West Deptford Senior Eagles Fall in TCMFL Title Game

If the West Deptford Senior Eagles had any doubts they were facing a serious foe in Whitman Park Tigers at Saturday night, that all changed in a hurry.

As in a score-in-two-plays hurry.

And though the Eagles battled back in the Tri-County Midget Football league title game, rallying to tie the score early and staying within a touchdown until late in the third quarter, the Tigers proved to be too much–too much size, too much speed and too many explosive scoring plays.

“We were prepared, but we just ran into a buzz saw,” said head coach Matt Carroll.

After Whitman Park put together their two-play, 30-second scoring drive to open the game, the Eagles fought back, putting together a long drive that stalled on the Tigers' 10-yard line.

A turnover by Whitman Park on the ensuing drive set up West Deptford with excellent field position, and the Eagles would not be denied.

With lineman Bobby Brewer eligible on the play, quarterback Nick Diaco took a quick drop, then fired a short strike to Brewer, who rumbled his way to a 27-yard touchdown.

“That’s come through for us a lot, because at this level it’s hard to cover that,” Carroll said.

Whitman Park climbed back into the driver's seat with a pair of touchdowns after West Deptford's score, but the Eagles would not go quietly to end the first half. Derrick Clement and Drew Funk, who combined for more than 100 yards on the night, had a couple of solid carries on the drive, as the Eagles tried to close the deficit and build momentum.

But a fumble in the red zone on what could've been a scoring drive derailed some of that momentum.

“We had to play mistake-free,” Carroll said. “This was the game to play mistake-free.”

Neither team was perfect when it came to protecting the ball, as they combined for six turnovers on the night, but West Deptford couldn't turn three interceptions–two by Clement and one by Reid White–into points.

They'd get it to within a touchdown in the second half, on another Diaco-to-Brewer score, but despite efforts up and down the roster, including solid rushing and kick return efforts by Paz Gismondi, Carl Young and Marquise Owens, the Eagles couldn't keep up with a Whitman Park team that seemed to get faster as the night wore on.

In the end, it went down in the books as a 32-12 loss–but for a team two years removed from an 0-9 season, getting into the finals was the fulfillment of a goal.

“There are 28, 30 teams in our division at the senior level, and we were one of two left,” Carroll said. “I’m very proud of our team, very proud of our coaches–we worked hard.”

And he looked to the high school team, which had just realized its title dreams just hours before, as the fulfillment of the youth program, where the ultimate goal is to prepare players for the next level.

“We expect that here,” Carroll said. “We try to start that winning tradition here.”