Tag: North Hunterdon

by Mike Pavlichko

Everyone else does the shuffle, but Phillipsburg and North Brunswick remain 1-2 in CJSR Top Ten

With four of the Big Central Conference’s undefeated teams losing in Week 5, and a sprinkle of other games factored in, the Central Jersey Sports Radio Top Ten saw a big shuffle among all the teams but two, as Phillipsburg – which got both first-place votes – and North Brunswick remain No. 1 and No. 2.

While the Stateliners (5-0) and North Brunswick (5-0) continued to win, ranked teams like Hillside, Montgomery and Colonia suffered their first losses of the season, while St. Joseph-Metuchen suffered its second loss in a row.

What it all meant was an opportunity for several teams to move up.

Hillsborough – after a shutout at P’burg two weeks ago – got back on the winning track, edging out Union at home to improve to 4-1, and move up two spots in the poll to fifth. North Hunterdon took a huge leap with a win over previously unbeaten and then No. 6 Colonia – which dropped out – 33-7 in Annandale; the Lions climbed from tenth to fourth.

St. Thomas Aquinas knocked off previously-undefeated Hillside, and the win got the Trojans to fifth, up three spots. Sayreville moved up two spots to sixth, tied with the Comets.

Three new teams fill out the last three spots in the rankings.

Westfield (4-1) joins the group at No. 8 this week after beating previous-No. 7 St. Joseph-Metuchen at home Saturday afternoon, 14-0, the Falcons second loss, which also dropped them from the rankings.

In ninth is Watchung Hills, which is 4-2 after knocking a 33-0 win at No. 3 and previously-unbeaten Mongtomery, bouncing the Cougars from the rankings. The Warriors’ only league loss is to North Hunterdon; their other defeat is to Morris Knolls.

Tied with Watchung Hills is Ridge, debuting at 3-2. The Red Devils’ only losses are to Phillipsburg and Hillsborough.

Montgomery and Edison also received votes.

Following are the full Week 5 Central Jersey Sports Radio rankings:

by Mike Pavlichko

INSTANT REPLAY: No. 10 North Hunterdon 33, No. 6 Colonia 7

North Hunterdon runningbacks Kente Edwards and Alex Urinyak combined for close to 300 rushing yards and three touchdowns as the 10th-ranked North Hunterdon Lions defeated the 6th-ranked Colonia Patriots 33-7 on Friday, September 30, 2022.

Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Dom Savino call all the action from Annandale, NJ:

1st Half

2nd Half
by Mike Pavlichko

No. 10 North Hunterdon runs over No. 6 Colonia, handing Patriots first loss

Kente Edwards got the better of Jaeden Jones in a matchup that featured two of the best rushers in the conference.

Colonia’s junior quarterback Jaeden Jones entered the game with over 900 rushing and 500 passing yards, with 10 TDs on the ground. But the night belonged to Edwards, the North Hunterdon senior, who had over 800 yards on the ground and 9 TD coming in.

Edwards carried 17 times for 158 yards and two touchdowns, while his backfield mate Alex Urinyak, who rushed 12 times for 112 yards and a score, in a 33-7 win on Friday night in the Big Central Game of the Week heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Neither could be brought down easy on a night where the Lions unofficially outgained the Patriots on the ground 271-67.

Jones managed only 36 yards on seven carries before coming out of the game with an injury in the third quarter, as the North Hunterdon defense put pressure on the athletic signal caller all night.

The win puts North Hunterdon at 3-0 in the Big Central Conference’s Liberty Silver Division, and in sole possession of first place ahead of Montgomery, which fell to 1-1 in the division after a 33-0 home shutout at the hands of Watchung Hills.

The victory is a big boost for the Lions’ playoff standings, worth 25 power points, almost double its season average through five games. They’re having their best start to a season since going 11-1 in 2017 en route to a North 2 Group 4 championship game win over Phillipsburg.

Click below for postgame reaction from North Hunterdon’s big win over Colonia:

North Hunterdon senior runningback Kente Edwards
North Hunterdon head coach Kevin Kley
by Mike Pavlichko

Group 4 playoff analysis: North Hunterdon leads BCC teams packed tightly behind them

As we head into the final four weeks of the regular season before Cutoff Weekend in high school football, it’s time to start taking a closer look at the race for the playoffs. Here’s a look at Group 4; note that we only give a detailed breakdown of the North section since South 4 doesn’t include any teams from the Big Central Conference, the only such supersection in the state.

NORTH 4 (Click here for official standings)

Ramapo is the leader in this section, with Randolph right behind, but both UPRs are in the twos (2.2 for Ramapo, 2.4 for Randolph). That oddity is because while they are 1-and-2 in OSI, Ramapo is fourth in power points, while Randolph is third. (OSI weighs 60%, power points 40% in the state UPR formula).

The highest Big Central team is North Hunterdon in fifth, and there are a bunch of league teams sort of right behind them, and they play two of the three in the next couple of weeks. The Lions have a 5.6 UPR, followed by Wayne Valley (5.8) and Colonia (6.6). Rahway is eighth with a 9 UPR, and Montgomery – with a 10 UPR – is in tenth, followed by Sayreville (10.4 UPR).

That’s a fairly good-sized gap in the middle of the pack. It essentially means that the top seven teams are all tightly packed in the top of the power point and OSI standings; i.e. there’s no team in the top seven that’s very high (say, fourth) in one and very low (say, 12th) in the other.

North Hunterdon can really solidify things and maybe make a run at a top-four seed (and home field through the sectional semifinals) with wins the next two weeks. They host Colonia Friday night – where Central Jersey Sports Radio will have live updates during the Sayreville at East Brunswick game, which kicks off at 7:00 – and next week, North Hunterdon travels to Montgomery.

Now back to that gap: it’s a lot to make up, and if nobody can do it, we’ll have Rahway, Monty, Sayreville, Chatham and maybe more battling it out for that eighth spot, which means a first-round home playoff game.

Ridge in 14th is a good bet to make the playoffs, but Linden in 15th is a little more on the bubble, but at least on the good side.

Woodbridge, however, at 1-4, is in danger of missing the postseason for the first time since 2018. They are in 18th, with a 17.4 UPR. They may need to run the table, which would include not only winning at Perth Amboy this weekend and beating in-town rival JFK at home next week, but then winning out in Clinton over North Hunterdon on October 14th, and beating Sayreville at home on the Friday night of Cutoff Weekend.

Put it this way: for the Barrons, the playoffs start now.

SOUTH 4 (Click here for official standings)

Again, there are no Big Central teams here, but with the NJSIAA going to group finals for the first-time ever this year, it warrants a brief look.

The top two teams here are Middletown South (3-1) and Millville (2-1). They might not be were it not for the multiplier effect, as Middletown South lost to Red Bank Catholic – and still has Donovan Catholic later on. Millville beat St. Augustine two weeks ago.

There’s only one undefeated team in this section: 4-0 Pennsauken, in 6th place right now, with a 7.2 UPR. Their power point total is what hurts them

by Mike Pavlichko

“The Big Central in 2 Minutes” – Week 4: Liners stake their claim, and who had the biggest upset?

On this week’s trip through “The Big Central in Two Minutes,” Mike Pavlichko weighs in on Phillipsburg’s claim to the No. 1 ranking in the league, who had the biggest upset wins of Week Four, and whether Somerville should be in a division with Group 5 schools/

Click below to listen to the Week Four edition of “The Big Central in Two Minutes”:

by Mike Pavlichko

Stateliners grab another first place vote, still lead Big Central Media Poll, as other teams shake up

Another week, another vote for first in the Big Central Media Poll for Phillipsburg.

The Stateliners picked up a season-high 48 points and got four of the five first-place votes in Week Four, ahead of North Brunswick, which got the other first-place vote.

The teams don’t play each other this regular season, and could only meet if they both make the inaugural Group 5 final at Rutgers’ SHI Stadium the first week of December.

Hillside climbed a spot to third, while St. Thomas Aquinas jumped three spots from seventh to fourth.

The poll saw a bit of a shakeup this week, with previously-third ranked Hillsborough dropping two spots to fifth after a 34-0 loss at P’burg Friday night. Previously-No. 7-ranked St. Joseph-Metuchen dropped two spots after losing to unranked Elizabeth Saturday, 23-21. And Sayreville dropped from No. 6 to No. 9 after a 22-0 loss to No. 2 North Brunswick.

Montgomery – 5-0 for the first time ever- continued its ascent, up two spots to fifth. Colonia (5-0) dropped a spot simply by other teams making gains, and North hunterdon – which got votes last week – entered the poll in tenth.

Ridge (2-2) dropped out as well.

The full Week 4 Big Central Media Poll is below:

by Mike Pavlichko

Phillipsburg takes stranglehold on top ranking in Week 4 CJSR Top Ten

Thanks to a 34-0 home win over then-undefeated and third-ranked Hillsborough Friday night, Phillipsburg took both first place votes in the Central Jersey Sports Radio Week Four high school football rankings.

The Stateliners are still followed by North Brunswick, close behind, which has the same record through the first four weeks as P’burg: 4-0.

For the first time this season, no teams dropped out of the rankings, and there were no “Also Received Votes.” All ten teams that got votes are in the rankings, just in a different order.

Click below for the full Week Four Top Ten:

by Mike Pavlichko

Phillipsburg continues reign atop CJSR, Big Central Media Polls

For the second week in a row, it’s Phillipsburg atop the Central Jersey Sports Radio rankings, as well as the Big Central Media Poll.

In fact, the week three rankings have the same top three teams in the same order: the Stateliners, followed by North Brunswick and Hillsborough.

After that, things start to get different. But one common thread was Montgomery, which is off to a 4-0 start, making its debut in both polls this week: 6th place in the CJSR Top Ten, and tied for 7th in the Media Poll with two other teams, including Colonia, which also made its debut in the media survey.

Edison dropped out of both polls this week as the Eagles lost their second straight game, while North Hunterdon – after losing at top-ranked Phillipsburg Friday to fall to 3-1 – fell out of the media rankings, but remained in the CJSR Top Ten at No. 9.

Delaware Valley also received votes in both polls, but didn’t make the top ten, while North Hunterdon did get votes in the media poll, along with Edison and Bernards. Del Val entertains Bernards Friday night in the Big Central Game of the Week on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with kickoff set for 7 pm at Tap Webb Memorial Field in Alexandria. Click here to listen.

One other note is that the polls seem to be tightening, with fewer teams getting votes each week as the season begins to settle in, with next week being the mid-way point of the season. In Week 2, there were 16 teams receiving votes from the five voting members of the Media Poll, compared to 20 in the preseason rankings. This week, the number was down to 14.

Scroll down to see both polls in their entirety:

by Mike Pavlichko

“The Big Central in 2 Minutes” – Week 2: Great Starts and Wild Finishes

On this week’s whip around “The Big Central in Two Minutes,” Mike Pavlichko explains why North looks at some great starts for North Hunterdon, South Plainfield and Hunterdon Central, and the very early playoff standings that have come out, plus much much more!

Click below to listen to the Week One edition of “The Big Central in Two Minutes”:

by Mike Pavlichko

One more first place vote puts Stateliners atop Big Central Media Poll in Week 2

After Week One, North Brunswick got three first place votes and Phillipsburg two from the Big Central media, but after Week Two – despite both teams winning – they flipped, and now the Stateliners sit atop the Big Central Media Poll heading into Week Three.

The Stateliners got 48 points from the five voters, the most of any team so far this season; the Raiders got 45 last week.

After North Brunswick in second, Hillsborough climbed a spot to third, with Hillside up two to fourth, and St. Joseph-Metuchen making its debut – after receiving votes last week – at No. 5. All the top five teams are off to 2-0 starts.

Sayreville – despite a win – dropped to sixth, while North Hunterdon’s 3-0 start got them from the also-ran category to No. 7.

Edison held in eighth, despite its first loss of the season, which came at the hands of North Brunswick, but without starting QB Matt Yascko and wide receiver Malcolm Stansbury, due to injury. Ridge dropped from sixth into an eighth-place tie with the Eagles, while St. Thomas Aquinas – which also got votes last week – also made its debut.

Dropping out were #3 Somerville, #9 Bridgewater-Raritan and #10 Delaware Valley.

The poll also got a little tighter this week in that only 15 teams received votes. Last week, 16 got nods for the top ten from the Big Central Media, down from 20 in the preseason poll.

Below are the full Week 2 rankings: