West Deptford Football Bounces Back Big

The situation the football team found itself in Friday night was not one it intended, but was one of the Eagles’ own making.

West Deptford took the field coming off of a conference loss for the first time since 2009, and all eyes were on the squad to see how it would respond after a tough loss to rival Haddonfield.

As Haddon Heights found out, West Deptford responded perfectly.

The Eagles dominated the line of scrimmage and powered past the previously undefeated Garnets, 49-6, in Colonial Conference Liberty Division action.

Haddon Heights jumped out to a 6-0 lead, but seemed helpless as the Eagles stormed back to score touchdowns on its next four possessions. The win moves West Deptford to 3-1 and sends a message that losing will not be tolerated by this team.

“Anytime you lose, especially a game we should have won against Haddonfield, you aren't sure how the team is going to come out, and I am so proud of these guys,” said senior quarterback Jake Hannan. “They came out with a great intensity. They got up on us quick, but we answered back, which is really important to us.”

West Deptford head coach Clyde Folsom was very pleased with his team’s effort, saying they played “near-perfect football.”

“Coming into the game, we felt like it was a must-win situation for a lot of reasons,” said Folsom. “The main one was just to build momentum back into the program, which we lost a week ago. Anytime you lose early in the season, you have to get it back, and we did. We didn’t just win, our kids played very well tonight. We are really proud of that. We didn’t have any turnovers, and I don’t think we had any penalties. We played near-perfect football and we were opportunistic as well.”

After Haddon Heights jumped out to the early lead, West Deptford answered with a four-play drive that culminated with Connor Smith taking a handoff and going 46 yards for the score on the final play of the first quarter.

“I saw the hole open up really quick and I felt a little pressure on the inside, I bounced it out and cut back and then just saw the end zone,” said Smith.

The defense forced the Garnets to turn the ball over on downs on its next possession, and the Eagles got first-down plays from Tom Jakubowski in the passing game and Arrin Bundy on the ground to set up an 8-yard touchdown run by Gerald Towns.

After Haddon Heights went three-and-out, the Hannan-Jakubowski connection got to work again, this time connecting for a 63-yard touchdown pass to give the Eagles a 21-6 lead. Hannan threw a fade to Jakubowski that just cleared the outstretched fingers of the Haddon Heights defender and landed safely in Jakubowski’s hands. The senior receiver had no one left to beat as he ran the additional 40 yards to the end zone.

“They were playing a jam, cover-1, and were keyed in on our running game to try to stop it,” said Hannan. "We ran a speed sweep to have them bite on the run, and it was an easy fade.”

The lead grew to 28-6 less than two minutes into the third quarter when Phil Fisher broke off a 54-yard touchdown run. Bundy (six yards), Cornelius (55) and Isaiah Worthy (1) each added touchdown runs as the West Deptford offensive line dominated the line of scrimmage.

“To win at this level you have to have a line, and our line played extremely well tonight,” said Folsom.

West Deptford will embark on its first road game of the season next week when it faces Woodbury on Saturday at 10:30 a.m.

The Eagles will do so as a team with rebuilt energy.

“We came into the game with some things we wanted to do,” said Smith. “We started off a little slow, but we were able to bounce back at the end of the first half and in the second half we executed really good.”