Piscataway players hold the North 2, Group 5 trophy high after beating Union City, 28-7, at Dominic Ciardi Stadium in Piscataway on November 17, 2018. (Photo credit: Terri Thompson)
It’s been a long time since Piscataway football won a sectional title, but there has been good reason for it.
Head coach Dan Higgins – just the fourth in program history since its inaugural season in 1959 – led the Chiefs to seven titles in ten finals appearances from 2003 to 2018, a remarkable run that included some incredible games and even more incredible highlights.
The undefeated 2004 team had three future first-round NFL draft picks in Kyle Wilson, Malcolm Jenkins and Anthony Davis. There was an overtime thriller against Phillipsburg – which is still alive in these playoffs in North 2 – in 2004 at Rutgers. And the 2018 team, the last Piscataway team to win a title, finished 13-0, setting a record for wins in a season by a Middlesex County school that no one has matched since.
But that was their last title, and also last trip to a final. The COVID pandemic hit in March 2020, and the Piscataway administration shut down fall sports that season – as did Carteret in the Big Central – and the program suffered for it. Not just from a lack of playing and practice, but being around the kids, lifting weights, watching film, all of it.
Six years later, even those who were freshmen in 2018 are gone, and the Chiefs are back to the level they were accustomed to pre-pandemic. And that has them in a final for the first time since.
On a Saturday afternoon – just like they did eight years ago when Union City came in – the Chiefs will play for a championship. This time, it’ll be the North 1, Group 5 trophy, as third-seed Piscataway (9-2) hosts fourth-seed Irvington (7-4) at 1 pm at Kenny Armwood Stadium. Mike Pavlichko and Chris Tsakonas will call all the action, with pregame starting at 12:35; click here to listen.
Piscataway is led by senior quarterback Mike Pernell and senior tailback Zaire Young. Pernell this year became the all-time leading passer in school history, and now holds records for career passing yards with 5,299 and touchdown passes with 61. And counting.
Young, meanwhile, is fifth all-time among the school’s career rushing leaders with 2.449 yards, just 174 shy of Barry Garrard (2007) at No. 4.
On defense, senior tackle Donald Young leads the squad with 72 tackles, 3 1/2 sacks, and 22 TFLs, while also logging 17 QB hurries.
On the other side is Irvington, and lest anyone sleep on the Blue Knights, while they may have four losses – to West Orange, Shabazz, East Orange and Seton Hall Prep – they also beat juggernaut Passaic Tech 21-8 on September 18th, and knocked off the top-seed Ramapo, on the road, in last week’s semifinals, 28-21. After falling behind 3-0, they scored the game’s next 28 points, and survived a late Raider rally to advance.
Irvington is a balanced club offensively, with QB Justin Spellman passing for 1,261 yards, and the team running for 1,787 as a group, with four different players rushing for just under 200 yards or more. And the receiving corps is just as balanced.
On defense, the Blue Knights are stingy, allowing just 12.6 points per game. Linemen Khayan Byrdie and Jaylin Williams each have four sacks to lead the unit, and Higgins says their defense reminds him a lot of Bayonne – the Chiefs’ first-round opponent – when it comes to their aggressiveness.
Click below to hear Piscataway head coach Dan Higgins talk about the Chiefs and their North 1, Group 5 title game matchup against Irvington with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:
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