Landon Pernell – Central Jersey Sports Radio

The way Plainfield’s first drive went it looked like this would be a fast game, and one where points would be at a premium.

They were, but more for the Cardinals than their neighbors from Piscataway.

The second-seeded Chiefs got two touchdown runs from Mickye Simmons, and two touchdown passes from Landon Pernell – one each to Josiah Zayas and Sean Love – en route to a 29-14 win over seventh-seed Plainfield that wasn’t quite as close as the final score indicated.

Thanks to Piscataway Township and Mayor Brian Wahler for sponsoring Saturday’s broadcast!

Plainfield won the toss, took the ball, and held it for more than 12 minutes, into the second quarter, but came up empty. So too, did Piscataway, but after holding the Cards to a three-and-out, got on the board with a 41-yard touchdown pass to Sean Love with just 44 seconds to go in the first half. A two-point conversion after a penalty on the PAT made it 8-0, and that was how the first half would end.

After the break, Pisctaway started to take control. A seven-yard TD pass to Josiah Zayas made it a two-score lead at 15-0, and a three-yard run by Simmons made it 22-0 with 8:06 to go in the fourth.

Plainfield eventually got on the board on a 12-yard catch by Tylor Hunter, but Piscataway answered right back with another Simmons run, and anything else would just change the final score, but not the outcome.

Piscataway had a stronger game up front – one of head coach Dan Higgins’ goals coming in – and that ended up being the difference, as Pernell had time to throw when he wanted to, and the Chiefs only had one or two negative yardage plays.

The Chiefs (8-2) will move on to host 6th-seed Bayonne (7-3) in the sectional semifinals next Saturday at noon at Kenny Armwood Stadium. A win would give Piscataway its first berth in a sectional final since 2018, when they won the North 2, Group 5 title and beat Ridgewood in the North 5 bowl championship, becoming the first – and no one has done it since – Middlesex County school to win 13 games in a season, finishing 13-0.

The other semifinal will feature top-seed Bridgewater-Raritan (7-3) hosting fourth-seed Union City (6-3).

Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Marcus Borden, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen!

For the years Bob Turco was the head coach at St. Thomas Aquinas, they were a boys’ basketball program intent on pressure, defense, rebounding and transition basketball.

He’s at Piscataway now, but when the No. 8 Chiefs visited Turco’s old school Saturday afternoon, they looked more and more like the teams he used to coach in North Edison.

Solid rebounding and transition play – especially in the fourth quarter – helped give the Chiefs to a 62-46 win over No. 4 St. Thomas Aquinas.

Sophomore Landon Pernell led the Chiefs with 14, including 7 of 9 from the foul line, and he had seven points in the decisive fourth quarter, which saw Piscataway lead by as many as 15, their biggest advantage of the game.