Mike says Elizabeth, Marcus says Old Bridge: Who do the fans think is the No. 1 team in the Big Central Conference after Week Five?

Football Notebook

October 5, 2026 by Mike Pavlichko

Well, well, well.

Top-ranked Phillipsburg’s loss to No. 10 Ridge back on Friday night – a 14-3 Red Devil win in Basking Ridge – left a void at the top of the Week Six Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten, and an opening for someone else to claim the top spot for the first time this season.

Our very own Mike Pavlichko opted to elevate previous No. 2 Elizabeth (6-0) to the top spot, while moving Old Bridge (5-1) up to No. 2 after a 14-12 home win over then-No. 8 Sayreville, a game heard live Friday night on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

But CJSR analyst Marcus Borden had the top three as Phillipsburg, Old Bridge and Elizabeth heading into Week Five, so when the Stateliners lost this past weekend, he put the Knights at No. 1, followed by Elizabeth.

Certainly, a case could be made for either school, but it got us thinking: Who would YOU have chosen for No. 1 this week?

Would you have gone with Old Bridge? Their only loss is out-of-conference to Shawnee, 43-35, down at the Battle at the Beach in Ocean City, and they’ve beaten three ranked teams – St. Thomas Aquinas, Piscataway, and Sayreville in the last three weeks.

Or would you go with Elizabeth? The Minutemen are 6-0 for the first time since their undefeated 2012, state championship season, and scoring an average 41 points per game, only once scoring fewer than 28 points in a game – that coming in a 19-7 win at Union.

Or, would you have gone with someone else?

This is your chance to vote: Who do you think is the top team in the Big Central Conference after six weeks of play (Weeks 0 through 5)?

Vote below now through noon on Wednesday, October 7. We’ll have the results later that night!