The Bulldawgs overcame a 17–7 second half deficit on Sunday to upset №1 seed West Deptford High School and win the South Jersey Group II championship.
Nothing came easy for Haddonfield Memorial High School football in 2017.
For starters, the Bulldogs played the entire season on the road, playing home games at Cherry Hill High School West with their home stadium under construction.
The team had a slew of injuries during the season. Even in Sunday’s South Jersey Group II championship game, the Bulldawgs were missing four starters due to injury.
Haddonfield had to overcome a slump late in the regular season. The Bulldawgs lost three straight games to end the regular season after a 5–0 start, making them the №6 seed in the South Jersey Group II tournament.
Even after the team advanced to the South Jersey Group II title game, the Bulldawgs faced challenges. Haddonfield trailed their division rival and №1 seed West Deptford High School, 17–7 late in the third quarter.
However, Haddonfield managed to get past over every hurdle. A fourth quarter comeback in Sunday’s sectional final was capped off with a 51-yard touchdown pass from Jay Foley to Drew Gavranich with 2:36 left in the game to give the Bulldawgs a 21–17 upset win and the team’s first sectional championship since 2014.
“There’s nothing better than to do it than with this group of guys,” senior Seamus Glennon said. “With these guys we did it the right way. We did it the best way we could.”
Unlike in 2014, where Haddonfield finished the season with a perfect 12–0 record, the Bulldawgs entered the 2017 playoffs on a three-game losing streak and having to play Sterling High School, a team that beat them 37–19 in the regular season finale, in the first round. However, the coaching staff and players said the team didn’t lose its confidence heading into the postseason.
“We prepped the same way every game,” senior quarterback Jay Foley said. We never had a different mindset.”
“Everyone left us for dead, except our kids,” head coach Frank DeLano added. “Our kids kept playing.”
Haddonfield got revenge against Sterling in the first round, defeating them 17–7. In the second round against №7 seed Cinnaminson High School, Haddonfield won big, 35–8, to punch the team’s first ticket to a sectional championship game in three years.
Waiting for Haddonfield in the sectional final was West Deptford. The Eagles handed Haddonfield its first loss of the season in October and defeated Haddonfield in the last three regular season meetings between the teams.
The Bulldawgs started slow in the sectional championship. Other than a long 54-yard touchdown pass from Jay Foley to his brother, John Foley, in the first quarter, Haddonfield struggled to move the ball early and trailed, 14–7 at halftime.
At the start of the second half, West Deptford possessed the ball for more than nine minutes. However, the Haddonfield defense held West Deptford to a field goal, making the score 17–7 with under 15 minutes left in the game.
Jay Foley had to overcome two interceptions and a lost fumble earlier in the game to lead Haddonfield to the comeback win. Foley ran for one touchdown at the end of the third quarter and then tossed the game-winning touchdown to Gavranich to win the game.
While DeLano credited the players for continuing to battle throughout the game, Foley felt the coaching staff deserved a lot of credit.
“Mainly, we have to credit that to all of our coaches,” Foley said. “They kept our heads up the entire season when we had the three-game losing streak.”
Three years ago, Haddonfield dominated in its postseason run, outscoring the opposition 102–7 en route to the title. DeLano said while this year’s team had a different road than the 2014 championship team, their hard and work ethic paid off in the end.
“For our kids, this is validation,” DeLano said.
