Tag: North Hunterdon

by Mike Pavlichko

Kley knows the challenges in front of North Hunterdon in school’s first trip beyond the sectional finals

This is uncharted territory for North Hunterdon.

In fact, it’s uncharted territory for everyone in high school football in New Jersey.

In 2018, the NJSIAA expanded the playoffs as part of its major overhaul of the postseason, adding an extra round that would pit North 1 against North 2 and South against Central sectional final winners in each group, but go no further. They were called “bowl championships,” and changed the next year to “regional championships.

They were essentially group semifinals, without the finals, and while there were some great games, it was kind of like what they say about ties: it’s like kissing your sister.

This year, however, after a historic vote last December, New Jersey will be playing down to group champions among public schools for the first time ever, so even this is not the last game of the year. There’s one more to play for, one more to get to, one more to win after this weekend.

Be that as it may, that’s not what’s on anyone’s mind in Annandale. They are focused on winning one game, the one against Northern Highlands in the Group 4 semifinals Saturday at 5:30 at Franklin High School in Somerset. The one against a team that has won three straight sectional titles, the last two coming in dramatic fashion over Ramapo.

You can hear Saturday’s game on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with Mike Pavlichko on the call, starting with pregame at 5 pm. Click here to listen.

Head coach Kevin Kley is more worried about how his team will stop North Hunterdon, and put up some points. Never one to tip his hand, those are the vague generalities of what they need to do against the Highlanders Saturday. While both his team and Saturday’s opponent scored a lot of points and gave up a lot of points last weekend, those were somewhat anomalies.

Especially for Northern Highlands. Coming in with an 8-3 mark they had only cracked the 40-point plateau once this season, in a non-competitive 42-6 win over Hackensack back on October 7th. Other than that, their season high output was 29 points heading into the final, which they won 49-42 in overtime.

Coming into the final, Highlands had only been allowing just over 14 points a game, allowing a season high to Old Tappan – this year’s eventual North 1, Group 3 champion – in a shutout loss back on September 9th.

For the Lions, they’ve put up some big numbers this year, and the only other time they allowed more than 24 points in a game was in their lone loss, a 48-21 defeat to Phillipsburg at Maloney Stadium back on September 16th.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk about North Hunterdon and Saturday’s Group 4 semifinals with Lions’ head coach Kevin Kley:

by Mike Pavlichko

Edwards, Uryniak have led the show all year, but know this: Martini can throw

For those who think North Hunterdon is going to pound the ball on the ground, and rely solely on runningbacks Kente Edwards and Alex Uryniak, think again.

When senior qaurterback Luke Martini saw the ground game wasn’t getting what he wanted from the Randolph defense in the North 2, Group 4 title game Saturday afternoon at Singley Field, he knew what he had to do.

Throw the ball.

And throw it he did. A lot.

And when the game ended up becoming a shootout in the fourth quarter – with 49 points scored between the two teams – guess how North Hunterdon scored their last two touchdowns? On the ground.

Of course, that was after Martini had thrown five touchdown passes – not counting two that had been called back on penalties before they eventually scored on the same drive with a passing TD anyway – and after he had thrown for the vast majority of his career-high 411 yards in the game.

Those who don’t watch North Hunterdon football all year long had been asking, “Yeah, but can Martini throw.”

Well, even those who didn’t watch them Saturday have their answer.

The offensive versatility will come in handy on Saturday, when North Hunterdon (11-1) takes on Northern Highlands (8-3) in the Group 4 semifinals at Franklin High School in Somerset. Kickoff is at 5:30 pm, with pregame starting at 5:00 on Central Jersey Sports Radio, as Mike Pavlichko calls all the action. Click here to listen.

The winner moves on to New Jersey’s first ever public state finals at Rutgers University on the weekend of December 3-4.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with Lions’ quarterback Luke Martini about the season, the championship, and Saturday’s semifinal against Northern Highlands:

by Mike Pavlichko

Lineman Rayl loves to hit, keep teammates from getting hit for North Hunterdon

“Getting a sack. All the way. You can’t beat that.”

That’s the answer that comes from Greg Rayl when he’s asked about his favorite thing to do on defense.

Good answer, considering he plays right in the middle of the North Hunterdon defensive line.

And for all the ink that Kente Edwards, Alex Uryniak, Luke Martini and his receivers may get, none of it is possible without the offensive line.

Now, you might not know it to look at babyfaced senior Greg Rayl, but he’s the team leader in sacks, along a get-after-the-QB defensive line that has racked up 38 sacks and 85 tackles for loss. Rayl has eight of each, a steady performer along with Hunter Vos (6 1/2 sacks, 8 TFLs), Aaron Yarnell (5 sacks, 8 TFLs) and Kieran Sturges (1 sack, 3 TFLs).

And on offense, at his right tackle position, he and his teammates up front – starters Alex Moore, Louis White, Tyler Guidetti and Vos – have paved the way for 2,430 team rushing yards, led by Edwards’ 1,259 yard and Uryniak’s 992 to go along with 29 team touchdowns. Not to mention Martini’s 2,147 passing yards.

He’ll be a key part of Saturday’s game if the Lions (11-1) are to beat Northern Highlands (8-3) in the Group 4 semifinals at Franklin High School, and advance to the state’s first-ever public school group finals in two weeks at Rutgers University.

You can hear Saturday’s game on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with Mike Pavlichko calling all the action at 5:30 pm. Pregame starts at 5:00. Click here to listen.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with senior defensive lineman Greg Rayl about his favorite part of playing defense, the team’s togetherness, and Saturday’s game against Northern Highlands:

by Mike Pavlichko

“The Big Central in 2 Minutes” – Playoff Edition: And Then There Were Two

Well, the Big Central has two sectional champions in 2022, just like it did in 2021, just the teams are different. Congratulations to Edison and North Hnterdon, Central 5 and North 2 Group4 trophy-winners, respectively! Veteran sportscaster Mike Pavlichko looks back at the sectional finals on “The Big Central in Two Minutes,” why schools like Edison and North Hunterdon have had success, and looks ahead to this weekend’s group semifinal matchups for the Eagles and Lions.

Click below to listen to the Group Semifinals Playoff edition of “The Big Central in 2 Minutes”:

by Mike Pavlichko

Championship Weekend (#1) Recap: Edison, North Hunterdon carry the torch for the Big Central

No league goes perfect on Championship Weekend. Some are heavy underdogs, some will pull off upsets. Some will be upset, and others will win like they’re supposed to.

The Big Central had most of that in its second playoff season of existence, with five teams vying for titles this past weekend, a league best after three played for titles last year – with one featuring an all-BCC matchup).

And there’s still another Championship Weekend to go.

But first, we start with the winners: Edison and North Hunterdon. But to look at Edison, we also need to look at what happened to Phillipsburg.

Edison and West Orange – P’burg’s opponent – were both 6th-seeds, and the lowest seeds to reach the sectional finals this year. And the similarities don’t end there.

Both missed starting quarterbacks for a good chunk of time. Though West Orange was 3-1 without Amir Stewart in the first four weeks of the season, Edison was 0-2 without fourth-year starter Matt Yascko. That certainly made a difference having both play in their respective three-game championship runs.

The Eagles, however, had still more at play in winning the Central Jersey Group 5 title, with a 28-14 victory at top-seed Lenape Friday night, as heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

To begin with, they remember coming down here in 2019 – when Yascko was a freshman starter – and getting blown out of the water by the Indians. Yascko, Adekunle Shittu, Malcolm Stansbury and Israel Rodriguez are all key starters who played varsity as freshmen. And that loss was still fresh in their minds on the bus ride down to Medford.

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Not only was a title won Friday, but demons were vanquished.

READ MORE: Yascko, Edison defense help knock off top-seed Lenape, bring home trophy for first time in 31 years

Toms River North is a different kind of beast than Lenape, 12-0 and with a major D1 recruit who’s a junior playing quarterback, but that analysis is for another time. Suffice it to say, you’d be a fool to count out Edison just based on their toughness, and we’ll leave it right there for now.

North Hunterdon – which won the North 2, Group 4 title Saturday, also in a game heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio – is somewhat of a similar situation to Edison: guys who have played together all their lives. And they have a lot of weapons, not just Kente Edwards and Alex Uryniak on the ground. I was asked by someone, “Who knew Martini had that kind of arm?”

READ MORE: North Hunterdon wins 4th quarter shootout over Randolph on career day from Martini, as Lions claim North 2 Group 4 trophy

Well, Randolph does now, and so does the entire state, as Martini threw TD passes for the Lions’ first five scores of the game. Bombs, too. Not to mention two more bombs on the same possession that got called back for holding and an ineligible man downfield.

Northern Highlands is up next, Saturday in Franklin, and surely presents a challenge. Whether they’re the dominating team that beat Woodbridge in 2019 for their first of three straight sectional titles remains to be seen.

Now to those who lost.

Sure, Phillipsburg was the No. 1 seed in North 2, Group 5, and maybe you could or couldn’t see it coming, but West Orange played with a purpose, and the Stateliners just didn’t play their best game on the biggest stage.

Or was it? No doubt, a state title is nice, but there’s a reason they say stamp #BeatEaston on everything around there. They still have that game in two weeks, and should they win it, anyone on this side of the Delaware within miles of Maloney Stadium will say, “What West Orange game? What?!”

What may hurt so much for Phillipsburg is the high expectations, and maybe the strain of that didn’t help either. The same could be said for Hillside, which maybe didn’t get the statewide recognition, despite having two D1-bound runningbacks in 2022, thousand-yard rushers in 2021 who returned for this season: Mu Parkman – who’s going to Syracuse – and Kyon Simonson, who’s headed to West Point. They were solid this year, their lone loss to St. Thomas Aquinas.

Bottom line? Both teams expected to win that game Saturday: Hillside and Old Tappan. Only one could. And Old Tappan did.

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And Brearley: In the North 1, Group 1 final against Mountain Lakes Saturday, it was close, but the Herd play good defense, and came out with a 16-6 win. But what else can you say about Matt Sims?

An all-world dual-threat QB like that doesn’t come around every day in a district like Kenilworth, and he took them on a spectacular ride: the Bears were 25-6 in his last three years as the full-time starting quarterback. And they swept the regular season, winning the Freedom Gold Division, their first division title since winning the Mid-State 38’s Union Division in 2019.

Those are the things you remember.

But now it’s on to the Group Semifinals for the Eagles and Lions (oh my!) for the first time ever, and a trip to the inaugural Group Championships – state championships, really – at Rutgers the first week of December.

I’m not sure it’s really sunk in what’s up for grabs there yet. This was still Championship Weekend for everyone that hoisted a trophy. And it may take a couple of years for that to become the event that it is in other sports. Or it might not. We’ll find out in a few weeks.

MORE COVERAGE:

by Mike Pavlichko

INSTANT REPLAY: North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 Final: (1) North Hunterdon 49, (2) Randolph 35

Top-seeded North Hunterdon won its third state sectional title overall – and first since 2017 – with a 49-35 victory over second-seed Randolph in the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 finals at Singley Field in Annandale on November 12, 2022. Senior quarterback Luke Martini threw for a career-high 411 yards and 5 touchdowns – also a career best – in the win.

Click below to hear all the live play-by-play from Mike Pavlichko and Shane Dunn:

1st Half
2nd Half
by Mike Pavlichko

Kley impressed with North Hunterdon’s resiliency, senior leadership in sectional title win

It’s a group that has played together for years, in many cases going back to youth football.

And whatever obstacle comes their way, whether for one, or the collective, they seem to be able to handle it.

There weren’t too many in the opening round of the playoffs, a 34-7 win over Middletown North.

But the second round was a different story. In the semifinals, the Lions fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter to Morris Knolls. But after a key timeout by head coach Kevin Kley, it was all North Hunterdon the rest of the way against the Golden Eagles, resulting in a 25-14 win.

This Saturday, after a tight game for three quarters, with the Lions holding a 21-14 lead, it was a fourth quarter that spiraled into a good old-fashioned donnybrook. North and Randolph combined for 49 points in the final 12 minutes, which never saw the Lions lose the lead, but in which every time the Rams closed it from two scores to one, North Hunterdon had an answer.

Danny DeLusant, Kente Edwards, Alex Uryniak. They all scored “breathing room” touchdowns in the fourth quarter, which in the end, turned out to be very necessary.

And following the game, head coach Kevin Kley praised theirs – and everyone’s – resiliency, toughness, and grit through it all.

Click below to for postgame reaction with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko, talking to head coach Kevin Kley:

by Mike Pavlichko

Game times announced for Edison, North Hunterdon public group semifinal games

The NJSIAA Saturday night announced the game times for all ten public group semifinal games, which will lead to the first ever public group championships in New Jersey high school football history.

Edison and North Hunterdon – the Big Central Conference’s two public sectional title winners this weekend – will be playing at the same time, but in different places.

The Eagles – who won the Central Jersey Group 5 title Friday night 28-14 over Lenape – will be back down in Medford, playing at 5:30 next Saturday evening. They’ll take on South Jersey Group 5 champ Toms River North at Cherokee High School in Medford, a 15-minute drive from where the Eagles played Friday night at Lenape. The Mariners are 12-0 and have not scored fewer than 42 points in a game since a Week Zero win over Washington Twp., 28-21, in the Battle at the Beach in Ocean City, which Edison also played in. They are led by junior QB Micah Ford, who has D1 college interest as a runningback, and offers from Maryland and West Virginia, according to 247Sports, as well as interest from Rutgers. TRN beat defending CJ5 champ Kingsway 48-14 Friday night for the South 5 title.

The Lions won the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 title Saturday afternoon, winning a fourth-quarter shootout where the teams combined for 49 points, 49-35 over Randolph. They will face North Jersey, Section 1, Group 4 champion Northern Highlands, also at 5:30, at Franklin High School in Somerset. The Highlanders – from Allendale in the Northwest corner of Bergen County – won their third sectional title, rallying from 14 points down in the fourth quarter to beat Ramapo for the second straight year, 49-42 in a four-hour overtime marathon in which Ramapo’s stadium lights went out not once, but twice. Northern Highlands also beat Woodbridge in the North 1, Group 4 title game in 2019 in Allendale, the last year of playoffs before COVID wiped out the 2020 postseason.

Follow us on Twitter and here on cjsportsradio.com for complete coverage of both games, before, during and after, as well as out coverage plans for gameday!

Should Edison and/or Northern Highlands advance, they would go on to the Group Finals at Rutgers University’s SHI Stadium in Piscataway on Saturday or Sunday of the first weekend of December.

Edison would face the winner of the North semifinal featuring North 1 champ Passaic Tech and North 2 winner West Orange, which knocked off previously-unbeaten No. 1 seed Phillipsburg on Thursday night. PCTI and West Orange will be at 2:30 pm Sunday at Franklin.

Northern Highlands would play the winners of the South semifinal featuring Central champion Mainland and South champion Millville, which will take place at 2:30 pm Sunday at Cherokee.

by Mike Pavlichko

Highlight Reel! Listen back to all the highlights of North Hunterdon’s 49-35 win over Randolph for the North 2, Group 4 title

The two teams combined for 84 points, 49 of which came in the final quarter.

But don’t worry if you missed any of it! We have all the highlights right here!

Senior quarterback Luke Martini threw for 389 yards unofficially – by far a career high – and tossed a career best five touchdown passes, as well, in the win.

Now 11-1, the Lions face Northern Highlands, the North 1, Group 4 champion, in next week’s semifinals at Franklin High School, Somerset County.

Click below to for full game highlights:

by Mike Pavlichko

North Hunterdon wins 4th quarter shootout over Randolph on career day from Martini, as Lions claim North 2 Group 4 trophy

Top-seed North Hunterdon jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 title game Saturday afternoon in Annandale, but by late in the third quarter found itself tied at 14-14. And it looked like the next possession might win the game, the way things were going.

But the teams exploded for 49 combined points in the fourth quarter. Happily for the Lions, they scored more of them than the Rams did, and claimed a state championship for the second time in six seasons, thanks to a 49-35 win heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Senior quarterback Luke Martini had a career-best game on the big stage: unofficially 389 passing yards and five touchdown passes, both career highs. Two long bombs got the Lions the early lead: a 49-yard TD pass to Derek Vaddis, and an 81-yard TD pass to Danny DeLusant.

Vaddis also had a 20-yard TD reception, and DeLusant had another for 25, before Kente Edwards and Alex Uryniak punched in short runs from two and three yards respectively.

After losing the two-score lead, North Hunterdon got the next two scores to go up 28-14. Randolph got within in score, but North Hunterdon got it right back. And that happened twice more, with Edwards’ and Uryniak’s scores providing the insurance.

It was North Hnterdon’s third state title overall, to go along with the 2017 championship – which came over Phillipsburg at MetLife Stadium after a regular season loss to the Stateliners – and their first in 1976. The Lions are 3-1 now in finals, all-time.

With an 11-1 record – matching the 2017 mark – North Hunterdon now goes on the face North 1 Group 4 champ Northern Highlands in the Group 4 semifinals, to be played at Franklin High School next Saturday and Sunday. Game times and dates should be announced this weekend by the NJSIAA.

Click below to for postgame reaction with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

Senior QB Luke Martini
North Hunterdon QB Luke Martini (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
Senior WR/CB Derek Vaddis
Senior RB/S Kente Edwards