Connor Laverty’s seven-yard touchdown run in overtime gave Bernards its first-ever state sectional title of the playoff era, with a 23-17 overtime win for the second-seeded Mountaineers (12-0) against fifth-seed Lakeland (8-4).
Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko and Dylan Allen call all the action live from Olcott Field in Bernardsville on Friday, November 10, 2023, including our extended pregame show.
The Bernards football program had only played in two state sectional championship games before this year.
One ended in dramatic fashion after a mysterious take-a-knee call led to an overtime loss, and the other was a blowout.
So, it stood to reason, maybe by odds, or by the football gods, or some other force of nature that Bernards might finally come through and win that elusive title.
That, they did. Second-seed Bernards beat fifth-seed Lakeland 23-17 in overtime Friday night at Olcott Field, the final game on their own turf this season, and the last as Mountaineers for all the team’s seniors.
They shouldn’t have been here, had Caldwell not had its 37-game win streak snapped by Lakeland last week. But they got the game at home, and made it pay off.
It wasn’t easy, but no championship ever is. There were mistakes, to be sure, but as Simoneau says about this bunch, they were “cool, calm and collected.”
Click below to hear Dylan Allen’s postgame with Bernards head coach Jon Simoneau, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
Jake Caldwell got Bernards back into the game. Then he almost gave it away. Then he was the hero… again.
So was Connor Laverty.
Caldwell, the senior wide receiver – a favorite target of fellow senior Connor Laverty, the quarterback – had a 65-yard punt return for a touchdown with just over two minutes to go before halftime to tie the score at seven, but muffed a punt with just over nine minutes left in the game that gave Lakeland the ball back up 14-10, costing Bernards great field position and a chance to take the lead.
But Bernards held, and on their next possession, Caldwell gave the Mountaineers their first lead in the game at 17-14 with exactly one-minute to go on an 11-yard touchdown catch on fourth and goal. It was a touchdown that would prove important, since Lakeland came right back down an sent the game to overtime on a 43-yard field goal as time expired.
In overtime, however, Bernards would not be denied, and that’s when it was Laverty’s turn.
Lakeland went first in overtime, could only gain four yards, and missed a 38-yard field goal on its possession. That left the Mountaineers to play it conservative and keep the ball on the ground.
Laverty – who’d thrown 18 times on the night – handed off to freshman Patrick Carlisle a couple of times, gained a first down at the 14, got his team down to the seven, and on third-and-four punched it in the end zone to set off a raucous celebration at Olcott Field, winning the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 2 title with a 23-7 victory.
It was Bernards’ first title in three tries, with previous sectional finals berths in 1997 and 2016.
Now, the 12-0 Mountaineers – the last remaining Big Central team alive in the playoffs after St. Thomas Aquinas and Phillipsburg both lost Friday night – will travel to Westwood next Friday evening to play the Cardinals in the Group 2 semifinals. Top-seed Westwood (11-0) beat second-seed Rutherford Friday night in the North 1, Group 2 final, 20-7, for their seventh sectional championship.
The winner will go on to the Group 2 championship game the week after Thanksgiving against either South 2 champion Rumson-Fair Haven or Central 2 champion Willingboro.
Click below for postgame reaction presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
North Jersey, Section 2, Group 2 Final:
When: Friday, 7 pm
Where: Olcott Field, Bernardsville
Matchup: #2 Bernards (11-0) vs. #5 Lakeland (8-3)
Coverage: LISTEN LIVE on Central Jersey Sports Radio (Mike Pavlichko, Dylan Allen)
Weather: 42 degrees, winds WSW 4 mph
HEAD COACHES:
Bernards: Jon Simoneau (16th season, 109-55)
Lakeland: Ryan McCarney (1st season, 8-3)
HOW THEY GOT HERE:
Bernards:
First Round: def. #7 Ramsey, 46-13
Semifinals: def. #6 Sussex Tech, 48-0
Lakeland:
First Round: def. #4 Pequannock, 14-7
Semifinals: def. #1 Caldwell, 33-28
Who’s next? The winner of this game will play the North 1, Group 2 winner in the Group 5 semifinals. That game is also being played Friday night at 7 in Westwood, Bergen County, where the top-seeded Cardinals (10-0) host second-seed Rutherford (10-0). Since both teams were ranked higher in the North Group 2 supersection that Bernards, the Mountaineers – should they win the title – would be on the road at either Westwood or Rutherford next Friday night.
SERIES HISTORY:
This will be the first-ever meeting between Bernards and Lakeland.
PREVIEWS:
FINALS HISTORY:
Bernards:
The Mountaineers are having a historic season, undefeated, and with 11 wins, the most in program history. Bernards has been to two finals, and lost both. The most recent came with Simoneau as head coach in 2016, when they lost to Manasquan 42-6 at Kean University in Union. The Big Blue were the 3-seed, Bernards the 5-seed.
In 1996, the Mountaineers were the top-seed, and suffered what may still be the most gut-wrenching loss in school history. As the top-seed, and up 12-6 in the fourth quarter in second-seed Shore at home, coach Rich Tramaglini had his quarterback, Dave Melitski, take a knee with six seconds left. At least, that was his initial plan. He tried to change the call, but Meltiski was too quick to take the knee. Shore got the ball and immediately scored, sending it to overtime tied at 12. Shore scored first and got the PAT, and when Bernards got a touchdown on its possession, they went for two for the win, but a pass to the back of the end zone went incomplete.
Playoff Berths: 16
Playoff Record: 9-15
2016: Central 2 – #3 Manasquan def. #5 Bernards, 42-6
1997: Central 1 – #2 Shore def. #1 Bernards, 19-18 (OT)
Lakeland:
The Lancers have been to five finals, the most recent coming in 2017, when they fell in the North 1, Group 2 finals to Newton, 28-14. They’ve won two titles, in 2004 and 2010.
Playoff Berths: 16
Playoff Record: 15-13
Previous Finals Berths: 5
Sectional Titles: 2 (2004, 2010, both N1-G2)
2017: North 1, Group 2 – #4 Newton def. #2 Lakeland, 28-14
2010: North 1, Group 2 – #3 Lakeland def. #4 Ramsey, 20-0
2008: North 1, Group 3 – #1 Wayne Hills def. #3 Lakeland, 35-6
2004: North 1, Group 2 – #1 Lakeland def. #2 Lenape Valley, 17-14
1981: North 1, Group 3 – #4 Lincoln def. #3 Lakeland, 22-14
2023 BERNARDS COVERAGE:
NEWS & NOTES:
Long Run, Many Wins…
Bernards head coach Jon Simoneau is the second-most tenured head coach in Somerset County, having taken over the program in 2018. After a 5-5 debut season, and records of 1-9 and 3-7 the next two years, the Mouintaineers went 7-3 in 2011, the first of a run of 12 seasons of out 13 with at least 7 wins, the only outlier being a 3-7 season in 2017 – they played four teams that went to state finals that year – the year after their last finals appearance. Simoneau’s clubs have won seven games three times in his tenure, and at least eight a year in six straight (2019 through 2023, including 8-1 in 2020, the COVID year) and nine overall.
Plenty O’ Points…
The 2023 version of the Mountaineers own the program record for points scored in a single season, racking up 438 through eleven games. Not only is that tops, but Jon Simoneau-coached teams now own seven of the top ten scoring seasons in school history.
This year’s squad also has the largest point differential in any of the coach’s 16 seasons in Bernardsville, operating at a +33.3 margin this season, with – of course – none of those games being losses. Believe it or not, the last time they made a title game, they were only +6.5, but that team also was 8-4 when all was said and done.
Where does it rank in Somerset County? Of the six title winners since the playoffs expanded to eight teams per section in 1998, only one had a higher scoring differential than Bernards does so far. That was the magical 2021 Hillsborough team, which was a +34.7 on the season. If Bernards can win in a blowout (they are +40.5 in their two playoff games so far) they could surpass that.
Not so many points…
The 72 points allowed so far by Bernards are the fewest in the Simoneau era, but hardly the lowest ever in the history of the program. Offenses weren’t always as prolific as they are today.
As Simoneau jokingly explained, “apparently the Spanish flu kept scoring down before the Roaring ’20s.” Indeed, the 1919 team only allowed 27 points all years. The fewest amount of points Bernards allowed was six in the 1935 season, when they went 8-0, with seven shutouts. Madison was the only team to score on them.
In seasons with a minimum seven games, Bernards allowed single digits in two of them (just 7 points in 1917) and fewer than 20 in four more seasons (12 each in 1923 and 1936, 14 each in 1932 and 1950).
The Undefeated…
Since the playoffs expanded to eight teams per section in 1998, there have been six state sectional title winners from Somerset County. (Middlesex has had 28 in that time period.) Three of them have gone undefeated. That includes Hillsborough in 2021 (13-0), Ridge in 2013 (12-0), and Immaculata in 2006 (12-0). Somerville in 2017 and Ridge in 2003 were both 11-1, while Hillsborough’s 2000 upset win over Sayreville had them finish at 9-2.
The Undefeated, Part 2…
There are ten undefeated teams remaining in New Jersey, including Bernards, which is 11-0. We’re guaranteed at least one team to finish undefeated: Weehawken, which already has, going 8-0 and winning the NJIC’s Union Division playoff. That’s one of the NJSIAA’s three “Ivy” divisions, where struggling teams get a relief schedule, but give up playoff eligibility in exchange. Of the remaining nine, at least one is guaranteed to go down this weekend, when Rutherford and Westwood – who are both 10-0 – face off in the North 1, Group 2 title game. The winner of that one will face the Bernards-Lakeland winner.
No. 26…
Should Bernards bring home the North 2, Group 2 title, they would be the 26th sectional title winner from Somerset County since the advent of the playoff era in 1974. That gets one caveat since Ridge’s 1987 championship was “declared” – no one else qualified in that section. (Teams had to be .500 or better to make the playoffs.) Only six different teams have won championships in that time; Bernards would be the seventh with a win over Lakeland.
In the new playoff format the NJSIAA instituted in 2018, going away from four geographically pre-determined playoff sections in each group, many teams would be familiar with each other, even when they got to the state finals.
See the epic battles between Piscataway and Hunterdon Central of the late ’90s and early 2000s, or any GMC team against the Shore Conference in Central Jersey Group 1, the South Rivers and Highland Parks versus the Keansburgs, Keyports and Asbury Parks of the world.
Those days are gone, but Bernards has some familiarity with its North 2, Group 2 finals opponent, the Lakeland Lancers. (You can hear that game on Central Jersey Sports Radio with pregame at 6:30 and kickoff at 7; click here to listen)
Bernards head coach Jon Simoneau is neighbors with Lakeland defensive coordinator Jared Luciani, and the two teams scrimmaged this year in the preseason. So each is intimately familiar with the other as they come full circle Friday night at Olcott Field.
Not a traditional powerhouse, you’d be forgiven if you never heard of Lakeland, or don’t know where they’re from. (They’re in Wanaque, which most New Jerseyans probably don’t know how to pronounce, let alone find on a map.)
That said, Bernards head coach Jon Simoneau knows what his team is up against, adding to that the fact that in the semifinals, the fifth-seeded Lancers knocked off the top-seed Caldwell, owner of the state’s longest active winning streak at 37 games.
Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with Bernards head coach Jon Simoneau about his team, and their matchup with Lakeland in the finals:
“Road warriors.” That’s how coach Ryan McCarney describes his team after being 6-1 away from their home field this season.
It has been a tough go for Lakeland to get to this point. The Lancers had to travel to Caldwell in the semifinals to face a team that hadn’t lost in 37 straight games. After facing a 21-7 deficit, Kyle Keyes’ 90-plus yard pick-six helped the Lancers come all the way back, winning 33-28, stunning Caldwell.
Friday night’s sectional title game – which you can hear live on Central Jersey Sports Radio by clicking here – against Bernards is no different. The Mountaineers are 11-0 this season and have scored 30+ points in ten of their 11 games. Defensively Bernards also has been outstanding, holding opponents to fewer than 14 points in every game this season, including three shutouts, one of which came in the 48-0 semifinal win against Sussex Tech. Despite Bernards being able to win eight-plus games over each of the last five seasons, they still look to capture that first sectional title Friday night at home.
This is the sixth championship appearance in Lakeland program history and with a win, it would make it the Lancers’ first sectional title since 2010 and its third ever. It would also make McCarney a sectional champion in his first year as head coach of the Lancers. The last championship appearance for Lakeland was in 2017 where McCarney served as an assistant coach under then-head coach Tom McCormack, who’s now an assistant coach on the 2023 staff.
You can hear Friday night’s game on Central Jersey Sports Radio with pregame starting at 6:30 and kickoff at 7. Mike Pavlichko and Dylan Allen will call all the action; click here to listen.
Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Dylan Allen talk with Lakeland head coach Ryan McCarney:
If the Bernards football team can beat Lakeland Friday night to bring home the first state sectional title in program history, it’ll be the shortest walk from the trophy presentation to the school’s trophy case.
Connor Laverty will savor it.
A senior quarterback who has been instrumental – along with so many other Mountaineers on a week-in, week-out basis – in the program’s success, he and his teammates got a surprise home game in the finals.
That’s because minutes after they crushed Sussex Tech in the semis, they found out top-seed Caldwell was upset by the Lancers, meaning Bernards would get one more home game, prompting a second celebration at Olcott Field.
And that’s where everyone will be making noise again this Friday night, cheering on a Mountaineer team that already has set a program record for wins in a season (11) and total points scored (438).
The defense has been ridiculous, too, allowing just 72 points, a program best under head coach Jon Simoneau, leading to a +33.3 point differential, better by almost ten points than any other previous season under his tenure.
Central Jersey Sports Radio will broadcast Friday night’s North 2, Group 2 title game between second-seed Bernards (11-0) and fifth-seed Lakeland (8-3), with pregame starting at 6:30 and kickoff at 7 pm. Mike Pavlichko and Dylan Allen will call all the play-by-play; click here to listen.
Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko with Bernards senior QB Connor Laverty: