Woodbridge QB Derek Anderson stretches to get the ball across the goal line on a second-half TD run in a 36-34 season-opening win at Old Bridge on August 29, 2024. (Photo: Marcus Borden)
Call it a barnburner, a see-saw affair, a shootout – anything you like.
In the end, it was a win for Woodbridge, a thriller at that, and the first victory for head coach Joe Goerge, who left South Brunswick to take over the program in the spring,
The final was 36-34, the Barrons over Old Bridge, and the game at Vince Lombardi Stadium off Route Nine was certainly a back-and-forth one with some tense moments, and bursts of offense..
Old Bridge got on the board first with a 75-yard touchdown run by quarterback Brody Nugent late in the first quarter, with 2:24 to go. But Woodbridge would get the next three scores spanning the halves.
A pair of touchdown passes to Izaiah Toliver and Daunte DiFonzo – on which the PAT was blocked – made it 13-7 at the half. Late in the third, a field goal by Toliver from 28-yards out made it 16-13 with 3:33 to go. And that’s when the scoring came fast and furious.
Old Bridge cut it to five on an 83-yard pass by Nugent to Jaden Griffith at the 2:54 mark, and a two-point conversion gave them a short-lived 21-16 lead. But that would be erased with 2:32 to go in the quarter when Anderson hooked up with twin brother Bryan for a 60-yard TD catch that put the Barrons up 23-21.
And they weren’t done. Derek Anderson scored 18-seconds into the fourth quarter from 12 yards out, and a five-yard run by Zackaryus Guzman made it 36-21, with a second PAT blocked by the Knights. It could have been costly.
That’s because Old Bridge got a 25-yard touchdown on a scramble by Nugent with 4:36 to go that cut the score to 36-28. Later, the Knights drove to the Barrons’ eight-yard line with 1:24 to go, and out of a time out, got another run from Nugent to cut it two 36-34.
But the two-point pass failed, and Old Bridge couldn’t recover the onside kick, giving the Barrons the victory.
Click below for postgame reaction from Marcus Borden in Old Bridge, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
Discover more from Central Jersey Sports Radio
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.