The Phillipsburg student section sings along with the alma mater after a 35-6 win over Ramapo in the Group 3 semifinals at Maloney Stadium on November 22, 2024.
Within about 15 minutes and a 45-minute drive from each other, there was almost the complete spectrum of feeling in sports, from one end to the other.
In Somerville, it was heartbreaking. For 48 minutes the Pioneers gave it all they had against Mainland in the Group 3 semifinals at Brooks Field. Starting with taking the field with snow coming down, then a light rain, then nothing at all.
And after 48 minutes, they were back where they started, and that was a good thing. Tied at 28, the Pioneers and Mustangs were headed to overtime. Somerville scored. It looked like they missed their first PAT all night, but Spencer Carran had been roughed, and he made good on try No. 2.
Mainland scored, looked like they’d go for one, called time out, went for two and got it. While their arms were raised in celebration – and Jake Blum, who caught the toss from John Franchini, raced halfway down the field only to be chase by his teammates – Somerville players were left devastated on the turf.
It was a cruel way for the game, and the season, to end. It will take a long time to get over, even just one week removed from their first sectional title since 2017. They won Central Jersey Group 3. They set a program record for wins. They won a title with a perfect record for the first time since Jerry Moore was coach in 1983, when they won Central Jersey Group 2 and finished 11-0.
Just down the road, about as far west as you can go on Route 22 without crossing the Delaware into Pennsylvania, Phillipsburg was winning, and dominating. Jett Genovese – the Stateliners’ outstanding senior quarterback who has been a starter for the seasons now – put on a clinic.
He ran for four touchdowns in a 35-6 win over Ramapo that made history. The Stateliners are the first Big Central Conference team to make the state finals, in the third year of the ultimate round of championship games.
And one might think it was the thrill of victory. And maybe it was the weather. But the mood in Phillipsburg – at least what we could see on film from Marcus Borden – was a bit subdued.
And that’s the way they want it.
The Phillipsburg motto is DIG. Discipline. Ignore the Noise. Grit.
To me, it’s that middle phrase that seems most important, on which the other two are reliant. When you tune out all the noise around you, you can focus and be disciplined, and have the strength to battle on.
That’s what Phillipsburg did Friday night. After a scoreless first quarter. And as Coach Borden talked about with head coach Frank Duffy and Genovese after the game, how the team comes out after halftime. They kept the foot on the gas.
“We knew they had the ability to come back,” Duffy said after the game.
“We were draining them all the way around,” said Genovese.
And sure, we know it’s not a championship. They have one already, and there’s one more to go. Nothing was won Friday night except a playoff game, a state semifinal at that. A chance to move on the ultimate high school football championship game.
Yes, the opposite ends of the sports spectrum were on full display Friday night. You might not have known it if you were in Phillipsburg.
But you will in two weeks when they play Millville or Winslow at Rutgers. And you’ll know next Thursday, too, when we hear they have a kinda big game coming, too.
Not that Phillipsburg’s players would know it. After all, they just simply ignore the noise.
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