FLORENCE: 160-pounders win Pop Warner title

By: Sean Moylan Sports Writer
    Just as it has done in most recent years, Florence celebrated a football championship with a parade through town on a fire engine truck on Sunday afternoon.
    Only this parade was not for the Florence Township Memorial High football team, which won state titles four out of the last six years. Sunday’s parade was in celebration of the Florence 160-pound squad’s 13-6 victory over Delran in the Pop Warner Football League of Burlington County’s championship game, played on Saturday afternoon at Cinnaminson High School.
    Joe Fitzpatrick Jr. had a great first season as the head coach of the Florence 160’s. He guided the Flashes to a title, which took some of the sting out of last year’s heartbreaking 17-12 loss to Rancocas Valley in the championship game. And like most of the successful Florence teams in recent years, the Flashes used extraordinary defense to pull out Saturday’s big victory over a good Delran team.
    “Our defense played a huge game and had a big stop at the last second on the 5-yard line,” said a very happy Fitzpatrick Jr..
    “It was real cool to win a championship my first year. My dad, Joe Fitzpatrick Sr. and Steve Eells did a great job with the defense. They put in a new scheme for the playoffs that has been relentless and Steve Muchowski actually called our only offensive touchdown.”
    That Florence offensive touchdown was scored by halfback Charles Jones on a pass by Florence’s Zach Foga. Jones had a tremendous game and scored Florence’s other touchdown as well on an interception return. On one possession, the Flashes moved the ball almost at will. Unfortunately, that particular drive ended with a turnover.
    “Zach Foga, Curtis Thompson and Aaron Salaga all ran the ball hard and put together an 80-yard drive for us, but we fumbled inside of the 15 and gave them the ball back,” added Fitzpatrick Jr., whose team, as it turned out, didn’t need those potential points because its “D” was so stingy.
    Florence finished the season 8-1 and it posted great wins over Delran and Rancocas Valley during regular season. In the first round of the playoffs, Florence clobbered Cinnaminson 28-0 at Florence.
    While the Florence 160’s certainly had some tremendous coaching with Fitzpatrick Jr., his father, Eells, Muchowski and Robert Hutchison, football games, ultimately, are won by players executing on the field. Furthermore, the Florence 160-pounders did everything their coaches asked of them to take home a Pop Warner title this year.
    In addition to C. Jones, Foga, Thompson and Salaga, Andrew Jones, Michael Chianese, Richard Myers, Scott Wood, Jonathan Dimon, Mark Brown, Andrew Edelman, Doug MacArthur, Ryan Daley, Ben Horner, Shaireik Johnson, Jonathan Sensi, Jason Green, Lamont Roberts, Ryan Leighton and Quinton Harris all did their jobs on Saturday.
    Then on Sunday the entire town saluted those terrific 160-pound heroes with a parade.