Somerville hosts Hillsborough at Brooks Field on August 29, 2024. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
Both the Hillsborough and Somerville football teams are going to be good this year.
But on Opening Night, the 5th-ranked Pioneers were just a little bit better.
Somerville jumped out to a 14-0 lead and never looked back, other than having to hold off the Raiders late for a 21-10 win at Brooks Field in the Big Central Game of the Week presented by Bellamy & Son Paving, as heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio..
Terrell Mitchell opened the scoring for the Pioneers with an 11-yard touchdown catch, then Boro’s Jackson Jankowicz fumbled the ensuing kick return. Mitchell scored on an 11-yard run three plays later.
Hillsborough would get one back on a Zion Grant five-yard run just 23 seconds into the second quarter, but Somerville would go back up by two scores on a 16-yard touchdown catch by Brady Scheier, the second touchdown pass of the game by senior QB Brendan Pacheco.
After halftime, the Hillsborough defense – which had played well most of the first half – gave the Raiders a chance. And they came up big with 4:11 to go when Pacheco lost a bad snap, and couldn’t fall on the ball. Anthony Guerrero scooped it and went 35 yards for the score to get Boro within seven at 21-14, thanks to a two-point conversion.
Somerville then took half the fourth quarter on its next possession, but again the Raider defense came up big, keeping the home team off the board. And then the offense went to work.
One could sense senior quarterback Ryan Seamon – in his first career varsity start – getting more confident. A nice catch and curl away from a defender by Andrew Schwarz after a catch, a rope to Berto Santiago in the red zone, and a short run by Jankowicz got Boro within one.
And that’s when Hillsborough went for the win. But the two-point pass was broken up.
Still, the Raiders had a chance, even after they failed to recover an onside kick.
With one timeout and 1:23 on the clock, Hillsborough took its time out, but so did Somerville. And they took another. It left them with 23 seconds to go and a fourth-and-short. Failure to convert would give the ball away. But they got in from Josh Rodriguez out of the wildcat, used to perfection all night, and Somerville held on.
Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Chris Tsakonas, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
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