It was a tough off-season – well, late off-season, anyway – for the East Brunswick football team, and that has continued through the first four weeks of play, with the Bears just 1-3 heading into a road game against one of their biggest rivals.

Friday night, East Brunswick will travel down Route 18 (and maybe a bit of Route 9 or 516) to take on No. 7 Old Bridge in the Battle of Route 18 at Vince Lombardi Field. You can hear the Bellamy & Son Paving “Big Central Game of the Week” at 6 pm on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with pregame set for 5:45. Mike Pavlichko and Vin Ebenau call all the action; click here to listen.

East Brunswick has been outscored 109-26 this season – their lone win a 34-14 non-conference victory over Hamilton – but they have a team made up of a majority of sophomores and juniors.

Interim Head Coach Matt Pazinki says the biggest challenge is getting all eleven players on the field to be on the same page to execute the gameplan.

Sophomore quarterback Sean Christie has continued to develop into his own week after week, while on defense, the task will be tall: slow down Old Bridge junior QB Brody Nugent, the Knights’ leading rusher with 416 yards and seven touchdowns, while passing for another 540 yards and eight scores.