Tag: Brenden Pacheco

by Mike Pavlichko

Somerville’s Brenden Pacheco nabs 2024 Bellamy & Son Paving Player of the Week Scholarship

There were many great performances in high school football this season across the Big Central. So many outstanding efforts to choose from each week with the Bellamy & Son Paving Player of the Week Award, thanks to longtime youth sports supporter and Central Jersey Sports Radio founding sponsor Joe Bellamy.

Each week, we sifted through many nominations. Sometimes it was a slam dunk, some weeks it was more difficult.

In the end, we had to choose one winner for a $500 scholarship from Bellamy & Son Paving, and this year, it went to Somerset County and Somerville’s Brenden Pacheco.

The quarterback for the Liberty Silver Division and Central Jersey Group 3 champion Pioneers, Pacheco had a fantastic season leading a high-octane offense that had a perfect regular season and went 12-0 through their sectional title game win, falling only to Mainland in the Group 3 semifinals.

Pacheco won the award in Week Five for his five touchdown game – four passing, one rushing – against Summit. You can read more about his efforts in that game and the Honorable Mentions that week by clicking here.

Click below to Watch as Somerville’s Brenden Pacheco is surprised by Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko with the Bellamy & Son Paving Player of the Week Scholarship:

Here’s the full list of Bellamy & Son Paving Player of the Year Honorees. Click the links to read more about each player’s performance, plus Honorable Mentions and a full list of nominees.

by Mike Pavlichko

Perfect! Somerville makes it 12-0 with dominant 24-6 win over Delsea to take Central Group 3 title

All week long, people said Somerville would need to be ready for the vaunted Delaware Wing-T Delsea reinstalled as part of their offense to help them get in the playoffs and reach the Central Jersey Group 3 title game.

They were.

The top-seeded Pioneers only allowed one Delsea score – on the seventh-seeded Crusaders’ first possession of the game – but shut them out the rest of the way to earn a 24-6 win, claiming their first sectional title since 2017 and ninth overall, improving to 12-0 for the first time in school history.

Terrell Mitchel scored to cap the game’s opening drive, putting Somerville up 6-0 on a four-year touchdown run with 7:32 left in the opening period of the “Big Central Game of the Week” presented by Bellamy and Son Paving. The two point run failed.

Delsea (4-7) took nearly nine minutes and ran into the second quarter on their first possession, and finished off a 14-yard drive with a two-yard run by Dan Russo. Their PAT was a fake, and the two-point try failed as well.

In fact, Somerville, which scored the next three touchdowns, didn’t get any of their two-point attempts on the night, but it wouldn’t matter.

That’s because Brenden Pacheco put the team up 12-6 with 6:45 to go before the half on an eight-yard TD pass to Aidan Bush – who suffered a back injury later in the game, but was able to walk off under his own power. Less than five game minutes later, Pacheco hit tight end Max Nuzzi from 23 yards out to make it 18-6 before the break.

All the while Somerville’s defense was a crushing force on Delsea, which tried to spread the field left to right but could never turn the corner as the Pioneers controlled the line of scrimmage.

They allowed only three double-digit run plays from scrimmage all night, and the Crusaders threw the ball only once. Delsea finished with 166 yards of total offense, all on the ground, with 89 of those coming on their scoring drive.

Speaking of which, Somerville only punted once, scoring on every other possession, the last coming six seconds into the fourth quarter after Bush’s injury and a scoreboard malfunction. Josh Rodriguez took the snap at QB and run it in one yard for the score.

The 12 wins is a program record, and it was the third time the Pioneers won a sectional title with a perfect record. They were 11-0 in their state title seasons in 1983 and 1979. They also finished 9-0 in 1953 and 7-0-1 in 1929.

In 1909, they were also undefeated. But they only played one game that season – beating Bound Brook 16-5.

But the season is not done yet. The win puts Somerville in the Group 3 semifinals against South Jersey winner Mainland (9-3). The second-seeded Mustangs were 42-14 home winners over fourth-seed Seneca (8-4) Friday night. A win could make them the first Big Central team – Phillipsburg also will have a shot, depending when they play – the clinch a spot in a true state championship game.

The NJSIAA expanded to group champs in football two seasons ago, in 2022.

Click below for postgame reaction from Somerville’s win over Delsea in the Central Jersey Group 3 title game:

by Mike Pavlichko

Somerville’s speed sparks Pioneers past Summit for Week 5 Chris’ Auto Body “Drive of the Week”

Thanks to our newest sponsor, Chris’ Auto Body of Lambertville and New Hope, we have a new segment this football season on Central Jersey Sports Radio: “The Chris’ Auto Body Drive of the Week.”

Each week, we’ll pick the best drive from the previous weekend’s games, as shot by our high school football analyst Marcus Borden. And you’ll be able to watch the drive right here on cjsportsradio.com.

This week, it’s Somerville, which scored early and often in a 41-0 win over Summit in a battle of undefeated teams on Friday, October 4th at Brooks Field in Somerville. The long drive had two big run plays, the first from QB Brenden Pacheco to set up a Terrell Mitchell touchdown run to open the scoring.

Click below to watch the “Chris’ Auto Body Drive of the Week” for Week Five:

by Mike Pavlichko

Somerville’s Brenden Pacheco needed just 24 minutes to log 5 TDs, earn Week 5 Bellamy & Son Paving Player of Week Award

Five touchdowns by any player in a game is a pretty good number to put yourself in serious running for a player of the week award. But to do it in one half?

That’s what senior quarterback Brenden Pacheco did last week for then-No. 3 Somerville in a 41-0 win over visiting Summit at Brooks Field. He had four passing touchdowns of 44, 65, 18 and 57 yards, in that order, while also scoring on a nine-yard touchdown run.

Overall, he was 7-of-13 passing for 205 yards, while rushing five times for 68, a total of 273 yards from scrimmage.

And all that came as the Pioneers built up a 41-0 lead in the first half – playing more than half of the game with a running clock – and improved their record to 6-0.

All that has earned Brenden Pacheco of Somerville Bellamy & Son Paving Player of the Week honors for Week 5.

Somerville hosts North Hunterdon (2-4) this Thursday night back at Brooks Field.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko’s interview with Week Five Bellamy & Son Paving Player of the Week Brenden Pacheco of Somerville:

The Bellamy & Son Paving Player of the Week is chosen from nominees by Big Central coaches. At the end of the season, one player will be chosen to receive a $500 scholarship courtesy of Bellamy & Son Paving. As always, we will recognize selected “Honorable Mentions,” and recognize all other all nominees in our weekly story.

Honorable Mentions:

  • Na’quavere Thomas, Manville: IN a 41-20 home win over JP Stevens last Friday, the senior fullback led a big night with 396 team yards of total offense. Thomas rushed for 158 yards on 18 carries with touchdown runs of three and six yards. He also had two catches for 36 yards, one of which was a 25-yard touchdown catch. Defensively, at defensive tackle, Thomas recorded five tackles, three solo.
  • Ryan Turner, Ridge: The senior H-back rushed four times for 175 yards and two touchdowns, while also grabbing a 47-yard touchdown pass, in a 49-7 win over Union Friday night. He also had two kickoff returns for 69 yards. It all added up to 275 all-purpose yards on seven touches, with 3 TDs, an average of 39 yards per touch! Turner now has scored nine touchdowns in the last two weeks.
  • Chukwuma Odoh, St. Thomas Aquinas: With Chase Young out after collapsing on the field during the Trojans’ Week Four game at Elizabeth, the sophomore running back helped his team push Paramus Catholic down to the wire in overtime. He ran 28 times for 168 yards and two touchdowns. He “ran hard all night and kept us in the game,” says head coach Tarig Holman. His second TD gave Aquinas a chance to win, coming on fourth-and-goal from the three in overtime. But St. Thomas had a two-point throw broken up toe end the game, a 35-34 OT loss to the Paladins.
  • Landon Pernell, Piscataway: The sophomore quarterback was 13-of-17 for 262 yards and three touchdowns last Friday night in a 42-13 win at Sayreville. He found Zaire Young from 15 yards out, Jahai Johnson on a 25-yard strike, and Sean Love with a 35-yard TD pass, while also running for an 18-yard score – the longest run of his career. Ultimately, he tallied 262 yards of offense, the third best single-game mark in school history. The record holder is Chet Trechock, who accumulated 339 against Franklin in 1982, followed by Jamie Scholz’s 308 against East Brunswick in 1994.

Other Notable Performances:

  • Max Austin, Bernards: The senior defensive back had a big night in a 28-0 Homecoming win over South Plainfield Friday night. He picked off two passes – and now has five INTs on the season – and also had a fumble, a TFL (his third of the season) and two catches on offense. But his defensive efforts have been key for a Mountaineer team that has not allowed a point in the first half of any of their six games all year.
  • Alessandro Spera, Montgomery: The senior wide receiver had four catches for 129 yards and a touchdown – for 80 – that gave the struggling Cougars their first leas of the season. Spera also had ten tackles from his safety position in a 13-10 loss to Linden this past Saturday, a year after the teams played to an epic 42-42 tie a year ago in Week Seven.
  • A.J. Whitehead, New Providence: In a 26-19 win over Middlesex Friday night, the junior runningback was a workhorse, carrying 23 times for 143 yards and three touchdowns, of eight, eight and ten yards. His efforts were big in the second half, with the Pioneers trailing 19-7 in the third quarter: Whitehead had over 100 yards in the second half and scored two unanswered touchdowns for the win.
  • Antonio Sauchelli, North Hunterdon: In a 22-21 win at Monroe last week, the junior wideout grabbed eight catches for 149 yards and three touchdowns.
  • Stephen Henits, Spotswood: In a 28-0 win at Bound Brook, the senior wideout grabbed four passes for 99 yards, with three of them going for touchdowns, and even drew a defensive pass interference on another deep ball.
  • Matteo Tramutola, Voorhees: The junior runningback helped the Vikings get back to the .500 mark with a 47-22 win over North Plainfield last Friday night by tying his own school record with five touchdowns in the game. He carried 23 times for 249 yards and four touchdowns, and made just one catch – a 58-yard TD grab. To add to it, he had a sack and three tackles from his linebacker position.
by Mike Pavlichko

No. 3 Somerville blows past Summit, 41-0, in battle of undefeated teams at Brooks Field

Third-ranked Somerville remained undefeated Friday night, as the Pioneers improved to 6-0 with a 41-0 home win over Summit at Brooks Field, in a battle of undefeated teams.

Somerville scored three times in the first quarter to take a 20-0 lead on a Terrell Mitchel 21-yard touchdown run, a 57-yard TD pass from Brenden Pacheco to Brady Scheier, and a 65-yard strike to Max Nuzzi.

In the second, Pacheco found Nuzzi again from 18 yards away after the Pioneers got the ball on a Mitchell interception. A second strike to Scheier, again from 57 yards made it 34-0, then after a second Mitchell pick – with a running clock in play – Pacheco ran in a score from nine yards out to make it 41-0.

And with that running clock, Somerville and Summit (4-1) played a fast, scoreless second half.

Click below for postgame reaction with Marcus Borden, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen: