Tag: Frank Duffy

by Chris Tsakonas

Top-ranked Phillipsburg looks to build off dominant start on Friday night trip to Ridge

After finishing 10-2 with a run to the sectional finals last season, Phillipsburg has picked up right where it left off this fall.

The Stateliners come into Friday’s matchup against Ridge with a 2-0 record after shutting out previously undefeated Hunterdon Central 35-0 last Friday – and that win came on the heels of a convincing 44-17 win over Westfield to kick off the season.

You can hear that game – our “Big Central Game of the Week” presented by Bellamy & Son Paving – on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with our pregame show hitting the airwaves at 6:45, kickoff at 7. Mike Pavlichko and Chris Tsakonas will be on the call; click here to listen.

It’s been a veteran group leading the way for Phillipsburg, led by a senior trio of starting quarterback Jett Genovese and receivers Matthew Scerbo, Jr., and Felix Matos. The run game has once again been a key part of the offense, as Sam Dech and Jah’quill Dooley have combined for 390 yards and four touchdowns on the ground.

The Stateliners have excelled at stopping the run, allowing just 73 yards of rushing offense last Friday against Hunterdon Central. Phillipsburg’ secondary trio of Scerbo, Matos and Jaysen Blacknail have also contained the passing attack, with an average of 98.5 yards per game allowed through the air.

Phillipsburg has had the upper hand against Ridge historically, as the Stateliners come into this one with a nine-game winning streak that dates back to 2009.

Click below to hear Phillipsburg head coach Frank Duffy talk about the Stateliners with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Chris Tsakonas:

by Mike Pavlichko

Beating Easton is always the No. 1 goal, but Phillipsburg also is seeking elusive state title

When we talked to Phillipsburg coach Frank Duffy at the inaugural Big Central Conference Media Day last August, and mentioned they were 11-1 with a “disappointing” end to the season with a loss to West Orange in the sectional finals, he was quick to point out, “Well, we beat Easton.”

Touche.

So, we mentioned that again this year. But even after beating Easton twice in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2002 and 2003, there’s still a sense something is missing.

Luckily, not too many parts are missing from last year’s team, including a senior who will be starting at quarterback for a third straight year, in Jett Genovese.

Last season, he threw for 1,351 yard and 14 touchdowns with just four interceptions. That followed a very similar sophomore season – he had been quite the steady leader – and has amassed 2,731 yards passing, 27 touchdowns and just seven picks in two years as a starter.

And though the ground game may have some question marks, two of the team’s top two receivers – Matthew Scerbo Jr. and Felix Matos – are back, along with key defensive seniors like Jah’quil Dooley, Ben Coury, Jayden Lucas, and the aforementioned Matos, who had three picks last year, tied with three others for the team lead.

This is some stretch the Stateliners have had, 21-3 over the last two years with two wins over Easton. But with two of those losses coming in state sectional title games – last year to Union City – there’s still a feeling of unfinished business in P’burg.

Click below to hear from Phillipsburg head coach Frank Duffy and senior and third-year starting quarterback Jett Genovese:

by Mike Pavlichko

Phillipsburg well-prepped for Union City’s Wing-T thanks to regular season experience

Few high school football teams see the Wing-T offense once in a year.

Phillipsburg has seen it twice now, and will get a third look Friday night when the Stateliners host Union City Friday at Maloney Stadium in the North 2, Group 2 Finals.

Heading into their second straight trip to a sectional title game, the ‘Liners saw that style of offense when facing Ridge and Sayreville, games they both won this year.

Union City, though, may play it more physical than both, and certainly runs the ball at a much higher rate than either Ridge or Sayreville do. The Red Devils’ rushing attack accounted for 70-percent of their total offensive yards this year. Sayreville got 81-percent of its yards on the ground.

Union City? They’re rushed for 2,487 yards and thrown for just 124, only attempting 25 passes all season.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk with Phillipsburg head coach Frank Duffy about the Stateliners’ season and their title game matchup with Union City:

by Mike Pavlichko

Healthy Wargo helps top-seed Phillipsburg top Westfield, 42-28, to reach second straight sectional final

John Wargo was back healthy, Phillipsburg put up a lot of points, and picked up a good win over a solid visiting team at Maloney Stadium Friday night.

Sounds like your typical Friday night, except this was the North 2, Group 5 semifinals, and the 42-28 win for the top-seeded Stateliners over 4th-seeded Westfield put P’burg in next week’s sectional final against second-seed Union City, back at Maloney.

The game was tight through one quarter, with John Wargo opening the scoring on a 14-yard touchdown run, and a Westfield 22-yard field goal made it 7-3 after one.

But the Stateliners got the next two scores – a 16-yard TD catch by Kevin Burgess and another run by Wargo from two yards out – that made it 21-10 ‘Liners at the half after Westfield added a late score to pull within eleven.

The teams alternated scores in the second half, but P’burg outscored Westfield 21-14 over the final 24 minutes.

Phillipsburg now will play Union City next Friday at home for the North 2, Group 5 title. Both teams are 9-1. The Soaring Eagles were 20-14 winners Friday night over West Orange, the team that upset the Stateliners last year in the very same sectional final, on the same field.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with Phillipsburg head coach Frank Duffy about Friday night’s win over Westfield:

by Mike Pavlichko

Phillipsburg not looking past anyone, focused on Westfield in North 2, Group 5 semis

A year ago, Phillipsburg was undefeated heading into the North 2, Group 5 semifinals against West Orange. The Stateliners lost, but beat Easton on Thanksgiving, and all was right with the world.

West Orange was the better team that night, but to a (young) man, the singular goal of any Phillipsburg season is a win over arch-rival Easton. Last year was their first since 2014.

That behind them, and with another chance ahead this year, head coach Frank Duffy says it’s not a distraction, and really never has been.

Good thing, because the top-seeded Stateliners (8-1) must take on pesky fourth-seed Westfield (5-4) Friday night. The Blue Devils may have been just .500 entering the playoffs, but shutout Hillsborough 17-0 on Cutoff Weekend, a team that got the second-seed in South Group 5. Then they whitewashed Clifton 36-0 in the opening round of the playoffs last week.

For Duffy, the main target will be Max Cho, the Blue Devil quarterback who has thrown 12 touchdowns and just one pick while tossing it around the yard for 1,300 this season. The Stateliners, meanwhile, have picked off 13 passes this year, with Kevin Burgess and Felix Matos each responsible for three.

The Stateliners have had a number of guys get nicked up in recent weeks, including runningback/linebacker John Wargo, who is healthy and expected to play against Westfield.

Being an all-Big Central Conference matchup, it’s guaranteed at least one league team will play for a title next weekend. The winner takes on the victor of Friday night’s other semifinal between 2nd-seed Union City (8-1) and – lo and behold – sixth seed West Orange (5-4), the same Mountaineers who knocked them off in last year’s title game.

Click below to hear Phillipsburg head coach Frank Duffy talk about the Stateliners and their semifinal matchup with Westfield:

by Mike Pavlichko

No. 4 Phillipsburg holds off pesky Panthers in second half for 42-19 win at Bridgewater-Raritan

Bridgewater-Raritan has always given Phillipsburg fits.

Two years ago, the Panthers scored a huge 17-7 win at Maloney Stadium en route to a 6-4 campaign.

This year’s BR team came in 1-5, but didn’t lay down at all.

Granted the fourth-ranked Stateliners had a 21-0 lead at halftime, but Bridgewater kept fighting, and scored three second half touchdowns.

The ‘Liners, however, kept punching back en route to a 42-19 road win at Basilone Field.

John Wargo scored a touchdown on the opening drive, then capped the first half scoring with a pick six that made it 21-0 with the PAT.

Colin Woodring caught a 19-yard touchdown pass from Jack Bray to get the Panthers within two scores after the opening drive of the second half, but P’burg answered with another score from John Wargo late in the third to go up 28-7.

Bray got one back for the Panthers by hitting Frankie Verano for a score, but again, countered. This time it was Felix Matos on a 14-yard run to make it 35-13.

Dane Sorensen than grabbed a huge 44-yard touchdown pass to cut it to 35-19, but the two-point pass failed after a five-yard penalty, and then the Stateliners added one more score to make it 42-19.

Phillipsburg improves to 5-1; Bridgewater-Raritan drops to 1-6.

Click below for postgame reaction presented by the Sportsplex at Metuchen:

Phillipsburg RB/DE John Wargo
Phillipsburg’s John Wargo. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
Phillipsburg head coach Frank Duffy
by Mike Pavlichko

Stateliners shake off injuries, beat Hunterdon Central 21-7 to get back in win column

Phillipsburg’s rumble with Hillsborough on the Raritan back on Sunday left the Stateliners with a number of injuries at key spots, including tight-end and quarterback.

Next man up.

Third-ranked P’burg got two second quarter touchdowns to take a 14-0 lead into the half at Maloney Stadium Friday night against ninth-ranked Hunterdon Central to beat the Red Devils 21-7.

Backup quarterback Nick Stettner – in for Jett Genovese, who injured his ankle against the Raiders Sunday but shouldn’t be out long, according to head coach Frank Duffy – threw two touchdown passes in the second quarter, one each to John Wargo and Kevin Burgess – of 10 and 56 yards, respectively.

Hunterdon Central’s only score came in the fourth quarter, when the Red Devils’ fell on a Phillipsburg fumble in the end zone. That made it 14-7, but John Wargo’s second touchdown of the game – a 38-yard rush – gave Phillipsburg back the cushion it needed.

The Stateliners improve to 4-1, while Central dropped its second straight game to fall to 4-2.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk about the Stateliners’ win with head coach Frank Duffy:

by Mike Pavlichko

Top-ranked ‘Liners look to keep it going when Phillipsburg and No. 8 Hillsborough Rumble on the Raritan Sunday

Over the last year-and-a-half, Phillipsburg has stood up to every in-conference challenge it’s faced.

The Stateliners went undefeated in last year’s regular season and have started 2023 with three-straight wins, including two against fellow Big Central top-10 opponents. With the highest of expectations, the winningest program in the history of New Jersey high school football hasn’t lost a Big Central game since October 1, 2021 at Bridgewater-Raritan.

But new challenges await this weekend, and it’s not just the opponent.

No. 1 Phillipsburg draws No. 8 Hillsborough (3-1, 1-1 Big Central – American Silver) in the Rumble on the Raritan on Sunday at Rutgers’ SHI Stadium.

Such is to say that it’s actually three challenges: a top-10 division rival, a Sunday game, and a 53,000-seat stadium.

Ask head coach Frank Duffy, in his 8th season in charge at Phillipsburg, about the different elements and his tone doesn’t change. It’s exciting to play in a big-time venue, and while they’ve changed some things this week timing-wise, how Phillipsburg prepared remained a constant. The focus is on doing what it takes to beat a really good Hillsborough team and improve to 4-0.

Junior quarterback Jett Genovese has thrown for 477 and six touchdowns this season. Classmate Matthew Scerbo Jr. has 229 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Thunder and thunder backfield tandem Caleb Rivera and John Wargo have combined for 465 rushing yards and four scores. The defense has allowed just four touchdowns all season. There are few teams in the state, if any, playing better football than Phillipsburg is right now.

The Stateliners will put their 3-0 record to the test on Sunday, a test that includes a rainy Sunday forecast, a Division 1 stadium, and, of course, a stout Big Central rival in Hillsborough. Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe will call the action from SHI Stadium. Coverage begins at 11:40 with kickoff set for 12:00 on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Click here to listen.

Click below to hear Phillipsburg head coach Frank Duffy talk with Justin Sontupe about Sunday’s game:

by Mike Pavlichko

Hook-and-lateral, long late scoring drive key No. 1 Phillipsburg to 21-14 win over No. 3 Ridge

A 48-minute football game sometimes comes down to a couple of key plays.

For top-ranked Phillipsburg Friday night – in a game heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio – three first-half plays in particular were key.

An interception and a fumble recovery in the second quarter both led to scoring drives that gave the Stateliners a 14-0 lead over their visitors from Basking Ridge. Then, after the Red Devils’ Ryan Olivo scored from ten yards out to cut the deficit in half with under a minute before halftime, Phillipsburg successfully executed a hook-and-lateral that went 50 yards for a score.

Quarterback Jett Genovese connected with top-receiver Matthew Scerbo, Jr., on a long pass, but Scerbo – standing perfectly still at the time – made a short pitch to Kevin Burgess, who took it the final 30-yards for the score to go into the locker room up 21-7.

Ridge came back with another TD run from Olivo in the third quarter – this time from five yards out – to make it 21-14, and then Phillipsburg played some serious ball control offense.

They got the ball with 9:09 remaining, up a touchdown. And they held it for the remainder of the game, withstanding Ridge’s remaining timeouts, and converting on a fourth-and-short with under a minute left to ice the game, allowing the Stateliners (2-0) to close it out with a knee in victory formation.

Ridge drops to 1-1 with the loss.

Click below for postgame reaction from Justin Sontupe presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

Phillipsburg junior quarterback Jett Genovese
Phillipsburg head coach Frank Duffy
by Mike Pavlichko

No. 1 Phillipsburg faces another stiff test Friday night when No. 3 Ridge comes to town

Sure, Ridge hasn’t beaten Phillipsburg since 2003, the only time they’ve ever beaten the Stateliners in nine tries, but those were all different teams. On both sides.

Even this year’s P’burg squad – though a ton of talent is back – is different than last year’s. So past history means very little.

Still, Ridge always seems to give Phillipsburg fits. The 2021 meeting was a touchdown game, and the 2019 meeting went to double overtime.

Who knows what kind of game we’ll have Friday night, when the two meet at Maloney Stadium in a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Kickoff is at 7:00, pregame is 6:45 with Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe calling all the action. Click here to listen.

The Stateliners are 1-0 after a 42-7 dismantling of previous No. 2 Sayreville last Friday night. Ridge, meanwhile, won its opener by a similar score – 41-7 – all the way down in Monroe last Thursday night.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk about the matchup with Phillipsburg head coach Frank Duffy: