HAMMONTON – It took Mainland Regional 91 yards on 14 plays to define its season last Friday and now the Mustangs are in the driver’s seat as the Group IV South Jersey playoffs start to crystalize.
Mainland’s methodical drive in the fourth quarter allowed the Mustangs to score a 14-7 road victory over state-ranked Hammonton to remain undefeated at 5-0. Stephen Ordille’s touchdown with 29.6 seconds left in the game gave the defending Group IV Central Jersey champions their biggest win of the season.
“We know Hammonton has a quality football team with a great tradition, so it feels really good to come out of here with a win,” Mainland coach Chuck Smith said after the game.
Mainland goes into the final four games of the season against teams with even or losing records. Avoiding a trap-game slip-up, the Mustangs should be able to go into the postseason next month undefeated. Mainland’s computer points ranking is second behind defending NJSIAA Group IV state champion Millville (3-1).
Depending on which region the NJSIAA places Mainland, it should earn them at least two home games in the postseason. For the Mustangs, though, it’s still too early for that kind of talk.
“We knew winning this game would be a big power-point game for either team,” Smith said. “Hopefully, it’ll put you on the right side of the bracket for a home game. It looks good to be 5-0, but we still have four more games before the playoffs.”
In savoring its biggest win of the year against the 2022 South Jersey Group IV finalist, Mainland had its work cut out for it. Hammonton’s strong presence along the front line had slowed the Mustangs’ running attack to a crawl.
“They did a great job defensively against us in shutting down some of the stuff that worked well for us last week and what we thought would be successful against them,” Smith said. “We had to go with what the defense presented to us. That’s football.”
Hammonton, behind one of the state’s best running backs in Kenny Smith, appeared to have the momentum most of the second half after Smith’s 31-yard touchdown run tied the game at 7-7 midway through the third quarter.
The Blue Devils would drive into Mainland’s territory two straight times after that before the Mustangs’ defense stiffened. With 7:43 remaining in the game at the Mainland 46, Hammonton opted to punt, pinning the Mustangs on the 9.
That’s when Mainland put together its best drive of the game – and arguably the season – as the run game behind Ordille and the offensive line found new life, reeling off five straight first downs. But it was the passing game that set up the contest’s winning touchdown.
After converting a third-down play on the Blue Devils’ 26, Mainland’s sophomore quarterback John Franchini connected with senior wideout Jamie Tyson on a 23-yard pass near the left sideline with about a minute left in the game.
“That last play to Jamie was something we worked on all week,” Franchini said. “I knew Jamie’s always going to make a play so I just try to get him the ball.”
Tyson said that Smith had dialed up the corner route several times in the game but the two failed to connect. But with the game on the line deep in the fourth quarter, he knew the call still had a shot.
“We were just down in the game, I knew we had to make the play,” Tyson said. “I juked the corner out. I was trying to get it in [the end zone] but that’s OK because we were able to still get the time down to finish the game.”
Two plays later, Ordille managed to get around the right end for the game-winning score with 29.6 seconds left, completing the improbable 91-yard drive.
“That drive was who we are,” Ordille said. “We were going to do whatever we can and dig in deep and dominate the drive because that was the game. It’s a credit to our offensive line. That’s a big line in Hammonton they had to deal with but they came in and gave me a push that whole drive.”
Senior offensive lineman Jack Haines said despite what happened in the game previously, the final drive came down with each player trusting their teammates making the plays in the moment.
“That’s when you just have to dig deep and reflect on all the sacrifices you made to get to this point,” Haines said. “You have to take all of that and bring it to the field. It was just a matter of that we wanted it more and we knew we had each other.”
In holding Hammonton to its lowest point total of the season, the impressive Mainland defense accomplished another rare feat in holding Smith under 100 yards for the first time this season. The Blue Devils’ elite junior running back gained 80 yards on 17 carries, a good portion of that coming off his touchdown run.
Ordille, who was coming off of a 200-yard-plus game the week before against Atlantic City, rushed for 74 yards on 21 carries but scored both of the Mustangs’ touchdowns. The first touchdown, late in the second quarter, was set up by the pass as well.
Mainland started the drive on Hammonton’s 49 after the Blue Devils failed to convert a fake punt. After moving the ball to the 42, Franchini connected with Cohen Cook on a 33-yard catch to move the ball to the Hammonton 9.
On the next play, Ordille scored on a run over right tackle with 2:51 left before halftime to give Mainland a 7-0 lead.
Smith said the road victory against a state-ranked team represents the continuing growth of the Mainland program beyond last Friday night’s score.
“It shows where we’ve come from and how we’ve grown as a program,” Smith said. “To watch these kids who played as freshmen and got their butts kicked and now seeing their success as seniors, I feel great for them. We were on the wrong end of the score many times then and to see what we are doing now shows how much they have grown as players and people.”
Mainland is now 15-2 over the past two campaigns after two consecutive losing seasons with the current group of seniors playing as freshmen and sophomores.
Mainland must figure out how it can maintain its momentum over its last four games. They return home to play Bridgeton (0-4), followed by Absegami (2-3) on Oct. 6, Clearview (2-2) on Oct. 13 and its former Thanksgiving Day rival Egg Harbor Township (1-4) on Oct. 20.
By CLYDE HUGHES/For the Sentinel
