Highland Park QB Marcus Smith ran for two touchdowns, while going 8-of-97 passing for 97 yards, and the Owls defense registered its first shutout in 15 years with a 29-0 season-opening win over visiting New Brunswick.
Click below to listen to Alec Crouthamel and Chris Tsakonas call all the play-by-play live from Jay Dakelman Field in Highland Park, NJ, on August 28, 2026:
Sophomore J.B. Baxter threw for 253 yards and three touchdowns in his varsity debut, helping No. 6 Bridgewater-Raritan to a 28-7 road win at No. 8 Woodbridge in the season opener for both schools.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe call all the play-by-play live from Nicholas A. Priscoe Stadium in Woodbridge, NJ, on August 28, 2026:
When the Delaware Valley football team opened its 2026 season with a 17-0 win over North Hunterdon Friday night, it extended a pretty significant streak.
The Terriers now have won ten straight season-openers, dating all the way back to 2017, and that’s the longest streak of its kind in the state. But not only that, it’s a very rare feat.
It’s something that hasn’t been done – at least recently – by the likes of Winslow, Washington Twp., Glassboro, or even the Don Boscos or Bergen Catholics of the world.
We went back to look at every team in the state. (Well, not every team, since anyone who lost their opener this week was automatically out of the picture.) And we found only four out of over 300 teams even have a streak that goes back to before the COVID-shortened season of 2020.
The next three – including one other team from the Big Central Conference – have all won between seven and nine straight season openers. The Super Football and Shore Conferences have the other two. Here’s the list:
There’s one little caveat to all this: Somerville. Those Pioneers. Technically, their last season-opening loss “on the field” came in 2015, when Jeff Vanderbeek and Chris Casamento were co-head coaches for a season before Vanderbeek took over on his own the next season and the Pioneers went undefeated in the regular season, falling 21-13 at home in the Central Jersey Group 3 semifinals to Rumson Fair-Haven, which they would beat the next year for a state title at Rutgers.
But in 2022, though they beat Mastery HS of Camden in their season-opener, 31-7, Somerville self-reported a violation – using an ineligible player in that game – and it was declared a forfeit loss. Since it’s an official loss, we can’t count that toward the streak.
Here’s a closer look at Del Val’s season-opening wins on their current streak, and their final record each season:
Delaware Valley’s last season opening loss came at North Plainfield, 28-7, in 2016. That Terrier team finished 5-5 on the season. Their overall record on their streak is 53-41.
The schedule might have been light Saturday afternoon, but there was plenty of action for the four Big Central Conference teams in action on the final day of Week Zero play in New Jersey high school football.
The biggest win went to No. 4 Piscataway in a battle of electrifying teams, as the Chiefs nearly gave up a two-score lead late, and hung on for a 26-20 victory at East Orange.
Meanwhile, Manville pummeled their hosts in the opening game of the “Battle of the Bridge” at Keansburg, while South River dropped the second game, 43-7, to Point Pleasant Beach.
Scroll through for recaps, audio and Saturday scores.
Chiefs hang on in a wild finish…
Fourth-ranked Piscataway needed a goal line stand to come away with a 26-20 win, one that nearly – and quite literally – almost slipped through their hands.
The Chiefs scored on their opening possession, with a 29-yard touchdown run by Zaire Young, but missed the extra point left. And they fell behind 7-6 when the Jaguars answered on a 35-yard TD scamper by Jaleel Halsey early in the second quarter. But Piscataway got one back with 4:15 left, when Cody Hardy jumped a route on the right sideline on an East Orange second-and-eight from the three, taking the interception into the end zone to go up 13-7 with the PAT.
Late in the third quarter, a bad snap on a punt went over kicker Patrick Novak’s head. He was able to get it off, but the Jags got good field position and scored to make it 14-13 East Orange. But the Chiefs would answer with another Zaire Young touchdown, leaping over a defender at the goal line to reach the end zone, making it 19-14 Piscataway with the point after. Another score by Jason Harrison put them up 26-14 with 3:32 left, and it looked like the Chiefs would come back home with a win.
And they did, but they had to sweat it out. East Orange completed a bomb of a pass to Eric Williams down the left side, who looked like he would score, but his momentum took him out at the one. Jaleel Halsey punched it in for the score, but going for the PAT, a bobbled snap resulted in a botched play, and a frantic attempt to toss the ball to the end zone for two failed.
Piscataway got its hands team out for the expected onside kick, but it bounced high off the finger tips of a Piscataway player and East Orange recovered at the Piscataway 47 with two time outs left. They used one as they got it down to the one-yard line for a first down with 22 seconds left, and got stuffed on a run with 13-seconds remaining before calling their final time out.
The Chiefs then stuffed the next run into the backfield, and with only three seconds left, East Orange tried to spike the ball, but couldn’t get the play off in time, leaving Piscataway with a wild 26-20 victory.
Next week, Piscataway gets Somerville (1-0) at home, in a game you can hear live on Central Jersey Sports Radio with Mike Pavlichko and Nick Hart on the call.
Manville wins 15th straight…
The Mustangs left little to doubt in their season opener, as Manville won its 15th straight regular season game – dating back to 2024 – picking up a 56-15 victory over host Keansburg in the “Battle of The Bridge” showcase down along the Bayshore.
Five different players scored rushing touchdowns for Manville: Matthew Gorbatuk and Aidan Johnson each scored twice, while Cassius Carter, Jovani Maldonado and Kevin Camacho each scored once. And QB Jonathan Gosk connected with Elijah Bennett for a passing TD.
Johnson also added a pick on defense, while Gorbatuk had a fumble recovery. The Mustangs visit Brearley (1-0) in Kenilworth next Friday night.
SATURDAY SCHEDULE
FRIDAY SCOREBOARD
THURSDAY SCOREBOARD
Against a beautiful sunset out at Tapp Webb Field in Alexandria, the Delaware Valley football team may not have been perfect, but by the time the final horn sounded, it sure looked like it.
The Terriers led 7-0 in the first quarter, then scored twice more in the second half after making some adjustments to come out with a 17-0 home win over visiting North Hunterdon.
Junior QB Chase Kraucheunas got the scoring started with just 29 seconds left in the first quarter, connecting with fellow junior Tyler Small for a 29-yard touchdown pass.
That was the way the first half would end, but the Terriers tacked on another score with 7:30 to go in the third, on a ten-yard touchdown run by Brayden Picardo-Leask, while Brayden Costello booted a 30-yard field goal with 7:22 to play in the game that put the contest out of reach.
It was Delaware Valley’s tenth straight season-opening win, a streak that dates back to 2017. It’s the longest such streak in the Big Central Conference. (Somerville, which last lost a season-opener on the field in 2015, beat Mastery HS of Camden in the 2022 season opener, but took a forfeit after self-reporting the use of an ineligible player.)
New Providence has won eight straight openers going back to 2018, but is idle in Week Zero, and opens next Thursday at home against Voorhees in the debut of new head coach Anthony Conzentino.
Del Val will host Johnson next week, while the Lions will travel to East Brunswick.
Watch CJSR analyst Marcus Borden’s postgame reaction with Delaware Valley head coach Ben Ibach and junior QB/LB Chase Kraucheunas:
The storm threat that wiped out much of Thursday night’s schedule in the Big Central Conference and across New Jersey meant a busy Friday in the league, with plenty of coverage from our Central Jersey Sports Radio team.
No. 6 Bridgewater-Raritan dominated No. 8 Woodbridge up front on both sides of the ball in a 28-7 road win heard on CJSR, while Highland Park blanked New Brunswick 29-0 in another live broadcast heard on CJSR; it was the Owls’ first shutout win in 15 years, since a 37-0 victory at now-shuttered Cardinal McCarrick in South Amboy on Halloween 2011.
Meanwhile, Delaware Valley blanked North Hunterdon at home, 17-0, in a game covered by CJSR football analyst Marcus Borden.
Scroll through for other game recaps and interviews, plus all Friday night (and Thursday) scores, as well as the schedule for Saturday afternoon.
Highlanders score big in season opener over Dayton…
Coming off a 5-5 season, expectations are high for Governor Livingston, which returns a tremendous amount of talent. And nearly everyone got into the act Friday afternoon in a BCC crossover matinee against Dayton.
Five different players scored in a 40-27 win over visiting the Bulldogs, including a pair of touchdown runs for 38- and 16-yards from junior Mateo Liloia.
Junior Connor Jakubowski opened the scoring with a ten-yard touchdown catch courtesy of sophomore QB Colin Hughes, who was 7-of-11 for 122 yards and two touchdown passes. Elijah Garcia added 195 yards and a score on 30 carries.
The Highlanders led 13-7 after one quarter, 27-13 at halftime, and never trailed in the game.
Raiders pick up win in Game One after winless ’25…
Coming off a winless campaign in 2025, North Brunswick was all business in the preseason, and at least for the Raiders’ opener, everything clicked on all cylinders.
They beat Snyder out of Jersey City Friday night at home, 39-8, the Raiders’ largest margin of victory since a 43-7 win at East Brunswick in mid-October 2023. They finished 8-1 that year.
Senior Sal Fama-Linn scored three times, all in the first half, after Josh Jeanty scored the opening touchdown of the game on a run. Fama-Linn caught a 94-yard pass from QB Jasiah Hogans to make it 13-0, and added another TD run and a catch in the second quarter to give the Raiders a 27-0 lead at the break. They also got a TD run from Hogans, a field goal from Engels Coello, and recorded a safety.
Other Notes…
FRIDAY SCOREBOARD
SATURDAY SCHEDULE
THURSDAY SCOREBOARD
Bridgewater-Raitan head coach D.J. Catalano said before the game that if the QB battle with sophomore J.B. Baxter and senior Evan Woodring was close, he’d probably go with Baxter, because he wanted to get Woodring on the field everywhere else.
“It wasn’t even close,” Catalano said, and Baxter was going to get the keys to the bus.
Well, he drove it and then some, opening the scoring with a 48-yard touchdown pass to Woodring – QB to QB – to give the No. 6 Panthers a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter.
And though Woodbridge would tie it on a 28-yard touchdown run by junior QB Dylan Stephen, that’s as close as the No. 8 Barrons would get, as Bridgewater responded with three unanswered scores – one each in the second, third and fourth quarters, to head back to Somerset County with a 28-7 win, and a 1-0 record.
Baxter unofficially finished 13-for-20 for 253 yards, with three touchdown passes and one interception, for which senior Woodbridge safety Kyle Campos made a feet-first sliding grab, a highlight reel play.
But Bridgewater dominated the line of scrimmage with its excessive size advantage, and rolled off 448 yards of offense, 118 of which came on the ground from senior running back Jahmier Black, who had a third-quarter touchdown run of three yards.
Click below for postgame reaction from Bridgewater-Raritan sophomore QB J.B. Baxter, senior RB Jahmier Black and head coach D.J. Catalano with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Justin Sontupe:
We’re nothing at Central Jersey Sports Radio if not outside-the-box thinkers. And looking at the forecast, we had planned all week for the eventuality that finally came once Woodbridge announced it was moving the No. 8 Barrons’ opening game against No. 6 Bridgewater-Raritan to Friday night.
The move meant our originally-planned Thursday night Bellamy & Son Paving Big Central Game of the Week would conflict with our Friday night Game of the Week, New Brunswick at Highland Park.
Wait a minute, why not air them both?
So, that’s what we’re doing!
It’ll be our first simultaneous football broadcast in Big Central history, although the “test run” came in baseball season, although it wasn’t due to weather. We were set to broadcast St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Mary-Rutherford in the Non-Public North B final, but the two agreed to move the game back because the Trojans had graduation planned for the same day. That ran into a conflict with our planned broadcast of the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 final between Ridge and Watchung Hills.
In the end, we did both.
But that also means one of the games will have a different Listen Live link for tonight’s games.
So, here are the links to Friday’s first-ever high school football double-broadcast on Central Jersey Sports Radio!
No. 8 Bridgewater-Raritan at No. 6 Woodbridge
Pregame 5:45, Kickoff 6 pm at Nicholas A. Priscoe Stadium
Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe
Click here to listen!
New Brunswick at Highland Park
Pregame 6:35, Kickoff 7 pm at Jay Dakelman Field
Alec Crouthamel and Chris Tsakonas
Click here to listen!
We at Central Jersey Sports Radio so this every year.
It means the high school football season is upon us.
With the advent of the Opponent Strength Index (see one of our previous stories here for an explanation) we have a great tool to be able to predict how many wins each team will need to make the playoffs. The only minimum set by the NJSIAA is that a team must have at least two wins against NJSIAA members schools.
How great a tool is it?
We’ve been doing these projections since 2021, and up until last season, our projections held true for 220 of 228 teams – a 96.4 percent average success rate! (Non-publics St. Joseph of Metuchen and St. Thomas Aquinas are not included, since they are seeded by a committee, and all non-publics make the playoffs unless they otherwise opt-out or are disqualified.)
Looking back year-by-year, here’s how many teams were true to our recommendations. That means, if they met the minimum number of wins to make the playoffs and made it, or if they didn’t reach the minimum and failed to make the playoffs. If a team made it with fewer wins or missed while reaching our minimum projection, we got it wrong.
Are we just that good? Well, we got brought back down to Earth a little last year.
For the teams that made it, we were spot on. All 24 teams that made it didn’t need any magic or voodoo, they all reached at least the minimum wins we projected they would need.
That leaves the 33 teams that didn’t and that’s where it went off the rails.
Of those that missed the postseason, 17 failed to reach even our minimum win total. Another six met the minimum, but did not earn the one additional win we consider would have made them a “lock.” So, we consider we got those right.
But that leaves ten others who missed the playoffs, all of whom at least reached our “lock” number. Seven reached it exactly, two beat it by one win, and one last team Voorhees, went 8-2 – four more than our projected minimum and three more than our “lock” – and still missed the playoffs.
That means we went 47-for-57, or 82.5%. It’s a B, and we’ll take it.
Plus, overall, in five seasons, we’re still a total of 267-for-286 and a 93.7% success rate. We’re still on the Dean’s List.
Here’s how we figure it out:
One of the best things about the Opponent Strength Index – which is 60 percent of the NJSIAA’s UPR formula for playoff qualification – is that we can have an idea going into a season how challenging a team’s schedule is. Unlike power points, it carries over from year to year.
We look at the maximum OSI a team could get, assuming the won all their games, and the lowest they could get, assuming they go winless. We divide that by the number of games on the schedule to find out an average of how many points each game is worth.
Using round numbers, here’s an example: Team A plays eight games against teams that have an average SI value of 80 points.
If Team A goes 8-0, they would have an OSI of 80 (assuming for simplicity the SI values all stayed the same), getting 100 percent of the SI value of each team they beat. If Team A goes 0-8, they would have an OSI of 40, getting 50 percent of the SI value of each team they lost to. (Let’s not get into mutlipliers.)
That gives us a range of 40 points (40 to 80), and over eight games, each would be worth an average of five points. A one-win season would mean an OSI of 45, a two-win season would be 50, and so on.
Then, we look at the minimum OSI to make the playoffs. Again, it’s not a set number, but it varies by supersection. We look at the highest OSI team to miss the top 16 cutoff, then find the next team higher than that which qualified.
Since these numbers can vary from year to year, we’ve been using an average over time, dating back to 2021.
So how did we get it so wrong?
It’s tough to do a deep dive for so many teams, but there are some easily explainable reasons:
First, as we’ve stressed, the SI values change over time. If an 0-8 team all of a sudden goes 8-0, their SI will skyrocket, and that will help a team. If the reverse happens, it could hurt the teams they play.
Where it gets worse is with one-off crossovers. If you play a one-off crossover, like Old Bridge will this Saturday against Shawnee in the Battle at the Beach in Ocean City, and if Shawnee tanks, Old Bridge can’t do much to get those points back. Whereas in divisional play, the Knights have Edison, Monroe, Piscatway and South Brunswick. If Piscataway tanks this year, the other teams in the division that beat them will increase, and Old Bridge can still get the benefit. But if Shawnee does, they can’t.
A good example this year is Hunterdon Central, which moved to a new division, but will play crossovers against Ridge, Phillipsburg, Bridgewater-Raritan and Hillsborough, their old division mates in the American Silver. If Phillipsburg all of a sudden went winless, Ridge, Bridgewater and Hillsborough’s SI’s would increase off that, and Hunterdon Central could “make up” the fewer points they got by beating the Stateliners with the extra points they could get from beating the other three.
And sometimes it’s just out of your control. Maybe some other teams in some other league had a really good, surprising year. It happens.
What are this year’s targets?
We’re basing our targets for 2026 on a continuous average since 2021, the first true year of the current OSI system. (The initial year was 2019, and those numbers were derived from the Born Power Index in 2018, then 2020 had no playoffs.)
With that data in hand, we can reasonably predict how many wins it would take a team to get into the playoffs. We call them “steps,” and we assign all Big Central teams two numbers: the first is to just get over the minimum, and the second is a “full step” over.
For example, if the minimum OSI is 42, and four wins gets a team a 43 OSI, we would say they need four wins to get in, and going one full step over, five should make them a lock.
That being said, Here’s the list of all 57 Big Central Conference public schools (the non-publics are seeded differently, by committee) along with their playoff supersection, target OSI, and their minimum wins needed, plus one step over to make them a “lock.”
The list below is based on the NJSIAA official football classifications for the 2026 and 2027 seasons:
Looking at the chart, you might wonder why JP Stevens and Bridgewater-Raritan, for example – both in the North 5 playoff supersection – have different win requirements. Wouldn’t the target be the same?
Not necessarily. That’s because they have different schedules, and based on SI values, Bridgewater-Raritan’s schedule is more challenging that that of the Hawks. If the SI values of their opponents stayed exactly the same, the average SI of the Stevens’ opponents would be 43.11, and they need about a 40.32 to get in. Meanwhile, the Panthers could get as high as 63.18, meaning they can absorb a few losses and still get in, because their schedule is more challenging.
Overall, our projections indicate that 44 of the 57 public schools in the Big Central would need between three and five wins to make the playoffs. One area of concern is that’s down from 50 last year, when we projected 13 needed at least five wins and four needed at least six. None needed more than that, although in the end it turns out they did: Spotswood and Voorhees both missed, at 8-1, and 8-2 respectively, at the Cutoff.
Additionally, last year, we projected only four teams needed six wins to get in, none needed seven or eight. This year, we project ten to need six wins, two would have to win seven (South River and Metuchen) and one would need eight (JP Stevens). But that doesn’t necessarily mean the schedule-makers got it wrong.
Stevens would be a longshot to make the playoffs anyway, with just two total wins for the program since the start of the 2019 season, and both came in 2024. South Hunterdon and South River – who are projected to need six – are in the same boat. In this case, and for other similar programs, the Big Central got it right.
This type of scheduling is a win-win: JP Stevens gets some schedule relief to try and rejuvenate the program, and top schools can play more challenging competition that will help them improve their playoff standing, should they qualify.
But as far as the playoffs, in the end, is needing six wins to get in the playoffs a bad thing? We don’t think so.
Come back in November, and we’ll see how we did!
The head coach of the Highland Park football team, Shawn Harrison, knows much of what Geoff Chrisman, the second-year New Brunswick mentor, went through in 2025.
Last season, Chrisman took over a New Brunswick football team that had lost 23 straight games coming into the season. They started the year, 0-9, but in their finale, snapped what grew to a 32-game skid with a 36-0 win over West Windsor-Plainsboro’s North-South co-op.
Now, they come into 2026 off a victory in their last game, something that hadn’t happened since 2018, when they beat East Brunswick in a consolation game.
Harrison’s squad did something similar three seasons ago, breaking an even longer streak with a win down the Shore over Point Pleasant Beach.
One difference, though, is that Harrison had been with the program for years, even before he was named head coach before the COVID pandemic. Chrisman just stepped in officially last June. And it took him time to learn the personnel, and for his players to learn about him.
This year, it’s a different vibe for the Zebras, as they visit the Owls Friday night at 7:00 in the second Big Central Game of the Week to open the season live on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Tune in at 6:45 for the pregame show with Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel; click here to listen.
New Brunswick loses their starting quarterback, but Chrisman really likes Jadriyel “Jo Jo” Morfa, a freshman who only attempted two passes last season. He’ll be handing off a lot to Arisniel Mota-Sanchez, who also was a freshman last season, and carried the ball 21 times for 144 yards and two scores. Of that, 120 yards and both touchdowns, with a long of 83, came in that momentous win over West Windsor-Plainsboro.
Chrisman says he has the “potential to be a special player,” but points out he only started playing football in eighth grade. This year, he’s bulked up, is stronger, and “wants to be the guy.”
“He has great grades, great personality,” Chrisman says. He’s also been named a team captain – as a sophomore.
Defensively, Chrisman says the Zebras will go after people, and play aggressive. Although for at least the first few weeks, they’ll be without their returning sack leader, Bradly Romero, who had two of the team’s nine last season. Romero broke his foot in the preseason, but is expected to return.
Click below to hear New Brunswick football coach Geoff Chrismans talk about the Zebras, and their season opener at Highland Park, with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:
