Phillipsburg football forced to dig down and rally against gritty foe

Phillipsburg can’t read the word stitched into the back of its own jerseys but also doesn’t need to.

When it’s time to put that three-letter directive into motion, the Stateliners apparently know it as well as their own last names.

“D-I-G.”

To further illustrate its point, Phillipsburg even carries a shovel onto the bus and out to the sideline.

“It’s just how we live our life. We come out here every day, whether it’s a Friday, Saturday, or Monday afternoon, like today. We want to prove, we want to show and represent DIG and we want to represent our town,” senior running back Shane Moore said.

Phillipsburg was forced to put that terse slogan to use three times to erase deficits against a feisty St. Joseph-Metuchen that looked nothing like the squad that was dominated by Elizabeth a week earlier.

Sophomore Markus Jordan gave the Stateliners, ranked No. 4 by lehighvalleylive.com, the lead for good with a 94-yard kick return late in the third quarter, and Moore and Xavier Campbell-Graham led a strong running attack that helped Phillipsburg rally to a 42-31 win Monday afternoon at the Brenner Family Field in Metuchen.

Campbell-Graham rushed for 116 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries, and Moore churned out 134 yards and one TD on 20 attempts as Phillipsburg improved to 4-1.

Junior quarterback Cole Seyler passed for 328 yards and two touchdowns, both to junior Dillon Diaz, to lead St. Joseph (2-2).

The digging will have to continue in earnest the next few days as P’burg faces a short week of preparation for Ridge Friday night in Basking Ridge. St. Joseph travels to Delbarton Saturday afternoon.

“All three phases stepped up for us,” Phillipsburg head coach Frank Duffy said. “It wasn’t perfect; it wasn’t pretty at times. We got down, but our kids kept fighting. It was good to see the resolve and the resiliency.”

This certainly wasn’t the first time this season that the Stateliners trotted out those traits. They rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat Parkland, 28-21, on Aug. 28, and a second-half rally effort against Freedom on Sept. 11 came up just short, 32-31.

“Mistakes are going to be made all the time and it’s just how you respond. I think we responded great for the most part,” Moore said.

“And I’m very proud of the O-line, of course, today, just like I am every game. They’re No. 1 on our offense and they work so incredibly hard for games like this,” he said of Lucas Sepulveda, Jonas McPeek, Christian DeCandia, Alexander Randazzo and Tyler Shappell.

One supposes that rugged front line merely tried to match the intensity of the Phillipsburg defensive line, which literally had a hand in the game’s opening touchdown and recorded five batted passes. Elijah Montgomery, Donovan Samson, Evan Wojciechowski and Shappell anchored that unit.

Their pressure was a crucial element for occasionally slowing an otherwise masterful Seyler. He completed 25 of 43 passes, though he did suffer a costly interception off the first tipped pass of the afternoon.

Samson tipped it and junior David Pacewicz came down with it at the St. Joseph 47 and raced into the end zone for the initial lead with 8:28 to go in the first quarter.

“They did a great job. We saw stuff on film, and we thought we could get some tipped balls,” Duffy said. “So, they did a great job getting their hands up, deflecting some, some balls in critical moments.”

St. Joseph forced the need for critical moments by answering every Phillipsburg strike throughout the first three quarters with an unwavering response.

Following the pick-six by Pacewicz, St. Joseph tied the game at 7-7 on a 4-yard run by Julian Colon with 35 seconds left in the first quarter, then grabbed a 14-7 lead on a 47-yard pass from Seyler to Diaz with 7:10 to go in the first half. Austin Loreti added his second of four PATs. Hunter Garrison was 6-for-6 on kicks for P’burg.

The Stateliners knotted the score at 14-14 on a 44-yard run by Moore with 2:36 left in the half, but St. Joseph responded with a 12-play, 77-yard drive. Seyler capped it with an 8-yard pass to Diaz as time expired for a 21-14 lead.

Phillipsburg opened the third quarter with a nine-play, 67-yard drive, tying the game at 21-21 on a 29-yard run by Campbell-Graham. St. Joseph again answered right back, this time with a 22-yard field goal by Loreti for a 24-21 lead with 1:18 remaining in the quarter.

Fourteen seconds later, Jordan was standing in the end zone after his scintillating run along the left sideline to forge a 28-24 lead.

“In football games, you really build off of moments like that. You know, there’s obviously ups and downs, but you really build off of stuff like that, and it really rejuvenates your team,” Moore said.

A batted pass by Samson on third-and-13 from the St. Joseph 14-yard line forced a punt, and Phillipsburg capitalized on good field position to orchestrate a nine-play, 43-yard drive. Junior Vincent Berger scored on a 1-yard run for a 35-23 lead with 7:30 to go.