For the fourth consecutive year, the Cinnaminson High School football team has made it to the playoffs, after accumulating an oustanding 7-1 record for the regular season.

After losing to Bridgeton by a score of 46-27 in the first round of last year’s playoffs, the Pirates will  look to make a longer run in this year’s postseason. The difference from this year to last year is that Cinnaminson will no longer compete in the Group II South Jersey playoffs due to their move to the Central Jersey bracket. While finishing with a strong 7-1 record. Cinnaminson holds the third seed in this year’s playoffs and will be facing sixth seed, and division-rival, Bordentown. Cinnaminson has already defeated Bordentown 35-28 once this year and will look to do it again.

Even though the Pirates have already defeated Bordentown, the Scotties will always be a threat as long as they have an impact player like senior halfback Jahmiere Van Kline. Van Kline is having an astonishing year with 30 touchdowns and 1804 rushing yards in only eight games, an average of 225 yards rushing and nearly four touchdowns per game. Last time Van Kline faced Cinnaminson he dominated, rushing for 245 yards on 30 carries and accumulating three TDs and almost single-handedly winning the game for the Scotties. When Cinnaminson’s head coach, Mario Patrizi, was asked about how he is going to contain Van Kline, he responded by saying, “our biggest thing is to play good defense and just go out and play our style of football.” This is something the Pirates executed well against Bordentown last time out and will hope to do the same again.

At the last matchup, the Pirates went into halftime with a 21-7 lead. By the time the third quarter was ending, the Pirates and Scotties were tied 28-28. The Pirates were clearly the better team; their only weakness was letting the Scotties hang around for too long. The Pirates just barely pulled through with a 35-28 win. One thing they have to focus on this game is scoring early and shutting Van Kline and the Scotties down early.

Cinnaminson has had some stars of their own this season like senior captains Nick Thevanayagam, Chris Cintron, and Peter Selnek. Chris Cintron will be a big part of the Pirates defensive effort against Bordentown since he has 10 sacks on the season. Same goes for strong safety Peter Selnek who currently has five interceptions.

The Pirates certainly aren’t hurting on offense either, with brothers Nick and Dylan Thevanayagam and their amazing 32 combined touchdowns. There is no doubt that Cinnaminson had high expectations coming into the season and according to Coach Patrizi “they have fulfilled those expectations and hopefully they’ll continue.” This is something that Patrizi attributes to “the guys playing as a team and believing in themselves.”

The only thing that will matter tonight is which team comes out on top and moves on to the next round of the playoffs. Cinnaminson has had trouble doing this in the past with an all-time record of only 3-10 in sectional playoffs. The Pirates will be looking to claim only their second-ever sectional crown and their first since 1991. This will be no easy task as the Pirates will be potentially playing a favorite to win it all in the second round, Rumson-Fair Haven.

Without a doubt the Pirates will face many challenges throughout this year’s playoffs but they will have to be up to the task to move on.