Weequahic spins holiday upset over state-final-bound Shabazz in soggy Soul Bowl

Win or lose Thursday, Shabazz was going to be playing next week for the state Group 1 championship.
That being so, Weequahic made sure to take strong, purposeful steps despite a steady rain to conduct its own little Soul Bowl championship at the Bulldogs’ expense.
“We knew they have a bunch of championships, and all we wanted was one – this one,” said Weequahic head coach Brian Logan, referring to Shabazz’ North 1, Group 2 title and semifinal win in the last two weeks en route to Wednesday’s Group 2 final against Rumson-Fair Haven at Rutgers.
Behind the poised field leadership of junior QB Paul Jones III, tough running of Reynaldo Carter, clutch kicking of fellow senior Ibrahim Cisse and a timely, rugged defense, Weequahic went on got “this one” with a 19-14 upset over Shabazz in the annual Soul Bowl Thursday at Shabazz Stadium in Newark.
Jones rushed for a touchdown and hit junior wide receiver Tyshaun Boyd with a TD in the first half to stake the young Indians (4-6) to a 17-0 lead on their way to ending a four-game losing streak and snapping a six-game winning streak for Shabazz (10-3).
This also was a Super Football Conference-National White Division game, and it prevented the Bulldogs from sharing the division title with Immaculata and Snyder.
“We’ve worked hard all season and in the preseason, too. But this week was a different week of practice,” Jones said. “We pushed each other like we never have. It was a little rocky getting everybody back on track after the playoff loss (19-11 to Old Tappan Nov. 1 in the N2G3 quarterfinals), but we got each other together and we got it done.”
Even with that outstanding practice week and early lead, Weequahic still faced some daunting obstacles on its way the upset, which gave the Indians their fifth straight triumph in the Soul Bowl and narrowed their series deficit to 34-26-6.
Shabazz, of course, presented obstacles with its talent, experience and great confidence built over these last several weeks during the playoffs. But enough of Weequahic’s hurdles here also were self-imposed infractions which are often predictable and understandable companion pieces to this emotion-pitched rivalry.
The Indians, for instance, were penalized eight times for personal fouls – for a whopping 120 yards – and faced an ejection in the second half. Yet, Weequahic managed to keep its cool when it needed big stops, and filled with nothing but love for its South Ward rival at the conclusion of the game.
“We got this one, and its nice for these young guys. But now we’re with them (Shabazz) one-thousand percent,” Logan said. “We want them to go ahead and represent Newark because when they win, we win. We love those guys over there.”
Jones holds similar sentiments for the Bulldogs, even though they chased him all day in an effort to rattle him into costly mistakes.
But the biggest mistakes were forced. by relentless Weequahic, which got one interception each from Jones himself and senior Andrew Jones, a sack for a safety by Robert Sims, and stellar defense all around from the likes of Carter,Elijah Johnson, Ja’Shyne Hayes, Kareem Anthony, Daniel Paganand Suenens Saint Fleur.
“This is definitely our championship game, but I hope those boys from Shabazz go and win. Newark is Newark; we’ve got to make sure we build each other up,” Jones said.
That might not have seemed like the good-hearted intent with all the jawing prior to and throughout the game, but …
“Yeah, there was a lot of talkin’, but that’s just football,” Jones said.

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Mike Kinney can be reached at [email protected]
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