Tag: JP Stevens

by Mike Pavlichko

Early look at Big Central Football 2026: With Spotswood moving out, Brearley, Dayton Roselle Park will battle it out, as Highland Park, JP Stevens, South River look to make strides

Little change was made to the Big Central Conference’s Freedom Gold Division in the off-season, but with 2025 champion Spotswood moving up and out in the most recent realignment, the top three remaining teams – Brearley, Dayton and Roselle Park – will likely battle it out for the title in 2026. All three were .500 or better, with Brearley having tied the Chargers with a 4-1 division mark, but Spotswood winning last year’s head-to-head. Highland Park will deal with some losses, South River will look to improve, and JP Stevens moves into a division that could help them be more competitive.

Here are the preliminary schedules for the Freedom Gold Division teams – in order of 2025 finish – compiled from the official league schedule and other online sources to the best of our knowledge as of the date of publication, along with a few notes on each squad. Division games are starred.

Brearley Bears (5-5, 4-1, 2nd place Freedom Gold)
Head Coach: Elliot Platt, 2nd season (5-5)

  • Week 0: at Wallington
  • Week 1: Manville
  • Week 2: Dayton*
  • Week 3: South River*
  • Week 4: JP Stevens*
  • Week 5: Roselle
  • Week 6: at Highland Park*
  • Week 7: Roselle Park*
  • Week 8: at North Plainfield

The Bears were a run-first team last year, as senior Matthew Resende rushed for 1,284 yards. They’re going to miss that, with only two other backs – one a senior, quarterback Joe Squillaro – totalling around 200 yards. Monroe Passmore ran for 206 yards on 26 carries with two touchdowns as a sophomore last season. Their strength could be the defense this year, as sophomore lineman Rocco Federico (14 1/2 sacks, 4 forced fumbles) should be back, while Passmore had two sacks and 6 1/2 TFLs from his linebacker spot. Adding JP Stevens as a division-mate with Spotswood gone could make it harder to qualify for the playoffs, or at least to get a good seed. Brearley made it last year, but ended up as the eight seed and had to play top-seed Mountain Lakes on the road, taking a first round loss.

Dayton Bulldogs (7-2, 3-2, 3rd place Freedom Gold)
Head Coach: Nick Iannacone, 5th season (18-20)

  • Week 0: Governor Livingston
  • Week 1: at Bound Brook
  • Week 2: at Brearley*
  • Week 3: JP Stevens*
  • Week 4: at Roselle Park
  • Week 5: New Providence
  • Week 6: at South River*
  • Week 7: Highland Prk
  • Week 8: Manville

The Bulldogs could be the best of the bunch this year. In 2025, they knocked off division champ Spotswood, 20-19, in a game that ended up costing the Chargers (8-1 at the cutoff) a playoff spot in favor of 3-5 Camden Eastside. In 2026, their QB and top running back and receiver all are back. As juniors, quarterback Adrian Bernkopf threw for 1,270 yards and 14 TDs, while runningback Tyler Fuscaldo carried 119 times for 749 yards and nine scores (Bernkopf ran for the other eight), while Jackson Babiarz caught 21 passes for 479 yards and seven touchdowns. And there are others in the unit who are back and can contribute as well, like rising junior Kevin Lynch (16 receptions, 240 yards, 1 TD). Many key defensive players are back, too, like rising junior DB Dominic Pintado (2 sacks, 5 TFLs), ad rising senior DL Isaiah Rivas (3 TFLs, 2 fumble recoveries for TDs) and Babiarz, who had four of the team’s eight picks last year to lead the team. This could be Dayton’s year.

Roselle Park Panthers (6-4, 2-3, 4th place Freedom Gold)
Head Coach: Greg Dunkerton, 7th season (23-35)

  • Week 0: at Wood-Ridge
  • Week 1: Belvidere
  • Week 2: at South River*
  • Week 3: Highland Park*
  • Week 4: Dayton*
  • Week 5: at Middlesex
  • Week 6: JP Stevens*
  • Week 7: at Brearley*
  • Week 8: at Roselle

The Panthers were impressive when we saw them in early October at Highland Park, coming out with a 35-12 win. They ran the rock to the tune of 2,509 yards last season, led by Nick Salas with 146 carries, 946 yards and 14 touchdowns; he’ll be back this year. So will No. 3 rusher Maxwell Griffin (398 yards, 5 TD), and he’ll be a senior. Salas also caught eleven passes out of the backfield for 165 yards and three scores, but his QB has graduated; Anthony Damiano threw for 485 yards. Roselle Park will lose a little more on the defensive side, with veterans like linemen Lorby Castelly (7 sacks, 1 TFL, 1 fumble recovery) and Jose Candelaria (4 sacks, 2 TFLs, 1 blocked kick) gone to graduation. Bot with that offense, they should be able to give Dayton and Brearley a run for their money.

Highland Park Owls (3-6, 2-3, 5th place Freedom Gold)
Head Coach: Shawn Harrison, 6th season (10-35)

  • Week 0: New Brunswick
  • Week 1: Middlesex
  • Week 2: at JP Stevens*
  • Week 3: at Roselle Park*
  • Week 4: South River*
  • Week 5: at Bound Brook
  • Week 6: Brearley*
  • Week 7: at Dayton*
  • Week 8: Metuchen

The Owls snapped that long losing streak in their final game of 2023, then went 6-3 the next year before falling to 3-6 last season after senior QB Markos Hantsoulis graduated. Now, the other two of the clan – Kosta and Stamatis also are gone, and head coach Shawn Harrison may have to lean a little more on QB Marcus Smith to step up as a senior. He threw for 866 yards and eight touchdowns last season, and top runningback Jacob Quiros also should be back for his senior year, after rushing for 459 yards and five scores a season ago. The defense will have to replace defensive back Matthew Adamczyk-Zapor, who had three sacks and seven tackles for loss last year.

South River Rams (1-9, 0-5, 6th place Freedom Gold)
Head Coach: Rich Marchesi, 40th season (229-158)

  • Week 0: at Point Pleasant Beach
  • Week 1: at South Hunterdon
  • Week 2: Roselle Park*
  • Week 3: Brearley*
  • Week 4: at Highland Park*
  • Week 5: Dunellen
  • Week 6: Dayton*
  • Week 7: at JP Stevens*
  • Week 8: at Spotswood

Though the Rams have struggled mightily in the last few seasons – a mixture of personnel and injuries – Rich Marchesi is the longest-tenured head coach in the Big Central Conference for a reason; he’ll find a way to give whoever he has the best chance to win. The likely candidate to take over under center is Julien Borusevic, who has quite the arm: he was 5-4 with a 2.45 ERA for the Rams’ baseball team this spring. He got some snaps last year behind Orion Familia, going 11-of-28 for 52 yards and a touchdown in parts of six games last season. The good news is Kah’mori Cotto was just a junior last year when he ran for 920 yards and seven touchdowns, and three receivers are back as well. The defense was a relatively young group last year as well, so if they can stick together, the Rams should see improvement in ’26.

JP Stevens Hawks (0-10, 0-3, 5th place in Patriot Gold Division)
Head Coach: David Kunyz, 2nd season (0-10)

  • Week 0: OPEN
  • Week 1: Dunellen
  • Week 2: Highland Park*
  • Week 3: at Dayton*
  • Week 4: at Brearley*
  • Week 5: South Hunterdon
  • Week 6: Roselle Park*
  • Week 7: South River*
  • Week 8: Middlesex

This is more the Hawks’ speed than a division with Bernards, Voorhees and Delaware Valley, and that could help a lot. Senior QB Shamar Burch (847 yards, 4 TDs) struggled with the turnovers last year, but Khawaja Muawiyah got in some good action as a junior, and started late in the season, ultimately going 46-97 for 530 yards and 5 TDs, and if he can improve and also cut down on the interceptions, that will help. Zamarr Raiford was the leading rusher on a team that almost exclusively threw the ball (1,397 pass yards, 122 rushing) last season, as he went for 717 yards and seven touchdowns on 48 catches. No. 2 receiver Jream Sorrell was just a freshman, but still had 22 catches for 185 yards and a score. On defense, 38 different players logged stats last season, so the numbers are there; head coach David Kunyz will have to figure which parts give them the best eleven on the field.

by Mike Pavlichko

INSTANT REPLAY – North 2, Group 4 Quarterfinals: (5) Bridgewater-Raritan 10, (4) JP Stevens 0

Nico Moore pitched a complete-game three-hitter, while six different Panthers drove in runs as fifth-seed Bridgewater-Raritan was a road winner at four-seed JP Stevens in the NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 sectional quarterfinals.

READ THE FULL GAME STORY HERE!

Click below to listen to Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play live from JP Stevens High School in North Edison on May 22, 2026.

by Alec Crouthamel

Fourth-seed JP Stevens, fifth-seed Bridgewater-Raritan vie for North 2, Group 4 semifinal bid

Some of the most fun postseason matchups come between adjacent seeds, regardless of the sport.

Another high-power matchup will come to North Edison on Friday in the North 2, Group 4 quarterfinals between the fourth seed, JP Stevens, and the fifth seed, Bridgewater-Raritan, in a GMC/Skyland Conference crossover.

In a battle between two ascending teams over the course of the season, one will earn a bid to the sectional semifinals, with the Panthers (12-16) looking for their second in three years after a Group 4 title in 2024, while the Hawks (18-8) look for their first appearance in the semifinals since 2008, where they lost to eventual Group 4 state runner-up North Hunterdon.

It all gets started at 4 pm at JP Stevens, in a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Pregame starts at 3:45 with Alec Crouthamel on the call; click here to listen.

Both teams are coming off resounding first-round victories against their double-digit seed counterparts.

Bridgewater-Raritan played strong all-around baseball to take down 12th-seeded Plainfield 11-0 in five innings. The Panthers put up three runs in the first inning, six in the third, and two in the fourth to seal the run-rule victory, along with a near-perfect outing for starter Jack Braswell. He allowed just one baserunner – a fourth-inning single with two outs – while striking out eight.

JP Stevens put up double-digit runs as well, defeating 13th-seeded Ferris out of Jersey City 11-2. In their first playoff victory since 2019, the Hawks got another gem from starter Soham Prajapati, who struck out 13 in a complete game effort, giving him 102 on the year and 247 in his career. The bats also came alive as the game went on, with three runs in the third inning, two in the fifth, and six in the bottom of the sixth to break the game open after the Bulldogs cut their deficit to 5-2 in the top half.

Both teams have been tested to date, Bridgewater-Raritan playing in the Skyland Delaware division, and JP Stevens finishing in an 11-3 three-way tie atop the GMC Blue division.

They bring another similarity in that the experiences this year have built true development to put both teams in a better spot than they started in late March.

But only one can come away victorious in the sectional playoffs. Each team will take the lessons they’ve learned and their high-level developments into the do-or-die showdown to keep their seasons alive come the month of June.

Click below to hear both head coaches talk with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Alec Crouthamel about their teams’ first-round victories and upcoming matchups in the North 2, Group 4 quarterfinals:

JP Stevens head coach Tyler Jackow
Bridgewater-Raritan head coach Max Newill
by Mike Pavlichko

In first state playoff home game since 2019, JP Stevens picks up first playoff victory in same span, with 11-2 win over Ferris

In first state playoff home game since 2019, JP Stevens picks up first playoff victory in seven years, with 11-2 win over Ferris

Getting a first round state playoff game at home was one big accomplishment for JP Stevens, a program that hadn’t done so in seven years.

Well, Wednesday night, not only did the fourth-seeded Hawks open the third season with an 11-2 victory over 13th-seed Ferris in the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 first round – their first playoff win since 2019 – they’ll get a chance to host a second state game at home Friday afternoon.

They’ll take on fifth-seed Bridgewater-Raritan, an 11-0 winner over 12-seed Plainfield in five innings Wednesday, at home at 4 pm this Friday.

For the previous three years, Stevens (18-8) has been in the boat Ferris (8-19) was in Wednesday: a single-digit win team, playing on the road, no one expecting them to win.

But wth eleven seniors on the club, head coach Tyler Jackow – now in his fourth season – says the program has been building to this moment during his entire tenure, with seniors that were freshman when he came over to North Edison after a season at Perth Amboy Magnet.

To wit, it was senior Nolan Overmyer who had four RBIs against the Bulldogs (who hail from Jersey City, by the way). Senior Arav Patel had three hits on the day. And senior starting pitcher Soham Prajapati went the distance, allowing just four hits and two runs while striking out 13, to give him 102 on the season.

The Hawks were the higher seed Wednesday, expected to win. And everything came together as they planned and hoped.

It’s nice when that works out. One more, and they’re a win away from an appearance in the sectional finals.

Click below to hear JP Stevens head coach Tyler Jackow talk about the win with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

by Mike Pavlichko

South River claims last of GMC Division titles, taking the Blue in a three-way tiebreaker over Carteret, JP Stevens

The way the Greater Middlesex Conference seeds its baseball tournaments, division titles are everything.

Actually, the whole standings are everything. In the seeding meeting – with this year’s coming up a week from tomorrow, on Friday, May 8th – teams can only be seeded in order of division finish. No division has to be seeded higher than any other, but the second place team in any division can’t be seeded ahead of the first place team, regardless of head-to-head results.

That means the only teams that can be the top seeds are division winners. And South River took the last remaining title to be decided, winning the GMC Blue in a three-way tiebreaker over Carteret and JP Stevens.

The Rams solidified that deal by virtue of an 11-6 road win at Piscataway Wednesday afternoon, giving them their fourth straight win and a series sweep against the Chiefs. But with the Rams, Ramblers and Hawks all 11-3 in the division, it came down to how all those teams did against each other.

South River went 3-1 in that group, splitting with Carteret and sweeping JP Stevens. The Ramblers were 1-3 in that group, swept by Stevens and splitting with the Rams. The Hawks went 2-2, sweeping Carteret, but getting swept by South River. The title goes to the Rams.

It’s their first division title since they shared the Blue in 2022 with St. Thomas Aquinas. Both went 9-1 in the division, and the teams split their two games, with the Trojans picking up a 16-3 win, while the Rams won the series finale two days later, 5-3.

Elsewhere in the GMC, Piscataway Magnet improved to 16-0 Wednesday with an 11-0 win at South Amboy, giving them a perfect 12-0 division record. It’s the Raiders’ first outright division title since 1996, and they’re one of just a handful of undefeated teams left in the state. The question is, will they make the Jim Muldowney Championship Tournament as one of the top 20 seeds, or play in the Ray Cipperly Invitational.

READ MORE: True team play has powered Piscataway Magnet to record season, but Raiders – the last unbeaten GMC team standing – may be just getting started

Regardless of how second-ranked Middlesex fares against Colonia at home Thursday afternoon in its GMC White Division finale (4 pm on CJSR – click here to listen live) the Blue Jays have already clinched the pennant, sitting at 12-1, while second-place Colonia is 9-4.

And in the Red Division, Edison leads the pack at 9-3, with Old Bridge in second at 8-5. The Eagles have one more with St. Thomas Aquinas Thursday, and a make-up at home against East Brunswick next Tuesday. But even if they were to drop both – and the Knights beat St. Joseph-Metuchen Thursday in their division finale, leaving both at 8-5, Edison gets the tiebreaker, having swept Old Bridge 5-2 and 2-1 in the first week of the season.

The only question is, who will get the overall No. 1 seed in the GMC championship tournament?

Edison is 9-4 overall, with losses to Monroe, Woodbridge and St. Thomas Aquinas in the conference, while Middlesex has only one loss at 14-1, coming against South Brunswick.

In that case, it could come down to crossovers in the final week of the season. Edison has three road crossovers, against North Brunswick and JP Stevens out of the Blue Division and Metuchen from the Blue. Middlesex will play up, facing St. Joseph-Metuchen and East Brunswick out of the Red, while also playing a non-conference game at Westfield (8-7) of the Union County Conference this Saturday afternoon at 2 pm.

by Mike Pavlichko

Edison native, JP Stevens alum Dylan Brett gets call of a lifetime with Hofstra basketball’s run to the Big Dance

It all started for Dylan Brett when he was nine years old.

Edison Pop Warner couldn’t find anyone to do the public address during a game. Someone asked him.

He wound up calling every play, like it was on the radio, not just announcing who carried the ball or made the tackle.

It wasn’t quite the assignment, but the parents loved it, and it stuck.

Fast forward more than a decade, and the JP Stevens grad is at Hofstra University’s student radio station WRHU, one of the top college radio stations in the nation.

How it started, and how it’s going, as they say.

Brett was at the microphone just a few weeks ago, as the Flying Dutchmen won the CAA Tourney, on the call as they beat Monmouth in the final to earn the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It was Hofstra’s first trip to March Madness in 25 years.

Now a senior, he recently called his final college basketball game, a loss to Alabama in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

But there could be plenty of college basketball games in his future. His Twitter post of the overtime game winner by Preston Edmead with just tenths of a second left has gone viral, leading to many connections he hopes will bear fruit soon after graduation.

An improbable run for a kid from Edison, remember that name Dylan Brett. Next time you hear him, it might be on ESPN.

Click below to hear Edison native Dylan Brett talk about getting his start behind a microphone, and his wild ride with the Hofstra men’s basketball team on campus radio station WRHU, with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

Edison native and JP Stevens grad Dylan Brett of WRHU Radio at Hofstra at the NCAA Tournament, as the team made its first appearance in 25 years. (Source: @DylanBrxtt on Twitter)
by Mike Pavlichko

INSTANT REPLAY – GIRLS: South Plainfield 61, JP Stevens 37

South Plainfield got career highs of 24 points from Jiselle Lennon – including four treys – and 18 points from MaKenzie Harris en route to a dominating 61-37 win over visiting JP Stevens in GMC White American Division action.

Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Dylan Allen call all the play-by-play from South Plainfield High School on January 6, 2026.

by Mike Pavlichko

South Plainfield girls score in bunches, presses way to 61-37 home win, and sweep of JP Stevens

The first time these two girls’ basketball teams met, South Plainfield came away with a ten-point win in North Edison over JP Stevens, 43-33. They did it on the strength of a 14-2 first quarter.

Tuesday night in the back-end of the series, the Tigers went even further, using a 21-7 first quarter – 12 of those points coming from excellent sophomore Jiselle Lennon – en route to a 61-37 GMC White American Division win heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio

Lennon finished with 24 points, a new career high, while MaKenzie Harris also had a career best, scoring 18. The Tigers (3-4) hit eight triples in the game, all coming in the first half.

For their part, while the South Plainfield offense was clicking, the defense was doing its thing, especially with its backcourt pressure. They forced the Hawks into several turnovers: basketballs smacked away, or thrown right into the hands of a Tiger.

JP Stevens (4-3) got 16 from junior Aliyah Manley, including a first quarter triple, but no one else got into double figures, and only three other players scored.

Click below for postgame reaction from South Plainfield’s Jiselle Lennon and head coach Alex DeVivo with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Dylan Allen, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

Battle of two young teams as JP Stevens girls visit South Plainfield in second meeting this year

Young teams can sometimes do unpredictable – or, at least, uncharacteristic – things.

Such are the growing pains the South Plainfield girls’ basketball team is experiencing on a squad with four seniors, but no juniors, having lost three starters to graduation.

Well, JP Stevens can do them one better. The Hawks lost four starters to graduation and have just two seniors on the roster, with two sophomores and a freshman in the starting five.

And while the Hawks may be 4-2, and the Tigers 2-4, it was South Plainfield that won the first meeting between the teams back on December 18th, Game Two of the season for both squads.

Game Two in the season series is Tuesday night in South Plainfield, and you can hear it live on Central Jersey Sports Radio as part of a twinbill, with tipoff at 5:30 pm, followed by the 8th-ranked Tiger boys taking on Colonia at 7:00. Mike Pavlichko and Dylan Allen will have the call; click here to listen.

The death knell for JP in the first meeting was the first quarter, where Stevens got outscored 14-2. And it was one of those key returnees, senior guard Sam Moench, who helped bury them with three triples in that opening period. While the Hawks cut it to as little as two in the fourth quarter, South Plainfield pulled away late for a 43-33 win; Moench finished with 17.

Of JP’s 33 points, junior Aliyah Manley scored 27 of them, adding eight rebounds. Averaging 26.7 points per game, she’s among the top scorers in the state, and also lead the team in rebounds (6.7), treys (22) and steals, with 25 – and she’s swiped six twice already.

Head coach Tim Weber calls her “an awesome player” and says “if she’s one-on-one in half court, I feel bad for the defender.”

Watching Moench and Manley duke it out should make for a great rematch.

Click below to hear pregame interviews with both head coaches:

South Plainfield head coach Alex DeVivo with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Dylan Allen
JP Stevens head coach Tim Weber with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko
by Mike Pavlichko

2025 Big Central Preview: Patriot Gold Division

With only four teams in the Patriot Gold Division – and one that’s been among the best in the Big Central Conference for most of its existence – the other three will be chasing Bernards again in 2025.

While the Mountaineers lose a significant amount of talent, especially on the defensive side of the ball, they also return a good deal of experience, and will be the team to beat, having won 23 straight games against Big Central competition.

Right behind them last year was Delaware Valley, who went 6-3 in head coach Ben Ibach’s second season, and Voorhees, who for a second straight year had a very solid run game.

The final team in the division last year was JP Stevens, which won two games last year after having lost more than 40 in a row. That was a big step, and with a new coach in David Kunyz – who already was in the program as defensive coordinator – the consistency mixed with some new ideas could help them improve even further.

Click below to hear our preview of the Patriot Gold Division from Big Central Conference Media Day: