Phillipsburg has been playing football since 1899, but Stateliners are still making “firsts”

The 2024 North 2, group 4 title won by Phillipsburg a couple of weeks ago was far from its first championship.

The winningest program in New Jersey History has won 14 state sectional championships and 748 games through last week’s dominating Group 4 semifinal win over Ramapo. But there are still some things they haven’t done, and still some milestones yet to achieve.

Let’s start with the Thanksgiving Day game against Easton. The appetizer has already been devoured, as the P’burg girls defeated the Red Rovers 40-31 in the annual powder puff game, part of a week’s worth of festivities surrounding this year’s 117th annual meeting.

Quarterback Saafiyah Wilson was involved of five of the six touchdowns scored by the Stateliners. Sounds like someone else we know, whose initials might be J.G.

For the varsity boys, nine of their sectional titles in New Jersey have come in the playoff era. The title they won two weeks ago over Northern Highlands was their first since 2018.

But they have more firsts to come.

When Phillipsburg meets Easton Thursday out at Lafayette College, it will be the first time they will have played the Red Rovers on Thanksgiving while being a playoff champion in the same year.

That’s a quirk of the schedule. In previous years, the sectional finals were played after Thanksgiving. As the playoffs expanded – with two teams at most, and some declared – in the inaugural 1974 playoffs, the earlier rounds moved before Turkey Day. But the title games were always after the holiday.

In 2018, the state added an extra round, a “bowl championship” that was rebranded a “regional championship” for 2019, and through 2021, after which the postseason expanded again to group championships for the first time ever.

Phillipsburg lost in the finals in 2022 and 2023, but brought home the hardware this season, two weeks before their Thanksgiving rivalry game.

When beating Easton first, the ‘Liners are 3-0 all-time, with wins in 1977 – their first playoff title win in New Jersey – 2005 and 2014. When falling to Easton first, they are 5-6.

But they’ve never played them after a sectional championship.

Oh, and one more milestone. Currently sitting at 748 wins, if the Stateliners can beat Easton and win the Group 4 championship on Wednesday, December 4th at Rutgers against Winslow – a game you can hear live on Central Jersey Sports Radio – it would be the program’s milestone 750th win all-time.

Yes, Phillipsburg still has football history to write, even after nearly 130 years of football.