Felix Matos gets in the end zone for one of his six touchdowns in a 49-14 home win over St. Joseph Metuchen on October 11, 2024. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
Quarterback Jett Genovese and wide receiver Matthew Scerbo, Jr., have become the big name, 1-2 combo that has made mince meat of many teams over the two-and-a-half years they’ve been starters for the Phillipsburg football team.
Now, you have another name to learn: Felix Matos.
What did he do Friday night in a 49-17 win for the 7th-ranked Stateliners over visiting No. 5 St. Joseph-Metuchen, in a game heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio?
He scored six touchdowns, five on offense, and thoroughly dominated the Falcons almost single-handedly in every facet of the game.
He opened the scoring with a one-yard touchdown run on P’burg’s first possession, capping a nearly seven-minute drive late in the first quarter. He followed it with a 92-yard touchdown run a few minutes later.
Then, as St. Joe’s attempted to get on the board with a 39-yard field goal attempt midway through the second quarter, the Stateliners blocked it, and Matos scooped it up, taking it 78 yards to the house to give his team a 21-0 lead with the PAT.
The Falcons eventually got on the board, on a 46-yard touchdown pass from Justin Scaramuzzo to Triston Bester to cut it to 21-7 before the half, but the big play was about all St. Joseph could muster.
While Scaramuzzo finished with 269 yards passing, the Falcons were held to 18 rushing yards in the first half by a stout Phillipsburg defense. The Falcons’ first three drives ended in punts, with only one first down, their next ended with the blocked field goal. And after the touchdown, another field goal – this time from 43 – fell short.
The second half was much of the same. Matos added two short rushing TDs of two and seven yards in the third before Joe’s could get on the board again, and then he scored one more – on a 27-yard run – to give him his sixth touchdown of the night.
Only in mop-up duty did Matos lose his steel grip on Phillipsburg’s scoring for the night. Sophomore Shane Moore added the final score, making it 49-14.
It was the first meeting between the teams – with St. Joseph only beginning varsity play in 2011, while the ‘Liners have been playing since 1899 – but it was the third time Frank Duffy and Bill Tracy, the two head coaches, had faced off. Duffy beat Tracy twice when he was at Ridge in 2018 and 2019.
The Stateliners improve to 5-1, with a visit to Union coming up next Friday. St. Joseph lost for the first time this season, now 5-1, and they also lost their multiplier status. That doesn’t hurt them, but the five opponents who have beaten them so far now will get just 50% of the SI toward their OSI average, like every other team, instead of the 70% they would have gotten for being a Tier D multiplier.
The Falcons will host No. 3 St. Thomas Aquinas next Saturday morning at 11 am in Metuchen, in a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio.
Click below for postgame reaction from Phillipsburg head coach Frank Duffy and senior Felix Matos, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
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