Metuchen – seen here hosting Middlesex on August 29, 2024 – has won five straight games, most currently among Big Central teams. (Source: @RyanToth27 on Twitter)
Ask this as a trivia question, and it’s going to be somewhat of a tricky one: What Big Central teams are on the longest winning streaks coming into the season?
It’s a question that takes on a new consideration since the NJSIAA allowed football to play down to group champions beginning in 2022.
In the past, as many as 20 public schools could conceivably end their seasons with wins in sectional title games – four sections each in Groups 1 through 5. But now, only the five group champs can do so, so carrying over a winning streak from the previous season will be even more rare.
That makes what Caldwell has done the last few years all the more special. Until they lost to Lakeland in last year’s North 2, Group 2 semifinals – which allowed Bernards to host the title game in surprising fashion – they had won 37 straight games, spanning parts of four seasons going back to the last three games of the 2020 COVID-shortened season.
In the Big Central, the longest current winning streak doesn’t stretch back nearly that far. Some of the top teams from last year lost their last games, like St. Thomas Aquinas and Bernards, and even Phillipsburg lost its next-to-last game – in the sectional finals of the playoffs – before beating Easton on Thanksgiving.
So who owns that longest streak?
It’s a modest streak, but it belongs to Metuchen! The Bulldogs – who won their opener 14-6 over Middlesex Thursday – have won five straight games, including their last four last season, coming against JP Stevens, Dayton, Highland Park and North Plainfield.
“I’m just trying to get these guys to get to 1-0 each week,” says head coach Jordan Leitner. Well, guess what? Those 1-0 weeks add up pretty fast.
And it was not long ago the Bulldogs’ numbers were dwindling, down to 14 kids at one point, Leitner points out. Metuchen hosts South River next Saturday, a chance to extend its streak to six games.
After that, another team that finished 2023 strong and is 1-0 this season is right behind Metuchen. Monroe finished last year with wins over South Plainfield, Perth Amboy and Franklin, and the Falcons edged out Scotch Plains-Fanwood back on Thursday night 31-30 to open up their season with a victory. Friday, they’ll be at Hunterdon Central.
And then, there are a few teams on three-game streaks after Week Zero: Elizabeth, Piscataway and Roselle Park. The Panthers open up their season Thursday at Middlesex, while the Minutemen and Chiefs already are 1-0 on the season. Elizabeth staved off Linden Friday night, 35-28, and travels to Bayonne this week, while Piscataway topped Manalapan, 21-11 Friday night and will entertain Bridgewater-Raritan Friday at 6 pm in the Big Central Game of the Week, presented by Bellamy & Son Paving.
Wins against the Big Central Conference, however, is another matter entirely. That’s where you’ll see the top teams carry over a streak.
St. Thomas Aquinas has won 25 straight Big Central Conference games, having won eight league matchups each of the last three seasons – last year and 2022 under Tarig Holman, 2021 under the late Brian Meeney, and they won their last game in 2020, a 16-14 victory at Colonia. There’s one forfeit in there, a 2021 game against South River where the Rams had a slew of injuries and couldn’t field a team.
Their last loss to a Big Central opponent came on November 12, 2020, a 41-6 defeat to Bernards. Ironically, it’s the Mountaineers who are next, at 15 straight Big Central wins. Bernards’ last loss came September 2, 2022, a 35-20 defeat at the hands of Hillside.
After that, it’s all single digits.
South Hunterdon is next with nine straight against Big Central competition, while North Brunswick has won eight straight against the BCC, and Ridge has won seven. Phillipsburg and Metuchen have each won five in a row against league teams.
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