WJFL Releases New Schedule

by Marc Narducci | Aug 5, 2020

The West Jersey Football League (WJFL) has come out with a condensed schedule. In following the NJSIAA guidelines, there will be six regular season games, two potential playoffs and if teams still desire, a Thanksgiving game.

The season would begin the weekend of Oct. 2, and the six games would go through the weekend of Nov. 7. There would be then two weeks for playoffs.

There will be no state championships, but there could be a condensed South Jersey championship. Remember, before the football playoffs were expanded in 1998, only four teams per Group used to make the postseason and a sectional champion was crowned.

That type of format could be done.

This year, there will be no conference championships.

Only teams play on Thanksgiving will play nine games instead of eight.

Derryk Sellers, the new president of the WJFL and the athletic director at Lindenwold, had a lot of adjusting to do but the schools now know who they will be playing (if of course there is a season).

In the schedule that Sellers forwarded to SouthJersey.com, there are still 25 Thanksgiving games involving teams from the seven-county South Jersey area. Here are those matchups:

Bordentown at New Egypt

Burlington City at Palmyra

Rancocas Valley at Pemberton

Lower Cape May at Middle Township

Atlantic City at Holy Spirit

Ocean City at Pleasantville

Absegami at Oakcrest

Millville at Vineland

Paulsboro at West Deptford

Haddon Township at Audubon

Gateway at Woodbury

Gloucester at Gloucester Catholic

Haddon Heights at Haddonfield

Haddon Township at Audubon

Camden Catholic at Paul VI

Woodrow Wilson at Camden

Seneca at Cherokee

Lenape at Shawnee

Cherry Hill West at Cherry Hill East

Clayton at Pitman

Woodstown at Salem

Cumberland at Schalick

Triton at Highland

Timber Creek at Winslow Township

Kingsway at Clearview

As recently as last year, some of these matchups weren’t played on Thanksgiving because of the playoffs, so schools would often schedule their Thanksgiving rivalry at the beginning of the season such as Paulsboro and West Deptford.

One thing that is great to see is that St. Joseph (Hammonton) will have a schedule. As we wrote about last week, the school, which was shut down by the Diocese on June 30, will open as St. Joseph Academy.

The Wildcats will have one of the more challenging schedules. They open the weekend of Oct. 2 hosting Holy Spirit, in a rematch of last year’s state Non-Public Group 2 final when the Spartans beat St. Joe, 38-0.

St Joe will also play at Pleasantville, Millville and Vineland before finishing with home games against Cedar Creek and Timber Creek.

All six opponents were playoff teams a year ago.

Article continues below

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- A Look at the South Jersey Football Group Pairings

South Jersey football teams have begun practice and some of them open as early as Aug. 30, and as usual, the race for sectional or state titles should be highly competitive.

This season isn’t as much about championships as about being able to compete. Regardless of record, if the teams are able to play the season out, that would be an outstanding success, regardless of record.

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Author: Marc Narducci

WJFL Releases New Schedule

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