The Rancocas Valley Red Devils blew past the Edison Eagles in their quarterfinal matchup to advance to the NJSIAA Semifinals where they will face off against the Hillsborough Raiders. The Red Devils came into this game on a 4 game winning streak, 3 of which were won by a margin of at least 21 points and on the road, and the one close game came in an upset victory at home against St. Augustine. Edison on the other hand came off of a 2 game home winning streak, also won by large margins scoring 46 points in each.
This game was everything you would expect to see in a 2 seed vs 7 seed matchup. For most of the game, the Rancocas Valley offense was too much for Edison’s defense to handle, and the Red Devil’s defense did a great job of containing the Eagles’ offense which has shown capability of having scoring outbursts. However, it was a difficult watch for the majority of the first quarter.
Out of the entire 12-minute quarter, the Red Devils had the ball for a total of no more than 2 minutes and they were killing themselves with penalties. They had forced Edison to punt on 4th and long, but Edison was given a 1st down after RV’s defense was penalized for roughing the kicker. Granted, the entire student section acknowledged that the kick was very slow, however, that is still a mistake that you cannot make in the playoffs, especially in future rounds. Nevertheless, RV’s defense still held Edison scoreless and finally got possession of the football with less than 5-minutes remaining in the quarter. The possession didn’t last long however, as on the very first play senior WR Devin Duana fumbled the handoff which deflected off of his helmet and right into the hands of an Edison defender, giving them the ball back immediately.
Luckily for the Red Devils, the Eagles quickly returned the favor fumbling the ball themselves and recovering it, however at the point of recovery it was already 3rd and 30 at their 45 yard line, essentially forcing another punt. On the bright side, after an ugly offensive quarter from RV, neither team was able to score leading to a clean slate heading into the second quarter.
Starting the second quarter, RV ran another handoff from senior QB Sayvien Adams to Devin Duana, which lost them yards. However, on the very next play the two redeemed themselves as they connected for the first touchdown of the game, giving RV an 8-0 lead after a successful 2-point conversion from Adams.
Just two minutes later, junior RB Jameer Bellamy ran about 60-yards into the endzone to give the Red Devils a 15-point lead early in the quarter. It wasn’t until there was less than a minute remaining in the half that Edison scored their first touchdown of the game as senior QB Anthony Calantoni connected with senior TE Robert Roma to cut the lead to just 8. Unfortunately for the Eagles, RV came right back with a touchdown of their own just seconds later as Adams and Duana connected once again to give RV a 14 point lead heading into halftime.
With the momentum completely in Rancocas Valley’s hands, and with the Red Devils receiving the ball to begin the second half, Edison stood almost no chance. RV played tremendous on both sides of the ball; they not only doubled their points in the second half, but they also held the Eagles scoreless for the remainder of the game. En route to scoring 21 points in the second half, Both Adams and Bellamy had rushing touchdowns of their own in the third quarter, and to put the cherry on top, senior RB Montre Wilson put two Edison defenders in a blender as he rushed into the endzone to increase RV’s lead to 35 points with a final score of 42-7.
This win pushes the Red Devils into the Semifinal round, where they will host the Hillsborough Raiders who are on a 5-game winning streak of their own after defeating Freehold Township 49-20.
There is no doubt the Red Devils are a great team, but if they want to make a long run this postseason and prove that they truly are different than RV teams of the past, they will have to clean up a few things about their game: penalties and carelessness.
Penalties is an aspect of the game that has been somewhat of an Achilles heel for them over the course of the season. Some of the penalties they have committed against were not very consequential against Edison, but could be game changers against teams moving forward, especially when you’re giving the offense 1st downs after forcing 4th and long because of roughing the kicker which happened twice in this game.
Careless mistakes and turnovers is another aspect of their game that they will need to improve before Friday’s game against Hillsborough. There were multiple times against Edison where the Red Devils beat themselves and made unforced errors like dropping wide open passes, fumbling the ball both in motion and on snaps, or unforced errors such as roughing the kicker on multiple occasions. These are mistakes that in the future, teams which are better than Edison will capitalize on if they are given the opportunity.
There is no doubt that both the offense and defense have looked tremendous all season long and have been on a roll over the past few weeks especially, and they can have an outstanding playoff run this year and even win it all if they can avoid beating themselves with unforced errors.
