Colonia heads to fifth straight Group 3 semifinal preparing for a new opponent for the first time

What Colonia basketball has done under Jose Rodriguez has been nothing short of incredible.

The Patriots are officially a public school GMC dynasty these days.

Back on Saturday, they won their fifth straight sectional title, taking down Chatham in the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 3 title game. It was also their sixth sectional title in seven playoff years under Rodriguez, now in his eighth year as head coach. The only year they didn’t win one was in his second year, 2020, when they lost to Irvington in the finals.

The one year there were no state playoffs, they beat St. Thomas Aquinas – on the road – to claim the GMC’s top four-team pod, the Karl Towns/Jay Williams pod. Then, in 2024 and 2025, they won back-to-back GMC titles.

That’s a lot of hardware.

The one thorn in their side the entire run has been Ramapo. They lost to the Raiders in the 2018 Group 3 semifinals, J-Rod’s first year at the helm, then again four years straight from 2022 to 2025.

But they won’t this year.

A sixth seed this year, Ramapo got knocked out in the opening round, coughing up a 31-17 halftime lead and losing in overtime to 11th-seed Morris Knolls, 68-67.

Finally, Colonia gets to prep for someone different.

That someone different is Montville, the four-seed that won the North 1, Group 3 title with a 65-61 upset win Saturday over second-seed Teaneck. The Mustangs are 23-5, and Colonia will play them in the Group 3 semifinals Wednesday at 5 pm at The Dunn Center in Elizabeth, in a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Pregame is set for 4:45; click here to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the action.

Colonia, as many know by now, lost three huge pieces from last year’s team, with Aiden Derkack transferring to Spire Academy in Ohio, R.J. Wortman enrolling early at Rutgers to play football, and defensive specialist Zach Smith graduating, but rebounded from a 2-6 start to go 18-4 the rest of the way. That stretch included a run to the GMC Tournament semifinals, where they narrowly lost to Piscataway.

After two dominating wins to open state tournament play, the Patriots escaped with a Rolaids-worthy win over Mendham – the team they beat last year in the sectional finals – by four, 34-30 in an unusually low-scoring game. It was their lowest offensive output of the season, by one over a 62-35 season-opening loss to St. Peter’s Prep at the NJBAC Tip-Off Classic in Montgomery.

But they rebounded nicely with a 57-46 win over Chatham in the North 2, Group 3 final, in which they had a little more breathing room.

Montville, meanwhile, surprised many to get here, but Rodruguez knows the Mustangs have earned their spot. After wins over the 13- and five-seeds, they knocked off top-seed Tenafly on the road to get to the title game. Led by senior guard Chris Ferrare (19.3 ppg, team-best 112 assists and 55 treys), Montville has three double-digit scorers, including Eddie Camaj (12.4 ppg) and Joey Beyer, who’s averaging an even double-double of 10.9 points and rebounds per game.

Colonia, meanwhile, is led by Jayce Rodriguez, the coach’s son, averaging just a shade under 20 points per game, with a team-high 75 treys, while Desmond Rudanovic is tops on the boards at eight per game. Senior Dylan Chiera – also the QB on the football team – is averaging just under ten points per game, and has a team-best 39 steals.

The Patriots are looking for their first-ever trip to a state final, having won 11 sectional titles overall. Besides the six in the last seven playoff years under Rodriguez, they won Central Jersey Group 4 in 1973, Central 3 in 1985 and 1994, then North 2, Group 3 in 2007 and 2015.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with Colonia head coach Jose Rodriguez about the Patriots’ Group 3 semifinal matchup with Montville: