<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2fqJN9_0wDtU3s500" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2fqJN9_0wDtU3s500" width="1280" height="720" ><figcaption>Marquis Taylor, 8, of Woodbury reacts after intercepting a Haddonfield pass for a touchdown during a football game at Woodbury High School, Saturday, Sept. 7 ,2024. Joe Warner | For NJ Advance Medi</figcaption></figure>The Woodbury High School football team had just given up a safety at the end of the first half - one Woodbury coach Anthony Reagan took responsbility for - and headed for the locker room trailing Penns Grove, 16-14.Reagan didn’t wait until the team sat down in the locker room to give his message. He called the entire team together on the sideline.“The biggest thing I was telling them is you have to continue to believe in each other, there’s times in the season where things don’t go our way and we don’t believe,” said Reagan. “But I told them I believe in you, you have to believe in each other. They took to the message.”That belief might have wavered a bit in the second half but Woodbury (3-4) rallied for a somewhat improbable 37-23 victory over the Red Devils (1-7). Penns Grove’s Ka’Ron Ceaser - who ran for 228-yards on the day - scored on a 68-yard TD on the Red Devils’ first play from scrimmage in the second half to put them up nine. The score stayed that way until early in the fourth quarter when Tim Holmes found Jasuan Solomon for a 34-yard TD pass on fourth-and-10 to make it a two-point game with 9:06 to play.Penns Grove then forced a fourth-and-10 on Woodbury’s own 41 with five minutes to play and considering the way Ceaser had gashed them the Thundering Herd would have been justified going for it. Instead, Woodbury punted and it turned out better than could be expected - a Penns Grove player inexplicably touched the ball as it was rolling dead and Woodbury recovered on the 30-yard line.“We thought about (going for it), but we had to play the situation (and punt),” said Reagan. “I did not expect that at all, we tell our kids all the time do not get greedy, that ball is not something to play around with there, and fortunately that’s what their kid did.”Solomon ran for 20 yards on the next play, and Marquis Taylor finished the drive with a 2-yard run out of the wildcat to put the Thundering Herd up, 27-23, with 2:49 to play. It was Woodbury’s first lead since going up 7-0 on the first drive of the game after a bad punt snap set the Herd up at the Red Devil 2 and Taylor scored his first of three touchdowns on a 4-yard run.Solomon scored his second touchdown and ended the game after an errant pitch bounced off the running back’s hands, and the Herd senior linebacker picked the ball out of the air and ran in from 10 yards out.“We just kept believeing,” said Taylor. “We have a young team, but we know if everybody is a champion in their role, we can get this done. We knew they would try to run the ball and ice the game, but we never stopped believing and we got the job done. We know it’s a battle, but if we keep fighting, good things will come.”Taylor and Solomon - two of Herd’s outstanding seniors on an otherwise young team scored all of the Herd’s touchdowns. Taylor’s other score came when he broke free across the middle on fourth-and-25 from the 30 in the first half tying the game at 14. “Marquis is phenomenal, it starts with the seniors and he has been an ultimate leader, he wanted this challenge, he wanted this role,” said Reagan. “(Solomon) has been all over the place, we ask him to play a different role every week and today he helped us finish. Without guys with him and Marquis leading us, it’s hard for me to see us where we’re at right now.”Penns Grove turned the ball over at the Herd 6-yard ine on another bad pitch with 37 seconds left in the half but ended up taking the lead when Woodbury tried to push the ball upfield. Kyhree Robinson sacked Holmes for a safety - Reagan argued Holmes was down at the 1 but regardless admitted he was too aggressive.Ceaser scored on TD runs of 73 and 14 yards before the break and 68 after, but the multitude of Red Devils mistakes eventually cost them. It was a tough loss to Penns Grove, which could have potentially moved into playoff position with the win. Instead it is Woodbury, the 2022 state Group 1 champion and a sectional finalist a year ago, who believes it can use Saturday’s character win to make it a dangerous underdog in the postseason.“I found out our team has fight that’s different than anything we’ve seen before,” said Reagan. “We were dead in the water last week against Willingboro and came back (in an eventual loss), but that’s what I love about this team, they continue to fight.“It personifies our football team. When it seems likes its dark, we find a way to make a play. If we are in (a tough situation), we continue to believe.”Added Taylor: ““It’s been a real tough year. We have four (seniors) who have started since freshman year, so losing is kind of unacceptable. But we’ve had a tough schedule and it’s just preparing us for the playoffs. If we stay together, we’ll be the last team standing.”The N.J. High School Sports newsletter now appearing in mailboxes 5 days a week. Sign up now and be among the first to get all the boys and girls sports you care about, straight to your inbox each weekday. To add your name, <a href="https://cb.sailthru.com/s/6fj/Newsletter_hs_sports">click here</a>.Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting <a href="https://www.nj.com/">NJ.com</a> with a subscription.Bill Evans covers the West Jersey Football League. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:bevans@njadvancemedia.com">bevans@njadvancemedia.com</a>. Follow him on Twitter <a href="https://x.com/bybillevans">@bybillevans</a>.</div></body>

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Woodbury football tops Penns Grove in wild final 5 minutes

The Woodbury High School football team had just given up a safety at the end of the first half - one Woodbury coach Anthony Reagan took responsbility for - and headed for the locker room trailing Penns Grove, 16-14. Reagan didn’t wait until the team sat down in the locker...

Woodbury football tops Penns Grove in wild final 5 minutes

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