Second-seed Bound Brook got 17 points and 16 steals from state steals leader and freshman sensation Peytan Pugh in a 62-41 home win over 6th-seed Roselle Park in the Central Jersey Group 1 semifinals, sending the Crusaders to their first sectional championship since 2020.
Click below to listen to Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from Bound Brook High School on March 4, 2026.
Just by looking at the final score, it looked like second-seeded Bound Brook girls basketball worked a ho-hum, big-time victory in the Central Jersey Group 1 semifinals against sixth-seeded Roselle Park.
But for those watching — and listening on Central Jersey Sports Radio — it was anything but.
The Crusaders (25-3) trailed 17-2 in the first quarter, but rallied back to take a double-digit halftime lead, and continued to build in the second half for a 62-41 victory over the upset-minded Panthers (18-8).
Bound Brook clinched a win, and its first appearance in the sectional title since 2020, when it won the Central Jersey Group 1 title and was won the Group 1 semifinal to end the COVID-19-shortened season.
Freshman guard Peytan Pugh paced the Crusaders with 17 points, while continuing her work as the state’s steals leader with countless swipes at the ball, turning into extra possessions on the offensive end. Bound Brook had three other scorers in double figures, as senior wing Ty Ferguson added 14 — all in the second and fourth quarters — while Lauren Polakiewicz made a trio of three-pointers for 12 points, and Jayden Campbell scored ten.
Roselle Park star guard Sidney Smith — the leading scorer in the state — finished with a game-high 26 points and was the only Panther in double figures. She finished five points shy of her season average, as the Crusaders threw multiple different looks and defenders at her to try to contain her premiere shotmaking.
Roselle Park took all of the momentum to start, playing uptempo on both ends of the floor as Smith scored eight points in the opening quarter and the Panthers’ supporting cast helped lead the way, as Hannah Djokic knocked down two three-pointers and Otilla Dobre added another.
After a 17-2 start, Bound Brook stabilized things a bit with two straight baskets to end the frame down by 11.
Then once the second quarter tipped off, the Crusaders were off to the races.
They outscored Roselle Park 28-7 in the quarter, as their own uptempo style got going, led by multiple steals from Pugh to set up transition opportunities. Bound Brook opened the quarter on a 16-0 run to take the lead back, and eventually went into the locker room with a double-digit lead, at 34-24. The trio of Pugh, Polakiewicz, and Ferguson combined for 24 of the 28 second-quarter points, as the Crusaders snatched all of the momentum back and kept it the rest of the way.
The Panthers wouldn’t go down without a fight, though. Early in the third quarter, Smith put on a heroic scoring run to get Roselle Park back within four, knocking down fallaway jumper after fallaway jumper. But Pugh knocked down a three in the final minute of the quarter and gave Bound Brook some breathing room with a seven-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Roselle Park gave the Crusaders an inch, and they took it a mile to open the fourth quarter. They outscored the Panthers 18-6 and put the game away with an increased focus on attacking the basket and continuing to double-team — and sometimes even triple-team — Smith, daring the superstar scorer to give the ball up and force someone else to beat them.
In the sectional semifinals, Bound Brook shook off a rough start and battled to dominate the final 24 minutes of the game to snap a six-year sectional title appearance drought. The Crusaders will move on to face New Providence in the Central Jersey Group 1 championship game, set for Saturday between the section’s top two seeds.
Click here to listen to postgame comments from Bound Brook head coach Jen Derevjanik and freshman guard Peytan Pugh, with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Alec Crouthamel, presented by the Sportsplex at Metuchen:
Some of the more eye-popping individual stat-holders in the state of New Jersey will all face off in Bound Brook on Wednesday.
The second-seeded Crusaders (24-3) head into a battle of star guards, taking on upset-minded Roselle Park, the sixth seed, in the Central Jersey Group 1 semifinals. Bound Brook can secure a spot in the sectional final for the first time since 2020, while the Panthers’ (18-7) third-year head coach, Staci Hartzler, has led the program to new heights recently, in the sectional semifinal for the first time in at least 20 years — as far back as this writer could find the records.
This upcoming matchup features the state’s top scorer and three-point shooter (Roselle Park’s Sidney Smith), second-leading rebounder (Panthers’ sophomore Emma Gregoire), and top steals leader (Crusaders’ freshman guard Peytan Pugh). They’ll all take the court in Bound Brook on Wednesday evening for a 5:30 tipoff. You can hear that game live on Central Jersey Sports Radio with Alec Crouthamel, with pregame starting around 5:15. Click here to listen.
The Crusaders come into the matchup with a gaudy win-loss record and a nail-biting 66-61 win in the quarterfinals over seventh-seeded Thrive Charter in the quarterfinals, avenging a loss in that same matchup last season in the sectional semifinals.
Two of their three losses came in the same week against local powers, falling to Rutgers Prep in the Somerset County Tournament semifinals before losing to Gill St. Bernard’s seven days later. But Bound Brook has nearly run the table against the entire rest of its schedule.
Pugh has burst onto the scene as a freshman, leading the team in points, rebounds, assists, and, of course, steals. She’s also finding her stride at the right time, fresh off her second triple-double of the season with 26 points, ten rebounds, and 13 steals to tie her season-high, even dishing out five assists, as well.
Surrounding Pugh are two other productive guards, with Ti’asjah Ferguson serving as the top slasher on the team and Lauren Polakiewicz leading the way from the perimeter. Both scored in double-figures in the quarterfinals and will certainly be relied on to come up with big-time buckets if another close game goes down.
But Roselle Park will have revenge on its mind, just as the Crusaders did against Thrive.
The Panthers lost in this very matchup in the sectional quarterfinals last year, their first appearance in the round since 2009, as part of the first winning season for Roselle Park since that same year.
Smith, signed to play Division I basketball at Elon next year, gets plenty of attention for her scoring, especially after her fifth 40-point performance of the season in an upset win over Keansburg in the quarterfinals. But the Panthers feature some dangerous size and rebounding as well.
Both Gregoire and senior Madison Wilkes average double-digits on the boards per game, and they’ve put up video game numbers of their own, including six games with 20 or more boards this year for Gregoire.
A handful of the Garden State’s top individual performers will do battle in Bound Brook, as each team looks to snap multi-year sectional title droughts led by their respective star guards.
Click below to hear a preview interview with Bound Brook head coach Jen Derevjanik, with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Alec Crouthamel:
The task was a tall one. Bernards knew that coming in.
The 7th-ranked Mountaineer girls basketball team was a perfect 10-for-10 in 2025-26 heading into Saturday afternoon’s non-conference home game with Roselle Park and the state’s top scorer, Sidney Smith.
And it would be a good test against a solid squad not from their league, a chance to see how they stacked up.
Bernards hung in there, never leading in the game, but keeping it close. They trailed by ten at the half, 35-25, and got it to single digits on a couple of occasions, even as close as six late in the first half.
But the Elon-committed Smith was too much for the Mountaineers, either scoring from what would be the college three-point line, or getting to the basket, drawing contact and going to the line, where she picked up even more points.
It all resulted in a 67-52 win for Roselle Park (8-2), and Bernards’ first loss of the year (10-1).
She finished with a game-high 35, scoring 17 in a third quarter that proved to be the difference, and had five triples in the game. With Bernards keeping it close, she took over the game in the third.
Aletha Reynolds was high scorer for Bernards, scoring 26, including five treys.
Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
A tight game through the first 24 minutes, the final 24 belonged to Roselle Park.
The Panthers topped the Roselle Rams at home, 41-19, in the final Thanksgiving meeting between the two teams, the 106th game between the two schools.
Roselle Park (6-4) never trailed in the game, with Anthony Cianfrocca scoring twice on touchdown runs in the first half. The first came from 21 yards out and gave him team a 7-0 lead with 5:26 to go in the opening quarter. The second one a one-yard jaunt that broke a 7-7 tie to give his team back the lead.
They would go into the half up 20-13, the outscore the rival Rams 21-6 in the second half. Maxwell Griffin had all three Panther touchdowns, from 25- and 39-yards out on offense, and on a 44-yard pick six in the fourth quarter.
Raekwon Anderson, Shymir Burgess and Tyrone Smalls, Jr., scored the three touchdowns for Roselle.
Roselle finished the season 2-9 with the loss. But Roselle Park leads the all-time series 55-44, with eight ties. Starting next season, the game will be played on Cutoff Weekend.
Click below for postgame reaction from Marcus Borden with victorious Roselle Park, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
It was the last remaining Turkey Day game in Union County – with Plainfield and Westfield meeting for the final time last season – and leaves Phillipsburg as the only Big Central team to play on Thanksgiving, in their annual meeting with Easton that shows no sign of ending any time soon.
Easton 35, Phillipsburg 6:
Easton beat the Stateliners Thursday, 35-6, to claim their program record 14th win of the season, less than a week after Phillipsburg lost 41-21 to Ramapo in the Group 4 semifinals at Maloney Stadium.
It was all Easton early, as they scored four times in the first half, including three touchdown runs, and a blocked punt Anthony Diaz recovered in the end zone. The lone ‘Liner score came via an 81-yard touchdown pass from sophomore QB Dominic Bracco to his brother, Mike Bracco, a senior.
The Stateliners end their season at 10-3, following a second straight Thanksgiving Day loss to the Red Rovers, after winning back-to-back contests in 2022 and 2023.
There were 13 high school football games Thursday night, but only seven playoff-eligible games (Ivy Divisions in the Super Football Conference aren’t playoff-eligible).
Those games didn’t have a big impact on the standings, but when combined with the rest of the results to come in Friday and Saturday, they could have some real sway in who makes the postseason and who doesn’t.
Remember, SI values are locked in, so the values you see are the ones you get this weekend. All that matters is who won and who lost.
Here’s a look at all the public school sections impacted by Thursday night’s play, large or small.
In a Big Central Conference Freedom Gold Division matchup, Anthony Cianfrocca and Nasir Cheston each scored twice to power Roselle Park to a 35-12 road win over the Highland Park Owls.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Vin Ebenau call all the play-by-play live from Jay Dakelman Field at Joseph Policastro Stadium in Highland Park, NJ, October 10, 2025:
Two long drives told the story of this game, Roselle Park’s first of each half.
The Wing-T is difficult enough to defend, but when you have strong runningbacks that are tough to bring down, that makes it even tougher.
Three of those backs were on display Friday night for the Panthers in a 35-20 win at Highland Park, the “Big Central Game of the Week” presented by Bellamy & Son Paving on Central Jersey Sports Radio.
Nick Salas, Anthony Cianfrocca and Nasir Cheston routinely dragged defenders an extra five, ten, fifteen yards on play after play.
But those two drives.
The first took 7:38 off the clock in the first quarter, after the Owls failed to score on their first possession, It went eight plays for 82 yards and still took more than half the period. Cheston took his first touch of the game nine yards into the end zone to cap the drive.
The second came right after halftime. The Panthers took 15 plays this time, and 8:36 off the clock, finished off by quarterback Anthony Damiano, his first run of the game. He got a little push from behind on fourth-and-goal from less than a yard out, giving his team 28-12 lead with 3:02 left in the third.
Cianfrocca finished with 177 yards on 13 carries unofficially, with two touchdowns.
Roselle Park, now 4-2, still may not make the playoffs. They were 23rd in the North 1 supersection entering the weekend, and should tick up slightly. But with two of their four wins over winless teams in Dunellen and South River, and another coming up next week at JP Stevens, the odds are quite long, and they’d have to beat Spotswood – undefeated coming into the weekend – on Cutoff Weekend to have a prayer. It’s no fault of their own, just the schedule they’re dealt.
Highland Park drops to 2-4 after having started 2-0, and visits undefeated Manville (7-0) next Friday night.
Click below for postgame reaction presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen with senior runningback Anthony Cianfrocca and head coach Greg Dunkerton:
Friday night, when Roselle Park travels to Highland Park for a Big Central Conference Freedom Division game, both certainly need a win. But the effect on the playoff race for both teams will be markedly different.
Their records aren’t much different. The Owls are 2-3, with the Panthers are 3-2. But Roselle Park – despite the better record – is sitting at 24th place in the North Group 1 supersection, eight spots out of a playoff berth. Highland Park is in 14th in South Group 1.
It might not even be that one section is stronger than the other. Even though only seven teams in North Group 1 have an OSI over 40, and the first 14 are all 40 or higher in the North, Roselle Park would still be in a similar situation in the South.
Of Roselle Park’s three wins, two are over winless teams in South River and Dunellen, whose SI values average around 25. In fact, Dunellen is under 20, which kicks in the NJSIAA rule that – for OSI purposes – no team can be awarded fewer than 20 points for a win, and ten for a loss (Dunellen’s SI is calculated as 20 for playoff seeding purposes).
Fortunately, they have better competition this week. They’ll probably have to win at Spotswood to get in on Cutoff Weekend, but … one game at a time.
For the Owls, they also need wins. They finished 6-3 last season at the cutoff, but didn’t make it. If they keep winning, they should be able to fend off the teams behind them.
But Friday’s game – the first in a “Big Central Game of the Week” presented by Bellamy & Son Paving twin-bill this week – is all that matters now. Both teams need to win.
The Owls have a new quarterback with the graduation of Markos Hantsoulis, but his cousins Kosta and Stamatis remain, and new QB Marcus Smith – a junior – has looked good, passing for 526 yards and five touchdowns through five games. Defensively, they have six sacks, led senior defensive end by Matthew Adamczyk-Zapor with two.
For Roselle Park, they’re more a run-heavy team, with three ball carriers in triple digits, led by junior Nick Salas (75 carries, 459 yards, and a team-best 17 touchdowns). Senior QB Anthony Damiano has thrown for 351 yards on the year and four TDs. He’s not turnover prone – with just one pick – but they just don’t throw it a lot. He’s only attempted 32 passes this season, and doesn’t run it a lot either. He lets the backs do that.
Defensively, though, they get after it. Damiano has two interceptions on the year, one for a touchdown, and is one of three players with two sacks apiece, while senior Jose Candelaria leads the Panthers with three.
You can hear Friday night’s game live on Central Jersey Sports Radio with Mike Pavlichko and Vin Ebenau on the call. Kickoff is at 7 pm, pregame at 6:45. Click here to listen.
Click below to hear preview interviews from both head coaches:
We continue to barrel toward Cutoff Weekend in New Jersey high school football, with just three games to go in the regular season for the public schools, including this week. And it’s time to talk about it all with Central Jersey Sports Radio analyst Marcus Borden!
Mike and Marcus look back at the week gone by, including undefeated Sayreville’s big win over Piscataway, Hillsborough’s comeback win Saturday at Westfield, and Somerville’s win at Summit, handing the Hilltoppers their first loss of the season.
Also on the show, Mike and Marcus talk about look at the playoffs, where six Big Central teams currently sit with top seeds, but only two of those are undefeated. The other six unbeatens are either in the running – like Sayreville and Bernards – or well out of the chase, but still in the field of 16, like unbeaten Spotswood and Manville.
We also look at this weekend’s games, including Coach’s Friday trip to Montgomery to see the one-loss Cougars take on unbeaten Woodbridge, and Saturday’s Bellamy & Son Paving “Big Central Game of the Week,” featuring a battle of unbeatens, as Phillipsburg travels to St. Joseph-Metuchen.
Click below to listen to the Week Six edition of “Gameday with Marcus Borden”:
