Members of the Ewing football team’s defense hope to ride the momentum of their preseason success. Top row: Lawrence Allen, Robert Mitchell, Tre Jones, and Chidera Sibeudu. Bottom row: Voshon McCray, Tyler Julius, Terrance Grissom, and Savon Brittingham. (Photo by Samantha Sciarrotta.)
Drew Besler’s Ewing High School football team has a surplus of talented linemen, so he decided to do something about it. After running a 3-3-6 snap defense all of last season, he switched to 4-2-5 during the preseason.
“We have a lot more linemen this year than in years past, which really gives us the opportunity to stay flexible,” he said. “It allows a good rotation for guys to stay fresh. Over the course of the game, they’re some of our biggest guys, and they tend to tire, no matter how well-conditioned they are.”
The switch turned out to be the right choice. Besler saw a dominant, more physical offense during the preseason. That carried into the regular season; the team surrendered only nine points in its opening day win over Cinnaminson.
“We’ve been very physical this year,” Besler said. “There’s still a lot of improvement to be made, but we definitely seem more knowledgeable this year. We’re much more of an attacking style of defense. We’re much more physical. We play hard off the edge and things of that nature.”
Devauntay Ellis, a senior running back and cornerback, said big tackles resonate with the rest of the team. It’s seen a lot of them.
“We hit,” he said. “We’re not afraid to hit. Once one teammate sees it, they want to do the same, and it travels on and on.”
The Blue Devils have nine defensive linemen in their rotation, equating to two groups plus an extra player.
“We’re definitely in a situation now where we’re playing to our strength, which is our defensive linemen,” Besler said. “It really helps where if a kid gets hurt, which is highly likely at the defensive lineman position, it’s like we don’t miss a beat. Another kid goes in there and steps up and does what he needs to do. One of the reasons for the change was because we have such a plethora of linemen that now we’re in a situation where we can be more successful.”
Charles Gibson and Kyle Seifert are both transitioning from the offensive line to the defensive line, while Chidera Sibeudu, and newcomers Jason Williams and Mark Anderson all had impacts during the preseason. Besler expects that to continue.
What they were most looking forward to, though, was the return of middle linebackers Lawrence Allen and Robert Mitchell, who were both out due to injury.
“They’re two physical guys,” Besler said. “Usually a linebacker in high school doesn’t make it to 6’0”. Most of the time, they’re in the 5’8”-5’11” range. Lawrence and Robert are over six feet tall. Lawrence is close to 240 pounds and robert is about 220. Those are some big bodies to be clogging up that a-gap. Because they’re not afraid of contact and they would rather deliver the hit than receive it, that makes them very dangerous. There’s going to be a collision with these two. When they return, it’s kind of like we’re getting the cavalry back.”
In the meantime, Voshon McCray and Savon Brittingham have done a more than acceptable job in their places.
“They have done a great job,” Besler said. “They’re definitely in the mix even when these guys return. I think it’s also going to push them, too, because there’s going to be a little more competition.”
A solid defense, Besler said, inspires the rest of the squad.
“It’s definitely a spark because we were so coarse on the ball last year that this year, they should be able to get stops,” he said. “When you have a defense that can get stops, you become that much better of a team. They’ll really dictate tempo, and the offense will feed off of that. Strong defensive play will also help with field position. We’re a firm believer in this program that if you have good field position and make big plays, which we have the capability of on offense, we’ll be very good.”
Running back and safety Tre Jones agreed.
“We’re going to do above and beyond what we did last year,” he said. “We’re more focused. We ‘re just all in this time and ready to give it all. We’re just more hungry for the win now. Last year was a bad year, but now we’re just more ready to get back and fight more. We have that rage inside us to keep driving. That’s why we think we’re going to be a successful team this year.”
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