Zaire Young rushed for two touchdowns and the Chiefs’ defense was stellar as third-seeded Piscataway beat sixth-seed Bayonne, 27-20, in the first round of the North Jersey, Section 1, Group 5 state playoffs, avenging last year’s defeat at the hands of the Bees in the semifinal round.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Vin Ebenau call all the play-by-play live from Kenny Armwood Stadium in Piscataway, NJ, on October 31, 2026:
The Piscataway football team is on the the sectional semifinals of the state playoffs for a third straight year, and the recipe was very simply “Chiefs football.”
They did it with a two-touchdown, 124-yard rushing game from Zaire Young, and tough defense. But more than that, it was a little creative play-calling that got the Chiefs’ offense going early, in a 20-7 home victory for third-seed Piscataway over six-seed Bayonne in the North 1, Group 5 opening round in the state playoffs, as heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio Saturday afternoon.
On the very first drive of the game, Piscataway ran Young three times, gaining three yards, another three, and then no gain. On fourth-and-one, Higgins brought out punter Patrick Novak, but the ball went right to Young, who took it down the left sideline for a 26-yard gain and a first down.
Then, Higgins had Pernell go to the air, and a 37-yard catch by top receiver Devin Labega set up first-and-goal at the one. That left an easy run into the end zone for Young, who put the Chiefs up 7-0 with the PAT just 2:32 into the game.
Tone: set.
The Chiefs would score on their next possession, too, with Colby Cotton catching a 30-yard pass from Pernell to make it 14-0, capping a seven-play, 62-yard drive in 4:24. And then, with 8:09 left in the first half, Young would cap a short drive – following a Myles Elliott interception – with a two-yard touchdown run, with a missed PAT leaving it 20-0 Chiefs.
But Bayonne would soon get on the board. Their first sustained drive of the game ended with a 28-yard touchdown pass from Talon Carr to Drew Haynes, to make it 20-7, and that would be all the scoring in the first half.
After the break, Piscataway played ball-control football, and the defense continued to do its job, with the two playing to a scoreless final 24 minutes.
The Chiefs (8-1) now move on to the semifinals at second-seed West Orange (8-1), which beat seven-seed Union Friday night, 26-0.
Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Marcus Borden with Piscataway head coach Dan Higgins and seniors Landon Pernell and Zaire Young, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
In 2015, the Bridgewater-Raritan football team made its first-ever sectional final – 23 years after the merger of the East and West high schools – with an undefeated record.
They would fall that year to unbeaten Westfield. The same happened the next year. And they would fall to Westfield one more time in 2017.
It took eight more years for the Panthers to get back to that stage, and this time they made it count.
Friday night at Basilone Field, the Panthers clinched the first sectional title in program history with a 21-14 win over Bayonne.
Bridgewater-Raritan started the game on the back foot, as Bayonne went ahead 7-0 off a 20-yard touchdown run from Chance Fisher with 2:56 left in the first quarter. The Panthers marched 77 yards down the field late in the second quarter, but the drive stalled at the nine-yard line with an interception thrown by Declan Kurdyla.
The first turning point came with 1:14 remaining in the first half. On fourth and goal from the 1-yard line, Bridgewater-Raritan’s front seven held up to deny a touchdown for Nico Sampson to keep it at 7-0 entering the second half.
The Bees received the second half kickoff – but the first play of the half went awry as a botched snap led to a fumble that was returned 33 yards for a touchdown by Jamelle Jones to tie the game.
The Panthers took the lead for the first time with an 11-yard touchdown run for Jahmier Black with 2:56 to play in the 3rd quarter. Bayonne responded quickly, as Fisher punched in a 66-yard touchdown to tie it up at 14 with 28 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Bridgewater-Raritan went ahead for good late in the fourth, as a fourth-and-one turned into a 58-yard touchdown pass from Kurdyla to Jack Cifuentes to take the lead for good with 2:33 to play. A muffed kickoff was recovered by the Panthers to seal the win.
Black led Bridgewater-Raritan with 15 carries for 111 yards and a touchdown in the win, while Kurdyla completed six of 10 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown through the air. Cifuentes led all Panther receivers with four catches for 62 yards and a touchdown.
Next up, Bridgewater will play in the Group 4 semifinals at home next Friday – likely at 6 pm – against North 1, Group 5 champion Passaic Tech. The second-seeded Bulldogs knocked off top-seed West Orange Friday night, 56-42 on the road.
Click below for postgame reaction from Chris Tsakonas with Bridegwater-Rartitan’s Declan Kurdyla, Jahmier Black, Jack Cifuentes, Jamelle Jones and head coach Declan Kurdyla, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
-Mike Pavlichko contributed to this report
North Jersey, Section 2, Group 5 Final:
When: Friday, 6 pm
Where: Basilone Field, Bridgewater, NJ
Matchup: #6 Bayonne (8-3) at #1 Bridgewater-Raritan (8-3)
Coverage: Follow Chris Tsakonas on Twitter
Weather: 44 degrees, partly cloudy, wind W 2 mph (crosswind from home stands toward visitor stands)
HEAD COACHES:
Bridgewater-Raritan: D.J. Catalano (3rd season, 15-17)
Bayonne: Jerome Hayes (4th season, 22-18)
HOW THEY GOT HERE:
Bridgewater-Raritan:
First Round: def. #8 Linden, 35-6
Semifinals: def. #4 Union City, 22-7
Bayonne:
First Round: def. #3 Elizabeth, 44-14
Semifinals: def. #2 Piscataway, 27-13
Who’s next? The winner of this game will play the North 1, Group 5 winner in the Group 5 semifinals. That title game features top-seed West Orange (9-2) hosting second-seed Passaic Tech (8-3) Friday at 7 pm. Should Bridgewater advance and face West Orange – the overall No. 1 seed in North Group 5 – they’d be on the road, but it PCTI wins, the Panthers would host them next Friday night at 6.
SERIES HISTORY:
This is just the second meeting between the Panthers and Bees, with their only other matchup coming in 2005, a consolation game win for Bridgewater-Raritan, 30-28, to cap a 4-6 season under Tony Maglione. Bayonne would finish that season 6-4.
Ironically, Bayonne had beaten Union Hill on Cutoff Weekend and Emerson in late September. Those two schools later merged to form Union City, the team Bridgewater just beat last week to get to the finals.
BRIDGEWATER-RATIAN PREVIEW:
FINALS HISTORY:
Bridgewater-Raritan:
The Panthers have only been to three sectional finals in their history, which only dates back to 1992 and the merger of Bridgewater East and West into the one high school that exists today.
Those came in 2015, 2016 and 2017, and all three were losses at Met Life Stadium to a juggernaut Westfield team that won all three and finished that stretch a combined 36-0. The Panthers were undefeated themselves heading into the first two finals, finishing 2015 and 2016 at 11-1. They finished 9-3 in 2017.
Playoff Berths: 19
Playoff Record: 10-17
Previous Finals Berths: 4
Sectional Titles: 1
North 2, Group 5
2015: #2 Westfield def. #1 Bridgewater-Raritan, 10-7
2016: #2 Westfield def. #1 Bridgewater-Raritan, 15-13
2017: #1 Westfield def. #3 Bridgewater-Raritan, 20-7
Bayonne:
This is just Bayonne’s fourth appearance in a title game, and their first trip since 2002, when they won as a five-seed and beat 7th-seed Hackensack, 25-23. Their first finals appearance came in 1976, then they made it again in 1981, and 1987, all in North 1, Group 4. This will be their first time in North 2, Group 5.
Playoff Berths: 19
Playoff Record: 20-15
Previous Finals Berths: 8
Sectional Titles: 4
North 1, Group 4
1976: #4 Bergenfield def. #2 Bayonne, 19-8
1981: #1 Passaic def. #2 Bayonne, 29-0
1987: #1 Paterson Kennedy def. #2 Bayonne, 13-7
2002: #5 Bayonne def. #7 Hackensack, 25-23
2025 BRIDGEWATER-RARITAN COVERAGE:
NEWS & NOTES:
Math teacher or intrepid sports reporter?
We’re going to shout out Bridgewater-Raritan math teacher James Olivola first in this space. You can easily find him at any Bridgewater-Raritan sporting event on campus, and even some on the road.
Why? He posts frequent updates – often peppered with memes and GIFs related to Panthers – while giving detailed updates on Bridegwater-Raritan athletic events.
This week, he noted that in 2023, Bayonne beat Bridgewater in baseball for their first sectional title since 2002, and did it with a father/son and coach/player duo in head coach Dave Hoffman and his son Justin, a third baseman and pitcher who was a senior that year.
The Bayonne football team this year has the same kind of duo: Jerome Hayes is in his fourth season as head coach, and his son – Jerome, Jr. – is a wide receiver and linebacker. In fact, he had a critical scoop and score to put his team up two touchdowns with just over four minutes to go in the semifinals at Piscataway last week.
Lacrosse influence…
People talk about teams that play smash mouth football, but there are few sports as physical as lacrosse. And when you get those guys in your football program, it’s something special.
The Panthers have had a very successful program over the years, and have a set of brothers on the Rutgers squad: Brady Kurdyla will be a senior this year, and Colin Kurdyla a junior. Both are midfielders.
Next year, Bridgewater quarterback Declan Kurdyla will join Colin for his senior season on the Banks.
But he’s not the only lacrosse athlete on the football team. There are four others on the offensive side of the ball, including receivers Jack Winne, Mikey Bratus and James Locrotondo, along with tight end Jack Cifuentes. Defensively, LoCcrotondo is at cornerback, Winne is at safety, and Cifuentes sees time at outside linebacker along with Nick Crovello.
And there’s another connection. Catalano also played lacrosse, as did his father at the Naval Academy, while his uncles played at Penn State. He says he eventually “got too big” for the sport.
“When you think Bridgewater-Raritan, you think Bridgewater-Raritan lacrosse,” Catalano says. “To get those kids to bring that culture to us is awesome.”
The Panther lacrosse team reached the North Group 4 finals last year and in 2023, after winning it in 2022. They also reached the SCT finals and the now-defunct Tournament of Champions that year, and won the Somerset County Tournament back in 2018.
The Bridgewater-Raritan football team made three straight finals appearances in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
Those are their only trips to the finals, and all three years they ran into a Westfield juggernaut, a Blue Devils’ program that won all three titles up at the Meadowlands, and finished a remarkable 36-0 in that stretch.
But now, they are poised to make some history.
The North Jersey, Section 2, Group 5 finals Friday night – in which the top-seeded Panthers (8-3) will face sixth-seed Bayonne (8-3) – will be their first time ever hosting a sectional final, as they seek the first NJSIAA trophy in program history.
And while those three Bridgewater teams were solid – they also were unbeaten heading into the 2015 title tilt – this one is serious business.
They continue to play in the toughest division, top-to-bottom, in the Big Central Conference, with the likes of Phillipsburg, Hillsborough, Hunterdon Central and Ridge. Their eight wins is the most since their last trip to the finals, in 2019, when they finished 9-3.
Well, 9-3 would make them very happy this year. It would mean they’re sectional champs, and live to play another week in the state semifinals.
And it all could have gone off the rails if things broke another way early on in the season.
It was Week Four, at home against Hunterdon Central. Senior QB Declan Kurdyla – a Rutgers lacrosse commit – went down with a lower leg injury, and initially it looked like it could have ended his season. That also could have derailed the entire team’s season. But further evaluation showed it was not as bad as previously thought, and he was back three weeks later, in a 30-18 loss at Hillsborough.
They split the two games after his injury – with junior Evan Woodring, who coach calls “a stud” – filling in more than ably. And Since Kurdyla’s return, the Panthers are 3-1 – their lone loss in that stretch to North 2, Group 4 finalist Phillipsburg – and playing very well. They’ve outscored their first two playoff opponents 57-13, including a 22-7 semifinal win over a Union City squad that beat them 61-10 in the same round last season.
Even missing all that time, Kurdyla is just eleven yards shy of having thrown for 1,200 this season, while Jahmier Black and Denzel Amoafo have combined out of the backfield for 1,520 yards and 19 touchdowns, along with 547 more and 5 scores on the ground from Kurdyla.
Defensively, seniors Christian Antunes, Jamelle Jones (4 1/2 sacks each) and Miles Tofte (3 1/2 sacks) lead a senior-heavy group that knows what it’s doing.
They’ll do it against a Bayonne team with the same record, which beat Piscataway in the semifinals, 27-13. Against Bayonne, P’way shot itself in the foot with a fumble returned for a touchdown deep in their own end, and another bad snap that killed a comeback drive with just over two minuutes to go.
The Panthers beat the Chiefs 34-27 back in September.
Click below to hear from Bridgewater-Raritan head coach D.J. Catalano:
Sixth-seed Bayonne scored twice in the fourth quarter – on a long drive and then on a fumble recovery Jerome Hayes, Jr., brought into the end zone – to upset second-seeded Piscataway, 27-13, in the semifinals of the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 5 playoffs.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Chris Tsakonas call all the play-by-play live from Kenny Armwood Stadium in Piscataway, NJ, on November 8, 2025:
Points left on the board, late game mistakes.
Those spelled doom for the Piscataway football team Saturday afternoon, which was eliminated from the North Jersey, Section 2 Group 5 playoffs with a 27-13 loss to sixth-seed Bayonne, in the “Big Central Game of the Week” presented by Bellamy & Son Paving on Central Jersey Sports Radio.
The second-seeded Chiefs had the ball down by a touchdown, 20-13, but with 4:08 to go, and all their skill players involved in the offense. But deep in their own end, a toss from Landon Pernell to Zaire Young ended up on the ground, and Jerome Hayes, Jr. – the son of the Bayonne head coach – scooped it up and took it into the end zone to put the Bees up two touchdowns.
Piscataway still wasn’t finished though. They got the ball back with just over two minutes left. Maybe a quick score and an onside kick recovery could do the trick?
The Chiefs moved the ball, got to the Bayonne 30, then on a bad snap took another big loss, but eventually got back to the original line of scrimmage on third down. But on fourth-and-ten, Pernell throw to Sean Love streaking toward the left corner of the end zone, and the pass fell short.
Bayonne then was able to run out the clock for the win.
The Bees (8-3) will move on to Friday night’s North 2, Group 5 title game at Basilone Field in Bridgewater where they will meet top-seed Bridgewater-Raritan (8-3) at 6 pm. Piscataway’s season ends at 8-3.
The Chiefs had two field goals in the game, one by Victor Nogueira of 31 yards in the first half – after having a 38-yarded blocked earlier – and another of 31 by Patrick Novak in the fourth quarter. Sean Love had a 28-yard touchdown catch for the Chiefs, their only other score.
Click below for postgame reaction from Piscataway head coach Dan Higgins with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
In the first half of Piscataway’s North 1, Group 5 first round playoff game Saturday afternoon at Kenny Armwood Stadium, the Chiefs threw the ball a little. They had a lead, but the offense wasn’t going as they’d like.
So, in the second half, they pounded the rock, running it, running it, and running it some more out of the I-formation.
The result? A 42-13 home win for the third-seeded Chiefs over visiting sixth-seed Bayonne.
That win – Piscataway’s first in the playoffs since 2018, when they finished 13-0 and won the North 5 regional bowl game – makes them 7-3, and puts them in the sectional semifinals Friday night at second-seed West Orange, a 28-21 winner Friday night over 7th-seed Linden.
Piscataway led 7-0 at halftime on a 40-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. After halftime, he blew up.
Bayonne fumbled the kick return to start the second half, and Bodley took it to the house to make it 14-0. After Bayonne scored to cut the lead in half, Bodley answered with a seven-yard run at 6:44 of the third to make it 21-7. Later in the fourth, with 1:19 to go, he capped his busy day with a 91-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
Click below for postgame reaction from Marcus Borden in Piscataway, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
Fifth-seed Bayonne slugged three home runs to upset second-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan in the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 finals in Bridgewater on June 2, 2023. It was the Bees’ first title since 2002.
Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko and Dom Savino call all the play-by-play:
It wasn’t supposed to end like this. Not at home, and not for a team that in three state playoff games had scored 49 runs.
But fifth-seed Bayonne got the better of second-seed Bridgewater-Raritan – thanks in large part to a six-run fourth innings and three home runs – taking a 9-2 win to claim the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 title, its first sectional championship since 2002.
Braylin Terrero hit two home runs – a two-run shot and a solo homer – while Justin Hoffman was the first to go yard, with a two-run homer to get the Bayonne offense started in the second.
Starter Nolan Geisler went the distance for the win for Bayonne, which is now 26-4 on the year and will move on to face North 1 champion Ridgewood, a 12-1 winner over Bloomfield Friday.
Bridgewater-Raritan fell to 23-5, with starter Matthew Fattore taking the loss. He gave up seven runs in the game, all earned, after having surrendered just one earned run all year in 19 innings pitched.
Click below for postgame reaction brought to you by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
