Saturday, September 16, 2000

By Dennis Davis
SJSports Student Correspondent

Saturday was a great day to play football. The sun was shinning, not too hot and no wind. Camden versus Edgewood was expected to be a great battle between two speedy teams in their season opener. The Camden Panthers were expected to defeat the Edgewood Eagles but the Edgewood team didn't intend to go down easily. In fact, they didn't go down at all.

The Eagles received the opening kick off and were forced to punt after three quick plays. The Panthers would then fumble the snap on their first offensive play, giving the ball back to the Eagles. It was not long after that, that Brandon Osbourne (ran for 1100 yards last year) would take his first of 4 trips into the end-zone. Osbourne scored on a 10-yard screen pass from Nick Rosettii. The Eagles took a 6-0 lead as the extra point was missed. After the kick off, Camden started to move the ball. On third down, the Panthers QB was sacked and fumbled the ball back to the Eagles. The Eagles were quick to take advantage of the great field position from the second Camden fumble. After Dennis Davis carried the ball to the half yard line, Brandon Osbourne powered his way into the end-zone for the second touchdown of the day. The Panthers just could not seem to get things going, as they fumbled for the third time, once again turning the ball over to the Eagles. Two plays later, Osbourne was in the end-zone again, this time off of a 35 yard to give the eagles a 19-0 lead in the first quarter.

Camden finally go some things to go their way, as they completed a 90 yard fade for a touchdown from QB Matt Perry to James Pulliam, but the play was called back for offensive pass interference. The second quarter was slow due to an unbelievable amount of penalties on both teams. The Panthers got down to about the Eagles' 40 yard line before having a pass intercepted by Jack Thompson. After 3 plays, Edgewood's kicker Nick Rosetti had to put the ball. His punt was fielded at the 3 yard line. Osbourne would intercept another Camden pass to lead to a 5 yard run by Rosetti to put the Eagles up to a 26-0 lead.

Camden started the second half with the football and where forced to punt after 3 plays. Dennis Davis returned the punt to the 10 yard line were Osbourne punched it in from there on the next play. The Eagles the recovered an on-side kick ( Coach Sellers said that his kicker was to do a squive kick) and drive down the field 44 yards for a score. This time, Dennis Davis scored on a 5 yard run. Camden finally seemed to be getting on track as they drove the ball down to the Eagles 15 yard line, only to have a pass intercepted in the end zone by Aaron Johnson and ran the ball out to the 25 yard line. The ball would the change hands a couple more times until Andre DeRamus picked off the 4th interception for the Eagles. After 5 more running plays by Jonathon Pollock he was in the end-zone to put the Eagles up 46-0. The Eagles defeated the Panthers by the score of 46-0. Some key players of the game were from Edgewood: Brandon Osbourne and Pete "Pancake" Nardello. For Camden it was James Pulliam and Imani Wilson.