Washington Township downs Lenape

Mark Wechter and his Washington Township football staff, whose team has been in a rebuilding mode, laid another solid block Thursday night in a foundation that sits atop the West Jersey Football League American Division.

After last week's upset of Cherokee, then ranked No. 8 in South Jersey by The Inquirer, the Minutemen marched into Lenape and won a 20-14 nail-biter over a winless but tough division rival.

Township (4-1 overall, 3-0 division) has one more division game remaining in which to battle for a perfect record. Lenape (0-4, 0-4), a team with a new coaching staff, might have taken a step in finding its identity.

"I don't know if it's so much of a rebuilding year; it's more like a recharge," Wechter said. "I guess we just needed to take a look at the way we were doing things. Maybe we were doing too much before, not looking at what's important, overcomplicating things.

"With this group, the way they jelled last May, I'm not surprised we are where we are. They're gonna play for four quarters and they're gonna play hard."

The game went down to the final seconds, with Lenape threatening to score; however, Township's T.J. Brown batted down Cory Jett's final pass to end the game with no time on the clock.

"On offense, we have a great balance right now," Wechter said. "The passing game is what bailed us out against Cherokee last week. So we've got to go with what works and stay with it."

The passing of Thomas Hildebrand and field goals by Ben Palestino in the first and third quarters keyed Township's victory. Hildebrand, a junior, completed 9 of 13 throws for 159 yards and a TD.

Lenape quarterback Cory Jett had two touchdown passes to Jordan Walker called back for illegal men downfield, one at the end of the first half and another near the end of the game.

"We're not playing 48 minutes," Lenape coach Tim McAneney said before the game.

But that clearly wasn't the case this night. The Indians played hard for 48 minutes and nearly pulled out a victory.

The Minutemen opened the scoring on a 26-yard field goal by Palestino for a 3-0 lead 7 minutes, 17 seconds into the action. Township followed that by scoring on a 1-yard plunge by John Montesjardi for a 10-0 lead with 5:37 left in the second quarter.

But gritty Lenape roared back to score on a 2-yard burst by Jett and an extra point by Eric Marshall to pull to within 10-7.

Township's Chris Colavita caught a 32-yard touchdown pass off the deflection of a defender for a 17-7 lead with 44.9 seconds left until intermission.

Washington Township   3 14 3 0 – 20

Lenape   0 7 0 7 – 14

WT: FG Ben Palestino 26

WT: John Montesjardi 1 run (Palestino kick)

L: Cory Jett 2 run (Eric Marshall kick)

WT: Chris Colavita 32 pass from Thomas Hildebrand (Palestino kick)

WT: FG Palestino 33

L: Jett 3 run (Marshall kick)

Contact staff writer Bill Iezzi at 856-779-3826 or biezzi@phillynews.com.