Game times announced for Edison, North Hunterdon public group semifinal games

The NJSIAA Saturday night announced the game times for all ten public group semifinal games, which will lead to the first ever public group championships in New Jersey high school football history.

Edison and North Hunterdon – the Big Central Conference’s two public sectional title winners this weekend – will be playing at the same time, but in different places.

The Eagles – who won the Central Jersey Group 5 title Friday night 28-14 over Lenape – will be back down in Medford, playing at 5:30 next Saturday evening. They’ll take on South Jersey Group 5 champ Toms River North at Cherokee High School in Medford, a 15-minute drive from where the Eagles played Friday night at Lenape. The Mariners are 12-0 and have not scored fewer than 42 points in a game since a Week Zero win over Washington Twp., 28-21, in the Battle at the Beach in Ocean City, which Edison also played in. They are led by junior QB Micah Ford, who has D1 college interest as a runningback, and offers from Maryland and West Virginia, according to 247Sports, as well as interest from Rutgers. TRN beat defending CJ5 champ Kingsway 48-14 Friday night for the South 5 title.

The Lions won the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 title Saturday afternoon, winning a fourth-quarter shootout where the teams combined for 49 points, 49-35 over Randolph. They will face North Jersey, Section 1, Group 4 champion Northern Highlands, also at 5:30, at Franklin High School in Somerset. The Highlanders – from Allendale in the Northwest corner of Bergen County – won their third sectional title, rallying from 14 points down in the fourth quarter to beat Ramapo for the second straight year, 49-42 in a four-hour overtime marathon in which Ramapo’s stadium lights went out not once, but twice. Northern Highlands also beat Woodbridge in the North 1, Group 4 title game in 2019 in Allendale, the last year of playoffs before COVID wiped out the 2020 postseason.

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Should Edison and/or Northern Highlands advance, they would go on to the Group Finals at Rutgers University’s SHI Stadium in Piscataway on Saturday or Sunday of the first weekend of December.

Edison would face the winner of the North semifinal featuring North 1 champ Passaic Tech and North 2 winner West Orange, which knocked off previously-unbeaten No. 1 seed Phillipsburg on Thursday night. PCTI and West Orange will be at 2:30 pm Sunday at Franklin.

Northern Highlands would play the winners of the South semifinal featuring Central champion Mainland and South champion Millville, which will take place at 2:30 pm Sunday at Cherokee.