No. 4 Old Bridge scores 27 unanswered points to come back and stun No. 4 Piscataway, 27-26

Old Bridge football coach Matt Donaghue got four solid quarters of football from his team, the only problem being that two of them were last week and two of them were this week.

Last Friday night, they needed a late field goal to hang on and beat then-No. 8 St. Thomas Aquinas, 26-24. This week, the No. 4 Knights fell behind in the first half, and were down 26-0 at halftime to No. 2 Piscataway at Lombardi Field in Old Bridge, but rallied to come away with a 27-26 win, with a PAT after a game-tying touchdown turning out to be the difference.

The Chiefs (4-1) got three touchdowns from Zaire Young – of seven, one and two yards – in what was a dominant first half, with quarterback Landon Pernell doing some damage as well.

Donaghue didn’t have to say much in the locker room at halftime. He just repeated the score until, one by one, the Knights picked each other up. The game plan was fine, the execution was another story.

In the second half, all that changed, just three plays in, when Chase Rizzo got Old Bridge on the board with a 74-yard touchdown run. Then, he ran for another. And caught a third from Aiden Rios. All in the third quarter.

With just under six minutes to go, he caught a 71-yard TD pass from Rios to tie the game, and the extra point by Araion Mezera put the Knights up by one. But the defense still had to hold on.

And hold on they did, as Griffin Nugent picked off Pernell with 25 seconds to go to seal the deal, handing Piscataway its first loss of the season.

Old Bridge improves to 4-1 ahead of a home game with currently unranked (but maybe not for long) Sayreville (4-1), which handed No. 9 St. Thomas Aquinas its second straight loss, beating the Trojans in North Edison Friday night, 37-21.

Click below to hear Old Bridge head coach Matt Donaghue talk about the win over Piscataway with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko: