PALMYRA – Homecoming didn't end with the crowning of Kwinten Ives as king at halftime, but the Palmyra High School football team probably wishes it had.

Things went south in a big way after that. Burlington City reeled off 29 unanswered points after intermission and defeated the Panthers, 36-29, in Saturday's 118th meeting between the two West Jersey Football League squads.

Ayden Shansey hit Aaron Young for a 29-yard touchdown with 5.9 seconds left in the game to complete the comeback. The Blue Devils started that drive at their own 49-yard line after a turnover on downs with 32.3 seconds remaining.

Shansey scrambled for 17 yards to start the march and found David Raiford with a 5-yard pass on third down. With 11.2 seconds left it was fourth-and-5 at the 29 and City coach Kadin Booker figured the team was about 15 yards from an attempt at a game-winning field goal.

But his players had other ideas.

“I was asking the coach, should we do it, and he didn't think we should,” Shansey said. “So we drew up a post-wheel, with my favorite target, Aaron Young. That was a shot. We're going for the whole thing, right there.”

Young, who scored four touchdowns on the day, was on the same page.

“I told coach to run that play,” he said. “I expected it. I told him to put me in the slot, so I could get more room on the outside. Ayden threw a perfect ball. Every time we hopped on the field, it was great. We executed.”

Palmyra scored on Evan Montgomery's 12-yard pass to Bobby Woll on its opening drive and then three times in the last six minutes of the first half. Ives added scoring runs of 43 and 52 yards.

Ives carried 17 times for 183 yards and two touchdowns before the halftime festivities, but his rushing output in the second half was minus-2 on 10 carries.

“The moment we boxed 21, like, four times, I knew we were going to win the game,” said Malachi James, a wide receiver and defensive back for Burlington City.

Palmyra took a 29-7 lead on the last play of the first half, when City quarterback Ayden Shansey's heave toward the end zone was deflected and intercepted by Damon Bailey. His 98-yard return seemed to remove any question about the outcome of the game, except perhaps how much of the second half would be played with a running clock.

But the Panthers offense couldn't get back into gear after the long halftime. Their second-half possessions ended with a three-and-out, an interception, another three-and-out, and then a red-zone fumble.

The Blue Devils responded with scoring runs of 8 and 3 yards by Young. They marched 88 yards to the tying score, on Shansey's 61-yard touchdown pass to Malachi James with 2:29 left.

Ives got the Panthers to midfield with a one-handed catch in front of the Palmyra bench, but a holding penalty on the next play was too much to overcome. Montgomery found Ives downfield again on fourth and 8, and again Ives made a leaping catch – but out of bounds.

Versatility: The Blue Devils had minus-6 rushing yards in the first half and scored on a 68-yard pass from Young to Shansey. They moved Young from wide out to running back in the second half and rushed for 146 yards.

Faith: Bailey's interception return looked like a textbook example of a back-breaking play, but Shansey and Booker said they looked around the locker room at halftime and were encouraged by what they saw.

“Book told us, it's not over, we're going to win this game, and we just had that whole attitude,” Shansey said. “The locker room energy was fine. It wasn't like they were giving up. We came out in the second half strong and just executed.”

That was what Booker asked them to do.

“I told them it's 29-7; just one stop and one score at a time, and I promised them we were going to win the game. I just didn't want them to stop believing. I know it's hard when you're down 22 points against a rival like this. I was trying to keep their spirits up; I told them they were going to win, and they came out on top. Somehow they did it.”

Historical: City has won four of its last five meetings with the Panthers, who still lead the series, 57-49-12. This was the third straight year that the game wasn't played on Thanksgiving Day. It was the night before in 2021 and there was no game in 2020. Last time that happened was 1952-54.

For Burlington City, James, who scored the tying touchdown, set one up earlier with a 25-yard reception that converted a third and 12 and also recovered the Blue Devils' onside kick at the end of the game.

For Palmyra, it has to be Ives, who ran 27 times for 181 yards and two long touchdowns and also caught three passes for 25 yards.

“We've had difficulties coming out in the second half. I'm not sure what the issue is. A couple times, we've come out and done real well. My hat's off. They made their adjustments, they shut us down. The fumble killed us. That and a couple other things.”

City coach Kadin Booker, on Shansey:

“I can't even put into words how much he means to us. He just steps up, every time we need him; third down, fourth down. Even in the second half, his control in the game. He was getting people lined up – we've got a young team. He was just being a leader out there. I'm so proud of him.”

James, on the halftime locker room:

“Some of them looked defeated, but I preach to the guys, we've got to keep our heads up, we've got 24 minutes left. And we came back. Everyone counted us out the whole season. Nobody believed we could win.”

John A. Lewis is a sports writer for the Burlington County Times, the Courier Post and the Vineland Daily Journal. E-mail him at jlewis@thebct.com. Please consider supporting local journalism with a subscription.