Red Devils

Rancocas Valley senior Lauren Gaskill was distraught when she had to give up baseball around age 9 after finding out that softball was the high school sport for girls. "It was disappointing when I found out I couldn't play baseball my entire life," Gaskill said. "So I went over to softball and it worked out OK. " That might be the understatement of the year. Gaskill was an all-star in baseball, but she took it to another level in a sport she would grow to love - and dominate.

Here's a by-the-numbers look at the Penns Grove football team, which has a 10-0 record. The Red Devils will play at least one more game and could play two more. 538 Points this season. The Red Devils have set the South Jersey record, breaking the mark of 517 set last season by West Deptford. The state record is 599 by Bergen Catholic in 1998. 53.8 Points per game. The South Jersey record for average points per game is 48.4 by Salem in 1996, and the state record is 51.5 by Don Bosco Prep in 2003.

If Rancocas Valley High is ever going to make a dent in the Burlington County Liberty Division basketball standings, this may be the year. Fourth-year coach Ron Powell has several returning starters and a crop of talented newcomers who could possibly lift the Red Devils to respectability. Last season, Rancocas Valley finished a dismal 7-15 overall and 6-10 in the league. However, many Liberty powerhouses such as Willingboro, Kennedy, and Holy Cross lost key players to graduation, leaving this season's race wide open.

It didn't take long to figure out whether Strath Haven was overconfident for its first-round PIAA District 1 Class AAA game with visiting Avon Grove Tuesday night. After two minutes, the Panthers led 8-0. After four, it was 17-0. After six minutes, their lead was 24-0. And at the end of the first quarter, it was 26-2. When the game was mercifully over, the scoreboard read Strath Haven 70, Avon Grove 23, and 17 Panthers had played, including six just called up from junior varsity.

Kennedy High's Sean McClellan, who first-half production was hindered by foul problems, erupted for seven critical points in last night's frenetic fourth quarter at Rancocas Valley. But the 1,000 fans in attendance won't remember McClellan's points. Instead, they'll remember his dramatic block and end-to-end rush in the final minute that keyed Kennedy's riveting, 81-73 Burlington County League Liberty Division upset over Rancocas Valley. With the victory, the Gryphons (7-2 overall, 4-1 league)

Rancocas Valley girls' basketball coach Jerry Dunn lost plenty of offensive firepower to graduation, but don't put his Red Devils down for the count yet. With seven letter-winners returning from a club that posted a 22-4 overall record and shared the Burlington County Liberty Division championship in 1987-88, the Red Devils should once again be among the area's elite clubs. Dunn lost all-South Jersey performer Cindy Calvert, a career 1,000-point scorer, to graduation. Rancocas Valley will see the return of potential all-league performers in senior guard Kerri Perinchief and junior center Sandy Alcott.

Call them Road Warriors. Feed them pizza and Gatorade and put them on a bus for a long ride to an unfamiliar gymnasium, and there's not much the Rancocas Valley boys' basketball team can't accomplish. "We love playing away from home," junior guard Tariq Jett said. Rancocas Valley (19-11), the Central Jersey champion, will play another game away from home at noon Sunday. This time, it's the Group 4 state finals against Paterson Eastside (19-8), the North I champion, at Rutgers University.

Rancocas Valley boys' basketball coach Ron Powell will have plenty of firepower on the outside and a big question mark inside. With a veteran backcourt led by senior guard Demetrius Rosado, the Red Devils could emerge as a top contender in the tough Burlington County Liberty Division. The only big question remaining for Powell, whose team sported a 17-9 overall record last winter, is how to replace Alonzo Spellman, a dominating force at center last season. Spellman, a heavily recruited two-time All-South Jersey football selection, left the team during the preseason saying he wanted to concentrate on his grades.

These guys from Penns Grove, they move pretty well with chips on their shoulders. They block, tackle, break loose for punt returns, jump on about a dozen fumbles - OK, it was only five - and overwhelm the defending sectional champions despite all that extra baggage. Or maybe because of it. "We're over that," Penns Grove coach Kemp Carr said of last season and his team's disqualification from the South Jersey Group 1 tournament. Nobody believed Carr as he stood on his team's home field after Saturday's 54-0 rout of Glassboro in the season opener.

Rancocas Valley High coach Jerry Dunn won't expect miracles this season, but he will expect to see plenty of promising signs. The Red Devils, who compiled a 19-4 overall record last season and finished second in the Burlington County League Liberty Division race, graduated 10 players and are clearly rebuilding. But Dunn has many promising newcomers to blend in with two letter-winners, giving Rancocas Valley a chance at respectability. "We lost some very good players, and we lost a lot of depth," said Dunn, a second-year coach.

Christine DiLullo scored three goals as No. 11 seed Cherokee upset sixth-seeded Cherry Hill East, 12-9, Friday in a first-round game in the South Jersey Group 4 girls' lacrosse tournament. Jenna Castiglia and Michelle Tegethoff each added two goals for the Chiefs. Caitlin Delaney had six goals for the Cougars. Also in Group 4 first-round games: Alex Hlesciak scored seven goals, and fifth seed Rancocas Valley defeated West Windsor-Plainsboro South, 19-13. Mackenzie Hlesciak (four)

Alex and Mackenzie Hlesciak remember the early years, before they were lacrosse players. "Actually," Mackenzie said as a smile crossed her face, "we were supposed to play golf. " "Yup," Alex said. "We actually went to a golf academy for a couple years. " The twins paused for a second, seemingly to envision themselves about to tee off on a par-4. All they could do was burst into laughter. "It's just weird to even think about now," Alex said, still laughing. "Golf definitely was not for us. It's too slow.

The play wasn't drawn up for Bryce Reid. It was drawn up for his cousin. Tanner Peck, a junior on the Avon Grove lacrosse team, had already scored four goals in the Red Devils' game Saturday at Central Bucks East. He helped his team survive a Patriots run that tied the game late. Early in overtime, Avon Grove coach Eric Jackson wanted the ball in Peck's hands again. But, Jackson said, the Red Devils have "a quick, little freshman that had no choice but to go to the goal. " Reid scored the winner in overtime of a 9-8 victory over the Patriots at Central Bucks West in a matchup of two of the area's best teams.

There was a point, sometime around the middle of the season, when watching Lauren Moses play basketball became a different experience altogether. It wasn't about seeing potential anymore. It was about marveling at the most dominant player in South Jersey. The Rancocas Valley junior said her recent tear is fueled by a new, aggressive attitude. Really, though, it appears to be more of a revelation: a player with tremendous skill finally realizing, and genuinely believing, that she's capable of doing anything she wants on the court.

Here's a by-the-numbers look at the Penns Grove football team, which has a 10-0 record. The Red Devils will play at least one more game and could play two more. 538 Points this season. The Red Devils have set the South Jersey record, breaking the mark of 517 set last season by West Deptford. The state record is 599 by Bergen Catholic in 1998. 53.8 Points per game. The South Jersey record for average points per game is 48.4 by Salem in 1996, and the state record is 51.5 by Don Bosco Prep in 2003.

After having considerable practice recently, Penns Grove's football team believes that this year it will have a chance to improve on an area of need: handling success. The Red Devils improved to 4-0 with Saturday's 36-0 win over visiting Woodstown, and coach Kemp Carr didn't want to hear how his team could be the one to beat in a deep South Jersey Group 1 field. "Group 1 is not won until December," Carr said. Funny, but his team might have felt as if Group 1 was won on opening day a year ago when the Red Devils blitzed Glassboro, 54-0.

Cherokee's Michelle Gonzales reached 100 career goals while leading the 13th-seeded Chiefs to a 14-13 upset at No. 4 seed Eastern on Monday, in a South Jersey Group 4 opening-round match of the NJSIAA girls' lacrosse tournament. Gonzales had a game-high five goals and Lauren Thomas contributed a hat trick to a balanced attack, as Cherokee avenged a pair of regular-season losses to the Vikings. Austyn Cuneo and Danielle LaRocca had four goals apiece for Eastern, which outscored Cherokee, 32-13, in dominating their two Olympic Conference American Division meetings.

Righthander Jamie Minix allowed four hits in six shutout innings Thursday as Rowan (37-7) defeated Misericordia, 4-0, in the first round of the NCAA Division III softball tournament, in Union, N.J. Minix, a senior from Kingsway, struck out four and raised her record to 12-6. Profs leftfielder Jennifer Arcella homered and drove in two runs. Rowan, seeded third in the regional, will play again Friday at 4 p.m. In other first-round games, top-seeded Montclair State shutout Baruch, 8-0. Fourth-seeded College of New Jersey defeated fifth-seed Alvernia, 2-1, in nine innings.

Ryan Bell moves all over the baseball field. He pitches. He catches. He plays left field, shortstop, and third base. But now Bell and the rest of the Burlington Township baseball team is going somewhere new: into the Joe Hartmann Diamond Classic. "It's huge for us," said Bell, a junior who led Burlington Township to a 7-6 victory over Rancocas Valley in a Burlco Liberty game on Tuesday. "It's a great opportunity for the team. " Bell pitched, played left field, and caught as Burlington Township improved to 10-4 overall and 5-0 in the Liberty Division.

  Guard Natalya Lee, Rancocas Valley The 5-foot-7 senior set the tone for one of the most successful four years that the Red Devils girls' basketball squad has had. Lee, a 1,000-point scorer, averaged 11.4 points this season. Her leadership and defensive skills - she was arguably the best one-on-one defender in South Jersey - were probably her greatest assets. Lee will move on to play for Division II Kutztown University.   Forward Aliyah Murray, Delran The junior is a tough, athletic player who can do just about anything on the court.