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.
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;Â 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:
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:
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.
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.
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.
The moment Preston Edmead sent @HofstraMBB to the CAA title game on @WRHUSports: pic.twitter.com/3W5Z1rk41k
— Dylan Brett (@DylanBrxtt) March 10, 2026
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:
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.
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:
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:
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:
Forget school size, for a second. The Bernards football program is one of the most solid in the entire Big Central Conference. It doesn’t matter that they’re a Group 2 school; they get a ton of kids in the program and they stick with it. These are kids who mainly could afford to go anywhere they want, but choose to stay at Bernards.
And how have they been rewarded? In the past two seasons, the Mountaineers are 23-2, have won 23 straight games against Big Central opponents dating back to an early 2022 loss to Hillside (second only to St. Thomas Aquinas at 31), 30 regular season games overall dating back to that same loss (longest in the BCC), and have a sectional title and two sectional finals berths to their credit. Whether they can repeat that in 2025 is another question, but that’s why they play the games.
With head coach Jon Simoneau the veteran coach in this division – now going into his 18th season – the rest of the Patriot Gold has some newer coaches who should see their teams improve with another year in the system under their belts. That includes Ben Ibach in his third season at Delaware Valley, John Hack in his second at Voorhees, and David Kunyz being elevated from defensive coordinator to head coach at JP Stevens.
Here are the preliminary schedules for the Patriot Gold Division teams – in alphabetical order – compiled from the official league schedule and other online sources to the best of our knowledge. Please note game dates and times may be changed without notice as the season approaches. Division games marked with an asterisk (*).
Bernards Mountaineers (11-1, 3-0, Patriot Gold Division champs in ’24)
Head Coach: Jon Simoneau (121-57, 18th season)
Offensively, the Mountaineers saw sophomore Nolan Walsh throw for nearly 2,000 yards last season – he was 49 shy – and 18 touchdowns. The fact he’s got two more seasons running the offense bodes well for Bernards, plus another soph coming back in runningback Patrick Carlisle, who went for 762 yards and ten touchdowns last season, plus rising senior Logan Stevens and his 606 yards and ten touchdowns. Solid receivers Sean Arcelay (17 catches, 266 yards, 2 TDs) returns, while Stevens also caught 21 passes for 315 yards and two scores. Defensively, the team’s top tackler in Terrence Hanratty (132 total, 2 sacks, 6 TFLs) has graduated, but active linebacker Thomas Diemar will be the anchor. Last year, he finished with ten sacks, 18.5 TFLs, and had one force fumble/recovery. Teagun Hartnett had two picks last year as a junior.
Delaware Valley Terriers (6-3, 2-1, 2nd place in ’24)
Head Coach: Ben Ibach (11-7, 3rd season)
Kelton Ibach returns for the Terriers, after throwing for 1,211 yards and 16 touchdowns a season ago in his junior campaign, but he’ll need some new targets, as all six players to catch passes last year were seniors. The runningback room was also senior heavy, but Del Val didn’t run as much, only going for 704 yards last season. Still, just 137 of that returns, and 72 came from Ibach himself. There will be key guys to replace on defense, too, like senior LB Patrick O’Boyle (2 sacks, 1 forced fumble) and DB Eric Klemmer (2 INT, 2 TFLs). After a 5-4 debut season for head coach Ben Ibach, last year’s squad went 6-4. Some newcomers here could determine if they’ll improve upon that at all.
JP Stevens Hawks (2-7, 0-3, 4th place in ’24)
Head Coach: David Kunyz (1st season)
Jason George did a fine job in two seasons as head coach, developing the Hawks in his first season, and delivering them their first win since 2018 in his second, snapping a 31-game skid that was the longest in the state at the time. But he’s left to be an assistant with his father at Woodbridge, and now defensive coordinator David Kunyz takes the reins. So, yes, it’s a coaching change, but there will still be some consistency, a good thing for the program which has struggled mightily with numbers in recent years. He’ll face the challenge of finding a replacement for senior quarterback Marquise Webb (616 yards, 2 TD) and top rusher Quadir Johnson (321 yards, 3 TDs). The defense saw some underclassmen make play, like sophomore Joshua Collins and junior Elijah Hollman (1 sack, 1 TFL each).
Voorhees Vikings (3-6, 1-2, 3rd place in ’24)
Head Coach: John Hack (3-6, 2nd season)
The crossover schedule won’t be an easy one, but there are some key players back that could help the Vikings take a step up in Year Two under head coach John Hack. Among them is rising senior Matteo Tramutola, who rushed for 1,258 yards last year and scored 17 touchdowns, while QB Sam Meekings threw for 1,327 yards and 16 scores as a junior in 2024. Some younger backs will round out that room, while five receivers who went for at least 125 yards each and ten touchdowns overall should be back, led by senior Ryan Benitez, who had nine catches for 182 yards and three scores last season.
