Rancocas Valley football topples Lenape for first playoff victory in 5 years

MT. HOLLY – Garrett Lucas wished he could’ve sliced the game ball into a couple dozen pieces.

The Rancocas Valley High School football coach was still dripping from the water bucket he had dumped on his back when he made the comment, then he called up the offensive line and tight ends to present them their reward for their performances Saturday afternoon.

He wanted to bring the entire team forward though. There was no one Player of the Game. Not even a best unit. It took everybody for the third-seeded Red Devils to hold off No. 6 Lenape 13-3 in the Central Jersey Group 5 quarterfinals and capture the program’s first playoff victory since 2018.

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Lucas beamed with pride when asked about it because that’s what he hoped for when he came to Rancocas Valley last year. The Red Devils had won five games the previous three seasons combined. Now, they’re a win away from playing for a sectional championship.

“Today’s day and age is so I want this, I want this, me, me, me,” he said. “When you come together and it’s not just one guy taking over … it’s we did this together.”

On an abnormally hot afternoon for late October, where the thermometer topped 80 degrees, Lucas and his players couldn’t help but think about the summer practices as a reason for their success.

“We put in the work,” senior quarterback Nick Marco said. “Since probably last December we’ve been lifting. June, first day out of school, we started practicing. It showed, our total effort all season.”

Effort and persistence were the hallmarks of the Red Devils’ triumph, and the reason they’ll visit second-seeded Washington Township in the semifinals next week.

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Play of the Game

Rancocas Valley held a 7-3 advantage at halftime, but a lost fumble gave Lenape life in the third quarter.

The Medford squad looked poised to retake the lead when Tyler Selby hauled in a Jaelin Mims pass and fought his way toward the goal line.

However, as Selby was pushing for extra yardage, Red Devil linebacker Damien Peterson chased him down from behind and punched the ball out just inside the 5-yard line. Rhyle Tibbs recovered to give the Red Devils the ball back.

“Eye on the prize. I see it, I take it,” Peterson said. “Every day, tackling circuit, (defensive coordinator Mike Wallace) got us punching, ripping, forcing fumbles. We have our turnover circuit every day in practice, and it just translates onto the field.”

“That was the momentum switch,” Lucas added.

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March to victory

Rancocas Valley didn’t let Peterson’s play go to waste.

The Red Devils proceeded to drive 97 yards in 15 plays, which included four third-down conversions, the last of which resulted in Marco taking a bobbled snap and racing around the edge for a 1-yard touchdown and a 13-3 advantage.

“I got caught by surprise,” Marco said. “I bobbled the snap. It was supposed to be a fullback dive to my man (Malachi Castle), I saw an opportunity and I kind of took it. I mean, I was just nervous, but I got in somehow.”

Marco’s 17-yard completion to Brody Deiter on the fifth play of the march was pivotal too.

“It’s only a couple plays here and there that really define a game,” Lenape head coach Joe Wojceichowski said. “We jump on the fumble, we’re going into the end zone on the (3-yard line) there with momentum, you think you got an opportunity to probably win that football game.”

Up next

Rancocas Valley (8-2) will travel to Washington Township (8-2) in the Central 5 semifinals. The Minutemen defeated Atlantic City 43-14 in their quarterfinal matchup on Friday.

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They said it

“This win showed hard work paid off. This week, we got to work even harder so it’ll pay off.”

– Rancocas Valley linebacker Damien Peterson

“Just another game. They bleed how we bleed. We going to play, they going to play, we going to see who wins.”

– Rancocas Valley senior Malachi Castle on next week’s showdown with Washington Township

Josh Friedman has produced award-winning South Jersey sports coverage for the Courier-Post, The Daily Journal and the Burlington County Times for more than a decade. If you have or know of an interesting story to tell, reach out on Twitter at @JFriedman57 or via email at jfriedman2@gannettnj.com. You can also contact him at 856-486-2431. Help support local journalism with a subscription.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Rancocas Valley football tops Lenape for first playoff win since 2018