New Providence and Cedar Grove play in the North 2, Group 1 title game in Cedar Grove on November 14, 2024. (Photo: Dom Savino)
It was a fun run, but in the end, not to be.
Second-seed New Providence managed to rally from a two-score deficit in the first half, but couldn’t do the same in the second, falling at top-seed and undefeated Cedar Grove, 35-14, in the North 2, Group 1 sectional championship game Friday night.
The contest marked the Pioneers’ 20th sectional final appearance – a Union County record – and their first in 14 years since they won it all in 2010.
New Providence (9-3) struggled to contain Cedar Grove (12-0) wide receiver Jackson Morrice, who racked up 272 combined yards and three touchdowns.
Morrice contributed two scores in a five-minute span during the third quarter, sending Cedar Grove into the lead for good. The senior’s final touchdown came on the craftiest play of the game, a direct snap to Morrice as quarterback Stephen Paradiso walked toward the sideline pretending to strain to hear a play call.
Cedar Grove’s Paradiso-Morrice connection proved fruitful again, as the two linked up for 246 of Paradiso’s 301 passing yards.
New Providence had trouble slowing Cedar Grove’s passing attack early. Paradiso — the school’s all-time passing yards and touchdowns leader — found the end zone on each of the Panthers’ first two drives. Cedar Grove took a 14-0 lead with 2:42 left in the first quarter on a deep ball that Morrice ran under for an 80-yard score.
But, in a hole and playing in the team’s biggest game in more than a decade, New Providence looked unfazed. The Pioneers’ defense forced turnovers on the following two Cedar Grove possessions, thanks to a Quinton Moore interception and a strip sack recovered by James Keneally.
New Providence’s two-headed monster of quarterback T.J. Munn and running back A.J. Whitehead jumpstarted the offense from there. Whitehead capped a grinding, 12-play, 55-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown plunge. And, soon after Keneally’s fumble recovery gave the Pioneers the ball inside Cedar Grove’s 30, Munn picked out Jack Fitzgerald in the back of the end zone for a 16-yard touchdown throw with 45 seconds left in the half.
Munn finished with a game-high 132 rushing yards on 16 carries. Whitehead provided yeoman’s work, too, earning 22 carries for 89 rushing yards.
But after churning up 164 yards in the first half, New Providence’s vaunted run game was slowed to just 63 yards after halftime as Cedar Grove found greater success carving into the backfield.
Cedar Grove earns its second North 2, Group 1 sectional championship in the last four years. The undefeated Panthers advance to play Butler in a matchup of sectional No. 1 seeds in the Group 1 state semifinals.
New Providence finishes the season with nine wins, matching the program’s most since 2010. In Munn and Whitehead, the Pioneers had two 1,000-yard rushers for the first time since at least 2010, as well.
Click below to hear New Providence head coach Chet Parlavecchio Jr. talk postgame with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Dom Savino:
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