St. Joseph-Metuchen players stretch before a game at Phillipsburg on October 12, 2024. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
The old adage is that coaches can tell more about their teams after a loss than a win.
What St. Joseph-Metuchen learned last Friday night between 7:00 and 9:30 is that Phillipsburg is a very good football team.
The Falcons are, too. Both are 5-1 and have dominated opponents at times this year.
But where Bill Tracy will learn the most about his team is how his players respond to their first defeat of the season, a 49-14 loss at Phillipsburg.
Of course, if you believe in the transitive property of sports, there’s this: St. Joe’s beat Ridge, Ridge then beat Phillipsburg, then Phillipsburg beat St. Joe’s. Time is, indeed, a flat circle.
This Saturday, the seventh-ranked Falcons (5-1) get another stiff test. They will host No. 3 St. Thomas Aquinas (5-2) in a “Big Central Game of the Week” presented by Bellamy & Son Paving. Kickoff is at 11 am, with pregame at 10:45 on Central Jersey Sports Radio as Mike Pavlichko and Vin Ebenau call all the action. Click here to listen.
The Falcons are led by quarterback Justin Scaramuzzo, a junior who has been excellent in his first year as a starter, with 1,373 yards passing and 12 touchdowns, to go along with just one interception. Four receivers have at least eleven catches.
On the defensive end, Tyler Huseth has been the most disruptive, with a team-best seven sacks and three TFLs, while defensive back Ashton Irving has grabbed a team best six interceptions.
It’ll be the first meeting between the schools since 2015, their fifth overall; the Falcons – who only began playing varsity football in 2011 – have won all four previous meetings.
Click below to hear St. Joseph head coach Bill Tracy talk about the Falcons and Saturday’s game against St. Thomas Aquinas:
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