Now that our broadcast schedule is out – with nine Big Central Conference football games the first seven weeks of the season on Central Jersey Sports Radio, let’s take a closer look at some of the matchups:
Thursday, August 29 – Hillsborough at Somerville, 7 pm
The Raiders are fully loaded, coming off an 8-3 season that ended with a playoff loss in the second round of the sectionals to Marlboro. A key to the offense will be thousand-yard rusher Jackson Jankowicz, a senior who will run behind a solid line. The Pioneers were 5-5 a year ago, but also are loaded with talent, including senior quarterback Brenden Pacheco, who threw for nearly 1,900 yards and 15 touchdowns last year, with just three interceptions. Fellow senior Jayden Loftin brings back his 5 1/2 sacks on defense.
These teams have split their last two meetings, with Somerville taking a 35-14 decision late in 2022, while Hillsborough won 14-7 late last season. Those are their only two meetings since 2000. The teams played every year when the Raiders were a smaller-sized school, once in 1977, then every year from 1980 to the end of the century. ‘Boro leads the all-time series 12-11.
And this game will bring back a little bit of that history. That night, Somerville will be celebrate the 30th anniversary of its 1994 state championship team, on which Hillsborough coach Kevin Carty, Jr., played, and which his dad – Kevin Carty, Sr. – coached. Papa Carty, of course, is on his son’s staff.
Friday, September 6 – Bridgewater-Raritan at Piscataway, 6 pm
Bridgewater-Raritan was 3-7 last year, in the first season under head coach DJ Catalano. The Panthers will have to figure out how to replace their team leaders in three major offensive categories, as quarterback Jack Bray, senior receiver Dane Sorensen, and running back Frankie Verano – a key member of the 2024 state championship baseball team – all have graduated. Piscataway was 6-4 a year ago, and has recovered well from not having played during the COVID-shortened 2020 season, one of just two teams in the CJSR-area not to do so. (Carteret was the other). Senior Jahai Johnson will play an increased role this year, after carrying just twice for 36 yards and a touchdown, but catching 22 passes for 395 yards – tops on the team – and five touchdowns.
This will be the first meeting between the teams since 2018, when the Chiefs won the North Group 5 title – their last trophy – and swept the Panthers, winning a regular season matchup 47-10, then again in the playoffs, 42-14. But those victories came after Bridgewater thumped the Chiefs in Piscataway in the 2017 playoffs, 27-6. All-time, Piscataway leads the series 3-1, with their only other meeting coming in 2012, a 49-0 Piscataway win, although the Chiefs did play both Bridgewater East and West every year from 1968 to 1987; those schools merged in 1992.
Saturday, September 7 – Sayreville at Linden, 2 pm
The second game of our first doubleheader weekend of the season is out first-ever trip to Tiger Stadium in Linden, which was undefeated at home last year, going 4-0-1, that lone tie coming in a good ol’ fashioned donnybrook that ended in a 42-all deadlock. Their last home loss, in fact, came two years ago to the day, October 7, 2023, a 31-0 defeat at the hands of Cranford. Coming off a 6-3-1 season, their biggest task will be replacing graduated QB Tequan Thomas, who threw for 1,652 yards last year, but ran for nearly 1,300 and 15 touchdowns. The Bombers were 8-2 a season ago, and are led by first-year head coach Mark Poore, who played at Sayreville under George Najjar, then coached under him, Chris Beagan and – last season – Don Sofilkanich.
This is only the third meeting between the teams. Sayreville beat Linden 20-17 in the COVID season of 2020, and Linden beat the Bombers in their only other matchup, 26-13 all the way back in 1966.
Friday, September 13 – Plainfield at Woodbridge, 6 pm
The Cardinals will be making their debut on Central Jersey Sports Radio, well-deserved after going 6-5 a year ago, their most wins and first time finishing over .500 since 2005, when Plainfield went 6-4 under head coach Clinton Jones. Current coach James Williams has it going on, a great stretch in the Queen City, with consistency the name of the game: they are 16-16 over the last three years, the most wins in a three year stretch since the Jones era.
Ala-Meen Watkins returns at quarterback for Plainfield, having thrown just nine yards shy of 1,400 last season, with 10 TDs, while Central Jersey Sports Radio Two-Way Player of the Year Joel Cordoba also is back. As a junior last year, he caught 60 passes for 1,234 yards and nine touchdowns, also rushing for two. And on defense, he registered five interceptions, three of them going all the way back the other way for touchdowns. For Woodbridge, senior quarterback Derek Anderson returns, coming off a year where he threw for 1,750 yards, an impressive 21 touchdowns, and – perhaps even more impressive – just one interception. His twin, Bryan, is the top returning receiver, with A.J. Bosch graduating, bringing back 30 catches for 524 yards and four touchdowns. Junior Jose Tejierio (5 1/2 sacks) is a big transfer loss.
The matchup is a long time coming, as it will be their first meeting since 1970, a 28-0 Cardinals’ win. Plainfield leads the all-time series 10-5, with a mind-boggling four ties, two of which came in their first two meetings in 1942 and 1943, both 6-6 ballgames.
Friday, September 20 – Phillipsburg at Ridge, 7 pm
The Stateliners are having their best stretch under head coach Frank Duffy, and while they’re still looking for that state playoff trophy, they have beaten Easton twice in a row for the first time since 2002 and 2003, so it doesn’t even matter what their record is. And yet, they were 10-2 last year, and are a combined 21-3 in those last two seasons. Senior Jett Genovese will be the starting QB for the third year in a row, and he’ll get to throw again to top receiver Matthew Scerbo, Jr. Genovese threw for 1,351 yards and 14 TDs last year, while Scerbo hauled in a massive 45 catches for 717 yards and six touchdowns. The defense will have to replace some key seniors, like John Wargo.
Ridge comes in off an 8-2 year; their only losses to Phillipsburg in the regular season, and Northern Highlands in the North 1, Group 4 semifinals. Gone is senior QB Ryan Olivo, who passed for over a thousand yards, and top rusher Will Deady, who ran for 1,149 yards. Sacks leader Christopher Oliver (7) also graduated.
This is a rematch of a game we broadcast last year on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with Phillipsburg beating Ridge 21-14 at Maloney Stadium. That was the Stateliners’ ninth straight win against the Red Devils, who won the first meeting between the teams in the 2003 playoffs. P’burg won their next meeting, also in the playoffs, in 2009, and has reeled off eight straight since.
Friday, September 27 – East Brunswick at Old Bridge, 7 pm
It’s the “Battle of Route 18” as these former Thanksgiving Day rivals – at least since the 1994 merger of Cedar Ridge and Madison Central – do battle at Lombardi Field, which by the way, has perhaps the top high school football press box in the entire Big Central Conference (and is named after late PA announcer and high school sports fixture Ron Mazzola).
East Brunswick will be well into Matt Pazinko’s first season at the helm, after the controversy over Andy Steinfeld not being retained. But he was Steinfeld’s “right-hand man” and not much of what the Bears do is expected to change. Coming out of the COVID season 8-2, the Bears won just two games each of the last two years, both “regional crossover” (formerly “consolation”) games at the end of the season. They were much more competitive last year, but will need to shore up a defense that never allowed fewer than 20 points in a game all season – even in their NJSIAA crossover win at Jackson Liberty, a 34-20 decision which saw the Bears notch their highest point total of the season. Old Bridge was 4-6 last season, but finished strong; after the Knights began 0-4, they closed out the season with a 4-2 run, although it was too little, too late to make the playoffs. As a sophomore, QB Brody Nugent threw for 1,217 yards and 11 touchdowns, but will need to cut down on the INTs (9), while also running for 814 yards and seven scores. Like the Bears, they’ll need to shore up the defense a little as well.
Since “Old Bridge” High School opened in 1994, the Knights have won 27 of the 30 meetings, with the Bears taking the first matchup, and two more in 2007 and 2010. Old Bridge has won 13 straight, the longest streak in the series.
Friday, October 4 – Colonia at Edison, 7 pm
The Patriots are coming off a 5-5 year in which they made the playoffs with a Cutoff Weekend win over Rahway, and some help. But they will be missing senior quarterback Jaeden Jones, Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Offensive Player of the Year in 2023, who combined for 2,686 yards between his arms and his legs a year ago. Edison will be looking for a rebound year after a 3-7 campaign that followed a sectional title in 2022. For that, they’ll look to seniors Nyekir Eato on the ground and quarterback Anthony Calantoni, and the defense will have to clamp down after allowing 26.5 points per game last year, and no fewer than 30 in their last four games, all defeats.
It’ll be the first meeting between the teams since 2021, when Edison won a 38-7 home game. The Patriots have won two straight in the series, which is 12-10-1 in favor of Colonia. It’s been so even that Edison won back-to-back years in 1992 and 1993, the Pats won in 2002 and 2003, Edison won matchups in 2008 and 2009, and Colonia won in 2019 and 2021.
Thursday, October 10 – Metuchen at JP Stevens, 6 pm
The Bulldogs are coming off a 5-5 season that saw them win their opening game, drop five straight, but finish strong to win their last four. The first of those was a 14-0 win over JP Stevens, their second in a row over the Hawks. This will be Year Three under head coach Jordan Leitner, a Metuchen alum, whose team improved greatly from his 3-7 debut season. Stevens, meanwhile, is mired in the longest active losing streak in New Jersey at the moment, 42 games and counting. The Hawks went to the top of the list after Highland Park won its final game last year, snapping a 51-game skid. Though they were shutout four times last season, they were very much in their last four games of the season. After losses like a 57-0 defeat to in-town rival Edison and a 34-0 loss at Governor Livingston in the first half of the season, there was the Metuchen loss by two scores, a 22-14 loss at Spotswood, a 24-21 defeat to JFK, and a 23-20 loss at Dayton to end the year. Talk to any coach who saw the Hawks play last year, and they’ll tell you Stevens is primed to break that streak, and perhaps then some, in 2024.
With Metuchen being a Group 2 – and formerly a Group 1 – and JP Stevens a Group 5 school, these two never met until two years ago, when the Big Central Conference began assigning teams into divisions with increasing weight given to results and competitiveness rather than almost strictly group size. The Bulldogs have won both meetings, 14-0 last year, and 21-12 in 2022, so this year’s matchup should again be competitive.
Saturday, October 12 – Summit at Bernards, time TBA
Both teams are coming off excellent seasons. The Hilltoppers were 7-3 last season, never losing back-to-back games, eliminated in the second round of the playoffs by West Essex, which finished 10-4 and went all the way to the Group 3 title game, falling to Delsea. The Mountaineers, meanwhile, had a season for the ages, going 12-1 en route to their first sever sectional championship of the playoff era. They beat Lakeland in an overtime thriller for the trophy – the only Big Central team to win a title in 2023 – but fell at Westwood in the Group 2 semifinals.
That Bernards’ team scored big in the CJSR postseason awards arena. Jon Simoneau was named coach of the year, Bernards was Team of the Year, and kicker Jonas Gonzalez was Special Teams Player of the Year. They will also have to replace senior Connor Laverty and his 1,727 passing yards and 17 touchdowns (against just one pick) as well as top receiver Jake Caldwell, who grabbed 42 passes for 594 yards and four touchdowns a year ago. A big plus? Thomas Diemar – a junior who had 10 sacks in his sophomore season last year – will be back. While Summit graduates Carter Shallcross and his team best 1,483 yards and 15 touchdowns, sophomore Cole Sabol (1,184 yards, 14 TDs) will be back. A senior-heavy defense will also have to answer the bell for Summit.
For two schools that met for the first time in 110 years ago (!) in 1914 – a 13-7 Summit win – this is just the eighth time they’ll play. The Hilltoppers lead the all-time series 4-3, with the most recent meeting a 2009 Summit win, 48-28.
Click here for the full 2024 Central Jersey Sports Radio high school football broadcast schedule.
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