All along, they were better than you thought; better than most people knew.
With the playoffs now underway and some important players back in the lineup, the time has come for Rancocas Valley to show it, and the Red Devils are seizing the moment.
“Just in general, all year, we’ve been through a couple of injuries up front, at middle linebacker, and our X-receiver (Mikey McQueen), for a while, was banged up,” Rancocas Valley coach Garrett Lucas said. “It’s just been a weird year of injuries, and now besides (tight end/defensive lineman) Ricky Doppler, we’re back at full strength.”
McQueen showed just what that meant in a 33-0 win over Hillsborough in their NJSIAA/Xfinity Central Jersey Group 5 quarterfinal in Mount Holly. He caught five passes for 111 yards and two touchdowns, and also returned an interception 22 yards for a score as the Red Devils earned a sectional semifinal trip to top-seeded Washington Township -- a team that beat them, 38-17, on Oct. 10.
“We knew we weren’t at full strength and we made some crucial mistakes,” Lucas said. “A fumble return for a touchdown and two other plays where we know we’re better than what we showed on the field there. The first thing out of all of our mouths was, we want to see them again in the playoffs.”
You could understand if Hillsborough left Bill Gordon Field with a similar feeling. The Raiders turned the ball over twice in the red zone in the second quarter against Rancocas Valley. An interception by the Red Devils’ C.J. Gunter led to a nine-play, 87-yard drive for the first Rancocas Valley score, on a 34-yard pass to McQueen from Sayvien Adams.
Hillsborough’s response was almost as impressive. It started with a 35-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Cooper Wright to Jeff Progin, and continued as Wright found Hameed Kamara twice to move the sticks on third down.
But it ended at the Red Devils’ 1-yard line with a fumble that Rancocas Valley recovered.
Hillsborough’s next drive ended with a missed field goal. The Raiders could have led, 10-7, as easily as trailed, 7-0.
“I’m happy with the effort that we put in,” Hillsborough coach Kevin Carty said. “We came in and we really fought. We missed a couple of opportunities and couldn’t really hang on, in that third quarter.”
On the third play of that quarter, McQueen stepped in front of a Wright pass and took it up the sideline 22 yards for a touchdown.
“My coach set it up. I did exactly what he told me,” McQueen said. “He told me beat the quarterback and make the catch -- get hands on. I went where he told me, and the quarterback threw it right to me.”
Three plays after that, Daniel Rivers-King made an interception at the 31-yard line, and the Red Devils used the short field to their advantage. Adams scored on a 1-yard keeper.
Adams lined up at wide receiver for the next one. He took the ball on an end around and threw a 47-yarder that hit McQueen in stride.
“Our chemistry -- all summer we’ve been working on it,” McQueen said. “He knows where to throw it and I know to get to that spot.”
Adams was 10-for-17 for 174 yards. He threw those two touchdown passes and also one interception. He ran for 35 yards on three totes and scored two touchdowns.
“I trust Mikey every time. Mikey’s going to go get it,” Adams said. “If he makes a mistake, he’ll make up for it. I give him a chance, every time, and I know he’s going to come down with it.”
Adams added one last touchdown, on a 22-yard run on the second play of the fourth quarter.
This was not by any means a two-man show. Jameer Bellamy had 105 rushing yards on just 17 carries for the Red Devils. Kris Oesterle set up Adams’ second touchdown with a circus, falling away catch for a 31-yard gain and the defense -- which allowed 11 first downs in the first half -- held Hillsborough to just three in the second half.
The Red Devils, who defeated Lenape, 34-0, a week earlier, have now posted back-to-back shutouts for the first time since the 2008 season.
“We knew we had to pick it up,” Adams said. “We know we have the talent to compete with any team in Group 5. We came out at Lenape and beat them and we knew, it’s a new season. We just had to start out hot again.”
Hillsborough, which started the season 1-4, finished at 4-6. You always want more, but once the Raiders put aside how their final game went off the tracks, Carty thinks they’ll take pride in how their season clicked on.
“We had a good group of seniors,” Carty said. “We didn’t have a lot of experienced guys, but we had a lot of guys that kind of took over leadership. We beat some pretty good teams, and (I’ll remember) the way these kids got together, the way they played together and even how they came out here and battled. I wish it ended better for them, but they’ll look back and be happy with some of the things they did.”