High School Football:
Big Play By Kingsway Wins Defensive Battle With Deptford

Saturday, September 25, 1999

By Vincent Lewis
SJSports Staff Writer

The sound of football pads crunching against one another was a familiar one Saturday morning at Deptford High School. This defensive matchup between the Kingsway Dragons and the Fighting Spartans saw no touchdowns scored until the final quarter. With the combined score totaling five points through three quarters, Kingsway got the fourth quarter started with the only touchdown of the game and defeated Deptford 8-3 in a Tri-County Conference meeting.

Watching the way this game was going, it seemed as if the defense would have to come up big to give their offense an opportunity to put points on the board. Both teams showed brief spurts of the offense finding ways to move the ball, but couldn't sustain a scoring drive. Deptford began to move the ball when Vaughn Eli picked up 16-yards on a run right at the heart of the Dragon defense. Now on the 20-yard line of Kingsway, Deptford's drive ended when Kingsway recovered a fumble at their own 7-yard line with 55 seconds remaining in the first quarter. But here comes another defensive play that sparked the Fighting Spartans team. Deptford's freshman Chris Bensinger broke through the offensive line to sack Sean McMullin at the 3-yard line with 17 seconds remaining in the quarter. The Dragons were able to get the punt away safely from deep in their own territory.

Now with the second quarter started and the Spartans with good field position, the defensive battle continued to dominate this game. Kingsway was able to prevent the offense of Deptford from taking advantage of their excellent field position. The theme of this game continued when Deptford got the ball back with a fumble recovery off of a sack with 6:03 remaining in the half. The offense managed to get into field goal range for the Spartans field goal kicker Matt Baney. With the snap and the ball placed down and rushing defenders closing in, Baney lined a 27-yard field goal that skipped across the cross bar for a 3-0 lead with 3:41 remaining in the half.

The hitting continued in the second half where the defense got the spotlight, holding each other's offense off the scoreboard. But it would be the Dragons defense that got their team's first score of the game. With the pressure still mounting on the Spartans offense, straddling their own goal line, Jason Robinson and Tarif Hill got to Eli for a safety that the sparked the visiting Dragons. It wasn't until the fourth quarter that the big play happened that both offenses knew they needed would break this game wide open. McMullin used an excellent play fake that allowed Mike Robertson to get open and scored on an 80-yard touchdown reception for final points of the day. The one big play could have happened by either offense, but it could not out do the excellent defense displayed by both teams.

Photos by Art Redd