Schools

Absegami Football Team Starts Strong with Win Over Egg Harbor Township

The Braves used three first-half touchdowns en route to a 20-6 win.

senior Kyle Wiggins said this year’s Braves squad is a different football team than they were last year. While last year’s team made the South Jersey Group IV playoffs, it did so with a 4-4 record through eight games, and finished the season 4-6.

The goal for this year’s team is to win a championship, and the Braves got off on the right foot with Friday night’s 20-6 win over Cape-Atlantic League American Conference rival Egg Harbor Township.

“This win means we can come out and expect to win,” Wiggins said. “We play together, we gel together, and it shows on the field. It shows we can play with the best teams in our conference.”

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The Braves (1-0 overall, 1-0 in the conference) dominated the first half of Friday night’s game, thanks in no small part to the arm and legs of its quarterback.

Junior Rashad Kinlaw, who has been getting a lot of attention from NCAA Division I colleges, carried the ball 10 times for more than 80 yards in the half, and scored on the ground with just over 40 seconds left in the second quarter.

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His rushing touchdown came with 42.8 seconds left in the half, giving the Braves their final score of the half.  However, it was Absegami’s previous possession that showed Kinlaw’s importance to the team.

It was the Braves’ fourth possession of the game. Absegami was already leading 7-0, thanks to a 73-yard sprint by sophomore running back David Hood on the Braves’ second possession of the game.

The Braves’ third possession had been set up by an interception by Wiggins, who picked off Egg Harbor Township’s (0-1, 0-1) junior quarterback Ken Doughty. The Braves weren’t able to convert the turnover into points, though.

Six plays into the new possession, it seemed another Braves possession was going nowhere. However, facing fourth-and-5 on the Eagles’ 37, the Braves coaching staff put the ball in Kinlaw’s hands, and he easily picked up the first down.

Four plays later, it was fourth-and-6, and again the ball went to Kinlaw. This time, it was a 15-yard scramble that gave Absegami the first down, and set up junior running back Tyler Bing to score from 4 yards out, to put Absegami up 13-0.

“He’s our go-to guy,” Absegami Coach Dennis Scuderi Jr. said of Kinlaw. “He’s one of the best players in the state, and we’d be crazy not to use him. Everything we do goes through him. And we have good (running) backs, too. We have four or five dynamic backs to help him out. Our offense continues to progress. I like what we’re doing.”

“They have a lot of faith in me to run the offense,” Kinlaw said. “I can take full responsibility with no pressure and get the job done.”

After taking a 20-0 halftime lead, Absegami’s offense slowed a bit in the second half. Egg Harbor Township was able to slow Kinlaw on the ground, but he showed what he can do through the air, when he connected with Hood on a 45-yard pass for a seeming score. However, the touchdown was negated by a block in the back.

Absegami’s defense didn’t falter, holding Egg Harbor Township scoreless until there was just over three minutes left in the game. That’s when the Eagles’ junior running back Curtis Fitzpatrick broke through the Braves’ defense for a 73-yard scoring run of his own.

Wiggins attributed the defense’s ability to stay strong through the second half with his running back coach’s commitment to conditioning.

“Coach (Shawn Scannell) kills us during practice and it shows during the games,” Wiggins said. “And I wouldn’t say we got tired. (The score) was just a misstep on defense, but I don’t think 20-6 is a bad score.

“As a team, our offense and defense help each other out whenever we need it.”

The Braves were also helped by special teams, where junior kicker/punter Nick Della Vecchia was able to pin the Eagles down inside the 10-yard line four times. He was 2-of-3 on extra point attempts.

The defense batted down several passing attempts by Doughty, and nearly added two more interceptions to Wiggins’ pick.

Scuderi noted his team’s inexperience, and the need to figure out how to finish games.

“We went up 20-0 and I think we started to settle,” Scuderi said. “We need to put games away.”

The win was an important one heading into next week’s game at perennial state title contender Holy Spirit, on Sept. 16 at 7 p.m.

“This win means a lot,” Kinlaw said. “It gave us a lot of confidence. We need to take it step by step, and go back and watch a lot of film.”


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