Phewwww.. put that one in the books. What a great afternoon. Decent weather, nice crowd and a Red Raider team ready to play some football.
Paulsboro won the coin toss and deferred to the 2nd half. Paulsboro kicked off and Bundy fielded the ball for Woodbury. He ran for a good 60+ yds and then Woodbury just stalled. 4 and out.
Shavon (Salem) Mears put up the first points in the game for paulsboro at the 6:54 mark in the first quarter. Torre Polimeni made good on the PAT and the score was 7-0.
Woodbury couldn't do much on their next possession either but they did manage to recover a fumble on Paulsboro's next drive and on the 1st play, Lancaster ran 57 yds for the Woodbury lone score. The PAT was blocked by Paulsboro's (Sugar) Shane Mitchell so the score remained 7-6. That's as close as it would be all day, with 4:20 left in the 1st.
Paulsboro took possession and Gerald (Big Man) Hodges tried to few passes but didn't connect until the ball went to Shane Mitchell for the first down.
Paulsboro and Woodbury traded possessions for the rest of the 1st quarter and most of the 2nd. Then with less than 2 minutes left in the 2nd quarter, the raiders prepared to strike again. Jeff (Buddha) Hamilton carried the ball for some positive yards and then Hodges hit Alex (the Lion) Silvestro for a completion and first down. Two plays later, with 0:53 left in the half, Hodges takes the snap, pitches the ball to Mears and Mears tosses it into the endzone to Silvestro. Halfback pass - Paulsboro goes up 13-6. The Polimeni kick is again good and Paulsboro yakes a 14-6 into halftime.
Paulsboro receives the kickoff in the second half. After a Mears run to the 48 yd line, Hodges scrambles on the next play and takes off for the endzone and the next Raider score to start the third quarter. Raiders up 20-6. Polimeni, money. 21-6
It was pretty much the Shavon Mears show in the third quarter. Junior Ra'shard (Central Michigan) Braxton touched the ball for a first down and then with 4:27 left in the third, Mr. Mears took it in again. Score Paulsboro 27, Woodbury 6. PAT was blocked and the score remained 27-6.
Woodbury could do absolutely nothing with the ball but hang on. The Raider D was unstoppable - Demitrius (Big D) Hester, Silvestro, Jordan (Poppy) Cooper, Zack (Attack) Greenwald, Corey Gilcrest and the list goes on. Once again, the Herd was forced to punt. After calling for a fair catch, Hodges got set to strike again. This time he hit Anthony (Goody) Pierce slanting across the middle and he took it in for the score. Polimeni again made good on the PAT and the score climbed to 34-6. 2:08 left in the third.
With very little time gone in the 4th quarter, Mears went over 100 yds for the day and over 1,000 yards for the season. That's when the coaches called it a day for Mr. Mears. Two new ball carriers made appearances for the Raiders, Darren Carter and Marcus Gaines. Both played well and gained positive yards. Billy Brammel also entered the game and took over the reigns at QB for Paulsboro. I'm sure there was more personnel changes but I didn't take note of it all.
Today was an impressive win over a very competent team. Today was a team victory in every sense of the word. Next up WD for the last regular season game. Then on to Glassboro for the South Jersey Group 1 Championship. Both of these last two games will be televised on Comcast Local Channel 5.
Here's a link to some pictures that were taken by the Courier Post:
http://cgi.courierpostonline.com/cgi-bin/vargallerydisp.cgi?dir=111806/FB_WOODBURY_PAULSBORO&curr=0
Shavon (Salem) Mears - talk about carrying the workload!
Slippery when wet!
Just think - if shoe laces weren't part of the uniform!
