Tag: Big Central

by Mike Pavlichko

Big Central Conference to kick off 2026 season with 4th annual Media Day at Kean University

Central Jersey Sports Radio will begin its seventh season covering high school football when the Big Central Conference holds its fourth annual Media Day, to be held at the Harwood Arena on the campus of Kean University in union on Wednesday, August 5th.

Note: This is the correct day of the event; a previous version incorrectly listed it as Wednesday, August 6. It is Wednesday, August 5th.

While many teams have been participating in summer workouts – along with working out in the weight room and taking part in 7-on-7s – since school lets out in June, the real work begins Monday, August 10, the first day teams are allowed to have an official practice, per NJSIAA rules.

Of course, with the start of preseason camp, that means Central Jersey Sports Radio high school football analyst Marcus Borden – returning for his fourth season with CJSR – will head out on the 2026 Camp Caravan, which he’s been doing for over a decade now.

Just like last season, Borden will tease each camp’s coverage on Twitter/X.  You can follow Marcus here. We’ll have more details on his first-week Camp Caravan itinerary on Sunday, August 9, and you can find all that content on cjsportsradio.com, with links to Camp Caravan videos, all of which will be published on our Central Jersey Sports Radio YouTube channel, under the 2026 Camp Caravan playlist.

Here are links to Borden’s past Camp Caravan and Game Coverage on YouTube:

Over the next few weeks, we’ll have more and more stories on the upcoming season.  Besides looking at some of the key teams, we’ll take a closer look at the season with:

  • Our 2025 High School Football Broadcast Schedule
  • 2025 Big Central Conference Divisional Previews
  • Our preseason CJSR Top Ten
  • Marcus Borden’s preseason rankings and All-BCC Preseason Teams
  • Early playoff look and projections for each team’s “minimum wins”
  • Strength of Schedule breakdowns for the entire league and divisions
  • Coaching changes for the upcoming season
  • Ten Questions for the upcoming season
  • Much, much more

by Mike Pavlichko

Gameday with Marcus Borden: Summer 2026 Edition! (Part 2)

School’s out for summer, but the Central Jersey Sports Radio crew is in! There are just six more weeks until preseason camp begins, and there’s a ton to talk about, so let’s finish what we started with CJSR analyst Marcus Borden!

In Part One – which can be found here – Mike and Marcus begin with taking a look at the huge recent news that Gridiron New Jersey has been shut down by creator Jon Fass. The site was a resource for every high school coach around the state for playoff standings, records, and playoff history. They also talk the “new” snaking procedure being back in the playoff formula.

In Part Two – found below – Mike and Marcus move on to discuss all the coaching changes in the Big Central this year – 25 of 59 schools have new coaches in just the last two years – and take a quick look ahead to the upcoming season, with Borden set to begin his third season of “Camp Caravan” during the second week of August.

Click below to listen to Part Two of our Summer 2026 edition of “Gameday with Marcus Borden”:

by Mike Pavlichko

Gameday with Marcus Borden: Summer 2026 Edition! (Part 1)

School’s out for summer, but the Central Jersey Sports Radio crew is in! There are just six more weeks until preseason camp begins, and there’s a ton to talk about, so let’s do it with CJSR analyst Marcus Borden!

Mike and Marcus begin with taking a look at the huge recent news that Gridiron New Jersey has been shut down by creator Jon Fass. The site was a resource for every high school coach around the state for playoff standings, records, and playoff history. They also talk the “new” snaking procedure being back in the playoff formula.

This episode is broken down into two parts. The second will drop on Thursday, with Mike and Marcus talking about all the coaching changes in the Big Central this year – 25 of 59 schools have new coaches in just the last two years – and take a quick look ahead to the upcoming season, with Borden set to begin his third season of “Camp Caravan” during the second week of August.

Click below to listen to Part One of our Summer 2026 edition of “Gameday with Marcus Borden”:

by Mike Pavlichko

Your handy, all-in-one guide to all our Big Central Conference “early looks” for 2026, plus recent coverage

We are just six weeks from the first date high school football teams across New Jersey can practice in advance of the 2026 season, but many programs have been busy.

Individuals are going to camps, teams and have been participating in 7-on-7s, trying to get an early glimpse of their situations before hitting the practice field in earnest, with Week Zero of the season – generally, an optional start time, but now, seemingly, the default, so can we call it Week One already? – set for the weekend of August 27 through the 30th.

Some teams will play longtime rivals, others will be participating in showcases from Allendale to Ocean City.

And while they’re getting ready, we are too! For the past two weeks, we’ve been publishing our “early looks” at the Big Central Conference, division by division, with schedules and some thoughts on each team. Below, you’ll find links to each division, and further down, a look at some of our other recent football stories.

More Football Coverage…

scientific calculator on wooden surface
by Mike Pavlichko

Earlier than usual, here are the estimated starting Strength Index numbers for the 2026 H.S. Football season

With Gridiron New Jersey now off-line after more than two decades, and NJ.com set to take over the official role of playoff calculator for the NJSIAA – as it does for all other sports – many coaches are in limbo if they never wrote down their own Strength Index number from the end of 2025, or those of their opponents.

Well, have no fear; we’ve got them for you!

Though Gridiron never released final SI numbers for 2025, we published our own at the end of the season, which can be found here. However, those are not the starting numbers for 2026. Rather, they will be “centered” toward the generally accepted midpoint of 60. (For example, the average final SI of all teams last year came out to 59.82.)

Here’s how the process works: Each team’s ranking gets “centered” by one-third around a mid-point of 60. Teams above 60 are reduced by one-third of the distance they are from the mid-point (i.e., a team rated 90, which is 30 points higher than 60, would be reduced by 10 and start the year as an 80), while the opposite would happen for teams below 60; their SI value would increase. This is to make the value less reliant on historical data, since – unlike power points – the SI carries over from the previous season.

With this information nowhere to be found online, we are releasing our own “recentered” SI numbers in this story, the ones teams should being 2026 with.

Please keep in mind that the values we calculated through the end of the season can and may change slightly (usually by no more than fractions of a point). Sometimes it’s just hundredths of a point based on rounding and how the number is displayed. The main reason is Gridiron never updated teams’ SI numbers online (though they were calculated offline for the purposes of next season), and it’s possible at the time a score could have been reported wrong, or a consolation-type game missed entirely.

All that said, below are Central Jersey Sports Radio’s unofficial starting SI values for 2026 in a downloadable PDF format. The first file is an alphabetical listing, and the second is ranked from highest SI value to the lowest.

2026 STARTING SI (estimate) (alphabetical)Download
2026 STARTING SI (estimate) (ranked)Download
by Mike Pavlichko

Carrying the torch:  NJSIAA football playoff brackets are live on Central Jersey Sports Radio in wake of Gridiron closure

The news hit like a ton of bricks for football coaches, fans, the media, and just plain, old-fashioned football history junkies.

Gridiron New Jersey, a bastion of simple, easy-to-access, free historical data on high school football in the Garden State shut down last Friday.  The site was popular over the years for its playoff standings and calculations, team records going back to its inception in 2003, and its NJSIAA playoff brackets, documenting every section, public or parochial, in every season since the playoff era began in 1974.

The NJSIAA has playoff history on its site (you can find the football one here) for all sports it sponsors in PDF format, but it only lists playoff champions in sectionals and, since 2023, the Group Finals. 

The only other media outlet with team schedules and records (other than those printed in a weekly “notebook” type story) is NJ.com, which only goes back to 2010.  But their brackets only go back as far as 2018.

So, we saw an opportunity.

This reporter was smart enough to have saved most years’ playoff brackets years ago from Gridiron, compiling screenshots of the brackets for offline reference – you know, just like we did in the dark ages when we’d cut stories out of the newspaper.  Remember those?

But, alas, I was not smart enough.  Back in my radio days, we covered Middlesex and Somerset Counties.  That meant we only needed Central Jersey, the section where all the teams in our coverage area played.  Eventually, we needed North 2, but we only did that as far back as our teams were in it, 2003.

And by the time Central Jersey Sports Radio was founded and the Big Central was formed, and the playoff formula changed to employ snaking, which meant our team could be in any section (don’t get us started on that insanity, please!) things were busy, but hey Gridiron was always there, always reliable.

Now, it’s gone.

I texted Gridiron founder Jon Fass Friday.  Surely his phone was blowing up.  He later thanked me for the kind words.

I messaged him again Sunday.  I thanked him again for his work, and suggested that many coaches will miss the brackets, and mentioned it might be worthwhile to publish them somewhere for all to access, also for free.  I’ve yet to hear back.

We didn’t discuss why he shut the site down, or why it was done so abruptly.  For months, the site was down, but told visitors it was getting a revamp.

Then… “Time to shut it down. 2002 – 2025.  Thank you.”

That Saturday afternoon, we set to work.  Creating our own brackets from what we had saved, and what’s still available via multiple online sources. 

We’ve posted more than half of the content so far, which you can access from our menu under “History.”

That includes:

  • All of Central Jersey, Groups 1 through 4 from 1974 through 2025, plus Group 5 since its inception in 2012.
  • All of the Parochial and Non-Public brackets from 1975 to 2025.  (1974 still had “declared” NJSIAA champs
  • North Jersey, Section 2, Groups 1 through 4 from 2003 (the first year Middlesex and Somerset County teams spilled into North 2) through 2025 as well as Group 5, which started in 2012.
  • South Jersey and North Jersey Section 1, Groups 1 through 4 from 2010 through 2025, and Group 5 from 2012, when it made its debut.

We are working on the rest, but without brackets to work from, it’s time consuming.  MaxPreps has brackets going back to 2010, though there were a few inaccuracies we noticed, and may be others we didn’t.  That helped us get South Jersey and North 1, which we didn’t begin tracking until the NJ UPR system came about in 2018, since the NJSIAA generally ignored the four traditional geographic bound sections in its playoff formula.

Of course, this can be a community effort. If you’d like to help, and have any completed brackets or playoff results from the sections we’re missing, please let us know.  We’d love to have them, and we’d be happy to give you credit.  You can email me at mike@cjsportsradio.com.

The sections we’re missing are:

  • North Jersey, Section 2, Groups 1-4 (1974 through 2002)
  • North Jersey, Section 1, Groups 1-4 (1974 through 2009)
  • South Jersey, Groups 1-4 (1974-2009)

The basics we need are matchups, seeds, and all results for each section.  Without them, we can still get it done, but the process is much more laborious.

We’ve at least been able to uncover the matchups and seeds for all the missing years from past newspaper clippings found online.  That means we can reconstruct each bracket, then look at each week’s results, and fill it out.  Luckily, until 1998, sectional playoffs had no more than four teams.  So, that’s two weeks of results for each playoff season.

And, one last thought:  this is a lesson learned for all of us.  Coaches, fans, players and media.

Save stuff. You never know when it’ll be gone.

In the near future, we’ll be posting additional sports reference material in our history section.  Right now it’s just football, but there’s also GMC and Somerset County Tournament brackets for boys’ and girls’ basketball, as well as baseball.  We may start with just finals matchups.  With games on more random dates in those sports – particularly baseball with weather rainouts – that’s even more painstaking research and work.

But back to Gridiron for a moment, the other thing everyone will miss was the historical records and results of teams – complete with coaches’ names – going back to 2003. There’s a place you can find all that.

Dr. Roger Saylor was a Penn State professor, and a mathematical and statistical analysis pioneer with a PhD in economics. Growing up a sports fan, he kept detailed records and later developed several playoff formats, while serving as the official football historian for the PIAA, Pennsylvania’s equivalent of the NJSIAA.

He kept detailed Excel spreadsheets of all Pennsylvania and New Jersey high schools – even the ones now closed. His extensive database is searchable, and can be found here. Dr. Saylor passed away in 2013, and his records end with 2010, coincidentally, the oldest year available on NJ.com. And that would cover the entire history of high school football in New Jersey.

Want to know who won the most games between Colonia, Woodbridge or JFK in the ’70s? Or who won the Bound Brook-Somerville tilt in 1909? Dr. Saylor’s grids are the way to go.

Happy searching?

by Mike Pavlichko

Early look at Big Central Football 2026: Big graduation losses for Manville could level playing field in Freedom Silver Division

Just like some of the large school divisions, no change was made on the opposite end of the spectrum by the Big Central Conference when it comes to the Freedom Silver Division, which will keep the same six teams it had last year.

Manville is coming off a 10-1 season and a year in which it scored the first playoff win in school history, but they will see some significant graduation losses that could allow others to make a move. Bound Brook and Belvidere are coming off .500 seasons, while Middlesex will look to gain some ground, South Hunterdon has a new coach – but one who’s been with the program – and Dunellen will enter its second year with head coach Phlip McGuane, who took the post last season after longtime mentor Dave DeNapoli retired.

Here are the preliminary schedules for the Freedom Silver Division teams – in order of 2025 finish – compiled from the official league schedule and other online sources to the best of our knowledge as of the date of publication, along with a few notes on each squad. Division games are starred.

Manville Mustangs (10-1, 5-0, Freedom Silver Division Champions)
Head Coach: Dave Markowitch, 4th season (20-11)

  • Week 0: at Keansburg
  • Week 1: at Brearley
  • Week 2: Bound Brook*
  • Week 3: Dunellen*
  • Week 4: at South Hunterdon*
  • Week 5: Belvidere*
  • Week 6: Middlesex*
  • Week 7: Hillside
  • Week 8: at Dayton

It was a dominant year for the Mustangs in 2025, who went 10-1, beating Asbury Park for their first-ever postseason victory, before falling in the second-round at Burlington City. Manville posted four shutouts during the season, and never scored fewer than 31 points in league play. But, there are some big graduation losses, starting with senior quarterback Josh D’Ambrosio, who threw for 720 yards and nine TDs (with no picks!) while also rushing for 1,268 yards and 18 scores. No. 2 rusher Isaiah Bennett (925 yards, 17 TDs) also was the top receiver, with 262 yards and three TDs, but he’s also graduated. At QB, rising junior Aiden Johnson could get a shot. He threw just one pass last year, a 37-yard touchdown in a win over Highland Park. Senior tight end Collin Shimp is gone, too, and he was solid on the other side of the ball as well, logging three sacks and three TFLs last season. So is Evan Canica, who had three sacks and ten tackles for loss. But two freshmen who made an impact will return: linemen Levan Chankotadze (3 1/2 sacks, 8 TFLs) and Matthew Gorbatuck (3 sacks, 4 TFLS).

Bound Brook Crusaders (5-5, 4-1, 2nd place Freedom Silver)
Head Coach: Dave LePoidevin, 7th season (17-37)

  • Week 0: at Point Pleasant Beach
  • Week 1: Dayton
  • Week 2: at Manville*
  • Week 3: South Hunterdon*
  • Week 4: at Belvidere*
  • Week 5: Highland Park
  • Week 6: at Dunellen*
  • Week 7: Middlesex*
  • Week 8: Sussex Tech

The Crusaders are coming off their best season since the COVID-shortened year, when they went 5-2. Going 5-5 was a big step for Dave LePoidevin’s group, and they even made the playoffs, falling at Burlington City in the opening round. Rising senior Jayden Cruz should get a look at QB after the graduation of starter John Archer (829 pass yards and 7 TDs, 609 rush yards and 8 TDs), but he only threw one pass last year. The Brook also will have to replace top rusher Jake Markey, who carried 124 times (ten more than archer) for 910 yards and seven scores. But they will bring back top receiver, Zahmir Moore (22 catches, 347 yards, 4 TDs), for his senior season. The defense was very senior heavy, too, but Moore should continue to make an impact there, after logging three TFLs and three interceptions, including one for a touchdown last season. Rising junior Kayden Bailey (2 TFLs, 1 fumble recovery, 1 INT) also could have an impact.

Belvidere County Seaters (5-5, 3-2, 3rd place Freedom Silver)
Head Coach: Jordon Schreffler, 5th season (16-23)

  • Week 0: at Hackettstown
  • Week 1: at Roselle Park
  • Week 2: at Dunellen*
  • Week 3: Middlesex*
  • Week 4: Bound Brook*
  • Week 5: at Manville*
  • Week 6: at South Hunterdon*
  • Week 7: at North Warren
  • Week 8: Delaware Valley

Primarily a running team, the Seaters should be set at the quarterback position, with sophomore Jake Enderley (457 yards, 8 TD) back for his junior year, with No. 2 Elijah White (162 yards, 1 TD) also back for his senior year. Top rusher Geoffrey Young is gone with his 729 yards and six touchdowns, but White could make an impact there, and on the receiving end, where he caught 10 passes for 157 yards, while rising senior Kayden Thorpe also is back at wide receiver, with 14 catches for 141 yards and two scores last season. Defensively, the loss of senior lineman Brayden Duckworth (5 sacks, 1 TFL) will have an impact, but sophomore Nick Muha (5 sacks) should make a bigger impact now as a junior, while White also had two picks and a fumble recovery playing defensive back last season.

Middlesex Blue Jays (2-8, 2-3, 4th place Freedom Silver)
Head Coach: Robert Swercheck, 3rd season (8-12)

  • Week 0: at New Providence
  • Week 1: at Highland Park
  • Week 2: South Hunterdon*
  • Week 3: at Belvidere*
  • Week 4: at Dunellen*
  • Week 5: Roselle Park
  • Week 6: Manville*
  • Week 7: at Bound Brook*
  • Week 8: JP Stevens

The Blue Jays struggled last season, but were young, with a sophomore QB in Matthew Petti, Jr., who threw for 681 yards and seven touchdowns, while top rusher Gerard Boateng – also just a tenth-grade – rushed 70 times for 343 yards and two more scores. The experience should pay off there, and in the receiving unit. The top defensive players were a bit more senior-heavy, so Swerchek will have to work on that, looking to younger players like defensive back Tyler Orts, who ha d a TFL, two forced fumbles/recoveries and two interceptions last season. There’s talent, and Middlesex should be improved this season.

South Hunterdon Eagles (1-7, 1-4, 5th place Freedom Silver)
Head Coach: Kyle Hart, 1st season

  • Week 0: New Hope
  • Week 1: South River
  • Week 2: at Middlesex*
  • Week 3: at Bound Brook*
  • Week 4: Manville*
  • Week 5: at JP Stevens
  • Week 6: at Belvidere*
  • Week 7: Dunellen*
  • Week 8: OPEN

The first new coach out in Lambertville in 16 years, Hart’s No. 1 job is to increase numbers in the program, part of what led to a one-win season last year. But he played for the Eagles, and has spent the last several years working under Jefferis, so he’s intimately acquainted with the scenario out there. The bright side is their QB last year, Tucker Hicks, was a junior. he threw for 284 yards and a touchdown last year, while top rusher Kellen Healy (119 carries, 541 yards, 5 TDs) is back for his junior year. Their defense was young, too, and will be more experienced in 2026. That includes freshman Brendan Paciulli (3 sacks), freshman Tommy Silagy (1 sack, 2 TFLs) and Healy, who had two interceptions, one for a touchdown. The Big Central notes Week 8 is open with the possibility of picking up an NJIC squad later in the year.

Dunellen Destroyers (0-9, 0-5, 6th place Freedom Silver)
Head Coach: Phlip McGuane, 2nd season (0-9)

  • Week 0: at Metuchen
  • Week 1: at JP Stevens
  • Week 2: Belvidere*
  • Week 3: at Manville*
  • Week 4: Middlesex*
  • Week 5: at South River
  • Week 6: Bound Brook*
  • Week 7: at South Hunterdon*
  • Week 8: OPEN

The Destroyers were shut out four times last year, and scored in double figures just once, but the team was young. Never a big passing team, they only managed 90 passing yards and just a shade over 700 yards on the ground as a team, but Dunellen also was young. Of the three quarterbacks on their roster to play, two were sophomores and one was a freshman. Of eleven players to rush the football, only three were seniors. That could bode well for the program as many will be back, with another year experience under their belt. On defense, they’ll miss seniors line linebackers Kahbir Casey (3 1/2 sacks, 10 TFLs) and Jackson Portik (1 1/2 sacks, 14 TFLs), but freshman lineman Colin Reynolds had seven TFLs, and sophomore Ben Howard had 12, so the cupboard isn’t bare. Again, they’ll look to bank on a baptism by fire in 2025 to make 2026 a more successful season.

by Mike Pavlichko

Early look at Big Central Football 2026: With Spotswood moving out, Brearley, Dayton Roselle Park will battle it out, as Highland Park, JP Stevens, South River look to make strides

Little change was made to the Big Central Conference’s Freedom Gold Division in the off-season, but with 2025 champion Spotswood moving up and out in the most recent realignment, the top three remaining teams – Brearley, Dayton and Roselle Park – will likely battle it out for the title in 2026. All three were .500 or better, with Brearley having tied the Chargers with a 4-1 division mark, but Spotswood winning last year’s head-to-head. Highland Park will deal with some losses, South River will look to improve, and JP Stevens moves into a division that could help them be more competitive.

Here are the preliminary schedules for the Freedom Gold Division teams – in order of 2025 finish – compiled from the official league schedule and other online sources to the best of our knowledge as of the date of publication, along with a few notes on each squad. Division games are starred.

Brearley Bears (5-5, 4-1, 2nd place Freedom Gold)
Head Coach: Elliot Platt, 2nd season (5-5)

  • Week 0: at Wallington
  • Week 1: Manville
  • Week 2: Dayton*
  • Week 3: South River*
  • Week 4: JP Stevens*
  • Week 5: Roselle
  • Week 6: at Highland Park*
  • Week 7: Roselle Park*
  • Week 8: at North Plainfield

The Bears were a run-first team last year, as senior Matthew Resende rushed for 1,284 yards. They’re going to miss that, with only two other backs – one a senior, quarterback Joe Squillaro – totalling around 200 yards. Monroe Passmore ran for 206 yards on 26 carries with two touchdowns as a sophomore last season. Their strength could be the defense this year, as sophomore lineman Rocco Federico (14 1/2 sacks, 4 forced fumbles) should be back, while Passmore had two sacks and 6 1/2 TFLs from his linebacker spot. Adding JP Stevens as a division-mate with Spotswood gone could make it harder to qualify for the playoffs, or at least to get a good seed. Brearley made it last year, but ended up as the eight seed and had to play top-seed Mountain Lakes on the road, taking a first round loss.

Dayton Bulldogs (7-2, 3-2, 3rd place Freedom Gold)
Head Coach: Nick Iannacone, 5th season (18-20)

  • Week 0: Governor Livingston
  • Week 1: at Bound Brook
  • Week 2: at Brearley*
  • Week 3: JP Stevens*
  • Week 4: at Roselle Park
  • Week 5: New Providence
  • Week 6: at South River*
  • Week 7: Highland Prk
  • Week 8: Manville

The Bulldogs could be the best of the bunch this year. In 2025, they knocked off division champ Spotswood, 20-19, in a game that ended up costing the Chargers (8-1 at the cutoff) a playoff spot in favor of 3-5 Camden Eastside. In 2026, their QB and top running back and receiver all are back. As juniors, quarterback Adrian Bernkopf threw for 1,270 yards and 14 TDs, while runningback Tyler Fuscaldo carried 119 times for 749 yards and nine scores (Bernkopf ran for the other eight), while Jackson Babiarz caught 21 passes for 479 yards and seven touchdowns. And there are others in the unit who are back and can contribute as well, like rising junior Kevin Lynch (16 receptions, 240 yards, 1 TD). Many key defensive players are back, too, like rising junior DB Dominic Pintado (2 sacks, 5 TFLs), ad rising senior DL Isaiah Rivas (3 TFLs, 2 fumble recoveries for TDs) and Babiarz, who had four of the team’s eight picks last year to lead the team. This could be Dayton’s year.

Roselle Park Panthers (6-4, 2-3, 4th place Freedom Gold)
Head Coach: Greg Dunkerton, 7th season (23-35)

  • Week 0: at Wood-Ridge
  • Week 1: Belvidere
  • Week 2: at South River*
  • Week 3: Highland Park*
  • Week 4: Dayton*
  • Week 5: at Middlesex
  • Week 6: JP Stevens*
  • Week 7: at Brearley*
  • Week 8: at Roselle

The Panthers were impressive when we saw them in early October at Highland Park, coming out with a 35-12 win. They ran the rock to the tune of 2,509 yards last season, led by Nick Salas with 146 carries, 946 yards and 14 touchdowns; he’ll be back this year. So will No. 3 rusher Maxwell Griffin (398 yards, 5 TD), and he’ll be a senior. Salas also caught eleven passes out of the backfield for 165 yards and three scores, but his QB has graduated; Anthony Damiano threw for 485 yards. Roselle Park will lose a little more on the defensive side, with veterans like linemen Lorby Castelly (7 sacks, 1 TFL, 1 fumble recovery) and Jose Candelaria (4 sacks, 2 TFLs, 1 blocked kick) gone to graduation. Bot with that offense, they should be able to give Dayton and Brearley a run for their money.

Highland Park Owls (3-6, 2-3, 5th place Freedom Gold)
Head Coach: Shawn Harrison, 6th season (10-35)

  • Week 0: New Brunswick
  • Week 1: Middlesex
  • Week 2: at JP Stevens*
  • Week 3: at Roselle Park*
  • Week 4: South River*
  • Week 5: at Bound Brook
  • Week 6: Brearley*
  • Week 7: at Dayton*
  • Week 8: Metuchen

The Owls snapped that long losing streak in their final game of 2023, then went 6-3 the next year before falling to 3-6 last season after senior QB Markos Hantsoulis graduated. Now, the other two of the clan – Kosta and Stamatis also are gone, and head coach Shawn Harrison may have to lean a little more on QB Marcus Smith to step up as a senior. He threw for 866 yards and eight touchdowns last season, and top runningback Jacob Quiros also should be back for his senior year, after rushing for 459 yards and five scores a season ago. The defense will have to replace defensive back Matthew Adamczyk-Zapor, who had three sacks and seven tackles for loss last year.

South River Rams (1-9, 0-5, 6th place Freedom Gold)
Head Coach: Rich Marchesi, 40th season (229-158)

  • Week 0: at Point Pleasant Beach
  • Week 1: at South Hunterdon
  • Week 2: Roselle Park*
  • Week 3: Brearley*
  • Week 4: at Highland Park*
  • Week 5: Dunellen
  • Week 6: Dayton*
  • Week 7: at JP Stevens*
  • Week 8: at Spotswood

Though the Rams have struggled mightily in the last few seasons – a mixture of personnel and injuries – Rich Marchesi is the longest-tenured head coach in the Big Central Conference for a reason; he’ll find a way to give whoever he has the best chance to win. The likely candidate to take over under center is Julien Borusevic, who has quite the arm: he was 5-4 with a 2.45 ERA for the Rams’ baseball team this spring. He got some snaps last year behind Orion Familia, going 11-of-28 for 52 yards and a touchdown in parts of six games last season. The good news is Kah’mori Cotto was just a junior last year when he ran for 920 yards and seven touchdowns, and three receivers are back as well. The defense was a relatively young group last year as well, so if they can stick together, the Rams should see improvement in ’26.

JP Stevens Hawks (0-10, 0-3, 5th place in Patriot Gold Division)
Head Coach: David Kunyz, 2nd season (0-10)

  • Week 0: OPEN
  • Week 1: Dunellen
  • Week 2: Highland Park*
  • Week 3: at Dayton*
  • Week 4: at Brearley*
  • Week 5: South Hunterdon
  • Week 6: Roselle Park*
  • Week 7: South River*
  • Week 8: Middlesex

This is more the Hawks’ speed than a division with Bernards, Voorhees and Delaware Valley, and that could help a lot. Senior QB Shamar Burch (847 yards, 4 TDs) struggled with the turnovers last year, but Khawaja Muawiyah got in some good action as a junior, and started late in the season, ultimately going 46-97 for 530 yards and 5 TDs, and if he can improve and also cut down on the interceptions, that will help. Zamarr Raiford was the leading rusher on a team that almost exclusively threw the ball (1,397 pass yards, 122 rushing) last season, as he went for 717 yards and seven touchdowns on 48 catches. No. 2 receiver Jream Sorrell was just a freshman, but still had 22 catches for 185 yards and a score. On defense, 38 different players logged stats last season, so the numbers are there; head coach David Kunyz will have to figure which parts give them the best eleven on the field.

by Mike Pavlichko

Early look at Big Central Football 2026: Anything could happen in expanded Patriot Silver, with new head coaches for all six squads

Many of the changes in the Big Central Conference divisional alignment for the next two years centers around the smaller school divisions, and trying to give better schedules to some of the better schools – a problem not generally seen among larger schools. After all, there is no one-size-fits-all.

Enter the Patriot Silver Division, which still has New Providence – which has made sectional finals each of the last two seasons – as well as A.L. Johnson, which finished last year 7-2. But the powers that be also added a Spotswood team that finished 8-2 last year. Perth Amboy – still waiting on a new head coach after William Clark wasn’t retained – also is new to the group this year, while Roselle and Metuchen remain. But the Panthers aren’t the only one with a new head coach. In fact, all six teams have new skippers this year.

Here are the preliminary schedules for the Patriot Silver Division teams – in order of 2025 finish – compiled from the official league schedule and other online sources to the best of our knowledge as of the date of publication, along with a few notes on each squad. Division games are starred.

New Providence Pioneers (10-1, 3-0, Patriot Silver Division Champions)
Head Coach: Anthony Cozentino, 1st season

  • Week 0: Middlesex
  • Week 1: Voorhees
  • Week 2: Johnson*
  • Week 3: Metuchen*
  • Week 4: at Roselle*
  • Week 5: at Dayton
  • Week 6: Perth Amboy*
  • Week 7: at Spotswood*
  • Week 8: Governor Livingston

Chet Parlavecchio, Jr., brought the Pioneers to the sectional finals in each of his last two seasons at the helm, now it’s Cozentino’s task to keep it going. He’s been on the staff for five seasons, so continuity shouldn’t be an issue there, nor will it be at quarterback, where junior Kevin Reilly threw for 1,119 yards and 15 touchdowns last year. They will surely miss runningback A.J. Whitehead, who rushed for 700 yards on the nose and 13 touchdowns before a season-ending injury in mid-October. The defense will need to fill some holes. Whitehead and linebacker Daniel Poretti combined for seven INTs last season, while Drew Gullo had 4 1/2 sacks and James Keneally had 5 1/2, while defensive back Jack Fitzgerald had nine – and 11 TFLs – leading the team in both categories. But all of them were seniors.

A.L. Johnson Crusaders (7-2, 2-1, 2nd place Patriot Silver)
Head Coach: Mike Ryan, 1st season

  • Week 0: OPEN
  • Week 1: at Delaware Valley
  • Week 2: New Providence*
  • Week 3: at Roselle*
  • Week 4: Spotswood*
  • Week 5: at Governor Livingston
  • Week 6: Metuchen*
  • Week 7: at Perth Amboy*
  • Week 8: JFK

After a year of Athletic Director Gus Kalikas as head coach, with his son the starting quarterback, veteran Middlesex County coach Mike Ryan steps in; he’s been at Sayreville and Edison, while also serving as head coach for a run at JP Stevens. The Crusaders were a playoff entrant last season, and while senior QB Jack Kalikas is gone, he mostly ran the show, throwing for just under 200 yards and rushing for 215 and two scores. The backs – many of them – did the dirty work, with six going for 200 or more on the season, and none more than Zaire Majerska, who rushed for 600 and 11 TDs as a junior last season. He’s a two-way player, and is perhaps the most disruptive player returning, with four sacks and six TFLs from his linebacker spot, while junior Vincent Cilento had two sacks, eight TFLs and a pair of interceptions on the year. Governor Livingston and JFK round out a solid crossover schedule.

Roselle Rams (2-9, 1-2, 3rd place Patriot Silver)
Head Coach: James Roach, 1st season

  • Week 0: Ferris
  • Week 1: at Hillside
  • Week 2: at Perth Amboy*
  • Week 3: Johnson*
  • Week 4: New Providence*
  • Week 5: at Brearley
  • Week 6: Spotswood*
  • Week 7: at Metuchen*
  • Week 8: Roselle Park

The Rams were 6-16 in two seasons under Tyrone Turner, who’s now with Steven Brown as offensive coordinator at North Plainfield, and it’ll be up to James Roach – a local youth coach – to turn things around at Abraham Clark H.S. That’ll be tough with a senior-laded team in 2025. The only non-12th grader to take a snap last year was sophomore Vaylen Webb, who was 1-for-2 passing in limited time against JP Stevens in late October last year. Top rusher Davon Rhodes (547 yards, 5 TDs) graduated, as did No. 1 receiver Shymir Burgess (680 yards, 4 TDs). Defense is much of the same, as Burgess had two interceptions, including a pick-six, while Daniel Diaz (5 sacks), Mike Henderson, Jr. (4 sacks) and Kevin Sanchez (3 sacks) are among the top defensive players who will be missed.

Metuchen Bulldogs (5-5, 0-3, 4th place Patriot Silver)
Head Coach: Joe Riggi, 1st season

  • Week 0: Dunellen
  • Week 1: New Brunswick
  • Week 2: at Spotswood*
  • Week 3: at New Providence*
  • Week 4: Perth Amboy*
  • Week 5: JFK
  • Week 6: at Johnson*
  • Week 7: Roselle*
  • Week 8: at Highland Park

Joe Riggi comes to the Bulldogs from the other side of town, where he had been the defensive coordinator at St. Joseph-Metuchen under Bill Tracy. Metuchen started the season 1-4 last year, but then won four straight before dropping their finale to Governor Livingston. They lose a lot, including senior QB Cam Hayes-Durina, who threw for 1,471 yards and 15 TDs last year, while also being the team’s leading rusher at 431 yards and six TDs. Seniors were the big contributors this year, so it might be a challenge to see improvement right off the bat. It’s a little less of a problem on defense, where juniors like Chris Esso (1 sack, 1 TFL), Eli Major (1 1/2 sacks, 3 TFLs) and others had an impact, including junior Gio Tan, who snared five picks last season on defense, bringing one in for a score.

Spotswood Chargers (8-2, 4-1, Freedom Gold Division Champions)
Head Coach: Brian Russo, 12th season (63-46)

  • Week 0: Monmouth Regional
  • Week 1: at JFK
  • Week 2: Metuchen*
  • Week 3: Perth Amboy*
  • Week 4: at Johnson*
  • Week 5: at North Plainfield
  • Week 6: at Roselle*
  • Week 7: New Providence*
  • Week 8: South River

Coming off three consecutive 8-2 seasons in the last years under Chris Meagher, former East Brunswick mentor Andy Steinfeld takes over the Chargers, with his son Matt having already been on the staff as an assistant. The offense will take a big hit with the graduation of Se’mir Tolbert-Brimage, who threw for 735 yards and 11 scores, while rushing for 834 and 11 more scores, leading the ground game. He also had two sacks, three TFLs and a pick six on defense, and it’s not easy to replace a player like that. But top receiver Ryan Foster, who caught 25 balls last year for 336 yards and three scores, will be back. Senior Sebby Saracino also was a punishing rusher, carrying 105 times for 67 yards and six touchdowns, but he’s gone to graduation. On the defensive side of the ball, senior Dan Keelan – a lineman with three sacks, five TFLs, a safety and a blocked kick – also will be missed, along with big-time kicker Gavin Pereira, who was 6-of-9 with a long of 48 on field goals, and 31 of 33 on PATs.

Perth Amboy Panthers (1-9, 0-4 in Liberty Gold Division)
Head Coach: TBA

  • Week 0: Monroe
  • Week 1: at Carteret
  • Week 2: Roselle*
  • Week 3: at Spotswood*
  • Week 4: at Metuchen*
  • Week 5: New Brunswick
  • Week 6: at New Providence*
  • Week 7: Johnson*
  • Week 8: at South Plainfield

The schedule doesn’t do the Panthers a lot of favors, and they’re yet to officially hire a new head coach, though word is one should be in place shortly, so stay tuned. William Clark was not brought back after winning just nine games total over the past five seasons. Amboy had two underclassman QBs on the roster last year, though only junior Amauris Peguero played, passing for 847 yards and 9 TDs a year ago, but the rest of the skill spots were very senior-laden. Top defensive players like Sebastian Medina Moreno (4 sacks, 1 fumble recovery) and Jordany Rodriguez (2 sacks, 2 TFLs) also graduate.

by Mike Pavlichko

Early look at Big Central Football 2026: With a new look, new teams, Patriot Gold could be wide open

The Big Central Conference Patriot Gold Division in 2026 is like New Year’s Day: Out with the old, in with the new. Except a little bit will carry over, too.

This is one of those divisions that got a major revamp, moving down the likes of Hillside, New Brunswick and North Plainfield from their divisions, and moving division champ Bernards out for a tougher schedule. Voorhees and Delaware Valley remain, and have some good crossover to help their playoff hopes.

Here are the preliminary schedules for the Patriot Gold Division teams – in order of 2025 finish – compiled from the official league schedule and other online sources to the best of our knowledge as of the date of publication, along with a few notes on each squad. Division games are starred.

Voorhees Vikings (8-2, 2-1, 2nd place Patriot Gold)
Head Coach: Matt Evancho, 1st season

  • Week 0: Warren Hills
  • Week 1: at New Providence
  • Week 2: North Plainfield*
  • Week 3: Hillside*
  • Week 4: at East Brunswick
  • Week 5: Delaware Valley*
  • Week 6: at Bernards
  • Week 7: New Brunswick*
  • Week 8: at North Hunterdon

Giving Voorhees New Providence and Bernards as crossovers should boost the Vikings in their playoff push. But the bigger challenge will be replacing a slew of offensive talent, including Bellamy & Son Paving Player of the Week scholarship winner Matteo Tramutola, whose 1,338 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns were the vast majority of the ground game last year. Not only has he graduated, but so has quarterback Sam Meekings (1,560 yards passing, 19 TDs) and top receiver Rylan Benitez (775 yards, 11 TDs) and No. 2 wideout Logan Direny (408 yards, 4 TDs). The defense should fare a little better in terms of losses. Shawn Turino had 2 1/2 sacks last year as a junior – along with a pair of fumble recoveries – while sophomore Keith Richard added another two sacks.

Delaware Valley Terriers (6-4, 1-2, 3rd place Patriot Gold)
Head Coach: Ben Ibach, 4th season (17-11)

  • Week 0: North Hunterdon
  • Week 1: Johnson
  • Week 2: at Hillside*
  • Week 3: Warren Hills
  • Week 4: Bernards
  • Week 5: at Voorhees*
  • Week 6: at New Brunswick*
  • Week 7: North Plainfield*
  • Week 8: at Belvidere

Again, keeping Bernards is a boost here for the Terriers, who had an up-and-down 6-4 season a year ago. They won their first two of the year, then alternated between wins and losses the rest of the way out. Senior QB Kelton Ibach, the head coach’s son, graduates after a 1,674-yard passing season, where he connected for 20 touchdowns against just three interceptions. But two runningbacks – junior Ben Culberson (331 yards, 8 TDs) and sophomore Gabe Miller (139 yards, 2 TD) – return, along with tight end and top receiver Brayden Picardo-Leask (439 yards, 5 TD). The defense should return a good deal as well, including junior linebackers Evan Strochak (2 sacks, 4 1/2 TFLs), Culberson (3 sacks, 6 TFLs, 1 INT), Marcus Gary (2 sacks, 3 TFLs, team-high 80 tackles) and Miller (1 sack, 2 1/2 TFLs, 2 forced fumbles, 1 recovered). They also return their special teams skill players, including kicker/punter/returner Brayden Costello, and the younger sophomore returner Brooks Brunner.

Hillside (3-6, 2-2, 3rd place in United Gold)
Head Coach: Isa Abdul-Quddus, 3rd season (8-11)

  • Week 0: at Columbia
  • Week 1: Roselle
  • Week 2: Delaware Valley*
  • Week 3: at Voorhees*
  • Week 4: at New Brunswick*
  • Week 5: Bernards
  • Week 6: North Plainfield*
  • Week 7: at Manville
  • Week 9: at Cranford

After a 5-5 debut season for head coach Abdul-Qudddus, the Comets dropped out of the playoff picture in 2026, and the skipper will have some work to do, with rising junior Muwahid Williams at least a candidate to start at QB, after throwing 6-of-15 for 96 yards and a touchdown in limited action last season behind the now-graduated Justin Ashford (889 yards, 7 TDs). No. 1 target Kamari Robinson (559 yards, 6 TD) also is gone, but top runningback Travis Miles (342 yards, 5 TDs) should return for his senior year. And while the defense also graduates a ton, perhaps their most disruptive member should be back; junior Kamsi Igboanugo had five sacks and 15 TFLs last season. Xavier DaSilva (13-16 on PATs, 2-5 on FGs) also should return for his junior season.

North Plainfield (3-6, 1-3, 4th place in United Silver)
Head Coach: Steven Brown, 1st season

  • Week 0: Orange
  • Week 1: South Plainfield
  • Week 2: at Voorhees*
  • Week 3: at New Brunswick*
  • Week 4: at JFK
  • Week 5: Spotswood
  • Week 6: at Hillside*
  • Week 7: at Delaware Valley*
  • Week 8: Brearley

Steven Brown comes in as the new head coach, and one of his first tasks will be to find a quarterback. Four played last year, including the now-graduated senior Jordan Burnett, who threw for 244 yards. Three juniors also saw snaps – including Evan Collazo, Alex Kruszczynski and Iam Lameira, a msulti-sport athlete who was 5.2 with a 2.62 ERA on the Cancuck baseball team this year. Top rusher Jordan Burnett (773 yards, 10 TD) and No. 2 Julius King (394 yards, 4 TD) also have graduated, but three sophomore receivers could make impacts as juniors this year. Defensively, junior DL Jeremiah Dorlus was the most disruptive player in 2025, with three sacks, while sophomore defensive back Anthony Costello had three picks, including one for a touchdown.

New Brunswick Zebras (1-9, 0-4, 5th place in United Silver)
Head Coach: Geoffrey Chrisman

  • Week 0: at Highland Park
  • Week 1: at Metuchen
  • Week 2: at Linden
  • Week 3: North Plainfield*
  • Week 4: Hillside*
  • Week 5: at Perth Amboy
  • Week 6: Delaware Valley*
  • Week 7: at Voorhees
  • Week 8: Scotch Plains-Fanwood

Despite a long losing streak – and few points scored – the Zebras persevered and finally picked up a win in Game 10 of the 2026 season, beating West Windsor-Plainsboro 36-0 in their season finale on October 29th. Like JP Stevens and Highland Park before them, all it takes is one to get the ball rolling, and New Brunswick has to hope that will be the case this year. After all, they don’t just start the season undefeated like everyone else, but there are very few teams who can say they ended their season with a win. Of course, there will be some graduation losses to deal with, but the charismatic Chrisman will just have to keep up his recruitment of the hallways to maintain his efforts to right the ship.