Vineland football doomed by turnovers against Millville

MILLVILLE – The Vineland High School football team spent the past two weeks preparing to face Millville without star running back Daivon Seymore.

The Fighting Clan believed they had a game plan that could get the job done, but the day before their Thanksgiving showdown, they learned sophomore Nihym Anderson, a star defensive player and replacement for Seymore in the backfield, wouldn’t be able to suit up.

Vineland knew their absences would have a major impact, but the biggest detriment to the team Thursday was turnovers. The Fighting Clan gave the ball away five times and Millville capitalized with 14 points off those miscues en route to a 21-0 victory, the first shutout in the series since a 34-0 Bolts victory in 2011.

“Things were working great,” Vineland coach Dan Russo said. “We were moving the ball, thought the play calling was good, but when you have these turnovers, they’re catastrophic, and you can’t regroup.”

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It was the Thunderbolts’ seventh straight victory in the rivalry, and closed the all-time gap to one game, with Vineland holding a slight 63-62-19 advantage.

“Everybody’s down,” junior linebacker DaQuan Cosby said. “We wanted to send the seniors out with a bang, but you’ve got to take the good and bad from it.”

The good was the defense. The Fighting Clan (3-7) allowed just 155 yards from scrimmage, and both of Millville’s offensive touchdown drives started inside Vineland territory. No team has won a game in the series with as few points as the Bolts scored since the Fighting Clan’s 21-14 win in 2006.

“Defense was the strength of the team,” senior Robert Blakely said, “but the offense has got to do just as much as the defense. You don’t score no points, you don’t win no games.”

Vineland’s offense has struggled mightily since Seymore, who leads the team in yards from scrimmage (853) and touchdowns (10), injured his shoulder against St. Augustine on Oct. 30.

Anderson seemed to give the running game a spark when he got his first-ever offensive touches against Mainland the following week in place of Seymore, but because of a non-sports discipline matter, he couldn’t compete against Millville (6-4).

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“The day before the game at a walkthrough, we had to redo everything,” Russo said. “We worked two weeks with certain personnel and the walkthrough, the whole thing changed.”

Without Seymore and Anderson, the Fighting Clan needed to play a perfect game. Unfortunately for them, they couldn’t hang onto the ball.

Two plays after Millville took a 7-0 lead on Clayton Scott’s 9-yard touchdown run with 3:07 left in the first quarter, Vineland’s Isaih Pacheco fumbled and the Bolts’ Marcial Ramos recovered the loose ball and rumbled 25 yards to pay dirt to extend the lead to 13-0.

Vineland lost another fumble in the second quarter, but the defense forced a Millville three-and-out to help keep the score the same at halftime.

The Fighting Clan seemingly found a rhythm after receiving the third-quarter kickoff, reaching the Millville 41-yard line. However, on a third-and-1 play, a shotgun snap sailed past quarterback Lindon Williams and Scott recovered and ran it all the way to the Vineland 30. The Thunderbolts got into the end zone seven plays later when Will Polhamus connected with Khary Folayan for a 10-yard score to make it 21-0.

Vineland was unable to get much going after that, and two fourth-quarter interceptions helped seal Millville’s win.

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“They affected us a lot,” Cosby said of the giveaways. “We were past the 50 a couple times, we were going in to score, and a couple turnovers happen. That’s why we couldn’t score.”

But as disappointed as Cosby and the rest of the team was, their spirits perked when thinking about next year. The core of the Fighting Clan are juniors and sophomores, and with a strong offseason and better health, many believe this program is set to turn a corner in 2016.

“The seniors and the guys before them have laid the foundation and we’re looking to build from that,” Russo said. “We’re going to keep building. Hopefully I can see this through and be the coach and we’re just going to keep fighting. I’ve got a great staff, got great kids and we just want to play for each other, do the best we can and play for Vineland and all our supporters and keep moving forward.”

Josh Friedman; (856) 563-5257; jfriedman2@gannettnj.com