North 1, Group 5 Final Preview: Piscataway Chiefs vs Irvington Blue Knights

North Jersey, Section 1, Group 5 Final:
When: Saturday, 1 pm
Where: Kenny Armwood Stadium, Piscataway
Matchup: #3 Piscataway (9-2) vs. #4 Irvington (7-4)
Coverage: LIVE on Central Jersey Sports Radio with Mike Pavlichko, Chris Tsakonas (click here to listen)
Weather: 47 degrees, cloudy but dry, wind from NW at 16 mph (gusting to 30 mph) from home side corner of left end zone to far right corner of the opposite end zone

HEAD COACHES:

Piscataway: Dan Higgins (23rd season, 190-63) *DNP during 2020 COVID season
Irvington: Marco Soto (3rd season, 14-15)

HOW THEY GOT HERE:

Piscataway:
First Round: def. #6 Bayonne, 20-7
Semifinals: def. #2 West Orange, 38-35

Irvington:
First Round: def. #5 Perth Amboy, 48-0
Semifinals: def. #1 Ramapo, 28-21

Who’s next? The winner of this game will play the North 2, Group 5 champion in the Group 5 semifinals. That title game is Friday night, with third-seed Phillipsburg (8-2) hosting fourth-seed Passaic Tech (8-3). The Chiefs and Stateliners last played in the North 2, Group 4 semifinals in 2010, with Piscataway winning 28-21 before beating Franklin on Thanksgiving and Hunterdon Central in the title game to finish the year 12-0. They have never played Passaic Tech. Should the Chiefs win, they would be either at Phillipsburg next Friday night, or home against Passaic Tech.

SERIES HISTORY:

This will be the sixth meeting between the schools, but their first since 2020. Phillipsburg has won all five matchups, with the closest one coming in 2016, a 14-6 win at Montgomery. The Stateliners also beat the Cougars in 2020, 2017, 2011 and 2010.

PREVIEWS:

FINALS HISTORY:

Piscataway:

The Chiefs won their first championship under Tom Higgins – father of current coach Dan Higgins – in 1974, the very first year of the playoffs, beating Colonia for the Central Jersey Group 4 title, 14-7. And he’d win another in 1981 over Middletown South.

Joe Kuronyi brought the Chiefs to five sectional finals from 1994 to 2002, only winning in his final appearance, 20-7 over Hunterdon Central in a game played on their home field after snow postponed Championship Weekend, and venues like Rutgers and Kean – which had grass at the time – were unavailable as a result. That was also Kuronyi’s last game as head coach, as he had already decided he’d retire at the end of the year, and told his players in the locker room after the game.

So Dan Higgins – an assistant under Kuronyi – took the reins, and he proceeded to win sectional titles in 2003 and 2004, giving Piscataway a three-peat. They would go on to play in eight more sectional finals under Higgins through 2018, when they became the first Middlesex County team to win 13 games, beating Union City in the North 2, Group 5 final, and Ridgewood in the North 5 “bowl game” at MetLife Stadium.

This is their first trip to a final since, as they program has steadily recovered from the major blow of not playing during the COVID-shortened 2020 season, as the district shut down all fall sports that year due to the pandemic.

Playoff Berths: 32
Playoff Record: 45-21
Previous Finals Berths: 17
Sectional Titles: 10

Central 4
1974: #2 Piscataway 14, #1 Colonia 7
1981: #4 Piscataway 20, #2 Middletown South 0
1994: #1 Marlboro 27, #2 Piscataway 13
1995: #1 Middletown South 28, #2 Piscataway 10
1998: #1 Hunterdon Central 42, #2 Piscataway 6
1999: #2 Hunterdon Central 42, #1 Piscataway 21
2002: #1 Piscataway 20, #3 Hunterdon Central 7
North 2, Group 4
2003: #8 Piscataway 29, #2 Union 7 (at Giants Stadium)
Central 4
2004: #1 Piscataway 27, #2 Phillipsburg 26 (OT) (at Rutgers)
North 2, Group 4
2005: #1 Phillipsburg 15, #2 Piscataway 6 (at Rutgers)
2007: #2 Hunterdon Central 23, #1 Piscataway 13 (at Rutgers)
2008: #1 Piscataway 38, #2 Hunterdon Central 0 (at Rutgers)
2010: #2 Piscataway 34, #1 Hunterdon Central 6 (at Rutgers)
2011: #8 Piscataway 41, #3 Elizabeth 34 (at Rutgers)
North 2, Group 5
2012: #1 Elizabeth 37, #3 Piscataway 33 (at Kean)
Central 5
2016: #2 Piscataway 34, #1 Manalapan 13 (at Rutgers)
North 2, Group 5
2018: #1 Piscataway 28, #2 Union City 7
def. Ridgewood, 31-21, in North Group 5 “Bowl Game”/Regional Championship (at MetLife Stadium)

Irvington:

The Blue Knights qualified for the postseason in Year Two of the playoff era, in 1975, when they expanded beyond just a way to break co-champs, and lost their opening game as a four-seed at top-seed and eventual champion Barringer (Newark) by a 7-6 score. They would not return to the playoffs again until 2003, and since then have reached the postseason 20 times, missing only 2010, 2011, and 2015 over that 23-year span. They reached their first sectional final in 2006, in North 2, Group 3, where they were the top-seed, but lost to third-seed New Brunswick at Rutgers, 18-14, giving the Zebras their second title in four years.

It would be another 12 years before they reached a title game, falling in the North 2, Group 4 finals in 2018 to Phillipsburg, 42-7. They’ve been back just once since, in 2021, where they beat Middletown South, 28-13, in the North 2, Group 4 final for their first sectional title ever. They then beat Northern Highlands, 19-14, in the Group 4 Regional Final, finishing a historic season at 11-2.

Playoff Berths: 21
Playoff Record: 18-19
Previous Finals Berths: 3
Sectional Titles: 1

North 2, Group 3
2006: #3 New Brunswick 18, #1 Irvington 14 (at Rutgers)
North 2, Group 4
2018: #1 Phillipsburg 42, #3 Irvington 7
2021: #1 Irvington 28, #2 Middletown South 13

2026 PISCATAWAY COVERAGE

*Piscataway celebrates at midfield after winning the 2018 North 5 Regional Championship game at Met Life Stadium in East Rutherford on December 1, 2018. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)*

NEWS & NOTES:

Chiefs dump the Bayonne Blues…

Piscataway avenged last year’s season-ending 29-14 defeat at the hands of Bayonne in the North 2, Group 5 semifinals with a win in this year’s first round over the sixth-seeded Bees in convincing fashion, 21-7. But it wasn’t getting past Bayonne that was the problem.

The Chiefs were 3-1 against Bayonne heading into this year’s matchup, with all of those contests coming in the playoffs, and all since 2014. But they were 0-3 in playoff games following those three wins. In 2014, they beat Bayonne in the first round of North 2 Group 5, 52-6, but would up losing the next week at home to Elizabeth, 16-6. They similarly dominated Bayonne again in 2017’s opening round, 45-6, then lost 27-6 to Bridgewater-Raritan the following week. And in 2024, in the North 1, Group 5 first round, they beat the Bees 42-13, then were shutout by West Orange the following week in the semis, 35-0.

But this year, they flipped the script, coming out with a dramatic 28-25 win at West Orange in the semifinals.

Home, Sweet Home…

Since the NJSIAA for a long stretch played many sectional finals at Rutgers/High Point Solutions/SHI Stadium, which is in Piscataway, the Chiefs have probably played more sectional finals in their hometown than most other schools around the state. Out of 17 finals appearances all-time, the Chiefs have played ten in Piscataway Township, including seven at Rutgers and three at home.

The 1974 Central Jersey Group 4 title game – the very first of the playoff era in New Jersey – went to the second-seeded Chiefs, who beat top-seed Colonia in Atlantic City. By the next time they were in the finals – in 1981 – games were held at higher seeds. They played two-seed Middletown South that year – although at Red Bank Regional, due to field conditions – when they won as a four-seed, then played three more in the road in 1994, 1995, and 1998, coming back home in 1999, losing to Hunterdon Central.

They hosted again in 2002 by accident. Games that year were scheduled for Rutgers and Kean, but snow forced those schools to cancel since they had natural grass at the time and didn’t want it destroyed. So the top-seeded Chiefs hosted third-seed Hunterdon Central, and won 20-7 – after their fans spent hours with shovels, digging out the bleachers – in Joe Kuronyi’s final game as head coach before retiring.

Under Dan Higgins, the Chiefs have won seven titles. They played at Rutgers seven times from 2005 through 2016, and when the playoffs expanded in 2018, higher seeds again were the site for sectional finals, and Piscataway beat Union City 28-7 for their most recent championship.

Overall, the Chiefs are 8-2 in ten title games played in Piscataway, including 2-1 at their home stadium, and 6-1 at Rutgers.

Top seeds in smaller Groups, but less among larger schools…

This little nugget is going in the Piscataway preview, because it was pointed out by Piscataway assistant coach John Thompson. A volunteer, he also keeps track of all the team’s stats and – imagine this – updates all the local media with a statistical recap of the previous game, as well as team and individual offensive and defensive stats.

Then, an email popped into my Inbox from John, with the subject “More useless information.” Not quite, John, not quite.

John had decided to look at finals matchups in all 20 public school playoff sections. And here’s what he found:

In all four sections of Group 1 and 2 title games (North 1, North 2, Central and South), all eight matchups featured the No. 1 seed against either a No. 2 or No. 3 seed.
In Group 3, the top seed made it to all but the Central final, where second-seed Camden was the highest seed, and will host fourth-seed Burlington Twp. (Camden moved up from Group 2 this year due to the NJSIAA’s competitive balance/success formula that move sup schools with significant playoff success who can pull kids from other districts.)
In Group 4, only two top-seeds made it to the finals: Shawnee in South and Middletown North in North 2. The North 1 game is second-seed Northern Highlands entertaining fourth-seed Middletown South, while the Central game features third-seed Atlantic City entertaining fourth-seed Millville.
And in Group 5, the only top seeds to advance to finals are Old Bridge in Central and Washington Twp. in South. The North 1 game features fourth-seed Irvington at third-seed Piscataway Saturday afternoon, while in North 2, third-seed Phillipsburg entertains fourth-seed Passaic Tech Friday night.

What’s it all mean? It’s probably too early to tell. Phillipsburg and Piscataway, for example, wound up getting home games because the top-seeds got upset: Elizabeth in North 2 by Passaic Tech, and Ramapo in North 1 by Irvington.

Does that mean the seeding got it wrong? Not necessarily. We’ve found over the years, due to the playoff formula including OSI, it’s generally “easier” for larger schools to qualify for the playoffs. They typically get in with fewer wins, though the top teams still are very very good.

But these aren’t seven or eight seeds making the finals. In fact, the lowest seed to make any sectional final this year was a four. In fact, only five four-seeds made the finals: two each in Group 5 and 4, one in Group 3, but none in the smaller size Groups 1 and 2.

If anything, it may indicate there is much more balance from one through 16 in each North and South supersection among the larger schools, but more dominant teams at the top among the smaller schools.

Last year, there were three teams lower than a four-seed who qualified for sectional finals, but none came out with a trophy.

Schalick qualified for the South Group 1 final as a six-seed.
Madison made the North 2, Group 2 final as a seven-seed.
Bayonne reached the North 2, Group 5 final as a six-seed.

And in 2024, there were three as well, but only one won a championship.

Shabazz made the North 1, Group 2 final as a five-seed, and upset second-seed Bernards.
Delsea qualified for the Central 3 final as a seven-seed, and lost to top-seed Somerville.
River Dell made the North 1, Group 3 final as a seven-seed but lost at Pascack Valley.