Roselle Park’s Nasir Cheston runs the ball in a Big Central Conference game at Highland Park on October 10, 2025. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
Little change was made to the Big Central Conference’s Freedom Gold Division in the off-season, but with 2025 champion Spotswood moving up and out in the most recent realignment, the top three remaining teams – Brearley, Dayton and Roselle Park – will likely battle it out for the title in 2026. All three were .500 or better, with Brearley having tied the Chargers with a 4-1 division mark, but Spotswood winning last year’s head-to-head. Highland Park will deal with some losses, South River will look to improve, and JP Stevens moves into a division that could help them be more competitive.
Here are the preliminary schedules for the Freedom Gold Division teams – in order of 2025 finish – compiled from the official league schedule and other online sources to the best of our knowledge as of the date of publication, along with a few notes on each squad. Division games are starred.
Brearley Bears (5-5, 4-1, 2nd place Freedom Gold)
Head Coach: Elliot Platt, 2nd season (5-5)
- Week 0: at Wallington
- Week 1: Manville
- Week 2: Dayton*
- Week 3: South River*
- Week 4: JP Stevens*
- Week 5: Roselle
- Week 6: at Highland Park*
- Week 7: Roselle Park*
- Week 8: at North Plainfield
The Bears were a run-first team last year, as senior Matthew Resende rushed for 1,284 yards. They’re going to miss that, with only two other backs – one a senior, quarterback Joe Squillaro – totalling around 200 yards. Monroe Passmore ran for 206 yards on 26 carries with two touchdowns as a sophomore last season. Their strength could be the defense this year, as sophomore lineman Rocco Federico (14 1/2 sacks, 4 forced fumbles) should be back, while Passmore had two sacks and 6 1/2 TFLs from his linebacker spot. Adding JP Stevens as a division-mate with Spotswood gone could make it harder to qualify for the playoffs, or at least to get a good seed. Brearley made it last year, but ended up as the eight seed and had to play top-seed Mountain Lakes on the road, taking a first round loss.
Dayton Bulldogs (7-2, 3-2, 3rd place Freedom Gold)
Head Coach: Nick Iannacone, 5th season (18-20)
- Week 0: Governor Livingston
- Week 1: at Bound Brook
- Week 2: at Brearley*
- Week 3: JP Stevens*
- Week 4: at Roselle Park
- Week 5: New Providence
- Week 6: at South River*
- Week 7: Highland Prk
- Week 8: Manville
The Bulldogs could be the best of the bunch this year. In 2025, they knocked off division champ Spotswood, 20-19, in a game that ended up costing the Chargers (8-1 at the cutoff) a playoff spot in favor of 3-5 Camden Eastside. In 2026, their QB and top running back and receiver all are back. As juniors, quarterback Adrian Bernkopf threw for 1,270 yards and 14 TDs, while runningback Tyler Fuscaldo carried 119 times for 749 yards and nine scores (Bernkopf ran for the other eight), while Jackson Babiarz caught 21 passes for 479 yards and seven touchdowns. And there are others in the unit who are back and can contribute as well, like rising junior Kevin Lynch (16 receptions, 240 yards, 1 TD). Many key defensive players are back, too, like rising junior DB Dominic Pintado (2 sacks, 5 TFLs), ad rising senior DL Isaiah Rivas (3 TFLs, 2 fumble recoveries for TDs) and Babiarz, who had four of the team’s eight picks last year to lead the team. This could be Dayton’s year.
Roselle Park Panthers (6-4, 2-3, 4th place Freedom Gold)
Head Coach: Greg Dunkerton, 7th season (23-35)
- Week 0: at Wood-Ridge
- Week 1: Belvidere
- Week 2: at South River*
- Week 3: Highland Park*
- Week 4: Dayton*
- Week 5: at Middlesex
- Week 6: JP Stevens*
- Week 7: at Brearley*
- Week 8: at Roselle
The Panthers were impressive when we saw them in early October at Highland Park, coming out with a 35-12 win. They ran the rock to the tune of 2,509 yards last season, led by Nick Salas with 146 carries, 946 yards and 14 touchdowns; he’ll be back this year. So will No. 3 rusher Maxwell Griffin (398 yards, 5 TD), and he’ll be a senior. Salas also caught eleven passes out of the backfield for 165 yards and three scores, but his QB has graduated; Anthony Damiano threw for 485 yards. Roselle Park will lose a little more on the defensive side, with veterans like linemen Lorby Castelly (7 sacks, 1 TFL, 1 fumble recovery) and Jose Candelaria (4 sacks, 2 TFLs, 1 blocked kick) gone to graduation. Bot with that offense, they should be able to give Dayton and Brearley a run for their money.
Highland Park Owls (3-6, 2-3, 5th place Freedom Gold)
Head Coach: Shawn Harrison, 6th season (10-35)
- Week 0: New Brunswick
- Week 1: Middlesex
- Week 2: at JP Stevens*
- Week 3: at Roselle Park*
- Week 4: South River*
- Week 5: at Bound Brook
- Week 6: Brearley*
- Week 7: at Dayton*
- Week 8: Metuchen
The Owls snapped that long losing streak in their final game of 2023, then went 6-3 the next year before falling to 3-6 last season after senior QB Markos Hantsoulis graduated. Now, the other two of the clan – Kosta and Stamatis also are gone, and head coach Shawn Harrison may have to lean a little more on QB Marcus Smith to step up as a senior. He threw for 866 yards and eight touchdowns last season, and top runningback Jacob Quiros also should be back for his senior year, after rushing for 459 yards and five scores a season ago. The defense will have to replace defensive back Matthew Adamczyk-Zapor, who had three sacks and seven tackles for loss last year.
South River Rams (1-9, 0-5, 6th place Freedom Gold)
Head Coach: Rich Marchesi, 40th season (229-158)
- Week 0: at Point Pleasant Beach
- Week 1: at South Hunterdon
- Week 2: Roselle Park*
- Week 3: Brearley*
- Week 4: at Highland Park*
- Week 5: Dunellen
- Week 6: Dayton*
- Week 7: at JP Stevens*
- Week 8: at Spotswood
Though the Rams have struggled mightily in the last few seasons – a mixture of personnel and injuries – Rich Marchesi is the longest-tenured head coach in the Big Central Conference for a reason; he’ll find a way to give whoever he has the best chance to win. The likely candidate to take over under center is Julien Borusevic, who has quite the arm: he was 5-4 with a 2.45 ERA for the Rams’ baseball team this spring. He got some snaps last year behind Orion Familia, going 11-of-28 for 52 yards and a touchdown in parts of six games last season. The good news is Kah’mori Cotto was just a junior last year when he ran for 920 yards and seven touchdowns, and three receivers are back as well. The defense was a relatively young group last year as well, so if they can stick together, the Rams should see improvement in ’26.
JP Stevens Hawks (0-10, 0-3, 5th place in Patriot Gold Division)
Head Coach: David Kunyz, 2nd season (0-10)
- Week 0: OPEN
- Week 1: Dunellen
- Week 2: Highland Park*
- Week 3: at Dayton*
- Week 4: at Brearley*
- Week 5: South Hunterdon
- Week 6: Roselle Park*
- Week 7: South River*
- Week 8: Middlesex
This is more the Hawks’ speed than a division with Bernards, Voorhees and Delaware Valley, and that could help a lot. Senior QB Shamar Burch (847 yards, 4 TDs) struggled with the turnovers last year, but Khawaja Muawiyah got in some good action as a junior, and started late in the season, ultimately going 46-97 for 530 yards and 5 TDs, and if he can improve and also cut down on the interceptions, that will help. Zamarr Raiford was the leading rusher on a team that almost exclusively threw the ball (1,397 pass yards, 122 rushing) last season, as he went for 717 yards and seven touchdowns on 48 catches. No. 2 receiver Jream Sorrell was just a freshman, but still had 22 catches for 185 yards and a score. On defense, 38 different players logged stats last season, so the numbers are there; head coach David Kunyz will have to figure which parts give them the best eleven on the field.
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