Brearley takes care of business with 42-12 win in Saturday matinee at South River

Brearley jumped out to an early led and never looked back Saturday afternoon in a 42-12 win at South River in Big Central Conference Freedom Gold Division action.

After taking the opening kickoff and getting a 20-yard return to their own 40 yard line, the Rams fumbled on a run up the gut the very first play from scrimmage, giving the Bears the ball. And they would punch it in with a three-yard run from senior Nehemiah De Leon with 9:37 to go in the quarter to go up 7-0.

Brearley’s Ryan Nelson would snag an interception on the next South River possession, and though they wouldn’t score an ended up punting the ball away, the Rams fumbled that, too, for their third turnover of the game after just two offensive possessions.

Nelson – also the quarterback – would then throw a 14-yard touchdown pass to receiver Rocco Federico to make it 14-0 at the 3:11 mark of the first.

And that was essentially the way it would go for the rest of the afternoon in South River for the Bears and Rams.

In the second quarter, Monroe Passmore added a 71-yard touchdown run with 5:57 to go, and a seven-yard touchdown pass before halftime made it 27-0 at the break.

The Rams got on the board with a 53-yard touchdown run by Dominic Harris in the third quarter, but Brearley answered back with a 43-yard TD run from Passmore to make it 34-6. The Bears also recovered a fumble with 3:45 to go in the third, making it 34-6, and a Nelson four-yard run seven seconds into the fourth – plus a two-point run – made it 42-6 and kicked off a running clock.

Harris added a 20-yard touchdown run with 3:58 remaining after Harris scored on a 20-yard TD gallop, making the final score 42-12.

Brearley (3-1, 1-1) is off to its best start since 2022, when they went undefeated in the regular season, and finished 10-1, their only loss coming at Mountain Lakes in the North 1, Group 1 title game.

South River (0-4, 0-2) has won just once in its last 14 games, a season-ending victory over Dunellen, 19-0, last season.

Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio analyst Marcus Borden with….