Pressley Helps Woodbury Push Their Way Past Heights

High School Football:
Pressley Helps Woodbury Push Their Way Past Heights
Saturday, September 27, 2003

By Art Redd
SJSports Staff Writer

It was quite simple what the game plan was Saturday morning at Woodbury High School. A steady dose of the Thundering Herd’s running back attack until it wore down their opponent’s defense, giving way to let Marvin McKinnie and Chris Pressley do what they do best. It took some time and once the Herd was in motion, Haddon Heights was unable to stop Woodbury for overcoming an early 7-point deficit. Pressley scored 3 times in the second half and compiled 129 yards rushing to lead Woodbury to a 27-7 victory. McKinnie was all over the place both on offense, defense and special teams.

That must have been some halftime speech by Woodbury’s head coach Zack Valentine. On their first possession of the second half, quarterback Kyle Miller engineered an 8 play 43-yard scoring drive to leap ahead of the Garnets with 5:18 remaining in the third quarter. Pressley finished the drive off with a 1-yard run. Woodbury surprised the Garnets with their successful two-point conversion when McKinnie received the snap and stood up to completed a pass to Chuck Smith who was wide open in the endzone. From that point on, Woodbury had a one-point lead and the momentum for the rest of the game.

Woodbury’s defense would set up the next 2 scoring drives for the offense. Defensive end Brandon Muse pushed his way towards the quarterback causing a rushed pass to wind up in the hands of McKinnie. That’s when McKinnie demonstrated his running abilities returning the ball 33 yards setting up the offense with a 1st and 10 at the Garnets’ one-yard line. Pressley would use his 260lbs, 6’1” frame to easily cross the goal line giving Woodbury the 14-7 lead. Pressley also capitalized on the second turnover caused by the defense by scoring from 4 yards out with 1:46 remaining on the third quarter clock. The time of possession for those two scores was less than 90 seconds.

With their 13-point lead, the Herds’ defense kept the momentum solely on their sideline throughout the final half of this game. Woodbury would force 5 turnovers which resulted into three touchdowns. The last score of the game was one to remember. Charles Smith's interception put his name in the scorebooks with his highlight reel return from 60-yards out just over 5 minutes remaining in the game.

1 2 3 4 T

Haddon Heights 7 0 0 0 7

Woodbury 0 0 20 7
27

Photos by Mark Fletcher