Big catch, big win: Big Red wastes no time hitting W column

PAULSBORO – The Paulsboro High School football team wasn’t going to wait until October for its first win this year.

Big Red turned the page on one of the program’s toughest seasons and delivered a 12-7 victory over Penns Grove in the ’24 opener on a hot Saturday afternoon.

Last fall, Paulsboro was in danger of enduring its first winless season since 1922, but the Raiders knocked off Audubon in its finale. Saturday marked their first season-opening win in three years.

“After going 1-7 last year, that’s just not the Paulsboro way,” said junior Sawyer Cabanas, who was a sparkplug on both sides of the ball at running back and linebacker. “That wasn’t Paulsboro football (last year). New team, new ‘Boro.”

That’s the kind of talk head coach Kevin Harvey has been preaching to his players.

“We have a little chip on our shoulder, at least I know I do,” Harvey said. “Everytime we step out here, we know we are going to take (the other team’s) best shot. We have to be ready for it.

“I like the way we fought (Saturday). We hung in there. We held our own up front and we tackled. Got the first win out of the way.”

More: Football 2024: Check out all of our content for the South Jersey high school season

Big catch, big win

Paulsboro sophomore Jeremiah Carr made several huge catches in his first start, but none were bigger than his first TD grab.

On a fourth-down call, the 6-foot, 175-pound Carr outleaped the defensive back and snatched the football right in front of the defender’s face for a highlight-reel catch and a 21-yard score. The throw came from backup quarterback Ky’Aire Harvey, who entered the game for one play after starter Malakhai McKenzie had his helmet come off on the previous snap.

“We’re looking for big things out of him,” Harvey said about his talented wideout. “He’s a playmaker. When we get the ball in his hands, he makes plays.”

Carr wasn’t interested in talking up his catch after the game. He was more interested in something else.

“We got the win, I’m just happy about that,” he said. “We’ve been building up for this the whole offseason and summer. It was bad last year, we don’t want to feel that again. Our leaders have made a big difference.”

PG falls short in Maccarone’s debut

Entering the field as a head coach for the first time in seven years, Mark Maccarone wanted to taste the same type of success he saw guiding Glassboro to 43 wins in seven seasons with the Bulldogs.

The Red Devils fell 16 yards short of delivering a W for their new boss.

Down 12-7 with just under seven minutes to play in regulation, Penns Grove drove to the opposing 16-yard line before Paulsboro’s Jason Yandach iced the game with a fourth-down sack.

“We had an opportunity to win the football game at the end and we didn’t execute,” said Maccarone, who won two sectional titles and made five playoff appearances at Glassboro. “We were in position to make plays and we didn’t.”

Maccarone praised his defense, which held Paulsboro scoreless after the intermission and put together a great goal-line stand in the first half. On the next play after the stand, Penns Grove fumbled the ball. Paulsboro turned the miscue into an easy 1-yard quarterback sneak for Malakhai McKenzie for a score.

Game balls

Paulsboro’s Sawyer Cabanas did most of the heavy lifting in the second half, rushing 11 times for 59 yards. He also finished with close to 10 tackles for the game.

“Sawyer is a glue guy,” Harvey said. “He holds everything together. He’ll do it all, does everything he needs to do for the team.”

Penns Grove quarterback Ramello Erikson-Hubbard threw his first TD pass of his scholastic career, connecting with Knowledge Young on a 7-yard scoring strike in the second quarter that gave the Red Devils held a 7-6 lead.

Up next

Paulsboro will look to go 2-0 for the first time since it went unbeaten (7-0) in 2020 when it travels to Audubon on Saturday.

Penns Grove (0-1) will travel to Deptford (0-1) on Friday before hosting Glassboro in its season opener on Sept. 14.

Tom McGurk is a regional sports reporter for the Courier-Post, The Daily Journal and Burlington County Times, covering South Jersey sports for over 30 years. If you have a sports story that needs to be told, contact him at (856) 486-2420 or email tmcgurk@gannett.com . Follow him on Twitter at @McGurkSports. Help support local journalism with a digital subscription.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Big catch, big win: Big Red wastes no time hitting W column