Audubon earns grid playoff berth with win over Haddon Heights

Audubon's football team has treated the last two weeks like the playoffs, and now the Green Wave are headed for the real thing.

Needing two wins just to stay in postseason contention, the Green Wave got to the magical 4-4 mark with Friday's 20-13 win over Haddon Heights in an interdivisional Colonial Conference game.

For their effort, the Green Wave have earned one of the eight South Jersey Group 1 playoff berths. Unless some major upsets occur, Haddon Heights (4-4) is also likely to get in, and will know for sure after Saturday's games.

Audubon's route to the postseason was achieved the hard way, by winning two games with its back against the proverbial wall.

Shane Furlong's 35-yard touchdown reception from Charles Slack on a fly pattern on the third quarter's final play, snapped the 13-13 tie.

"It just feels great, winning this game and getting to the playoffs," Furlong said.

Audubon caused four turnovers in the second half, including an interception and fumble recovery by Ryan Graham.

"We hadn't been winning these close games, and now to win a game like this that meant so much is a credit to our players," Audubon second year coach Jonathan Caputo said.

This is cutdown weekend, where eight teams per group will qualify for the playoffs based on their power rating.

A team needs a .500 or better record to be considered, which meant for the second week in a row, Audubon had no margin for error, and as it turned out, didn't need any.

Last year Heights beat Audubon, 14-13, and in the first half on Friday not much separated these rivals.

In fact nothing separated them, since it was tied 13-13 at the half.

Audubon's Brian Flacco is a true throwback, somebody who has multiple responsibilities and does them all well. Flacco, whose brother Joe is the Baltimore Ravens' quarterback, is used in a variety of ways, at running back, wildcat quarterback, receiver out of the backfield, hard-hitting linebacker.

In addition, he had a key 63-yard quick-kick in the third quarter, getting Audubon out of a field-position mess.

Flacco, who rushed for 77 yards on 28 hard carries, opened the scoring with a 1-yard first-quarter run, ending a 10-play 63-yard drive. The key play was a 43-yard shovel pass from Charles Slack, to, of course, Flacco.

Heights has its own big-play performers in Jamir Taylor and Darius Jones, and both demonstrated their talent in the first half.

Taylor scored on a 53-yard run and Jones made the most of his only first-half reception, scoring on a 17-yard scoring pass from Nick Lundholm on an alley-oop pass in the deep end-zone corner with 44 seconds left in the first half.

That was Jones' 12th reception of the year, and five have been for scores.

His touchdown tied the score at 13-13, erasing an Audubon lead that occurred when Slack (8 of 17 passing, 147 yards, two touchdowns) hit Chris Borgesi on a 17-yard touchdown pass earlier in the second quarter.

Borgesi is listed at 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds, and both may be generous, but he would be on anybody's all-hands and all-tough teams.

His touchdown came on a bubble screen, but more impressive was an earlier one-handed 30-yard reception he made during the drive.

So many players for Audubon stood out, such as defensive end Keith Michalski, who was a force all evening and also contributed at fullback.

"We had a rough start to the season." Flacco said, "but we stuck together."

Audubon   6 7 7 0 - 20

Haddon Heights   0 13 0 0 - 13

A: Flacco 1 run (kick failed)

H: Taylor 53 run (kick failed)

A: Borgesi 17 pass from Slack (Schorr kick)

H: Jones 17 pass from Lundholm (DiMartini kick)

A: Furlong 35 pass from Slack (Schorr kick)