When was the last time?  This question has sent us down more than a few rabbit holes for teams like Highland Park, Elizabeth, Perth Amboy

You might be sick of hearing about some of the Big Central Conference teams that have been doing particularly well this year, after years (for some of them) of not doing so well.

But we’re not. 

While it’s always fun to follow the powerhouses like Phillipsburg, Piscataway, or Sayreville – football programs that are more often than not in contention for state titles – it’s always good to see some new blood.

Highland Park hasn’t had a season like this in ages.  Perth Amboy even longer.  Elizabeth has seen success a little more recently, and more consistently, but their story right now is that they are in another stratosphere completely than they have been since their last title.

All this has left us having to dig deeper, deeper and still deeper into not only our records, but also internet archives.

It’s easy to find team results over the last decade and a half; NJ.com has team results back to 2010, though details diminish as you work your way to the earlier years. MaxPreps has team results back to 2004, but some game results occasionally are missing.

And the Dr. Roger Saylor Collection at the Penn State Libraries has results from 2010 going back to the dawn of high school football in New Jersey – yes, even into the 1800s! – but they are chronological by year, and not within a given season.  We can tell, for example, how many .500 seasons a team had in a row, but not if they started the season 5-0, or so play alternated between wins and losses all year.

So, we’ve had to dig deep this year, perhaps more than in any other.

Elizabeth (5-0):

This was the easiest one, as the Minutemen always are competitive, and their last state title came not too long ago. The last time they were 5-0 was in 2014, back when John Quinn – who won two state titles at New Brunswick – was the head coach. Elizabeth beat Watchung Hills, Hunterdon Central, Franklin, Union and Bridgewater-Raritan, but then dropped back-to-back games against Phillipsburg (19-6) and Hillsborough (31-28), both at home. They won their last two regular season games against Plainfield and Linden, then beat Barringer and Piscataway at home in the North 2, Group 5 state tournament, before falling to Linden, 27-20, in the final at Met Life Stadium.

Ironically, they have Linden (2-2) on the road this week, as they look to 6-0. And when was the last time that happened?

It was 2012, and we’re not going to have to go any further back for the “last time” after this. That’s because the Minutemen went 11-0 that season and won the North 2, Group 5 title, as future Temple standout P.J. Walker engineered a last-minute scoring drive to beat Piscataway, 37-33, up at Kean University in Union.

Technically, they were 11-0-1, as that was the year Superstorm Sandy hit New Jersey and wiped out a full weekend of action, which left their game with Plainfield deemed a “tie” for power points purposes. However, most – including us – don’t consider that a tie in the record since it was awarded, rather than played on the field.

Here are the 2012 schedule and results for Elizabeth:

• Westfield: 45-6 W
• Union: 42-7 W
• at Hunterdon Central: 24-17 W
• Hillsborough: 41-7 W
• Franklin: 49-13 W
• at Bridgewater-Raritan: 39-0 W
• at Linden: 42-0 W
• Phillipsburg: 54-26 W
• Plainfield: declared tie for power points purposes
• N2G5 1st Round – Edison: 41-18 W
• N2G5 Semifinals – Franklin: 24-7 W
• N2G5 Finals (at Kean Univ.) – Piscataway: 37-33 W

Highland Park (5-0):

We have a ways to go before we have to check the Owls again, even if they keep winning. That’s because they last time they started a season 5-0, they won their first seven games of 2007. Under Rich McGlynn, Highland Park didn’t lose that season until a late-October non-conference game against Robbinsville, then dropped another one to Brearley on Cutoff Weekend, the week before the playoffs.

While they won their first-round game at Freehold Township, 20-17, they lost at Keansburg in the Central Jersey Group 1 semifinals, 53-30, finishing the season at 8-3.

They actually had a better overall season two years later, in 2009. That year, the Owls went 8-4, but they split their first two games. They wound up reaching the Central Jersey Group 1 title game, where they lost 44-6 to Asbury Park – coached at that time by Don Sofilkanich, who had previously been on John Quinn’s staff for his two titles at New Brunswick – at Kean University in Union.

Here are the 2007 schedule and results for Highland Park:

• at Dayton: 40-13 W
• at Cardinal McCarrick: 35-21 W
• Roselle Park: 27-7 W
• Metuchen: 27-0 W
• Dunellen: 21-6 W
• at Middlesex: 25-14 W
• at Pennington: 28-7 W
• Robbinsville: 19-12 L
• Brearley: 20-0 L
• CJ1 First Round – at Freehold Twp.: 20-17 W
• CJ1 Semifinals – at Keansburg: 53-30 W

Perth Amboy (4-1):

The Panthers aren’t undefeated, but they have been having one of their best seasons in ages. Last week, we knew if Amboy went to 4-1, it would have been a while since the last time. Our research got to 2004, and we held off to see how they would do this week.

Turns out they got there, winning their second straight road game, beating Metuchen 40-0. The Panthers have allowed just 13 points in the last three games: six against Roselle, seven against Spotswood, and a whitewash against the Bulldogs.

There haven’t been a lot of winning seasons in Perth Amboy’s recent history, so we had to dig deep, but not every year. In 1998, for example, they were 5-5, but started 2-1 before taking another loss. We found 1995 as the last time they started a season 4-1, but they would lose their next game, win another, then drop their last two and finished 5-4, without a trip to the playoffs, which were only four-team brackets at the time. (The eight-team field didn’t get introduced until 1998, a push championed by none other than CJSR analyst Marcus Borden, who was the coach at East Brunswick at the time.)

There were only four other possible seasons in the playoff era we could look at:

• 1989: Amboy went 6-3, but was just 2-3 through their first five games, before winning their final four contests.
• 1987: In another 6-3 season, the Panthers got off to a 3-0 start, but lost their next two games to go 3-2 through their first five.
• 1985: Going 5-4, the Panthers began the year at 2-1, but lost their next two to go 2-3 through their first five.
• 1979: In another 5-4 campaign, Amboy started 2-3 through their first five.

So, we dug a little further, and found a four-year stretch where the Panthers had done a lot of winning. That was the Brian Taylor era, where Perth Amboy Amboy went 27-5-4 over four seasons from 1964-1967, including an 8-0-1 campaign in 1965 where they didn’t win a state championship. But did secure their first undefeated season since going 8-0 in 1933. (They weren’t state champs that year either, but won the next year, in 1934, going 6-0-1.)

But we did find that the Panthers started 1967 with a 4-1 record, before bouncing back and not losing another game the rest of the year. So that would be the last time they went 6-1, going 6-1-1 before they beat Carteret at The Pit in their Thanksgiving Day game, played on the Saturday after due to bad weather on Turkey Day.

Here are the 1967 schedule and results for Perth Amboy:

• Trenton: 37-6 W
• at Sayreville: 25-13 W
• Princeton: 21-0 W
• Woodbridge: 28-13 W
• at East Brunswick: 18-13 L
• Madison Twp. (Old Bridge): 28-7 W
• at New Brunswick: 26-14 W
• South River: 14-14 T
• at Carteret: 26-8 W

Meanwhile, Union (4-1) and Hillside (5-0) are having some big turnaround years, but they’ve also had some highly successful campaigns in recent seasons.

The last time the Farmers had a five-win season was in 2023, when they went 5-6, but the last time they started 5-1 was in 2021, a season that ended with tremendous disappointment. Union put together an 8-1 regular season, led by star Davison Igbinosun, and were 9-1 after a first round playoff win, heading into a sectional semifinal matchup with Paterson Eastside. But eight hours before kickoff, due to four positive COVID tests among team members, the district cancelled the game, effectively ending the season. They would officially finish 9-2 on the year.

The Comets, meanwhile, went all the way in 2019, going 12-0 under Barris Grant – ironically, now at Union. Hillside put together an 8-0 regular season, then won the South Jersey Group 2 title over West Deptford, 14-6. (We know, Hillside isn’t in South Jersey – go ask the NJSIAA why.) Then, they won the South Jersey Group 2 Regional Championship, defeating Central Jersey Group 2 champ (We know, we know, it makes no sense!) Cedar Creek, 25-3, at Rutgers.