South Jersey Sports Report

Six local teams finished in the 2021 final Online Top 25 high school football poll.

The Cedar Creek Pirates championship may have come down to the final play on Saturday night, but this win was a year in the making for head coach James Melody.

After missing all of last season for the Owls due to surgery to repair a meniscus tear in his left knee, the Whitesboro native is scoring 3.3 points and grabbing 3.4 rebounds in 16.4 minutes per game this year.

In his first game as head coach, the Seagulls beat the New Jersey Knights 136-122 on Sunday.

The Thunderbolts talented wideout recent broke the South Jersey freshman receiving mark, with 938 yards in a season.

The Bridgeton alum recently accepted an invitation to play in the East-West Shrine Game in January and is expected to be a fourth or fifth-round pick in April's draft.

The championship comes five years after the Panthers seriously considered folded the football program.

The freshman had 119 receiving yards and two touchdowns in the Thunderbolts, 47-0 Thanksgiving Day win over rival Vineland to push his season total to 938, breaking the single-season total for any South Jersey freshman.

Millville Thunderbolt and Cedar Creek Pirate football fans planning on heading to the Regional Championship games next week must buy tickets online in advance.

Steward set a single-season receiving record with 1,081 receiving yards this season, eclipsing the 1,018 yards Kevin Hallman had back in 1988