and they came out amped up,” Belton said. “Once everyone got settled in and everything got back to normal, our guys just started making plays and we went from there.”

Mainland took the lead in the first quarter on an 18-yard pass from John Franchini to Dylan Granzow. The drive ate at the clock and painted a portrait of the opening stanza, where the Mustangs outgained Winslow, 100-to-9.

The game turned late in the second frame with Cam Miller’s 56-yard screen pass catch-and-run on 3rd-and-15. Down to the 10-yard line the Wisconsin commit went, and that’s when things began to get normal for Belton and Co.

Star sophomore quarterback Jalen Parker hit Nyqir “Boomer” Helton on the next snap for a 10-yard score. After a three-and-out for the hosts, a high punt snap set up the Eagles (8-0, 3-0 West Jersey Football League American) at the 6-yard line. Roman Duckett plunged in for six.

Two snaps later, Benjamin Carter Jr. nailed the ballcarrier and forced a fumble that Malachi Brown recovered.

Parker hit Helton for a 57-yard touchdown.

“Coach Bill, once he gets to yelling, everybody gets straightened up,” Helton said. “He’s a hard coach, but he’s also a great coach, so once he gets yelling it’s time to lock in and handle business.

“That’s what we did.”

Few teams can score as quickly and from as far out as Winslow. The burst was remarkable. The second quarter discrepancy in yards tilted to the Eagles, 173-9.

At night’s end, Helton had scored twice. Duckett did, too. Miller made an incredible touchdown catch to start the second half. Nakeem Powell ran in a score. Jayden Poteat took back a kickoff 89 yards.

Winslow did much of nothing for the first 16 minutes of the game and still nearly hit half-a-hundred.

“We start off slow sometimes, but we know that when we finish the game, we’re going to get the job done,” Marcus Upton, who nabbed an interception, said. “I think we did a good job coming back and picking up the momentum against a good, well-coached team like this.”

The Mustangs (5-3, 1-3 WJFL American) trailed by 24 halfway through the third and cut it to 10 with 21 ticks left in the stanza. They couldn’t get closer.

Last year, Mainland ran all over the Eagles in the Group 4 state semifinals on the road, 41-7. This season, the Mustangs will compete in the Group 3 postseason and they’ll be players in that mix. But Friday night, those who hoisted the title a year ago were forced to deal with a Winslow roster that didn’t forget 2023.

“Yeah, it does feel pretty good,” Belton said. “We have a lot of respect for that program, that coach, that team, that staff.

“I think they do a really good job and they showed us what we didn’t do last year and we were able to correct some things in the offseason. This year, we came back and got a victory here.”

Last November couldn’t feel further away. The Eagles have their sights set on the 14-0 mark that Mainland finished with last year and the state title that accompanied it.

They are a group that’s possessed by the pursuit. And what’s scariest of all to anyone who stands in their way is what was displayed in this clash.

Winslow is capable of turning a deficit into a large margin on you even when the Eagles aren’t at their best.

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.