Tag: Blair Wilson

by Mike Pavlichko

Jah’naad Cady TD as time expires sends Franklin past Edison on the road, 33-28, in wild game from start to finish

Minor league baseball runs a lot of promotions and gimmicks, one of which is a baseball bingo card, with all different kinds of plays. Some are simple, some are complicated.

If you had one of those for Friday’s high school football game between Edison and Franklin, everyone would have won. This one had something for everyone.

Interceptions. Penalties. Tipped balls. Fumbles. A fumble where Franklin lost it with a pick, Edison got it, and Franklin got it back on the same play.

Edison, down 27-20 with 4:24 to play after a 12-yard TD run by Franklin’s Jah’naad Cady, answered with a long drive and five-yard touchdown run by Shaun Garland with just over 46 seconds to play. The extra point put them up 28-27, but they probably should have been down more.

That’s because Franklin, on its previous touchdown, lined up for a PAT, got called for delay of game, called another timeout, then picked up another delay of game call. Now, 13 yards from the end zone, staring at a 30-yard PAT, went for two and failed.

But Franklin got the ball back, with one time outs left, and got a big pass play to Amir Glover – after callig their final time out – to set them up first and goal at the seven. But with no time outs – and not even enough time for a short run out of bounds – Cady made the game his.

He saw open field to his left, threaded through two Edison defenders, and left them on the turf as he crossed the goal line with the clock reading :00.

33-28, Franklin over Edison.

It was the Warriors first win against Edison since their first meeting in 2020, a 7-6 victory. Edison had won three since and leads the all-time series 3-2.

Franklin is now 3-2, 1-1 in the Big Central National Silver Division heading into next Friday’s game at Plainfield. Edison drops to 1-4, 1-2 in the division. The Eagles visit Colonia next week.

Click below for postgame reaction from Franklin QB Jah’naad Cady and head coach Blair Wilson, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

Franklin has had success keeping standouts home; keeps improving heading into BCC National Silver clash at Edison Friday

Four weeks into Blair Wilson’s fourth season as Franklin’s head coach, it’s all starting to come together for the Warriors. With 95 points (14 touchdowns) over the last two weeks, Wilson is finally seeing the offense he envisioned when he handed the keys to then-freshman quarterback Jah’Naad Cady in August of 2023.

It wasn’t without bumps and bruises. The Warriors went 3-8 in 2023 and then lost 6-of-7 to finish 4-6 in 2024. When Cady would struggle, Wilson would remind him of the vision: “By the time you’re a junior, it’ll start feeling like Pop Warner again.”

Cady is completing almost 80 percent of his passes this season for 576 yards and five touchdowns. He’s also run for almost 300 yards and five more scores. Franklin has scored 14 touchdowns the last two weeks, and Cady has contributed to eight of them.

“I threw him in the fire his freshman year, and this is where I thought he would be come his junior year,” Wilson says.

It will be a true litmus test for Cady and Franklin Friday night when the Warriors (2-2) visit Edison (1-3) in the “Big Central Game of the Week” presented by Bellamy & Son Paving. Kickoff is at 7 pm, with Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe on the call. Pregame starts at 6:45; Click here to listen.

Franklin last beat Edison in 2020, their first-ever meeting. It was the opening game of the COVID season, and played at neither high school, but at the Pop Warner field – where it all started for Cady – at Middlebush Park.

Despite a loss in their rematch in 2022 – close calls in 2023 and 2024 – the Warriors haven’t been able to get over the hump against the Eagles since. But with Cady surging in his third-year as a starter, a major opportunity for this red-hot Franklin offense awaits.

Click below to hear Franklin head coach Blair Wilson talk about the Warriors and Friday’s game against Edison with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Justin Sontupe:

by Mike Pavlichko

Franklin ends three-game skid after 3-0 start with last-minute TD, 22-0 victory at Sayreville

No one led by more than a touchdown, and Franklin snapped a three-game losing streak that found them back at .500 after a 3-0 start with a 22-20 road win at Sayreville Friday night.

Troy Hyman scored two touchdowns for the Warriors, including the game-tying touchdown with under a minute to play, before a two-point conversion pass put them ahead for good.

Franklin’s Michael Rogers opened the scoring, catching a 12-yard touchdown pass from Jah’naad Cady, but Shuan Jackson ran one in from four-yards out for Sayreville, which missed the extra point, making it 7-6.

Hyman scored on a one-yard run in the second to put Franklin up 14-6, and then Sayreville roared back after halftime. Devyn McCall made it 14-12 on a ten-yard touchdown run, and Jackson then scored and ran in a two-point try to make it 20-14 Bombers at the end of three.

The fourth quarter was tense. The Warriors got stopped on fourth down early. Later, Cady threw a deep ball that was picked off by Sayreville’s Sherwin Appiah, but he fumbled it as he was tackled, and Franklin recovered inside the ten.

That set up Hyman’s heroics to tie the game at 20 on an eight-yard touchdown run, and Cady hit Alieu Kallon for the two-point conversion to make it 22-20 Franklin.

Sayreville got the ball back, but Franklin stopped them on a fourth-down play to hang on for the win.

Franklin (4-3) will visit Monroe next Friday night, while the Bombers dropped to 2-5 and will visit Montgomery next Friday evening.

Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Marcus Borden, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

After winless season, Franklin’s off-season work pays off, Warriors head into Montgomery at 1-0

Going through an 0-8 season isn’t easy. Sometimes when you don’t win, you don’t know how to win. How can you do one without the other?

Well, Franklin has done it, and the hard work paid off.

The Warriors beat East Brunswick last Friday on the road 27-12 – forcing Bears’ QB Vito Tropeano, Jr. into three interceptions – for the program’s first win since November, 2021. And they are doing more than hoping that more wins will come. They are working hard toward that goal.

Head coach Blair Wilson says it’s all about the challenging work – on and off the field – his team put in this summer, as well as their experiences last year. If in the past, they didn’t know how to finish, now they do; they’ve actually done it.

It’s not an easy schedule, with teams like Piscataway, Hunterdon Central, Sayreville and others on the schedule. But they’ll lace it up again Friday when they head to Montgomery for the second of a three-game road stretch to start the season.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko with Franklin head coach Blair Wilson, along with junior two-way lineman Ethan Villa and senior tight end/linebacker Joseph Nwachukwu: