No. 3 Old Bridge has been through the wringer, but still passed nearly every test as No. 8 Sayreville visits Lombardi Field Friday night

The season hasn’t been perfect for the Old Bridge football team by any stretch of the imagination.

But where it ultimately counts – in the win column – they’ve been as solid as they come.

They say big players come up in big spots. And great teams sometime wins games they aren’t supposed to.

Two weeks ago, they led St. Thomas Aquinas 23-0 at the half, and nearly lost, as a key second-half field goal gave them enough to withstand a rally by the Trojans and win, 26-24. Last week, the script got flipped: they trailed Piscataway at the break, 26-0, but scored 27 unanswered second half points to win, 27-26.

This Friday, head coach Matt Donaghue would like to see all four quarters be solid ones, and they will likely need all that and then-some as ranked-again No. 8 Sayreville comes to Lombari Field in Old Bridge to play the third-ranked Knights in the Big Central Game of the Week presented by Bellamy & Son Paving on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Kickoff is set for 6:00, with pregame at 5:45 as Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the action. Click here to listen.

While he certainly had help, senior runningback Chase Rizzo led the second-half surge for Old Bridge last week, scoring all four touchdowns in the rally. He opened the second-half rally with a 74-yard touchdown run, then two more in the third: a one-yard run and a 20-yard reception from QB Aiden Rios. Then he got one more in the fourth, a 71-yard connection with Rios to provide the final score. He finished the game with 12 carries for 138 yards, while Rios eclipsed 100 as well, rushing for 117.

And Griffin Nugent had a late interception to seal the victory.

While Sayreville leads the all-time series 15-9 – remember, Old Bridge played its first season after the Cedar Ridge-Madison Central merger in 1994 – this has been back and forth for the past 15 seasons, with each team winning six times. And no one has won back-to-back since Old Bridge put together three victories in a row from 2013 through 2015.

And, in what could only be described as a scheduling tragedy, these teams have only met twice in six previous Big Central seasons, in 2021 and 2025.

The Bombers are a run-heavy team, led by senior Sherwin Appiah and his 682 yards and eleven touchdowns. He’s tied for the Big Central lead in rushing TDs, and fourth in rushing yardage, though all three backs ahead of him have at least 30 more carries than he does. Appiah is averaging 9.3 yards per carry, almost a first down on every touch.

Defense has been very much a team effort, and very good as well. They allowed six points each to Edison and Franklin coming off a 21-7 home loss to Ridge in Week One, before giving up 21 to a very offensive-minded St. Thomas club last Friday night.

Click below to hear Old Bridge head coach Matt Donaghue talk about the season and Friday night’s home game against Sayreville with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko: