Ciemniecki Fumble Returns Secure Haddonfield's Win Over West Deptford

With a teammate by his side, Haddonfield High School senior Daniel Ciemniecki saw nothing but 65 yards of green grass in front of him.

“I just saw them botch the handoff and then Matt Bhaya kind of scooted out for me and then it was just cruising down to the end zone,” Ciemniecki said.

And from that point forward it was the Bulldawgs who were cruising to a victory.

Haddonfield forced West Deptford into three second-half turnovers to secure a 31-21 Colonial Conference Liberty Division victory in a rematch of last year’s South Jersey Group II final.

The win moved the Bulldawgs (4-0) into sole possession of first place in the division and makes them favorites to earn their first conference crown in over a decade.

“We haven’t won the conference in 10 years since the Liberty Division divided, so I think that’s really big and it will help propel us for the rest of the season,” Ciemniecki said.

In a manner of less than three minutes the Bulldawgs turned a 7-7 halftime tie into a commanding 21-7 lead.

On the second play of the third quarter, West Deptford running back Josh Cornelius broke off a 34-yard run, which, combined with a late-hit penalty, moved the ball to the Haddonfield 28-yard line. On the very next play, Cornelius lost the handoff from quarterback Jake Hannan, and Ciemniecki was in the right place to pick it up and return it for the touchdown.

“That was huge,” said Ciemniecki of the fumble recovery. “Without that, I don’t know if we win the game.”

Two plays into the Eagles next possession, Cornelius fumbled again, giving the Bulldawgs the ball at the West Deptford 19. On second down, Bhaya took a handoff and cut outside for a 19-yard touchdown two minutes, 41 seconds into the third quarter.

“When we get that fumble we just had to capitalize and keep going with it,” said Haddonfield running back Chris Dengler.

The two-touchdown lead was too much for the Eagles to overcome as they never got closer than 10 points the rest of the way.

“When we fumbled and they took the lead and then the 14-point lead, I felt our kids flattened out a little bit,” West Deptford coach Clyde Folsom said. “I think our kids played for four quarters but I think they started thinking, ‘Hey, we don’t have a chance’ when were down 14 points in the fourth quarter.”

After West Deptford went three and out on offense, Haddonfield stretched the lead to 24-7 on a 32-yard field goal by Bhaya.

West Deptford cut the lead to 24-14 on a Luke Cornelius 5-yard touchdown run early in the final seconds of the fourth quarter, but Dengler made sure the lead would not be threatened as he returned the ensuing kickoff 78 yards to the West Deptford 21. A few plays later, Dengler cleared out the West Deptford grandstands when he scored on a 5-yard run to give the Bulldawgs a 31-14 lead with 11:26 left.

Dengler credited the coaching staff with tweaking some things at halftime to allow the team to find more success.

“We made a couple of adjustments,” said Dengler. They were beating us in a couple of spots and we made the changes we needed too.”

Ciemniecki finished 4-for-7 for 31 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown pass to Alex Walker in the second quarter. He also rushed for 52 yards, while Dengler had 50 on the ground.

Several Bulldawgs missed part of the second half with cramps, likely due to the fact that the starters had yet to play a full game this season. Haddonfield had both of its first two games put away by the half, allowing the coaching staff to empty the bench for the final two quarters.

“It was kind of hard playing this game because we hadn’t really played a full game and I think that kind of showed with us cramping up, but we got the job done and that’s all that matters,” Ciemniecki said.

Haddonfield returns to action on Friday against Sterling. The Bulldawgs will do so as the clear conference favorites.

“This win puts us in the driver seat for the conference,” Dengler said. “The conference championship was what we couldn’t get last year so that was one of our big goals this year.”