By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Publisher
EGG HARBOR CITY — The Cedar Creek football official Twitter account posted this quote late Saturday afternoon: “Fate whispers into the ear of the warrior … you cannot withstand the storm; the warrior whispers back … I AM THE STORM.” #WEAREtheStorm.
The Pirates put a storm cloud over Delsea Regional in Creek’s home opener on Saturday afternoon from the very first play, then weathered the Crusaders’ second-half storm to post a 28-21 win over a four-time defending South Jersey champion.
“We just knew we had to come up and smash them in the mouth. That’s was pretty much the game plan this week,” said junior linebacker Mike Gulig. “We just wanted to get three-and-out on every drive. We knew (they put together long drives) so we did some extra conditioning during the week. We ate.”
Delsea won the opening coin toss but deferred to the second half, which was a mistake. On Cedar Creek’s first play from scrimmage, the Pirates used the old “tackle eligible” play, lining up running back Isaiah Watson at the left tackle position. He slipped out of the formation and quarterback Jesse Milza fired a short pass over the middle, and Watson took it 56 yards to the house to give the Pirates a 7-0 lead just eight seconds into the game.
“We knew we were going to run that play from the beginning. It wasn’t like we just came out here and ran it,” Watson said. “We saw through film how they run their defense. I was lined up at tackle.”
Watson had a monster game for Cedar Creek finishing with 135 receiving yards on three catches and 73 rushing yards on nine touches while scoring three touchdowns. His 60-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter gave the Pirates a 21-7 halftime lead, and a two-yard scoring run in the third quarter extended the lead to 28-14 after Tahjze Summial had brought the Crusaders (0-2) within seven points with a five-yard touchdown run.
“He was killing it. He got three touchdowns. What an animal,” Gulig said of Watson. “He gets a touchdown on the first play of the game then does his thing on defense, too.”
“I’m just trying to do work out here and score touchdowns like (Bo) does. It’s not a competition or anything, we’re just trying to get the win,” Watson said.
Bo being Bo Melton, the Rutgers recruit who Delsea spent a good portion of the afternoon trying to contain. Melton was limited to seven touches on offense, but still scored a touchdown.
Delsea answered Cedar Creek’s first score in typical Crusaders fashion, chewing up eight minutes of first-quarter clock while marching 73 yards. Charles Walker capped the drive with a 25-yard run on a sweep right to tie the game, 7-7. But the Pirates struck again on their next drive, getting a big pass play from Milza to Melton before Melton capped the drive with a 1-yard scoring plunge to put Cedar Creek ahead for good, 14-7.
Cedar Creek’s next drive ended in an interception, but late in the first half Milza went over the top and hit Watson for a 60-yard touchdown following a Delsea punt.
Delsea refused to go away, however, as Keison Fowler caught a 17-yard touchdown pass from Mason Maxwell with 4:02 remaining to cut the deficit to 28-21. The Crusaders got one more possession, with 1:50 left, but turned the ball over on downs.
The win helped Cedar Creek keep pace with Oakcrest in the West Jersey Football League’s Independence Division. Both teams are 2-0, while St. Joseph slipped to 2-1 with a 17-14 overtime loss to Holy Spirit on Saturday. Oakcrest handled Buena Regional 33-6 on Friday and have outscored opponents 68-6 so far in two games.
“We were looking forward to this game. We knew it was going to be a hard game, but we had to step up. We just want to keep it rolling,” Watson said. “You get tired, but we knew they were going to run it up the middle, get what they could get and run down the clock. But we drew up a game plan to stop that. We knew we had to stop certain plays, and we got it done.
“We weren’t really respected early in our program, but now we’re starting to show people that we belong up there with the better teams,” added Gulig.
Cedar Creek travels to Ocean City on Friday night before a big matchup with Camden on Sept. 30.
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays