North Brunswick’s Jack Garbolino scores a touchdown against New Brunswick at Memorial Stadium on October 7, 2022. (Source: @NB_RaiderNation
video on Twitter)
The number continues to get smaller with each passing week, and will continue to do so as we head toward the state playoffs.
There are 25 undefeated teams left in New Jersey high school football, with four remaining in the Big Central Conference. There were eight two weeks ago, a number that got cut into half, leaving four heading into last week’s Week 6, where all those teams won.
All four are 6-0 on the season: Phillipsburg, North Brunswick, South Plainfield and Brearley.
Phillipsburg and North Brunswick are on a path to earn top seeds in their respective playoff sections, and are both first in their supersections overall, with the Stateliners in North 5 and the Raiders in South 5.
A win for Phillipsburg this Friday night against Union at Maloney Stadium would put them at 7-0, their best start since 2019, when they won their first seven before losing to Westfield 21-14 in overtime in Game 8. That team was eliminated in the second round of the playoff and lost to Easton on Thanksgiving to finish 8-3, dropping twao of its last three games.
The Stateliners won their first ten games in 2017, going undefeated all the way through the state sectional semifinals. But they dropped their last two: to Easton on Thanksgiving and to North Hunterdon by a single point, 21-22, in the North 2, Group 4 championship game at MetLife Stadium.
Their last undefeated season was in 2005, when the team went 12-0, beat Easton 17-0 on Turkey Day, and topped Piscataway 15-6 at Rutgers for the North 2, Group 4 title.
As for North Brunswick, the Raiders last won their first six games two short seasons ago, in the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, but dropped Game 7 at Cranford, 43-19, before beating Elizabeth in their finale to end up 7-1.
Twenty years prior, the 2000 team won its first eight games before bowing out 7-0 to Wall in the first round of the playoffs, its first postseason appearance since 1987. Those Raiders finished 9-1.
Their only “undefeated” season was in 1974, when they played one varsity game – the Raiders’ first ever – and beat West Windsor 22-13.
South Plainfield is having a great burst of success, after not having won more than two games in a season for the least three years. (They went 6-5 in 2018.)
The last Tiger team to even win seven games in a single season was in 1997, when the team went 7-2. The 1982 team went 8-3, losing to Wall in the Central Jersey Group 3 final, 21-0.
The best South Plainfield team of all-time was in the pre-playoff era, in 1965, when the Tigers went 9-0 and were awarded the NJSIAA’s Central Jersey Group 3 title. They beat out longtime rival North Plainfield, which was 7-2, for the championship by 54 points (507-453).
For Brearley, it’s the Bears’ best start since 2015, when they went 11-1, winning their first eleven games, losing only in the North 2, Group 1 title game, 34-12, to Hoboken at Kean University. They also wen 9-1 in 2008, losing in the North 2, Group 1 semifinals to Verona. In 2006, they beat Verona for the North 2, Group 1 title, 21-20, to finish a perfect 12-0. They also went undefeated in 1981, winning the North 2, Group 1 final over Roselle, 17-15, to finish 11-0.
Elsewhere around the state, there are three undefeated teams each in the Shore Conference and NJIC. The Shore has Toms River North (7-0), Ocean Twp. (6-0, winners of 7 straight), and Point Pleasant Boro (6-0). The NJIC has Rutherford and Wood-Ridge at 6-0, while Elmwood Park is 4-0.
The West Jersey Football League has four unbeatens, all of whom are 6-0: Hopewell Valley, Delsea, Pennsauken and Seneca.
The Super Football Conference has eleven, including Caldwell, the team with the longest active winning streak in New Jersey, at 21 games and counting.
Newton is also 6-0, and has had an amazing run since 2016, having gone 10-1 last year and 6-0 in 2020, making it 22 wins in their last 23 games. Newton’s total record since 2016 is a remarkable 60-8.
West Morris and Wayne Valley are both 7-0, Newark West Side, Old Tappan, Weequahic, Randolph, Westwood and Mountain Lakes are all 6-0, while Pascack Hills is 5-0