Bridgeton

Talk about making a statement. The Bridgeton girls' track-and-field team headed to Buena yesterday looking for an impressive start to the season. And that's what the Bulldogs accomplished. Bridgeton took back a first- and second-place team trophy to Cumberland County. Competing in the small schools (Group 1 and Group 2) portion of the Buena Relay Carnival, the Bulldogs scored 58 points to win the track-events team championship. Buena was second with 46 points, followed by Schalick (44)

Admittedly, it was not impressive during the preseason, but Northern Burlington's football team has picked up its play considerably now that the games are for keeps. Last night, Northern Burlington unleashed a tenacious defense to stop Bridgeton, 17-12, in a nonleague opener for both teams. During the preseason, Northern Burlington was lackluster against Holy Cross, Cherokee, Burlington Township and Palmyra. But the difficult scrimmages toughened up the Greyhounds. "We didn't do well at all in preseason," said Northern Burlington running back/defensive back Rob Beetel, one of only two returning starters.

Chris Stoll scored seven of his game-high 22 points in the first three minutes of the fourth period last night to lead Holy Spirit High to its ninth straight victory, a 68-65 win over third-ranked Bridgeton. The victory avenged an 87-66 loss to Bridgeton on Jan. 5 and lifted Spirit into a two-way tie for second place in the Cape-Atlantic League's Division I. Spirit (13-2 overall, 10-2 league) and Bridgeton (11-3, 10-2) are one game behind Atlantic City. Bridgeton, which saw its 10-game winning streak ended, entered the fourth period with a 50-46 advantage, largely because of a 10-point third quarter by Adrian Dickerson.

St. Augustine shot a blistering 63 percent from the floor last night and made an equally impressive 82 percent from the foul line to defeat Bridgeton, 76-66, and assume sole possession of first place in the competitive National Division of the Cape-Atlantic League. The Hermits (12-2 overall, 10-1 league) combined last night's win with a defeat of No. 9 ranked Wildwood on Tuesday to break a three-way tie in the division. "When we looked at the schedule after Christmas, we pointed to this week," said St. Augustine coach Paul Rodio.

When the NJSIAA South Jersey Group 3 championship goes on the line at 1 p.m. Saturday, two very similar teams will compete: Two teams who never have been in the playoffs before, much less a final. Two teams that win or lose almost exclusively with defense. Two schools that have not had much to cheer about in football in more than a decade. When Lakewood visits Bridgeton on Saturday, each team will be looking into a mirror. BACKGROUND Lakewood, coached by George Biessette, was seeded No. 2 in Group 3 after reaching the cutoff date with a 6-2 record in the Shore Conference.

The Bridgeton Bulldogs turned on Roman Catholic with a full-court press in the second quarter last night and didn't let up until they had a 71-65 victory in the second round of the Seagull Classic. Bridgeton, the defending Cape-Atlantic League I champion, was led by senior forwards Adrian Dickerson and Gerald Still, who scored 26 and 25 points, respectively, while strolling unchecked along the baseline. "We didn't have a front-court defense," Roman coach Dennis Seddon said.

The City of Salem has traded its right to build a reproduction of a 17th- century Swedish village in exchange for $50,000, a log cabin and permission to invite the king and queen of Sweden to the Salem County community next spring. The tourist attraction will instead be built in Bridgeton, Cumberland County, under an out-of-court settlement reached yesterday in Woodbury between Salem and Bridgeton officials and the nonprofit company constructing the village, New Sweden Co. Inc. of Salem.

Kingsway and Bridgeton have named new boys' basketball coaches, according to athletic directors from each of those high schools. George Passante has been selected at Kingsway, while Osco Williams was chosen at his alma mater, Bridgeton. Passante replaces Jim Ambrosius, who compiled a 60-40 record in four years. Ambrosius stepped down for personal reasons, according to Kingsway athletic director Joe Galliera. Under Ambrosius, Kingsway went 17-8, 19-7, 15-10 and 9-15. The 19-win season in 2001-02 was the most since the program had a 21-7 record in 1965-66.

Mike Bartley is a small guy who has a habit of making big plays and bigger hits for the Bridgeton football team. Bartley, a 5-foot-9, 155-pound senior, is one of the main reasons the Bulldogs are seeking their first sectional football championship. Bridgeton (8-2) will host Gloucester (9-1) in Saturday's 1 p.m. South Jersey Group 2 final. It is Bridgeton's first title-game appearance since it lost to Lakewood, 7-6, in the 1986 South Jersey Group 3 final. In Bridgeton's 14-12 semifinal victory over Moorestown, Bartley returned an interception 49 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter to give Bridgeton its 14-12 lead.

Atlantic City coach Bill Devenny has erased a memory that haunted him for nearly a year. Last night the Vikings picked apart defending Cape-Atlantic League Division I champion Bridgeton, 79-61, to win their 17th boys basketball title in the last 18 years. "You know what I've been thinking about since last February," Devenny said after the win. "I've been torturing myself for not moving Bobby Martin into a different position at the end of our playoff game with Bridgeton. They took advantage of my mistake, scored and beat us to win the championship," he said.

Highlights of Wednesday's contests can be found at: www.philly.com/rally Baseball SOUTH JERSEY GROUP 3 FIRST ROUND Timber Creek 4, Manchester Township 1 Moorestown 15, Winslow Township 7 SOUTH JERSEY GROUP 4 FIRST ROUND Toms River South 7, Shawnee 6 CENTRAL JERSEY GROUP 1 FIRST ROUND Keyport 8, Riverside 4 BURLINGTON COUNTY FREEDOM Burlington City 8,...

Braheme Days Jr. had just won the high school boys' shot put at the Penn Relays with a throw of 68 feet, 81/2 inches, and all he wanted to do was show off the watch he got for winning the title. "I figured you guys wanted to see it," Days said with a laugh. The Bridgeton junior, who had earned the top seed for Friday's championship, became the sixth straight New Jersey champion in the event at Franklin Field. "Penn Relays are awesome," Days said. "I came here last year; I competed, and didn't do too well.

On the long trip last winter from Bridgeton to New York for the indoor national championships, there was one topic of conversation for Bulldogs junior Braheme Days and his weight-throwing coach, Ray Wilks. It wasn't the weather or politics or girls or music or food. It was weight throwing. "We were just joking about this," said Wilks, a Bridgeton graduate and former All-American thrower at the University of Connecticut. "It was a 21/2-hour ride, and it was 21/2 hours of talking about throwing.

The three-pointer at the first-quarter buzzer was more than icing on the cake. It took all the restraint that the packed Willingboro gym had not to storm the court and celebrate right then. The game, for all intents and purposes, was over. And a game's worth of entertainment had already been provided by Willingboro's Ronny Paden. Paden's three-pointer was his fifth of the game, giving him 27 points for the first period. The shot put the second-seeded Chimeras up by 30, and allowed them to cruise to a 99-65 victory over 10th-seeded Bridgeton on Thursday night in the second round of the South Jersey Group 2 tournament.