Sports
Timber Creek, Highland Advance In Football Playoffs
Timber Creek defeated Absegami, and Highland upset Cherry Hill West in the first round.
Gloucester Township, NJ -- The possibility of an all-Black Horse Pike Regional final in the NJSIAA South Jersey Group 4 football playoffs remained a possibility after both Timber Creek and Highland won their first round games on Friday night, according to box scores posted on nj.com.
Devin Leary accounted for four touchdowns and Jerome Gibson had three as second-seeded Timber Creek sailed past No. 7 Absegami, 59-21.
Gibson ran for three scores, including touchdown runs of 24, 15 and 3 yards.
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Leary threw three touchdown passes and ran for another. He connected with Jean-Paul Roane on a 37-yard pass for a score in the first quarter; with Blaine Shade on a 70-yard score in the third; and with Ezrah Archie on a 35-yard pass in the fourth. He found the end zone on the ground from 2 yards out in the fourth.
Kareem Smith scored on a 2-yard touchdown run for the Chargers, and Tyler Coluccio kicked a 35-yard field goal for Timber Creek.
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For Absegami, Chris Dolan was responsible for two touchdowns. He caught a 65-yard scoring pass from Andrew Marcucci, and returned a kickoff 75 yards for another score.
Ifreke Andy scored on a 1-yard touchdown run, and caught a 2-point pass from Macrucci following one of Dolan’s touchdowns.
Meanwhile, Orlando Council and Daejuan Sanders each scored two touchdowns as fifth-seeded Highland upset No. 4 Cherry Hill West, 30-8.
Sanders scored on a 42-yard touchdown run, and caught a 35-yard touchdown pass from Brian Cooey. Orlando Council scored on runs of 5 and 3 yards.
Monte Williams threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Naiem Simmons for the Lions’ only score of the game.
Highland improved to 1-3 all-time in the playoffs. Cherry Hill West was making just its second playoff appearance, and remains winless in the postseason.
Highland will visit top-seeded Lenape in the semifinals on Friday, Nov. 18. Timber Creek will host No. 3 Shawnee in the semifinals the same night.
The championship game is set for Dec. 2.
To view the full bracket, click here.
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