There can be no doubt, and no denying: the Phillipsburg football program has been the most successful and consistent of all 59 Big Central Conference football teams over the past five seasons.
In 2022 and 2023, the Stateliners reached sectional finals in Group 5, but lost both times. They followed that up by winning the next two – in 2024 over Northern Highlands and in 2025 over Montgomery – while playing in Group 5. And they even went all the way to the Group 4 state championship game at Rutgers in 2024 – the only BCC team to do so since state finals were introduced in 2022 where they fell to Winslow
This season, Phillipsburg is back up in Group 5, and just 48 minutes away from a fifth straight sectional finals appearance, something no other Big Central team has done since the league’s inception, and the first year back for playoffs in 2021 after the COVID-shortened year of 2020.
Saturday afternoon, the third-seeded Stateliners (7-2) play in the North 2, Group 5 semifinals at second-seed East Orange (7-2) in a game you can hear live on Central Jersey Sports Radio, beginning with pregame at 12:40 pm. Mike Pavlichko and Nick Hart have the call with kickoff at 1:00; click here to listen.
The winner will play in the title game next weekend, either at home against fourth-seed Passaic Tech or on the road at top-seed Elizabeth; those two play their semifinal game at 6 pm Friday night.
Phillipsburg has only played six games against New Jersey competition this year, adding three against Pennsylvania opponents in the early season. Their biggest wins came at St. Joseph of Metuchen in late September, 42-31, and at home against Bridgewater-Raritan in mid-October, 35-14, allowing them to claim a share of the American Silver Division title with the Panthers and Ridge.
They’re coming in off a 38-27 home win over seventh-seed Ridgewood last Friday night.
After a few years where the passing game mixed in more when the Stateliners had record-setting receiver Matthew Scerbo, Jr., Phillipsburg returned last year to a more run-heavy offense with sophomore QB Dominic Bracco running the show. He’s now a junior, but the game plan remains the same. The ‘Liners have thrown just 93 passes all season – averaging fewer than ten per game – while running it for over 2,000 yards, with 1,155 of those – and 11 touchdowns – coming from senior runningback Shane Moore. Three others have at least 38 carries apiece, including juniors Vincent Berger and Xavier Campbell-Graham, along with Bracco himself.
And the defense has been its regular stout self. While they gave up 32 points to Freedom (PA) in a loss on September 11, they allowed 31 points in a win over St. Joe’s and 21 to Parkland (PA) in their opener, in six other games they never allowed more than 14 points, until giving up 27 last week in a win over Ridgewood.
As for East Orange, they have a lot of offensive weapons, starting with senior QB Zach Concepcion, who has thrown for 2,315 yards and 24 touchdowns, with multiple targets to choose from. Top receiver Je’zi Lewis has 30 catches for 728 yards and nine touchdowns, and three others – Donovon Ottey-Campbell, Eric Wilkins and Musa Wittingburg – all have at least 18 catches, 435 yards receiving, and four TDs (Wittingburg has five).
And they will try to pester the heck out of Bracco on defense. The Jaguars have registered a whopping 31 sacks this year and 96 tackles for loss, while recovering eight fumbles and snaring nine interceptions, two of which have gone for touchdowns.
Click below to hear preview interviews with both head coaches: