Football: Delsea looks to make history

By Phil Anastasia

Inquirer Staff Writer

Quinn Collins can do the math.

"One for each year," Collins said of the opportunity in front of Delsea's seniors this season.

Collins (pictured) and his classmates have a chance to do something that no players from a larger school in South Jersey have ever done: Been part of a program that has won four straight sectional titles.

Delsea has won three South Jersey Group 3 titles in a row. With around 16 returning starters, including Collins at quarterback and standout WR/DB James Chuwurah, the Crusaders loom as favorites to add some more hardware to their crowded trophy case.

"The way it helps you is that the teams that are on deck can see what the standards of the program are," Delsea coach Sal Marchese Jr. said of the team's remarkable success. "But the big thing you have to guard against is complacency, guys thinking it happened in the past so it's always going to happen."

Cherokee this season has a chance to become the first team ever to win three straight SJ Group 5 titles (the group has only been in existence since 2012) and Shawnee has a chance to become the first team since Brick Twp. in 1981-83 to win three straight SJ 4 titles.

No team has ever won four straight titles in SJ titles in Groups 5, 4, 3 or 2 (West Deptford won three SJ 2 titles in a row from 2002-04).

It's happened multiple times at the Group 1 level.

Paulsboro won six SJ 1 titles in a row from 1992-1997; Florence won four straight CJ 1 titles from 2003-06 and Woodbury won four straight SJ 1 titles from 1988-91.

St. Joseph has a current streak of six straight Non-Public 1 titles and the Wildcats also won eight state titles in a row at the NP 1 and NP 2 levels between 1999-2006.

Delsea would push ito uncharted territory with another sectional crowd at the SJ 3 level.

The Crusaders already are the first team to win three SJ 3 titles in a row (although Mainland won on the field from 1995-1997, the 1995 title was vacated by the NJSIAA for use of an ineligible player).

But four in a row?

A graduating class that was part of a program that finished every season holding a trophy on the field at Rowan University?

"It would be really special," Collins said. "But we know how hard we have to work. We have to work every single day to try to make it happen."

-- Contact Phil Anastasia at panastasia@phillynews.com.

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