Part Two: Ten questions for the Big Central as the 2023 HS Football season kicks off tonight

The season is here! A total of 33 Big Central Conference football teams open their seasons tonight, but we still have some questions about the league and beyond in 2023.

Since we ended Part One of our list with a pair of teams trying to break long losing streaks, let’s open the second half of this endeavor with the other end of the spectrum…

6. Who’s going to go all the way?

In two seasons of the Big Central (the first year had no playoffs due to COVID-19) one team has gone as far as you can go and ended their season in the playoffs on a winning note. That was Hillsborough, which won the Central Jersey Group 5 championship, as well as the South 5 Regional Championship. That was as far as you could go that year. And Cranford made it to the final game, too, but lost to West Morris in the North 3 regional final.

Last year was the first year of Group Finals in high school football, and both Edison and North Hunterdon got to the group semis with sectional title wins – the Eagles in Central 5 and the Lions in North 2, Group 4. But neither could get to the group final, as Edison was ousted by Toms River North – which went on to win Group 5 – and North Hunterdon was knocked out by Northern Highlands.

There are a number of Big Central teams with legitimate shots to win sectional titles. We don’t want to mention them here at the risk of leaving anyone out. (Why offend anyone now? It’s a long season!) But who has the goods to make it all the way?

Phillipsburg’s loss was a bit of a stunner in the sectional final last year, but they have a lot back. And don’t discount this: the Stateliners are always focused on Easton, regardless of their playoff status? Could they have been looking ahead? Regardless, they picked up a win against the Red Rovers last year, their first in a while. So, maybe with that streak in the can, it’ll be different this year? Either way, they’ve got a shot.

Little birdies tell us Sayreville looks good. Really good. Good line play can get you anywhere, and this program has the history. The Bombers’ last won a sectional title in 2018, and won their regional title game (at the time called a bowl game) too. That’s still five years ago, but it’s something ingrained in Sayreville kids. Who knows?

HIllsborough is expected to make a jump, but we think they could surprise some people. Kevin Carty Jr. is high on this team, and for good reason – then again, when isn’t he? – and with him at the helm, so are we. A big reason why? Jackson Jankowicz, the son of former Middlesex coach P.J. Jankowicz, who rushed for over 400 yards last year as just a sophomore. They are expecting big things from the kid in the ‘Boro.

North Brunswick has the tools, heck they’ve had the tools the last several years, with superstars – read: Myles Bailey, Frankie Garbolino – and great supporting casts, but could this be the year you bring one home? A lot of the playoffs is the luck of the seeding, an inexact science in itself, but boy they’d be a great story if they took one home. Can they avoid Toms River North? We hope they do. Not sure anyone is beating them this year after going 14-0 last year, and rushing machine Micah Ford coming back.

And let’s give Colonia some love, too. Jaeden Jones – the quarterback who never played quarterback before and you’d never know it – is another exciting player on the blue turf along the Parkway, and when he’s doing his thing, it’s hard to make the Patriots an underdog. Looking for big things from the blue and gold this year.

7. Where do Edison and North Hunterdon go after championships? By the looks of it, North Hunterdon got hit harder from graduation than Edison, on paper. The Lions return just four starters from last year, all seniors. So it may be a little bit of waiting and seeing what develops over the next couple of years for new head coach C.J. Robinson. Then again, maybe the young players can make a splash in the four-team Liberty Silver Division.

Edison has a little more coming back, in terms of production. For example, quarterback Matt Yascko is gone with is 1,893 yards and 16 touchdowns, as is Malcolm Stansbury’s 659 receing yards – best on the team – and four TD receptions. But top rusher Nyekir Eato is back, after grounding it out to the tune of 1,429 yards and 16 touchdowns in his sophomore season 2022.

Junior Anthony Calantoni is likely to be the starting quarterback this year, and the big question is how will things go after three seasons of Matt Yascko the Offensive Coordinator and Matt Yascko the quarterback? Well, the coaching Yascko – now in charge – is close with the Calantoni family – they were teammates on the 1991 team that won a state title, the last before last season’s. Anthony’s father, Brian, is on the Edison staff.

8. Will anyone get the short end of the stick on Cutoff Weekend? Statewide? Sure. But we’re just concerned with the Big Central.

Put it this way: the coaches are learning.

Manville was 6-2 at the cutoff in 2021 after an admittedly head-scratching loss to Metuchen and missed the playoffs. The next year, then-head coach Pat Gorbatuk scheduled a pretty good Keyport team for Week Zero, got the win, and ultimately made the playoffs.

Spotswood got the statistical snub last year with a 6-3 record, partially a product of a weaker schedule. Like Manville, the Chargers’ problem is there aren’t enough good (read: Strong SI) schools in the Big Central Conference. This year, third-year head coach Chris Meagher dumped Bishop Eustace and added a tougher opponent – Bordentown, with a Strength Index value 21 points higher. We’ll see how that works, but it should help quite a bit, especially if Spotswood can pick up a win over the Scotties.

9. When will the NJSIAA change Week Zero to Week One? This is really just a terrible obsession we have, but it doesn’t make sense! Especially this year. Only a few seasons ago, it was the rare team that opened up on Week Zero. Last year, 23 Big Central teams – out of 59 – played in Week Zero, while this year, 10 more are on the slate for what really now is widely considered the opening weekend of the football season.

One more note: this is the earliest the high school football season has ever opened. IN fact, as recently as 2019 – before the group champions became a thing last year, but after the playoffs were expanded one round beyond sectional title games in 2018 – Week Zero games were the weekend of September 6.

10. Which game will be the best of the year on Central Jersey Sports Radio? We like to think we do a good job picking them. Sometimes we even get lucky. So, what about 2023?

• August 25 – Elizabeth vs. Linden (at Kean University): This is a great rivalry game, and to see Union County sports is worth the trip, as well. There’s something different, whether it’s football or basketball; a different style from Middlesex or Somerset Counties. That said, it’ll be extra special on the big stage at Kean, under the lights – oh, and did we mention the game is a fundraiser? All proceeds are going to benefit a scholarship fund at Linden High School for Xavier McClain, the Tiger football player who died last fall after suffering a head injury in a game.
• September 1 – Dayton at Dunellen: We wanted to show a little small school love, and this is one of two smaller school games this year. If you’ve never seen the Dunellen double-wing “offense in a phone booth,” you’re in for a treat. If you think you can’t find the ball, imagine how the opposition feels? Plus, if you’re looking to get home early on a Friday night, head to Columbia Park for this one. They might be done by 8:30!
• September 8 – Ridge at Phillipsburg: This will be our first look at the CJSR preseason No. 1 team in the Stateliners, but Ridge is no slouch, coming off a seven-win season a year ago. They’ve lost eight straight to P’burg, with their last win coming in their 2003 state championship season, but seem to give the ‘Liners fits every time out.
• September 9 – Brearley at Spotswood: Another small school matchup, and our only Saturday game currently on the schedule, Brearley went to the North 1, Group 1 final last year, while Spotswood finished 7-3 and still got statistically sunbbed from the playoffs. The Chargers may be able to breathe a little – but not too much – now that Matt Sims has graduated.
• September 14 – Sayreville at Edison: This will be the second of two good old-fashioned donnybrooks in a row for Edison, which visits North Brunswick the week prior. For the Bombers, it’ll be their fourth game, after opening on the road against Colonia and Phillipsburg. And they visit North Brunswick the week after. We should know a lot about these teams by Week Three (Four).
• September 15 – Montgomery at Somerville: Montogmery rallied to win this game at home last year after falling behind 14-7 in the first quarter. The Cougars used a little trickery, too, but – taking nothing away from them – Somerville also was a little bit of a mess at that point point in the year. Monty is now a year better, and Somerville should be, too. So we expect another tight one here!
• September 22 – Westfield at Scotch Plains-Fanwood: The Raiders had a disappointing season last year, going just 2-8, but that looks more like a blip in the course of Austin Holman’s program. More notably, this is a big rivalry between neighboring towns, and with SPF only having installed lights fairly recently, it’ll be the first time in this series the two will play a night game. (Westfield still does not have lights at Kehler Stadium.) So there’s some extra oomph here!
• September 24 – Hillsborough vs. Phillipsburg, North Brunswick vs. Sayreville (Rumble on the Raritan at Rutgers University): Yes, we have a doubleheader coming your way from the Banks of the Old Raritan, and two very good games as well. Let’s start with the fact that these matchups include the top two teams from their respective divisions last year. Hillsborough is much more experienced this year, with a handful of players who played important roles on the undefeated 2021 championship team, while Phillipsburg has a lot of important pieces back, too. There’s a lot of buzz about Sayreville this year, and North Brunswick still has the tools – and the coach – to win a title.
• September 29 – JP Stevens at Carteret: The Ramblers are well-deserving of their debut on Central Jersey Sports Radio. They didn’t play in 2020, but have slowly, surely built themselves up again into a solid program under the wing of alum Kevin Freeman. The hiring of new coach Joe Goerge alone – and the installation of his family’s culture – should be enough to move the needle at least a little bit in North Edison. Hopefully, by this point, Stevens will no longer own the state’s second longest losing streak.
• October 6 – East Brunswick at Piscataway: With the return of gunslinger Vito Tropeano, Jr., back to the East Brunswick program, Andy Steinfeld gets a quarterback with serious talent that can improve the results on the field. He threw for over 1,000 yards last year, but it could have been more as injuries plaued the Minutemen. This should be a fun matchup at Piscataway against a Chiefs program that’s been on the rise since its COVID shutdown in 2020. They went winless in 2021, but won six games last year.

There will be more games the weekends of October 14th and 21st, the final two weeks of the regular season, but those will be determined at a later date. The October 14th matchup will be determined by a fan vote.