Tag: Dave LePoidevin

by Mike Pavlichko

Rebound year for Bound Brook football finds Crusaders 4-1, but biggest tests lie ahead

The first half-plus of the 2025 high school football season if off to the best start in five years for the Bound Brook football team.

Considering where they had been – winless in 2022, 2-7 in 2023 and 1-8 in 2024 – their 4-1 record through five games gives them more wins than they’ve had the last three years combined.

The remarkable turnaround is the result of a number of factors.

Numbers are up, from about 18 at the end of last year, where head coach Dave LePoidevin says the team was using trash cans as tackle dummies, to now having 41 on the varsity roster midway through the season.

There was a determination by a dedicated senior class to not go through another one-win season. Being determined is one thing, but following through is another, and they’ve done that.

The third was the hiring of former St. Joseph-Metuchen head coach Rich Hilliard as the offensive coordinator. Last year’s team rushed for 1,037 yards and threw for 717 in nine games. This year, they’ve rushed for 100 more yards and thrown for 515 in just five games.

They’re also scoring 32 points per game, including their season-opening loss to North Warren. Last year, they were averaging 14. Spotswood coach Chris Meagher – whose team will host Bound Brook Friday night – says he can see Hilliard’s influence.

LePoidevin will first point to his players, and their resolve to not repeat 2024. Or 2023. Or 2022, for that matter. And so far, those seasons and this one look light years apart.

Senior quarterback John Archer has passed for 554 yards (and 4 touchdowns) and run for 432, putting him just 14 away from 1,000 yards of total offense so far. Senior runningback Jake Markey has carried 61 times for 468 yards. Both have a half dozen rushing TDs.

Zahmir Moore has been big on both sides of the ball, LePoidevin points out. The junior has 15 catches for 189 yards and two scores, while also logging 29 tackles, 17 solo, three TFLs, and three interceptions. He also had a fumble recovery in the end zone for a touchdown last week to open the scoring in a 28-27, fourth-quarter, come-from-behind victory over Belvidere.

Even special teams has gotten into the act, according to LePoidevin. Zion Quesada had hit on 17 of 18 PATs – never a sure thing on the scholastic level – while his twin brother Xavier has been helping the Crusaders win the field position battle with his punting. Both are seniors.

Now, however, comes the most challenging part of the schedule. Starting Friday, the Crusaders not only begin a three-game road stretch, but three of their last four opponents all enter Week 5 of play with unblemished records.

First, they get Spotswood, which is 5-0. After a trip to Middlesex next week for a key division game, they’ll visit New Providence (4-0) on October 17, then close out back at LaMonte Field on the Friday of Cutoff Weekend in a game that – should they beat Middlesex – would decide the Freedom Silver Division title.

Making the playoffs still won’t be easy. The Crusaders currently sit 17th in the South Group 1 supersection playoff standings. Even with a win over Middlesex, they might need to knock off one of those unbeatens.

Manville is a big rivalry game. Even if it’s not for the division, a lot could be on the line, and anything can happen in those type of games.

LePoidevin says his players were determined not to have a repeat of 2024 in 2025. Manville trounced them last year 42-3. And you can be sure they don’t want a repeat of that either.

If it goes as well as the rest of the season has gone, we could very well see the Crusaders playing meaningful November football.

And that would be a win all on its own.

Click below to hear Bound Brook head coach Dave LePoidevin talk about the 2025 Cruaders’ success with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

by Mike Pavlichko

Bound Brook football getting tremendous support from administration, hits paydirt with first win since ’21

Following an 0-9 season in 2022, there was no doom and gloom around the Bound Brook football program.

That could have easily been the case, but it wasn’t.

To start, the administration already had planned upgrades to LaMonte Field, which got its turf replaced this summer and also installed new LED lights that can put on a show whenever the team scores.

Well, they got to do that plenty Friday night in a 35-13 win over South River, the Crusaders’ first victory since late October, 2021, when they beat Roselle 20-14.

The other positivity came from kids in school. The ones who came out last year – some of whom who were being taught things like “once we punt, we’re on defense,” and “four downs to get ten yards” – stuck around and hit the weight room. Basketball players came out for football, in a true sense of school spirit.

Now, three games into the season, the streak is history, and Bound Brook will try and get on a two-game win streak – something it last did in the first two games of 2021 – when the Crusaders play host to Voorhees (1-3) this Friday night.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk to Bound Brook head coach Dave LePoidevin about ending the streak, and strengthening the Crusader program:

by Mike Pavlichko

Veteran skill players lead young Bound Brook in Crusaders push for playoff berth

Patrick LePoidevin. Sharrod Tedder. Bryce Cobb. Jayden Brimage.

If you were handed those four young men on a silver platter, you’d take them on your football team.

Bound Brook has them, but the Crusaders still find themselves with two weeks of likely must-win games in order to make the playoffs.

That push continues Friday night when Bound Brook (3-4) entertains longtime rival Manville (5-1) in the Big Central Game of the Week, driven by Mark Montenero and his team at the world-famous Autoland.

Mike Pavlichko and Dom Savino will call the game on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with pregame at 6:45 pm and kickoff at 7:00 from LaMonte Field in Bound Brook. You can click here to listen to the game live.

Other than the four above, Bound Brook is young, with several freshmen starting in key places. Three of the four defensive line starters against Manville will be ninth-graders, “14 years old,” as head coach Dave LePoidevin points out.

Others are inexperienced, like Ronny Pimentel. He’s impressed his head coach, to be sure, but it’s still the junior’s first year of organized football. He’s a baseball player, but LePoidevin convinced him to come out to the gridiron, too.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk with Dave LePoidevin about Bound Brook’s season, and Friday night’s game against Manville:

by Mike Pavlichko

This Week in the Big Central – Episode 9: The Home Stretch

Episode 9 of “This Week in the Big Central,” driven by Mark Montenero and his team at the world-famous Autoland, focuses on the push to the playoffs just one week out from Cutoff Weekend.

Mike Pavlichko looks back at the week gone by and the playoff implications of some of the Week Seven games, then examines who’s in – and who’s on the bubble – down the home stretch of the season.

We hear from founding sponsor Elite QB, with Coach Matt Bastardi’s “Elite Performers of the Week,” and a look at the Bellamy & Son Paving Player of the Week, Montgomery’s Alex Benitez, who caught the ball, ran the ball, kicked the ball and intercepted the ball in a win over Scotch Plains-Fanwood.

Mike wraps it up with a look at the Week Eight slate.

by Mike Pavlichko

Crusaders will need to improve line play to get back to winning ways against New Providence

It’s a returning cast of characters for Bound Brook, when the Crusaders face New Providence Friday night in the first of two Big Central Games of the Week driven by Mark Montenero and his team at the world-famous Autoland.

Senior Patrick LePoidevin has thrown for 646 yards and nine touchdowns without tossing a single pick.

And he’s got a lot of skill guys to throw or hand the ball off to.

There’s Jayden Brimmage and Sharrod Tedder on the receiving end. Brimmage has nine receptions for a massive 255 yards (28.3 per catch) and six scores, while Tedder has 32 for 271 and a touchdown.

And while Tedder is second in receiving yards, he leads the ground game with 271 yards on 32 rushes, with a touchdown.

But head coach Dave LePoidevin – the quarterback’s father – says line play has to improve for the team to have continued success in 2021, and that starts Friday night against New Providence, and bruising runningback Charlie Barth, who ran for over 1,700 yards and 25 touchdowns last year, while leading the Big Central in tackles with 115 tackles, good enough to finish top ten in the state.

Friday night’s game at New Providence kicks off at 7:00. Mike Pavlichko and Dom Savino have the call with pregame starting at 6:45. You can listen to the game for free by clicking here.

Click below to hear Dom Savino talk with Bound Brook head coach Dave LePoidevin about the Crusaders’ early season, and Friday’s matchup with the Pioneers: