Thanks to three first-half touchdowns from Zaimer Wright – who finished with five in the game – sixth-seed Sayreville knocked off third-seed and unbeaten Montgomery on the road Friday night in an All-Big Central opening round North 2, Group 4 playoff game.
But just as in control as the Bombers looked, up 21-0 with 4:07 left in the second quarter, they were a bit lucky to be up two scores at the break.
Montgomery got on the board late – with just 28 seconds left before the half – on a 20-yard connection from Michael Schmelzer, Jr., to Trey McFadden.
The Bombers then fumbled the kickoff return – and after calling a timeout with 1.7 seconds to go, Schmelzer found Brady Post wide open at the goal line as time expired. But the officials ruled Schmelzer – who had taken off down field – was past the line of scrimmage when he heaved it up. The score was nullified, the half was over, and Sayreville could breathe a sigh of relief.
In the second half, Wright scored again with under five minutes to go in the third quarter, but Montgomery got it right back to make it 28-14.
And Wright capped it all off with 18.7 seconds to go in the third, on a 72-yard touchdown run.
The Bombers (8-2) move on to visit second-seed Mount Olive next Friday night; the Marauders beat seventh-seed Wayne Valley 28-21 Friday night. Montgomery took its first loss to fall to 8-1-1, going 0-1-1 in its last two games of the year.
Click below for postgame interviews by Marcus Borden presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen: