The first full weekend of the high school football season saw plenty of excitement in the Big Central, and the results could lead to a shakeup among the Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten when the new rankings come out Monday.
No. 2 Somerville, third-ranked Woodbridge and No. 6 Old Bridge all picked up wins, but Ridge, Piscataway and Elizabeth – all ranked seven through nine – all fell in Friday night action.
The Pioneers went down early but came out with a 28-12 home win over Cranford thanks to three touchdowns from senior Aidan Bush and a 100-yard pick six from sophomore James Hampton. The Barrons topped Watchung Hills for the third time in two seasons – and all-time – picking up a 26-23 home win. And the Knights improved to 2-0 with a 28-6 road win over Edison, a week after a big win in the Battle at the Beach over Cedar Creek down at Rowan University.
How ’bout those Owls from Highland Park?
For the second straight season, Highland Park – which had struggled for so long since the mid-2010s – is off to a 1-0 start. They beat Dunellen 34-6 at home in the season opener for both squads Friday night.
Kosta Hantsoulis opened the scoring in the first quarter with a 61-yard touchdown pass from Marcus Smith, who took over signal calling duties this season after the graduation of Hantsoulis’ cousin Markos. The Owls then scored twice more in the quarter, on TD runs of 11 and 21 yards by Jacob Quiros.
Kaseem Qualls added touchdown runs of 14 and 21 yards in the second quarter.
Smith was 2-of-2 for 80 yards and a touchdown, while Qualls rushed just five times but racked up 113 yards and the two scores. The Owls rushed for 250 yards as a team.
Other notes…
Dayton picked up a season-opening win for the first time since 2022 with a 21-6 win out at South Hunterdon.
In Bridgewater-Raritan’s 34-27 home win over Piscataway, the Panthers and Chiefs are establishing a pattern of high scoring games. Last year, Bridgewater won at Piscataway, 52-48, in a game in which there were four kickoff returns for touchdowns, three by P’way. That’s now 161 points the teams have combined for in those two games. BR is off to a 2-0 start for the first time since 2021.
Bound Brook avenged a 22-21 overtime loss in last year’s season opener at JP Stevens with a resounding 43-28 home victory, evening their record at 1-1. They also were 1-1 to start last year, but lost their next seven to finish 1-8. They’ll be at Dunellen next week, which they beat 35-20 last year for their lone win. Their last 2-1 start came in a 4-6 season in 2021.
Voorhees has shown it can score. The Vikings won their second of three road games to start the season, 43-13 at JFK. It’s Voorhees’ first 2-0 start since 2018, and they’ve scored a combined 82 points in those two wins, the most they’ve put up in their first two games since at least 2003, the first year for which records are publicly and readily available.
Here’s the Friday evening scoreboard from the Big Central for Week Zero, with links to individual game stories:
- No. 2 Somerville 28, Cranford 12 (Coverage via Marcus Borden)
- No. 3 Woodbridge 26, Watchung Hills 23
- No. 6 Old Bridge 28, Edison 6
- St. Joseph-Metuchen 24, No. 7 Ridge 7
- Bridgewater-Raritan 34, No. 8 Piscataway 27
- Bayonne 26, No. 9 Elizabeth 21
- Bound Brook 43, JP Stevens 28
- Colonia 24, North Hunterdon 21
- Delaware Valley 26, South Plainfield 0
- Franklin 20, Passaic 14
- Highland Park 34, Dunellen 6
- Manville 34, Hopatcong 0
- Voorhees 43, JFK 13
- Johnson 35, Brearley 0
- Hunterdon Central 41, Monroe 13
- Summit 31, Montgomery 28
- North Plainfield 19, Belvidere 13
- Carteret 28, Perth Amboy 2 (heard LIVE on CJSR)
- Plainfield 56, New Brunswick 6
- Roselle Park 45, Middlesex 13
- Sayreville 28, Linden 14
- Rahway 35, Scotch Plains-Fanwood 7
- Dayton 21, South Hunterdon 6
- Spotswood 31, Roselle 8
- Hillsborough 20, Union 13
There was also one game Thursday night, as South Brunswick (1-1) topped rival North Brunswick 10-0, dropping the Raiders to 0-2 for the second time in as many seasons. The last time they’d gone 0-2 before 2024 was in 2017, a year they finished 6-4 in Mike Cipot’s second year as head coach. Kamari Toney rushed for 128 yards on 25 carries, while Daniel Duffie had a rushing touchdown and Greg Schifrin kicked a 26-yard field goal.
Here’s the Saturday schedule in the Big Central:
- New Providence at Governor Livingston (Listen LIVE on CJSR)
- Catholic Memorial (MA) at No. 5 St. Thomas Aquinas, 11 am
- No. 1 Phillipsburg at Westfield, 12 pm
- East Brunswick at Hamilton, 2 pm
- No. 4 Bernards at Hillside, 1 pm (Follow Marcus Borden on Twitter for updates)
- Metuchen at South River, 1 pm
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