Ready …
Pennsville, N.J., is nestled along the Delaware River off Exit 1 of the N.J. Turnpike. Its residents number just more than 13,000. There are just three small elementary schools that feed into one high school. You can bike from one end of town to the other in less than 10 minutes. In other words, it's the quintessential small town.
Stopping Dylan Cummings can only bedone by slowing him and his Pennsvilleteammates down. The Eagles pridethemselves on running a quick offense thatdoesn't allow defenses time to substitute.
Photo courtesy of A.J. Cummings
So it's only fitting that
Pennsville Memorial (N.J.) starting quarterback is only 5-foot-9 and 145 pounds. And that might be soaking wet.
But make no mistake about it, sophomore
Dylan Cummings can play the game. What he lacks in height and weight he more than makes up for in offensive savvy. Cummings has thrown for 2,066 yards — the school record is 2,157 set by Kenny Emmons — and he set a school record with 24 passing touchdowns. He finished the regular season ranked second in both categories among South Jersey quarterbacks.
"When people comment about my lack of size it only motivates me to succeed even more," Cummings said in a phone interview while heading to Pittsburgh to attend last week's Steelers-Ravens game. "We've adjusted the offensive scheme to better suit my lack of height. Instead of a short drops and dumping off short passes, I drop back further and throw deep or roll out."
That lack of size hasn't hampered the mental game one bit, either.
"He is tougher than people think," third-year Pennsville coach Ryan Wood said. "The best part of Dylan's game is decision making. He gets the ball out where it needs to be when it needs to be there."
Like its quarterback, Pennsville is a small team, both in stature — the largest offensive lineman weighs 245 pounds — and total number of players (the Eagles dress just 28 in pads). The high school's enrollment is 631, placing the athletic program in Group 1, the smallest of the state's four athletic classifications.
Pennsville (8-0) is the No. 1 seed in the upcoming state tournament, which marks the Eagles' second straight appearance in the New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association South Jersey Group 1 playoffs. Pennsville had made just three playoff appearances in the last 30 years before Wood took over the struggling program.
MaxPreps New Jersey football playoff brackets"I like the challenge of building a program," said Wood, a Pennsville graduate who led the Eagles to four state baseball titles in eight years before resigning to take over the football program. "I like overcoming adversity and obstacles and trying to succeed where most think you can't. I felt like we had accomplished everything I wanted to in baseball, and thought the football program would bring those challenges I was looking for."
Set …
There were doubters when Wood implemented a run-and-shoot offense his first year. But those doubters are now his biggest fans.
Dylan Cummings may not be big, buthis stats are: 2,066 passing yards and24 touchdowns.
Photo courtesy of A.J. Cummings
"The offense works because of the total commitment from our staff and players," Wood, who has led the Eagles to a 24-5 record, explained. "A lot of people didn't think what I was doing would work. I have been told frequently that Pennsville can't win playing this way, but the players believe and that's all that matters. What we do you have to just lay it out there and go for broke. I don't think you can dabble in it and be successful. We have had a lot of games where everything clicks and it's fun to watch."
The fun is referred to by the players as "Weapon X," an offense that focuses on not only getting to the line of scrimmage fast so that defenses can't substitute, but also trying to get the ball snapped as quickly as possible to wear defenses down.
"Our goal is to get the defense as tired as possible," explained Cummings, who estimates the Eagles threw the ball 70 percent of the time while amassing 41.3 points per game. "We just keep trying to run the offense faster and faster as the game goes on."
A high-speed offense of this type would typically wear down, or even confuse, a team's offensive linemen, especially ones as young as Pennsville's. Instead, the four sophomores and one senior train year-round to make sure they stay in shape and don't slow down the pace of the game. But admittedly, it's not the weight room or conditioning drills that prepare them best.
"Our main source of conditioning is running our offense in practice," explained sophomore
Kane Hiles, who at 245 pounds is the team's biggest lineman. "Running our offense in practice is twice as fast as it is in the game because we don't have to wait for the ball to be spotted."
The four sophomores on the line have been playing together and protecting Cummings since they were 8 years old in midget football.
"Blocking for Dylan is kind of natural for us," Hiles said. "We know each other's strengths and weaknesses, and Dylan makes a protection call before each play."
Once the play is called and Cummings drops back or rolls out, his two main targets are senior wide receivers
Ryan Hawthorne (21 touchdowns) and
Colton Newsome (13 touchdowns), who have been part of Woods' unorthodox offense all three years.
"The timing we have is our greatest strength," Cummings said. "We work on that constantly in practice. They both run very crisp routes and I have complete confidence they'll go up and get the ball wherever I throw it."
Cummings' next throw will be this Friday night in his first playoff game when the Eagles begin their quest to win the school's first South Jersey title since 1981.
When asked about his first-round opponent, Woodbury, Cummings had just one comment: "They're going to have to try and keep up with us."
Go!
Jon Buzby is the sports columnist for the Newark Post, a freelance writer, and on the broadcast team for the 1290AM The Ticket High School Football and Basketball Games of the Week. You can reach him at jonbuzby@hotmail.com.
