Burlington Twp. is edged by Woodrow Wilson in sectional final
BURLINGTON TWP. >> A lot of the pregame talk centered on how the Burlington Township defense would do against Woodrow Wilson standout quarterback Nick Kargman, who came in having thrown for a stateleading 3,201 yards and 34 touchdown passes.
As it turned out the talented Burlington Township secondary did do a pretty good job on this front by limiting Kargman to 19 completions in 36 attempts and a low 212 yards by his lofty standards.
What Burlington Township (10-1) could not do, however, was generate enough offense to limit Kargman’s opportunities and the result was a tough 22-14 loss to Woodrow Wilson in the South Jersey Group III championship game Saturday afternoon.
From the beginning you had a feeling it might not be Township’s day when it returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown, only to have it called back by an illegal block.
Things then began to look very bleak for the home team as Woodrow Wilson (9-2) stormed out to a 14-0 lead when Kargman threw a 36-yard TD pass to Stanley King in the first quarter and a 17-yard TD pass to Naziq Murray in the second. King’s TD catch was a thing of beauty as he went high in the air to snag the ball with both hands.
With its back now against the wall, Burlington Township responded with its only sustained drive of the game when Rodney Vines ripped off a couple of nice runs and Danny Grozozski hooked up with Tyrese Ware on a 14-yard crossing pattern for a touchdown.
Things looked even more promising from there when Township was able to turn the ball over on downs after Woodrow Wilson (9-2) had driven to the Falcon 6 yard line in the final minute of the first half.
But as it turned out, it was in the third quarter where the game was largely lost as Township first threw an interception and then fumbled in its own territory. The second turnover led to the third TD pass of the game by Kargman, in this case a 10-yard hook-up with Fadil Diggs in the corner of the end zone.
“They have one of — maybe the best — defenses I went up against all year,” said Kargman, who has attracted some Division 1 interest including Rutgers. “But we’ve been in a lot of tough games this year. We knew we just had to keep working hard and staying after it.”
With Township going nowhere as the game wound down, it looked like the game was headed for an anticlimactic finish. Instead, Woodow Wilson make the bizarre decision to try a fake punt near midfield instead of pinning back Township with a little over 3:00 remaining.
When the fake punt resulted in a sack and Township took over at the Woodrow Wilson 40 yard line, the Falcons got right back in the game on perfectlyled 44-yard TD strike down the left side from Grozozski to Ware.
Unfortunately, for the Burlington County team, it proved to be too little too late. With the help of a holding call on a fourth-down pass, Woodrow Wilson was able to run out the clock from there to end Township’s otherwise outstanding 10-1 season.
Grozozski was able to throw for 125 yards on 11-for-17 passing, but the Falcon running game was virtually non-existent Not helping matters was the fact Woodrow Wilson recorded five sacks.
Woodrow Wilson (9-2) 6 8 8 0 — 22 Burlington Township (10-1) 0 7 0 7 — 14 WW-King 36 pass Kargman (kick failed) WW-Murray 17 pass from Kargman (McCargo run)
BT-Ware 14 pass from Grozozski (Byrd kick) WW-Diggs 10 pass from Kargman (King pass from Kargman)
BT-Ware 44 pass (Byrd kick)