Tag: Governor Livingston

by Mike Pavlichko

Just for kicks: Big-time boot earns Governor Livingston’s Quigley Week 9 Bellamy & Son Paving Player of the Week Award

Sometimes it’s a big interception, or five or six touchdowns, or an outstanding performance in all three phases.

Sometimes, it’s just a kick.

And sometimes, it’s a really big kick, as was the case for Governor Livingston junior Liam Quigley on Saturday afternoon.

See, the Highlanders hadn’t won a game all season. So it wasn’t as if the playoffs were on the line, but it was still a really big kick.

Knotted up at 21-all with A.L. Johnson, with 2.8 seconds left and the ball on the 23 yard line, out came Liam Quigley to try a 40-yard field goal attempt.

By the time the clock read :00, the Highlanders had their first win of the season, and Quigley and his teammates ran all over the field celebrating.

Click below to see Quigley’s game-winning 40-yard field goal against A.L. Johnson, as well as some of his other long kicks in the game:

Click below to hear Liam Quickly talk about his game-winning 50-yard field goal against A.L. Johnson:


At the end of the season, all the Bellamy & Son Players of the Week will receive a custom football, and one of the winners will receive a $500 scholarship from Bellamy & Son Paving.

Honor Roll:

All season long, Zaon Laney has been a workhorse for Rahway, and in a big 40-21 win Saturday at Hillside it was no different. Laney – a Week 6 winner – rushed 35 times for 293 yards and three touchdowns – with a long of 65 – and had two catches for 11 yards as well. He had a 31-yard kick return, too, and was involved in four tackles on defense, adding a pass breakup and a 21-yard interception return.

You certainly couldn’t ignore Hashym Hobbs-Harris’ performance for No. 1 Somerville in the swirling rain Friday night, in a 45-22 win over Summit. He ran for 200 yards on just 13 carries, but more impressively, took over the game after Ethan MacNair left with an ankle injury. On Somerville’s next offensive play from scrimmage, he ran 63 yards for a score. And on the Pioneer’s next touch he went 72 yards to paydirt.

There were a lot of big nights on the ground Friday, with the weather hampering passing games all over the state. Lucas Hudkins rolled off 226 yards on just 20 carries in a 35-13 win over Elizabeth, scoring three touchdowns. Ridge could be a dark horse in the upcoming state playoffs, and Hudkins is a big reason why.

by Mike Pavlichko

St. Thomas Aquinas pitches 7th straight shutout; blanks Governor Livingston 59-0 to tie playoff era Middlesex County shutout record

St. Thomas Aquinas pitched another shutout.

The Trojans blanked Governor Livingston in North Edison Friday night 59-0 to improve to 7-0, with every game a shutout.

That’s the most since Piscataway logged seven whitewashes in 2004, a year the Chiefs – with three future NFL Draft picks in Malcolm Jenkins, Kyle Wilson and Anthony Davis – went 12-0 and won the second state title under head coach Dan Higgins.

Aquinas will try to make it a regular season sweep – something no team in Middlesex County has ever done, at least in the modern era – when the Trojans take on 7-1 Delaware Valley next week at home.

One of the leaders Friday night was junior Najee Lovejoy. The defensive back – who also had a touchdown catch playing wide receiver Friday night – recorded six tackles, had an interception and two pass breakups in the win. He also had five punt returns for 118 yards against the Highlanders.

Click below to hear Najee Lovejoy talk about the win – and the Trojans’ defense – with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

by Mike Pavlichko

Del Val runs record to 4-0 with 40-7 cruise past Governor Livingston

Jack Bill was at it again.

The Autoland “Big Central Player of the Week” two weeks ago in a win over North Plainfield, the quarterback threw for four touchdowns in a 40-7 win for Delaware Valley at home Friday night over Governor Livingston.

The Terriers are 4-0 with a tough Bernards ballclub coming to town next weekend.

Click below for more details on the game as Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko speaks with Del Val skipper Mike Haughey:

by Mike Pavlichko

Woodbridge takes sole possession of top spot in CJ Sports Radio Top Ten

Though they’ve only played one game, the Woodbridge Barrons sit alone atop the Central Jersey Sports Radio Top Ten.

Woodbridge shared the No. 1 position in the preseason and a week ago with Union, but took over on their own after the Farmers were knocked off by unranked Bridgewater-Raritan, which jumped into the poll at No. 5. The Barrons were dominant in a 34-0 win at in-town rival Colonia.

It was a tumultuous week in the Big Central Football Conference, as none of the ten teams in the Week 1 rankings retained the same spot in Week 2.

North Brunswick also entered the rankings after a win over No. 8 New Brunswick, 28-7.

Below are the Week 2 rankings.

This post has been updated to reflect Cranford and South Brunswick also receiving votes.

by Mike Pavlichko

COVID takes some lustre off Big Central’s inaugural season

by Mike Pavlichko

There were supposed to be some highly intriguing matchups in 2020.

That was the promise of the Big Central Football Conference, the long awaited merger that follows the trend around the rest of the Garden State: large superconferences swallowing up smaller ones and encompassing large swaths of New Jersey.

The Big Central gives us 60 teams that used to be in the Greater Middlesex and Mid State Conferences.

The names had a nice ring to them. The GMC will survive in all sports besides football. The Mid-State also was a football-only league, as Hunterdon, Warren and Union Counties make up the Skyland Conference in other sports.

Continue reading “COVID takes some lustre off Big Central’s inaugural season” →