A beautiful Saturday in Central Jersey – with bright, sunny skies and temperatures in the mid- to upper-70s throughout the state – was the perfect backdrop for some matinee high school football in Week Five of the season.
In our Saturday “Big Central Game of the Week” presented by Bellamy & Son Paving on Central Jersey Sports Radio, Metuchen snapped a two-game losing streak and beat Highland Park at home, 29-0. Meanwhile Watchung Hills stopped South Brunswick at home, shutting out the Vikings 33-0 to improve to 5-1.
We take a look at some of the other key matchups from the day below:
Hunterdon Central 28, East Brunswick 8: The Red Devils got three touchdown passes and a touchdown run from Drew Cella en route to a shutout win over the visiting Bears in Flemington.
Cella hit James Mongno from 48-yards out after a scoreless opening 12 minutes, then Nick Vasquez caught an 11-yard pass from him to make it 14-0 at the break.
And after a scoreless third, Cella ran for a two-yard score, then threw a 56-yard pass to nick Vasquez to make it 28-0.
East Brunswick scored in the final minute and completed a two-point conversion pass to make the final 28-8.
Cella finished 9-of-14 for 196 yards, while Giovanni Veliz ran for 117 yards on 16 carries.
Hunterdon Central improves to 4-2 with the win and will host Ridge (4-1) in an American Silver Division matchup next Thursday night. East Brunswick drops to 1-5 and will host Piscataway (4-2) Thursday night.
Morristown 14, Old Bridge 7: In a rare mid-season non-conference matchup, Old Bridge went up to Super Football Conference territory and lost 14-7 at Morristown.
The Knights’ lone score came on a Brody Hunt touchdown pass to Jaden Griffith.
Old Bridge takes a trip Thursday to Monroe for a Big Central National Gold Division battle of 3-3 teams.
Belvidere 35, Dayton 7: The County Seaters improved to 5-1 and are on a five-game win streak after starting the season with a loss, following a 35-7 win over Dayton. The Bulldogs were the first team to score against Belvidere in four games, having pitched shutouts in their last three against Manville, Dunellen and Bound Brook. They have allowed just 27 points in six games this season.
It’s also Belvidere’s best start under third-year head coach Jordan Schreffler, whose team had an 0-9 season in his debut year of 2022, and was just 3-7 a year ago.
The last time the Seaters won five games in a season was a 5-4 year under Jeff Kolodziejczyk in 2019. It’s their best start since 2016, when they opened 3-1, and went 7-1 heading into the playoffs before getting knocked out in the North 1, Group 1 first round by New Milford.
Other Saturday scores:
- Johnson 41, Governor Livingston 13
- Hillside 46, Roselle 12
- Linden 13, Montgomery 10
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