West Deptford

Last year there was considerable hype leading up to the Haddonfield-West Deptford football game. Both teams were 5-0, and the game was rightly looked on as the unofficial championship of the Colonial Conference Liberty Division. While the outcome wasn't surprising the score surely was ? 43-0 West Deptford. Now the two teams are again unbeaten heading into tonight's 7 o'clock showdown at West Deptford. Despite last year's score, this is expected to be a close game. West Deptford has won its last seven meetings with Haddonfield.

Here they go again. Haddonfield and West Deptford will renew one of South Jersey's top recent rivalries when they meet in Saturday's 1 p.m. South Jersey Group 2 final at Rowan University. Defending champion Haddonfield is 11-0, and the lone loss for West Deptford (10-1) was a 31-21 regular-season defeat against the Bulldogs. This continues a recent pattern of big games between these Colonial Conference Liberty Division teams. Haddonfield beat the Eagles, 16-8, in last year's sectional final, winning its first South Jersey championship since the advent of NJSIAA playoffs in 1974.

This was pinball football, with West Deptford's Gerald Owens and Cedar Creek's Damon Mitchell bouncing off tacklers when they weren't running around them. It was one of South Jersey's best juniors against one of the top seniors playing for two of the most impressive teams. In the end, the experience of West Deptford along with the depth of its running game prevailed as the Eagles defeated Cedar Creek, 42-28, in Saturday's NJSIAA South Jersey Group 2 final at Rowan University.

The plan was for Cherokee's No. 3 pitcher, Ben Flanary, to hurl the first three innings against West Deptford yesterday and take it from there at Campbell's Field in Camden. That plan, laid out by Cherokee coach Bill Haessler, who was going for career win No. 400, did not include a porous defense. But the Chiefs made five errors and West Deptford took advantage. The Eagles captured the championship game of the 34th annual Joe Hartmann Diamond Classic with a 6-1 victory. It marked the first time that the Eagles had won the elite baseball tournament.

If the net was a glowing light, Zach Kaestner was the gnat fixated on weaving, wobbling, and often crashing into it Wednesday in the West Deptford boys' lacrosse team's 13-11 win over Bishop Eustace. Kaestner's teammates call him "Squirt. " His coach, Mike Yarusso, describes him as the type of player who is usually getting up off the ground every time he scores a goal. Yarusso said Kaestner, a sophomore attack, stands about 5-foot-4 and weighs about 135 pounds. "Actually, change that," Kaestner said.

One moment, West Deptford was moving in one direction, and the momentum was moving with the Eagles. The next moment, Haddonfield's Dan Ciemniecki was moving in the other direction, and the momentum was moving with him. It was a dramatic turnaround in the game, and it flipped the script in the Colonial Conference's fiercest rivalry. After Ciemniecki's 60-yard fumble return for touchdown sparked Haddonfield to a 31-21 victory on a rainy Friday night, the Bulldogs are in prime position to claim their first Colonial Liberty title in the division's nine years of existence - although Haddon Heights might have something to say about that on Thanksgiving Day. Meanwhile, eight-time Liberty division champion West Deptford, like Haddonfield in previous years, is plotting revenge in what the Eagles hope will be a rematch in the South Jersey Group 2 tournament.

West Deptford and Hammonton will get a chance to do something tomorrow that neither school has accomplished before - win a state championship in field hockey. West Deptford will play Warren Hills for the Group 3 championship at 10 a.m. at the College of New Jersey, and Hammonton will try to win the Group 2 title when it faces traditional power West Essex at 4 p.m. Of the two, Hammonton (17-1-3) faces the tougher challenge in West Essex (19-1-1), which has been to the state championship the last six years.

This time, Tony Urban wanted to finish what he started against Haddonfield. The West Deptford junior lefthander pitched a six-hitter and struck out 10 as the Eagles tightened the race in the Colonial Conference with Tuesday's 8-2 victory over host Haddonfield. Earlier this season, Urban started and pitched four shutout innings against Haddonfield, but a high pitch count forced him to leave the game after four innings and a 4-0 lead. Haddonfield came back to win, 13-4. "I want to finish every game, and first one with Haddonfield was early in the season and I just threw too many pitches," Urban said.

To help West Deptford meet its Mount Laurel II affordable-housing quota, the township committee last night approved, 3-2, an ordinance rezoning an undeveloped two-acre tract for mobile homes. Committeeman Kenneth R. Hinkle, who voted against the ordinance along with Committeemen Frederick Marz Jr., said he doubted that the state would allow mobile homes to be counted when it sets affordable-housing standards. Hinkle also contended that the property, which has access to Interstate 295, would provide more tax revenue if developed for manufacturing, as it had been zoned before last night's action.

  Jamil Pollard, an Inquirer first-team all-South Jersey offensive tackle from West Deptford, said he was going to make an oral commitment to Penn State again after competing in Thursday night's Offense-Defense Bowl, a senior all-star game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Pollard had committed to Penn State during the spring but was later told Penn State couldn't make a commitment to him until he improved academically. Penn State continued to remain in touch.