Tag: Bill Tracy

October 17, 2025December 1, 2025 by Mike Pavlichko

No. 1 St. Joseph-Metuchen tops No. 3 St. Thomas Aquinas in Big Central parochial power battle, snapping Trojans’ record 35-game league winning streak in the process

All good things must come to an end.

That’s the 35-game Big Central winning streak – the longest in the short history of the fledgling league – which came to a crashing thud for No. 3 St. Thomas Aquinas Friday night, as No. 1 St. Joseph controlled their matchup in North Edison from start to finish for a convincing 41-19 win.

And with one end, comes a new beginning for the Falcons, who last week ascended to the top spot in the Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten with a 21-0 win over then-No. 1 Phillipsburg at home.

Maybe they’ll be the next one to put together such a streak. If they way they’ve been playing this year is any indication, that could be a distinct possibility.

Senior quarterback Justin Scaramuzzo opened the scoring with a touchdown pass to Kenny Noonan with 2:23 left in the opening quarter, then followed it up with a 20-yard strike to Reggie Bropleh at 8:55 of the second – following a fourth-down stop by the Falcons’ defense – to make it 14-0.

But the Trojans would cut it to a one-score game with 2:59 left before halftime with a Zymere Weaver six-yard touchdown pass to Anwar Witherspoon. A one-yard Scaramuzzo run with 29 ticks on the clock put Joe’s up 21-7 headed into the locker room.

In the third, after an Aquinas touchdown was called back on a penalty, they were stopped on fourth down and Joe’s answered with a 16-yard TD catch by Edgar Cruz with 3:54 left in the third.

But Aquinas would get the next two scores to stay in it. They got a kickoff return for a score by Anthony Perez, making it 28-13 after they missed a two-point try, then Weaver found Witherspoon again from 35-yards out to make it 28-19, again missing on a two-point try.

From there, the Falcons hunkered down, and pulled away.

Scaramuzzo hit Bropleh from 25-yards out to make it 35-19 with 9:29 left, the Falcons recovered a fumble on the next possession, and capitalized with the third Scaramuzzo-Bropleh connection of the game with 6:49 to go, making it 41-19.

St. Joseph (7-0) is back in action next Saturday against No. 2 Woodbridge (7-0), while the Trojans will visit No. 7 Sayreville (6-1).

Click below to watch postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio analyst Marcus Borden with St. Joseph-Metuchen head coach Bill Tracy and seniors Reggie Bropleh and Justin Scaramuzzo, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

October 11, 2025October 11, 2025 by Mike Pavlichko

No. 6 St. Joseph-Metuchen dominates second half, stuns No. 1 Phillipsburg with 21-0 shutout, as head coach Bill Tracy earns 150th career win

Most people would not have been surprised whoever won Saturday afternoon’s game between Phillipsburg and St. Joseph-Metuchen.

But few probably figured the No. 1 Stateliners and No. 6 Falcons would have been scoreless at the half, and probably fewer would have predicted a shutout in either direction.

But stout play up front on both sides of the ball was the decisive edge, and the Falcons came out with a 21-0 win at Brenner Family Field on the “Big Central Game of the Week” presented by Bellamy & Son Paving, one that will send ripples throughout all the media rankings, including Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Tied 0-0 at the break, St. Joseph scored three times in a 12 minute span in the second half. The first was a one-yard run by Michael Willett III, with a goal line play set up after a long run at the 3:07 mark of the third quarter.

Then, just three-plus minutes into the fourth, another big play set up a six-yard touchdown pass from Justin Scaramuzzo to Reggie Bropleh for his fourth TD catch of the year, making it 14-0.Then, a 24-yard run by Willett, his second TD of the game, provided the final margin.

All the while, the St. Joe’s defense continually stuffed running plays.

Oh, and Joe Ketuskey.

The sophomore cornerback had two interceptions off a fellow sophomore, ‘Liners QB Dominic Bracco, who hadn’t thrown a pick all year coming into the matchup.

The win was one of the biggest for St. Joseph in its young history; this is just the school’s 15th year of varsity football, while Phillipsburg is in its 120th. Also for consideration would be a win against a highly-rated Pope John club in October of 2023.

But it was also win No. 150 in head coach Tracy’s career. He was 56-57 in 12 seasons at Livingston, then 71-44 in eleven at Ridge, and now is 23-13 in Metuchen with the Falcons.

St. Joseph is now 6–0 ahead of a road game next week at St. Thomas Aquinas, while Phillipsburg drops to 5-1 and is back in action next Friday at home against Union.

Click below for postgame reaction from senior Reggie Bropleh and sophomore Joe Ketuskey, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen, followed by head coach Bill Tracy:

Reggie Bropleh, Joe Ketuskey

Head Coach Bill Tracy

October 10, 2025October 10, 2025 by Mike Pavlichko

No. 1 Phillipsburg faces stiff road test Saturday afternoon at No. 6 St. Joseph in battle of undefeated teams

There have been 14 different teams ranked in the Bellamy & Son Paving Big Central Top Ten this season, but not a huge amount of matchups between ranked teams.

One of the biggest in the league this season will take place Saturday afternoon in Metuchen when 6th-ranked St. Joseph faces No. 1 Phillipsburg, in a battle of two 5-0 teams.

And both might very well be playing some of the best football since the BCC’s inaugural, COVID-shortened season of 2020.

The Stateliners have had double-digit wins the last three seasons and are likely headed toward that again. They’ve been to three straight sectional finals, getting over the hump last year with a win over Northern Highlands, and became the first Big Central team to reach the NJSIAA’s state group finals, falling to Winslow Twp. at Rutgers in the last game of the high school season in New Jersey.

St. Joseph went 5-5 in Bill Tracy’s first season, then improved to 7-3, but slipped back last year to 5-5, following a 5-0 start. Their first loss came out at Phillipsburg, then they lost three more in the regular season before falling to Don Bosco in the opening round of the playoffs.

This season? The Stateliners picked up right where they left off, despite graduation losses of key players like Jett Genovese, Felix Matos and Matthew Scerbo, Jr. Sophomore Dominic Bracco has managed the games, and he and others like Jayson Blacknall, Tyler Wargo and Sem Dech do their things.

The Falcons, meanwhile, have been solid again with guys like senior Justin Scaramuzzo at quarterback and Reggie Bropleh, Dylan Pierce and others making plays. The defense has held three teams to single-digit scoring – with a shutout of Westfield – and has allowed an average of just 11 points a game all season.

The Stateliners also shutout Westfield this season, but have allowed 20 points in each of the last two games, wins at Hillsborough and at home last week against West Orange. And last week was the first time Phillipsburg had trailed in a game after the first quarter.

You can hear Saturday’s game right here on Central Jersey Sports Radio (click here to listen) with kickoff set for 1:00 in Metuchen. Pregame is at 12:45 as Mike Pavlichko calls all the play-by-play with Max Scheiner serving as analyst.

Click below to hear preview interviews from both head coaches:

Phillipsburg head coach Frank Duffy

St. Joseph-Metuchen head coach Bill Tracy

September 5, 2025September 6, 2025 by Mike Pavlichko

St. Joseph scores in all three phases, takes down No. 7 Ridge on the road, 24-7

24. That’s the benchmark.

That’s the magic number St. Joseph-Metuchen head coach Bill Tracy wants for his football team, and he isn’t really that concerned with how they get there.

But he had to be happy Friday night, as the Falcons went up to Basking Ridge to face his old school, Ridge, and came out with a 24-7 win in which they scored in all three phases of the game: two offensive touchdowns, one defensive, and one on special teams, with a field goal.

In fact, St. Joe’s scored all 24 points before Ridge could even get on the board with a 33-yard touchdown run by Nick Pfennig in the third quarter.

And all that scoring came in the first half. In the opening quarter, Reggie Bropleh caught an 18-yard touchdown pass from Justin Scaramuzzo. Then, it was the defense’s turn, as Jason Gross scooped up a fumble and took it 36-yards to paydirt.

In the second quarter, Scaramuzzo scampered 14 yards for a score, and Austin Loreti kicked a 42-yard field goal. He almost had a second, which he just missed wide.

Scaramuzzo finished 9-of-16 passing for 102 yards and a score, while running for 91 on 16 carries with another touchdown.

St. Joseph improves to 1-0 with the win, and will face Union (0-2) on the road next week, the second of two away from Metuchen to open the season. Ridge falls to 0-1 and will play its next two games on the road, with a trip to Hillsborough (1-1) next Friday night, before visiting Phillipsburg the following week.

Click below fro postgame reaction from St. Joseph-Metuchen head coach Bill Tracy with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

August 19, 2025August 19, 2025 by Mike Pavlichko

St. Joseph-Metuchen’s goal: finish strong in ’25

The 2024 high school football season got off to a great start for St. Joseph-Metuchen. The Falcons began the year 5-0, with the first of those wins coming over a solid Ridge squad that beat eventual state Group 4 finalist Phillipsburg a couple of weeks later.

But not long after the calendar turned to October, things went the other way. After a loss on the road to the Stateliners, tougher competition continued to prevail, with losses to St. Thomas Aquinas and Woodbridge – neither of whom lost a Big Central game last year – then to St. John Vianney in the regular season final before a first round playoff loss at Don Bosco Prep.

This year, the players say “finish.” That is, not just finish games. Finish each play. Finish each rep in practice. Go wire-to-wire.

Returning is senior quarterback Justin Scaramuzzo, who threw for nearly 2,000 yards and 18 touchdowns last season. He was also the team’s number two rusher, with 324 yards and eight more scores. He’ll need some new players, though, to develop at the runningback and receiver positions.

Defensively, there will also be key pieces to replace, like Tyler Huseth, who was a beast with nine sacks and six tackles for loss, as well as a fumble recovery.

Either way, head coach Bill Tracy feels he has the right kind of kids in the program, not only with freshmen, but also some transfers. But they’re all guys who he calls “high character people.”

“The talent is second to that,” Tracy says.

Click below to hear St. Joseph-Metuchen head coach Bill Tracy with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko at Big Central Conference Media Day:

October 18, 2024October 16, 2024 by Mike Pavlichko

Falcons look to rebound off first loss of season as St. Joseph welcomes St. Thomas Aquinas

The old adage is that coaches can tell more about their teams after a loss than a win.

What St. Joseph-Metuchen learned last Friday night between 7:00 and 9:30 is that Phillipsburg is a very good football team.

The Falcons are, too. Both are 5-1 and have dominated opponents at times this year.

But where Bill Tracy will learn the most about his team is how his players respond to their first defeat of the season, a 49-14 loss at Phillipsburg.

Of course, if you believe in the transitive property of sports, there’s this: St. Joe’s beat Ridge, Ridge then beat Phillipsburg, then Phillipsburg beat St. Joe’s. Time is, indeed, a flat circle.

This Saturday, the seventh-ranked Falcons (5-1) get another stiff test. They will host No. 3 St. Thomas Aquinas (5-2) in a “Big Central Game of the Week” presented by Bellamy & Son Paving. Kickoff is at 11 am, with pregame at 10:45 on Central Jersey Sports Radio as Mike Pavlichko and Vin Ebenau call all the action. Click here to listen.

The Falcons are led by quarterback Justin Scaramuzzo, a junior who has been excellent in his first year as a starter, with 1,373 yards passing and 12 touchdowns, to go along with just one interception. Four receivers have at least eleven catches.

On the defensive end, Tyler Huseth has been the most disruptive, with a team-best seven sacks and three TFLs, while defensive back Ashton Irving has grabbed a team best six interceptions.

It’ll be the first meeting between the schools since 2015, their fifth overall; the Falcons – who only began playing varsity football in 2011 – have won all four previous meetings.

Click below to hear St. Joseph head coach Bill Tracy talk about the Falcons and Saturday’s game against St. Thomas Aquinas:

October 6, 2023 by Mike Pavlichko

St. Joseph-Metuchen uses 3 TD effort from DeCaro to score 35-14 win at Edison

It was a short trip down from Metuchen for the St. Joseph Falcon football team Friday night to play Edison, and the short trip back was a happy one.

Senior Jeremey DeCaro scored three different ways en route to a 35-14 road win at Edison.

DeCaro opened the scoring in the first quarter with a 22-yard touchdown run, followed by a one-yard run by Jason Ridges, Jr., to make it 14-0.

Then, DeCaro picked off a pass in the second quarter and ran it back 64 yards for a score, and hauled in a six-yard touchdown catch from Daniel DeGennaro to make it 28-0.

Edison got one right back on a kickoff return by speedster Ricky Harvey, but that was as close as they would get at 28-7 at the half.

Joe’s got a four-yard touchdown run from Jahcir Styles in the third quarter, and Landen Cruz caught a 19-yard touchdown pass from Landen Cruz in the fourth for the final score.

The Falcons are now 4-2 on the year, while the Eagles drop to 3-4.

Click below for postgame reaction from Marcus Borden in Edison, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

October 7, 2022October 6, 2022 by Mike Pavlichko

St. Joseph looks to get back on winning track against Edison, amid hype of program’s first-ever home game under the lights

The first season for St. Joseph-Metuchen head coach Bill Tracy got off to a great beginning with a 3-0 start. That’s been tempered a bit by two straight losses by three and four points, respectively, to Elizabeth and Westfield.

But the Falcons still have a chance to make some noise, currently sitting at 3-2 heading into Friday night’s home affair with Edison (4-2).

That’s right, it’s a Friday night game at St. Joe’s, where they will hold Falcons Fest, the school’s first-ever Homecoming, and the program’s first-ever under-the-lights home game, with rented illumination for the evening. Kickoff is at 6:30 pm, with pregame set for 6:45 on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Mike Pavlichko and Chris Tsakonas have the call. Click here to listen.

It’s been a run-heavy offense for St. Joe’s, which has already racked up 1,057 yards and 13 touchdowns on the ground in its first five games, averaging 6.7 yards per carry. It’s been a three-headed monster in the backfield, with Omari Jones, Jeremy DeCaro and Jo Jo Huntley accounting for 937 of those yards and 11 of those touchdowns.

When the Falcons have dropped back to pass, they’ve relied on first year varsity junior Daniel DeGennaro. He’s shown signs of promise with 581 yards and three passing touchdowns to his name. DeCarro is the top receiver with 235 yards and a touchdown on 11 catches, with tight end Christian Magliacano getting 182 yards and a touchdown on 12 receptions.

Magliacano also spearheads the linebacking corp on the defensive side of the ball, leading St. Joe’s with 43 tackles. Dan Bellavia has been productive on the defensive line, with 5 sacks on the year.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Chris Tsakonas talk with St. Joe’s head coach Bill Tracy:

October 3, 2022 by Mike Pavlichko

St. Joseph-Metuchen gearing up for a first: its very own “Friday Night Lights”

St. Joseph-Metuchen High School President John Nolan had an idea. Why not host a night football game?

Brenner Family Field was a nice artificial playing surface to be sure, but the addition of a stadium with press box to open the 2020 school year had Nolan and school officials thinking bigger.

First-year head coach Bill Tracy liked the idea.

The program played its first varsity season in 2011, and since then has hosted all its home games on Saturday afternoons, with no permanent lights around the all-purpose field and track loop right off of Plainfield Avenue in Metuchen.

So, this weekend, St. Joe’s will bring in rented lights, and have a full weekend of activities dubbed “Fall Fest,” including a couple of firsts: not only the school’s first-ever home football night game – as the Falcons take on Edison in the Big Central Game of the Week on Central Jersey Sports Radio (6:30 pm, pregame 6:15) – but also its first-ever Homecoming Weekend.

Mike Pavlichko got a chance to talk to Bill Tracy earlier this season – shortly after the the announcement was first made by the school – about the night game, the festivities around it, and more.

Click below to hear the interview, and scroll down for a link to all the festivities planned this weekend at St. Joseph-Metuchen:

Click here for information on St. Joseph’s first-ever Homecoming Weekend activities

January 5, 2022 by Mike Pavlichko

St. Joseph-Metuchen taps former Ridge mentor Bill Tracy to lead Falcons

Two years removed from a highly successful run as the head football coach at Ridge – and after spending those two years as the offensive coordinator at Governor Livingston, coaching his son at quarterback – Bill Tracy is headed to the Brainy Boro.

Tracy – who won a state championship for the Red Devils with a perfect 12-0 season in 2013 – has been named St. Joseph’s head football coach. The school announced the hiring in a press release Wednesday.

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Having begun his head coaching career at Livingston, Tracy owns a career record of 127-101, including a 71-44 mark in eleven seasons at Ridge. He left after the 2019 season to coach his youngest son, Connor, at Governor Livingston, which went 4-2 in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, but struggled with a vast amount of youth in 2021.

Tracy is highly-regarded in New Jersey high school coaching circles. He’s known as a class individual, and a tactician, with a deeply-analytical mind for the game.

Ridge won at least seven games five times during Tracy’s tenure there, and went to two state finals, winning one of them. The Red Devils lost to Phillipsburg 34-7 in the North 2, Group 4 finals in his debut season in Basking Ridge, but beat Union in a “nearly-perfect” game in 2013, 48-13 at Rutgers to win the North 2, Group 5 crown. In that game, Ridge scored on all but one possession, when a field goal attempt hit one of the uprights.

Ironically, his best team at Livingston was knocked out of the playoffs by Ridge in 2003, as the Red Devils – then coached by Tom Falato – won their first-ever playoff championship. (Ridge was declared a state champion in Central Jersey Group 2 in 1987.)

Only the fourth head coach in St. Joe’s brief gridiron history, Tracy replaces Rich Hilliard, who stepped down this year after a five-season run with a 30-17 mark. Bob Molarz began the program in 2009, with the first varsity team taking the field in 2011; he was 8-11 in two seasons. Casey Ransone took the helm for the next four years, and went 26-13, running the table in the GMC to a pair of division titles in 2013 and 2016, his first and final seasons.

In a press release, school President John Nolan thanked Hilliard for his contributions to the “Falcon family,” and went on to welcome Tracy: “Beyond proving himself as a winner, Coach Tracy has demonstrated his dedication to student-athletes with exemplary character. This will remain a program committed to excellence both in the classroom and on the field.”

Athletic Director Mike Murray added, “His teaching goes beyond the X’s and O’s of the game,” referring to Tracy. “He also strives to instill integrity in the young men he coaches. In our search process, Coach Tracy showed that he’s a great fir for the Saint Joe’s community. I can’t wait to see out student-athletes mature and flourish under his tutelage.”

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk with Bill Tracy about becoming St. Joseph’s new head coach: