4th Win Puts Lions Football on Verge of First-Ever Playoff Spot

Cherry Hill West senior wide receiver/safety James Verzicco has lived through the lean years.

The Lions have been chalked up as a guaranteed W on other teams’ schedule—with just four wins total in 2010 and 2011 and only one .500 season in the last 15 seasons, the playoffs have been a mirage on the horizon.

But Verzicco felt something heading into this fall—a sense that things were changing. With a new coach and possibly a new direction, the senior believed, deep down, this could be the year.

Friday night, with Steve Perry’s vocals and those unmistakable guitar riffs filling the air at Jonas C. Morris Stadium and the Lions basking in a 20-14 victory over Bishop Eustace for their fourth win of the season, Verzicco was almost speechless.

“It’s the greatest feeling—indescribable, really,” he said of standing on the edge of the playoffs. “These last two years, we haven’t been doing well—but just to think, all the hard work we put in is paying off.”

The Lions inched close to that spot, which would be the team's first ever, by beating Eustace in somewhat unconventional fashion, given the team’s pass-first mentality of late. Running back Jaquan Gonzalez-Pratt was the workhorse, carrying the ball 20 times for 117 and two touchdowns.

West’s other touchdown, the first of the night for either team, came when Rod Williams, the Lions’ Swiss army knife on offense, pulled the ball down on a quarterback option and sprinted 28 yards to paydirt.

While the Lions have made a name for themselves passing, Gonzalez-Pratt said the ground game packs just as much firepower.

“Our line was doing a good job blocking, and we thought we could handle running the ball a lot,” he said. “We just felt strong running the ball.”

And whether the win came off the strength of the running game, defense or passing game, Gonzalez-Pratt said it didn’t matter—the team knew a win was a must with the playoffs in sight.

“We knew what we had going for us, and we just tried to go for it,” he said.

Along with that running game, West’s defense rose to the occasion, allowing Eustace just four first downs in the first half and stoning the Crusaders in the late going.

The Crusaders had a chance, getting the ball back with 4:59 left in the game, but couldn’t get any offense going, the Lions forced Eustace quarterback Connor Bor outside the pocket and into a bad throw on fourth-and-seven.

That pass skipped off the turf well short of Bor’s receiver, and that was it.

With the team still on the bubble, the Lions will head to Camden Catholic in the final game before the cutoff likely still needing a win to get to the postseason. Though Seneca and Hammonton, two teams ahead of West, both lost Friday night, Toms River South, which was just behind the Lions, scored an upset win over Group 5 Brick Memorial, and should rake in the power points.

West’s only focus is Camden Catholic, though, and continuing the winning streak they started by beating Woodrow Wilson three weeks ago.

“That gave us the motivation to go into Moorestown and get that win, and now it just keeps piling on,” Verzicco said. “Everyone has a common goal.”

Both Gonzalez-Pratt and Verzicco said a win against Camden Catholic—a team that beat Timber Creek early, but has also lost to Moorestown and Seneca—is within the Lions’ grasp.

“It’s going to be a good game,” Verzicco said. “We work harder than them, we’ve got more heart than them, and I think this three-game win streak is going to pay off.”