Tag: Montville

by Mike Pavlichko

INSTANT REPLAY – Group 3 Semifinals (Boys): Colonia 67, Montville 57

North 2, Group 3 champion Colonia got 27 points from sophomore Jayce Rodriguez – including 14-of-14 from the foul line, all in the second half – and another 20 from senior Dylan Chiera, as the Patriots beat North 1, Group 3 champion Montville in the Group 3 state semifinals. The win sends Colonia to the state Group 3 finals for the first time ever, where they will take on Ocean City at Rutgers.

Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from the Dunn Center in Elizabeth on March 11, 2026.

by Mike Pavlichko

History in the making! Colonia drops Montville, 67-57, in Group 3 semis to clinch first ever state finals berth

The Colonia boys’ basketball program has eleven state championships. They’ve won the last five North Jersey, Section 2, Group 3 titles. But the one thing they hadn’t done – whether it was 1973, 1994, 2015 or 2025 – was make a state final.

But now, you can check that box off as well.

Colonia – after starting the season 2-6 – now is 21-10, after a 67-57 win over North 1, Group 3 champion Montville at the Dunn Center in Elizabeth Tuesday, as heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

And now they get one more game, at Rutgers for the state Group 3 title.

They’ll face South Jersey Group 3 champion Ocean City Sunday afternoon at 2 pm at Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway for all the marbles. The Red Raiders were 56-43 winners over Westhampton Tech in the other Group 3 semi down at Central Regional in Bayville Wednesday evening.

Colonia got out to a 9-0 lead early in the game, and that might have been the turning point. That’s because the teams played fairly even the rest of the way, with the Patriots up seven after one, 33-24 at the half, and 51-41 at the end of three. Colonia never trailed in the game, and never allowed Montville to make a run.

Well, almost.

Montville did get the lead down to five at one point late, down 62-57 around the two-minute mark, but Colonia helped itself immensely at the free throw line as senior twins Joey and Ricky Beyer both got in foul trouble in the fourth quarter, Joey fouling out with under a minute left. Big man Eddie Camaj also had four fouls down the stretch.

But the Patriots made them pat from the stripe. Sophomore Jayce Rodriguez finished with a game-high 27, but he had 13 early in the third – his final made field goal coming from beyond the arc – before his last 14 points came from the foul line, where he was a perfect 14-for-14.

As a team, Colonia was 22-of-24 from the foul line, virtually unheard of at any level, let alone a pressure-packed state semifinal.

Rodriguez has three triples, as did senior Dylan Chiera, who finished with 20 points.

Montville finished its season at 23-6; junior David Gonzalez had a team-high 14, while Camaj finished with 12, ten in the second half.

Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

Colonia head coach Jose Rodriguez and sophomore – and coach’s son – sophomore Jayce Rodriguez
Colonia sophomore Jayce Rodriguez. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
Colonia senior Dylan Chiera
Colonia senior Dylan Chiera. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)

by Mike Pavlichko

Colonia heads to fifth straight Group 3 semifinal preparing for a new opponent for the first time

What Colonia basketball has done under Jose Rodriguez has been nothing short of incredible.

The Patriots are officially a public school GMC dynasty these days.

Back on Saturday, they won their fifth straight sectional title, taking down Chatham in the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 3 title game. It was also their sixth sectional title in seven playoff years under Rodriguez, now in his eighth year as head coach. The only year they didn’t win one was in his second year, 2020, when they lost to Irvington in the finals.

The one year there were no state playoffs, they beat St. Thomas Aquinas – on the road – to claim the GMC’s top four-team pod, the Karl Towns/Jay Williams pod. Then, in 2024 and 2025, they won back-to-back GMC titles.

That’s a lot of hardware.

The one thorn in their side the entire run has been Ramapo. They lost to the Raiders in the 2018 Group 3 semifinals, J-Rod’s first year at the helm, then again four years straight from 2022 to 2025.

But they won’t this year.

A sixth seed this year, Ramapo got knocked out in the opening round, coughing up a 31-17 halftime lead and losing in overtime to 11th-seed Morris Knolls, 68-67.

Finally, Colonia gets to prep for someone different.

That someone different is Montville, the four-seed that won the North 1, Group 3 title with a 65-61 upset win Saturday over second-seed Teaneck. The Mustangs are 23-5, and Colonia will play them in the Group 3 semifinals Wednesday at 5 pm at The Dunn Center in Elizabeth, in a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Pregame is set for 4:45; click here to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the action.

Colonia, as many know by now, lost three huge pieces from last year’s team, with Aiden Derkack transferring to Spire Academy in Ohio, R.J. Wortman enrolling early at Rutgers to play football, and defensive specialist Zach Smith graduating, but rebounded from a 2-6 start to go 18-4 the rest of the way. That stretch included a run to the GMC Tournament semifinals, where they narrowly lost to Piscataway.

After two dominating wins to open state tournament play, the Patriots escaped with a Rolaids-worthy win over Mendham – the team they beat last year in the sectional finals – by four, 34-30 in an unusually low-scoring game. It was their lowest offensive output of the season, by one over a 62-35 season-opening loss to St. Peter’s Prep at the NJBAC Tip-Off Classic in Montgomery.

But they rebounded nicely with a 57-46 win over Chatham in the North 2, Group 3 final, in which they had a little more breathing room.

Montville, meanwhile, surprised many to get here, but Rodruguez knows the Mustangs have earned their spot. After wins over the 13- and five-seeds, they knocked off top-seed Tenafly on the road to get to the title game. Led by senior guard Chris Ferrare (19.3 ppg, team-best 112 assists and 55 treys), Montville has three double-digit scorers, including Eddie Camaj (12.4 ppg) and Joey Beyer, who’s averaging an even double-double of 10.9 points and rebounds per game.

Colonia, meanwhile, is led by Jayce Rodriguez, the coach’s son, averaging just a shade under 20 points per game, with a team-high 75 treys, while Desmond Rudanovic is tops on the boards at eight per game. Senior Dylan Chiera – also the QB on the football team – is averaging just under ten points per game, and has a team-best 39 steals.

The Patriots are looking for their first-ever trip to a state final, having won 11 sectional titles overall. Besides the six in the last seven playoff years under Rodriguez, they won Central Jersey Group 4 in 1973, Central 3 in 1985 and 1994, then North 2, Group 3 in 2007 and 2015.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with Colonia head coach Jose Rodriguez about the Patriots’ Group 3 semifinal matchup with Montville: