In a tight game all the way, third-ranked Woodbridge got four touchdowns and 103 yards rushing from Jahmir Beal – while quarterback Derek Anderson threw for 183 yards and one score, and running for another – to push the Barrons over visiting Plainfield Friday night, 41-26.

It was a tight first half, with both teams trading a pair of punts before they would trade three scores. The Cardinals took a 6-0 lead, then Woodbridge tied it at six midway through the second quarter. Plainfield went ahead again with a pass from Kamai Lowery to Joel Cordoba, but Woodbridge finished the half with 1:46 to go on a seven-yard touchdown by Beal.

That was the Barrons’ first lead of the night, and they wouldn’t relinquish it.

Derek Anderson scored on a 22-yard run with 8:31 left in the third, and a two-point try made it 21-12 Barrons. They scored for a third straight time with :51 left in the third, on Beal’s second TD of the game, a 10-yarder, to make it 27-12; the kick was no good.

Plainfield answered on a four-yard run by EJ Brown, but Beal scored again from two yards out with just under six minutes left.

The Cardinals weren’t done, as Lowery ran in a touchdown from two yards out just 26 seconds later, but Beal’s fourth touchdown of the game with 5:08 left – this time from the four – gave Woodbridge a 41-26 lead, and they came up big on defense on Plainfield’s last possession to keep them out of the end zone.

Woodbridge improves to 3-0 for the first time since 2021 with a road game at in-town rival Colonia next Friday night. Plainfield is 1-2 and will host Perth Amboy next weekend.

Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Alec Crouthamel with Woodbridge head coach Joe Goerge, runningback Jahmir Beal and quarterback Derek Anderson, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

NOTES: The honorary captain for the Barrons was Lee Warren, a name well-known to Woodbridge fans. Warren was a longtime assistant coach of football, softball, baseball, basketball and track and field, and the first black principal in Woodbridge, leading Ross Street Elementary. He later was principal at Woodbridge High School from 1996 to 2013.

But the moment was especially poignant, since Warren was a 1965 graduate of Plainfield High School, where he is in the Hall of Fame.