Highland Park shuts out first three opponents; it’s been a while since that’s happened for Owls

The Highland Park football team looks very good in 2026.

After snapping a 51-game losing streak – the longest active in New Jersey at the time – in their 2023 finale with a last-minute add on game at Point Pleasant Beach, the Owls won six games in 2024, just four last year, but this year are 3-0 to start the season for the second time in three years.

And there should be some more wins on the schedule, too, considering the way they are playing: they have shutout their first three opponents, outscoring New Brunswick, Metuchen and JP Stevens by a combined total of 99-0.

So that brings us to the question: When was the last time that happened?

We pored through years of records. It hasn’t happened recently. So we dove back into the 1980s, then the 1970s, and then into the 1960s.

In 1964, Highland Park was led by star quarterback Rich Policastro, the younger brother of Joe Policastro, who was the Big Man On Campus in in the mid- and late 1950s with the Owls. Rich also went on to star at Rutgers, after transferring in from VMI.

In his first season on the banks, Policastro set six passing records. Then, in 1969, Rich Policastro was chosen first team All-East, throwing 14 touchdown passes that year, and delivering the Knights a 29-0 victory over Princeton in the nationally-televised Centennial Game, celebrating the 100th anniversary of football. He also threw a record five touchdown strikes in a game against Colgate that year. (He now is tied for third on that list with Mike McMahon (Villanova, 2000) and two separate games with Gary Nova (Arkansas 2012, Fresno State 2013), while the top two spots are owned by Mike Teel (six against Pittsburgh, and seven against Louisville in 2008).

A year earlier, in his first season after transferring from VMI, Policastro established six passing marks – 15 touchdown passes, 994 yards, four TD passes in a game, 17 completions and 30 pass attempts in a game, and 309 yards in a game. In 1969, the Highland Park native threw a record five TD passes against Colgate.

But back to the three shutouts.

While there were numerous instances of back-to-back shutouts, the first time we found at least three in a row came in 1964, and amazingly they not only had three, nor four, nor five, but six shutouts that year, all in a row. The run started after a season-opening non-shutout win, 19-14, over South Plainfield.

• October 3: South River, 13-0
• October 10: North Hunterdon, 27-0
• October 17: Piscataway, 40-0
• October 24: Carteret, 20-0
• October 30: Sayreville, 27-0
• November 7: St. Peter’s 39-0

The Owls finished 9-0 in 1964, capping the season with an 18-4 win on Thanksgiving over arch-rival Metuchen, and they were Central Jersey Group 2 champions, ten years before New Jersey would usher in the playoff era in 1974.