Pleasantville

Some key halftime adjustments last night helped Haddonfield earn its first postseason football victory since 1986. After leading by seven points at intermission, the fourth-seeded Bulldogs shut down Pleasantville over the final two quarters in a 34-7 South Jersey Group 2 quarterfinal win. Haddonfield (8-1) has won eight straight. Its last playoff win was an 18-7 verdict over Florence in a 1986 Group 1 semifinal. The Bulldogs will play the winner of today's Hammonton-Burlington Township game in next week's semifinal.

Pleasantville ran its winning streak to 25 games yesterday with a convincing 67-54 victory over host Atlantic City in the Cape-Atlantic League championship boys' basketball game. The Greyhounds, ranked No. 2 in South Jersey by The Inquirer, used a 28-16 burst in the fourth quarter to beat the Vikings, who had won the first three league title games. Pleasantville led the defense-dominated game by 39-38 entering the last quarter but exploded with a 10-0 burst. Pat Davenport started it with a jumper from the lane, and Clifton Jones followed with an open three-pointer from the wing.

The Dixie relay is an unusual track event in South Jersey. In the race, part of the Dixie Relays at Ocean City, teams must alternate from boy to girl in a 4x400-meter run. It is the only time that members of boys' and girls' squads compete together. Pleasantville won the race Saturday for the fifth year in a row. The the reason for the Greyhounds' success in the unique race is that, for them, it is not unique. Pleasantville's boys and girls practice together regularly, and the school tries to enter only those weekend meets in which both can compete.

Pleasantville graduate Lonnie Walker recently was named to the Eastern College Athletic Conference first team for men's basketball. A muscular 6-foot-6 junior center at Alvernia, he also earned all-Pennsylvania Athletic Conference first-team honors. Walker, who last season led NCAA Division III in rebounding with an average of 14.2 per game, this season is first in field-goal percentage at .696 (165 of 237). "Lonnie shot extremely well from the inside; most of those were little jumpers and layups," said John McCloskey, the Crusaders' interim coach.

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J. – Isaac Clark runs 400 meters. He's a little faster than his brother. Jacob Clark runs the 1600 meters. He's a little stronger than his brother. Both twins run the 800 meters. It's an event that showcases Issac's speed and Jacob's stamina, a middle ground that becomes the brothers' battleground. "It's the only event they both run," Pleasantville coach Alan Laws said. "In everything else, I have to keep them away from each other. " For the second Saturday in a row, the Greyhound juniors went 1-2 in the 800 meters.

A Pleasantville man was arrested early yesterday in the rape and strangulation of a 10-year-old girl who had been missing for two days. Vincent Elwin Brown, 32, of Adams Avenue, was charged at 2:30 a.m. with the rape and homicide of Hafeezah Thomas of Hampden Court in Pleasantville. Pleasantville police Detective Walter Coleman said police found the girl's body at 9:55 p.m. Friday lying in a ditch in a swampy area of the meadows behind the Journey's End Motel in West Atlantic City.

The Pleasantville boys' basketball team, which won its first six games this season, has forfeited five of those victories because it used an ineligible player. Coach Ken Leary said yesterday that the team discovered that Rob Ford was a fifth-year senior, making him ineligible. Pleasantville then reported its finding to the NJSIAA, Leary said. Ford is a guard who was seldom used in the first six games. "It's devastating to the team, and we're trying to get over it," Leary said before last night's game at St. Augustine, which Pleasantville lost, 79-45.

Three South Jersey teams will play first-round games and a fourth has received a first-round bye in the boys' basketball Touranment of Champions. Pairings were announced after last night's state championship games. GIRLS Woodrow Wilson, the Group 3 champion, is the only South Jersey team in the girls' Tournament of Champions. The Tigers are the fourth seed.

Visiting Pleasantville had three ways to win its Group 1 tournament game at Haddon Heights last night. The Greyhounds needed to play the game at their fast pace, get the ball inside to 6-foot-7 center James Inman, or hit from three-point range. They were 0 for 3 as Haddon Heights, led by Bill Plenty's 27 points and 21 by Omar Foote, took away Pleasantville's strengths and earned a 60-48 win. Heights, now 25-2 and No. 8 in The Inquirer's Top 10, earned a third meeting with No. 9 Haddonfield (23-4)

Isaac Clark took his first good look at the gold watch still tucked in its box, smiled broadly, and said, "I got a little something to wear to my banquets. " Good thing, because he probably has a few of those in his future after the history he helped make Saturday. Pleasantville became the first New Jersey school in 30 years to win the boys' 4x800 Championship of America at the Penn Relays. The Greyhounds' time of 7 minutes, 40.71 seconds set a school record and was the fastest race any U.S. school has run this spring.

PLEASANTVILLE, N.J. - A Pleasantville man was killed in a confrontation with police Monday afternoon, authorities said. About 4:20 p.m., officers responded to a report that an armed man was threatening violence outside a home on the 800 block of West Park Avenue, the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office said. Shortly after officers arrived, Alexis Perez, 19, who lived at the home, was shot by police, the Prosecutor's Office said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Three officers were involved in the shooting, authorities said.

Pleasantville's Isaac and Jacob Clark probably could have taken it easy after the way they started the Woodbury Relays on Saturday. In the second event, the twins, along with Noah Prevard and Dagoberto Arias, tied a 37-year-old meet record for the boys' distance medley relay with a time of 10 minutes, 24.40 seconds. But the two seniors weren't satisfied with that. Teaming with Arias and Radcliffe Narinensingh, the Clarks went on to break the meet record for the 4x800-meter relay with a time of 7:54.22.

Boys' Basketball CAPE ATLANTIC CONSOLATIONS Ocean City 72, Buena 34 Pleasantville 53, St. Joseph 52 GATOR CLASSIC Timber Creek 62, Triton 41 Washington Township 56, Gateway 27 NONLEAGUE West Deptford 76, Schalick 45 Gloucester 56, Pennsauken Tech 47 Camden 66, Eastern 61 Girls' Basketball NORTH AMERICAN SHOWCASE Life Center 71, IMG Academy 50 CAPE-ATLANTIC LEAGUE UNITED St. Joseph 66, Pleasantville 36...

It didn't take long for Collingswood's Ellie O'Neill to reach a milestone Tuesday night in a Colonial Conference girls' basketball game against Sterling. O'Neill scored her 1,000th career point with the game's first basket in a 46-31 home loss. The senior point guard finished with six points. In other Colonial play, Audubon won at home against Paulsboro, 46-44, on a game-winning steal and layup by Maddie Lord with 17 seconds left. Audubon sophomore forward Kaitlyn Young scored a career-high 16 points.

Cherokee jumped out to an early lead, then held off a furious, late comeback attempt by Haddon Heights, to win, 54-46, on the road in a nonleague boys' basketball game Saturday. Early on, the Chiefs drained five three-pointers and held a 17-4 advantage after the first quarter. The Garnets weren't able to break double digits in any of the first three quarters and trailed by 35-19 heading into the fourth. Haddon Heights found its offense in the final period, putting up 27 points in the quarter, but Cherokee quelled the late rally by converting 11 of 17 free throws down the stretch.

Holy Cross and Delran seemed fairly even after the first quarter of their Burlington County League Patriot Division boys' basketball game Monday. That's when Holy Cross went to a trap defense, and it made all the difference in a 62-44 win at Delran. Behind their defensive effort, the Lancers outscored Delran, 22-3, in the second quarter. The game was tied after one. Senior forward Brandon Rowe scored a game-high 16 points, and recorded 11 rebounds and two blocks. Junior guard Jordan Walker added 12 points and seven rebounds.

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J. – Isaac Clark runs 400 meters. He's a little faster than his brother. Jacob Clark runs the 1600 meters. He's a little stronger than his brother. Both twins run the 800 meters. It's an event that showcases Issac's speed and Jacob's stamina, a middle ground that becomes the brothers' battleground. "It's the only event they both run," Pleasantville coach Alan Laws said. "In everything else, I have to keep them away from each other. " For the second Saturday in a row, the Greyhound juniors went 1-2 in the 800 meters.

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J. – Isaac Clark runs 400 meters. He's a little faster than his brother. Jacob Clark runs the 1,600 meters. He's a little stronger than his brother. Both twins run the 800 meters. It's an event that showcases Issac's speed and Jacob's stamina, a middle ground that becomes the brothers' battleground. "It's the only event they both run," Pleasantville coach Alan Laws said. "In everything else, I have to keep them away from each other. " For the second Saturday in a row, the Greyhound juniors went 1-2 in the 800 meters.