High School Football: Seneca's First Varsity Football Game at Shawnee a Tough One Friday, September 10, 2004 By Vincent Lewis SJSports Staff Writer It has become a common theme in our area were more and more high school football games are being played on Friday nights. It first became popular with schools from the south, but now the excitement of a high school game being played underneath the lights brings out the fans cheering for their favorite team. The Golden Eagles from Seneca felt some of that excitement as they entered the field as under dogs when they traveled to Shawnee. In front of a capacity crowd, the Renegades dominated the game both offensively and defensively posting a 27-0 victory against Seneca. The hard work of first making the varsity team and then learning the playbook was over. A new season was just about to begin, and for Seneca, they would be starting out with the same record as everyone else. But it’s never easy for any first year varsity football program in any division to overcome the difficult challenges ahead of them, especially against a team that has been labeled by some as the number one team in South Jersey. Shawnee’s defense set up the first 2 scores of the game during the first quarter. On Seneca’s first possession from scrimmage, Shawnee’s defense recovered a fumble and Andrew Cialino picked up and scored from 29 yards out. The defense set up the second score of the quarter when an interception and then a 1 yard touchdown run by Hakim Theresa gave the Renegades a 14-0 lead. During this game, Shawnee had its chance to put the game really out of reach, but a few of their own mistakes kept this game reasonable. Evan Francks found plenty of room to run every time he touched the ball. The junior tailback showed off his strength and running ability in the second quarter. With apparently no gap to run through, the Eagles defense seem to have Francks stopped. Making his own lane to run through, Francks pushed through the defense and into the open field for a 19 yard touchdown. Francks would add one for touchdown run for Shawnee in the third quarter when he scored from 50 yards out. Photos by Mark Fletcher