Four different players scored for Spotswood – including Vinny Young with a two-yard touchdown run and a 65-yard pick-six – as the Chargers blanked Roselle on the road, 35-0, in a Big Central Conference Patriot Silver Division contest.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe call all the play-by-play live from Arminio Field in Roselle, NJ, on October 9, 2026:
It’s back in the win column for the Spotswood football team, as the Chargers beat Roselle on the road Friday night in the Big Central Game of the Week presented by Bellamy & Son Paving on Central Jersey Sports Radio, 35-0.
Spotswood got five touchdowns from four different players, including one each on offense and defense from Vinny Young, who got the Chargers on the board with 5:55 to go in the first – on their opening possession – with a two-yard touchdown run that capped an eight-play, 81-yard drive.
Then, with 45 seconds left in the period, Malcolm Ballard caught an 18-yard touchdown pass from QB Jon Regan to make it 14-0.
Roselle started to stiffen on defense, and moved the ball a bit, but still couldn’t score before the wheels fell off late in the half. They nearly held serve on the goal line, but Cole Sternlieb – a transfer back home from Red Bank Catholic, who started his career at St. Thomas Aquinas – ran in a touchdown from three yards out with 66 seconds left.
And when Roselle got the ball back, Vinny Young picked off a Rams pass near midfield, returning it 65 yards for a score to make it 28-0 with 20 ticks left in the half.
Roselle failed to score on the first possession out of the locker room, but Regan ran one in from 16 yards on the Chargers’ first possession to make it 35-0, kicking off the running clock, and allowing Spotswood to run away with the victory, improving to 3-4 on the year, 2-2 in the Big Central Patriot Silver Division, all while snapping a three-game losing streak.
The Rams drop to 0-6, 0-4 in the division.
Click below to hear postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Justin Sontupe with Spotswood head coach Andy Steinfeld and senior Vinny Young:
It’s Year One for Andy Steinfeld, but more like Year Two in a way for the new Spotswood football coach.
While he officially took the reins of the program in January, he was hardly new to the Charger players he’s coaching now: He came on last year as a volunteer assistant under Chris Meagher.
And this season has been a little different than last year’s 8-2 campaign, where Spotswood missed the playoffs on Cutoff Weekend with an 8-2 record on a tiebreaker that went to Camden Eastside, ultimately the victim of a weak schedule and a single, one-point loss to Dayton.
This year’s Chargers are 2-4 (1-2 in the BCC Patriot Silver) as they head to Arminio Field in Roselle Friday night to take on the winless Rams (0-5, 0-3) in the Bellamy & Son Paving Big Central Game of the Week on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Kickoff is at 7 pm; pregame starts at 6:45 with Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe on the call; click here to listen.
Spotswood has lost three straight – to Perth Amboy, then at Johnson and North Plainfield – and will be playing its third straight road game, not playing at home for almost a month before they close out the next two weeks with games against New Providence and arch-rival South River.
The Chargers are a run-first team, with four different backs splitting the carries, led by senior Vinny Young, who has 431 yards and three touchdowns on 54 carries, while senior QB Jon Regan – who has thrown for 393 yards and a trio of touchdowns, has actually run it more – 57 times – for 205 yards and another three scores.
A big bright spot has been the emergence of senior kicker Cade McNeff, who is averaging 32.6 yards per punt – a valuable “win the field position game” asset – while also connecting on 16 of 17 extra points and going 3-of-3 on field goals, as he takes over for the ever-solid, but now-graduated Gavin Pereira.
Click below to listen as Spotswood first-year head coach Andy Steinfeld talks about the Chargers’ season and Friday night’s game at Roselle with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:
When James Roach was hired as Roselle’s new head football coach this summer, he knew the rebuild ahead. It’s why this season was never going to be about wins and losses, just about progress, involvement, and stabilizing the foundation.
A long-time member of the Roselle community, Roach spent a decade as a varsity assistant, then spent the last five years running the town’s youth program. Many of the players on this year’s team came up through that system.
“It means a lot. I’m very happy to be in this position, being an assistant for all those years,” Roach said. “It’s very exciting and I’m appreciative of it.”
Friday night, his Rams (0-5, 0-3 BCC Patriot Silver) will again seek their first win of the 2026 campaign, when they host Spotswood (2-4, 1-2) at Arminio Field in the Big Central Game of the Week presented by Bellamy & Son Paving on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Kickoff is set for 7:00, with pregame at 6:45 as Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe call all the action. Click here to listen.
While it’s been a tough go on the field so far, spirits have remained high for Roach and the Rams. A big reason is senior wide receiver Raekwon Anderson. Roach says Anderson has taken the mantle as a leader in the program, keeping the energy up while Roselle pursues its first win of the season. He doubles as a track star, and has been the Rams’ big-play threat this season. Last week against Brearley, he scored touchdowns of 82 yards and 64 yards.
Click below to hear Sayreville head coach James Roach talk about the Rams’ season and Friday night’s game against Spotswood with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Justin Sontupe:
It was another year of coaching turnover in the Big Central Conference, whether by coaches not being retained, or stepping down on their own.
Of the 59 schools in the league, 12 will have new head coaches for the upcoming 2026 season. That’s 25 coaching changes in the past two seasons – nearly half the league – after 13 new coaches were hired following the 2024 campaign.
The latest hire was Steven Brown at North Plainfield, whose appointment was approved Monday night by the Board of Education. He’s been the defensive coordinator at Verona for the last two seasons, and also at Elizabeth for girls’ flag football, a Big Central playoff finalist each of the last two seasons.
And that leaves just one position open in the BCC, in Perth Amboy, where William Clark will not be retained after seven seasons as the Panthers’ head coach. His teams were 12-52 in that span, never winning more than three in a season; they went 3-7 in 2021.
Once that hiring is complete, the entire Patriot Silver Division – Amboy, New Providence, AL Johnson, Spotswood, Roselle and Metuchen – will have new head coaches, and be responsible for half the new mentors in the BCC this season.
Here’s a look at the rest of the Big Central Conference schools with new coaches in 2026:
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 might not have been a lot of scoring in the Brainy Boro, but Roselle made the key plays it needed to down the stretch in an 18-12 win at Metuchen Saturday afternoon.
Rams’ junior Raekwon Anderson caught the game-winning touchdown pass at the goal line against double coverage, pulling it almost out of thin air after both defenders got a hand on it, then turned into the end zone to put his team up 18-12 with just 18 seconds to go.
And even then, it wasn’t quite over. Roselle’s kickoff to Metuchen went deep, but it went off of Matt Jelleme’s hands, and the Rams’ Kevin Sanchez jumped on it to seal the win with just 13 ticks remaining on the clock.
Anderson got Roselle on the scoreboard at 9:47 of the first quarter with a touchdown catch, but the Rams would only have a 6-0 lead after their two-point try failed. Metuchen knotted the score with a one-yard run by Cam Hayes-Durina with 3:12 to go in the second quarter, but they got the extra point to go up 7-6, a score that would hold through the final horn of the first half.
In the third, Quarterback Deion Nelson then found Shymir Burgess with seven second left in the third to go up 12-7, but with 1:20 left in the game, a one-yard run by Hayes-Durina put the Bulldogs up 13-12, leaving Roselle in need of a late score to survive.
Indeed. they even survived a big sack with the ball just inside the 50 by Metuchen’s Kyle McPartlan. But the drive continued, and eventually led to Anderson’s heroics, his second TD of the day putting Roselle up for good.
Click below for postgame reaction with Central Jersey Sports Radio analyst Marcus Borden, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen!
Now that high school football is in full swing, things are really starting to heat up in the Big Central and around the state, so let’s talk about it all with Central Jersey Sports Radio analyst Marcus Borden!
Mike and Marcus look back at the week gone by, including Aidan Vesuvio-Bush and Somerville’s win over Cranford, Bernards’ two-day win at Hillside, and then look ahead to this week’s matchups, which sees the fourth-ranked Mountaineers face Delaware Valley in a battle of 2-0 teams in the “Big Central Game of the Week” presented by Bellamy & Son Paving. Then, Marcus will be at another big clash in Flemington between unbeatens Hunterdon Central and Phillipsburg, before traveling to Metuchen Saturday for a small-school meeting between the Bulldogs and Roselle.
Also on the show, Mike and Marcus discuss similarities between the Week 0 and Week 1 “Bellamy & Son Paving Players of the Week,” the mindset of kickers who also play on offense, and the most scenic high school football stadium in the Big Central!
Click below to listen to the Week Two edition of “Gameday with Marcus Borden”:
Competitively speaking, overall, the Patriot Silver Division was one of the top groupings in the Big Central Conference last season. The top three teams all won at least seven games, and even the one that finished in last place – Roselle, at 4-7 – was 4-4 out of their division.
A.L. Johnson won the division, going 7-2 overall, with Delaware Valley their only Big Central loss. New Providence went 9-3 and reached the North 2 Group 1 finals, their first trip to a title game since 2011. Metuchen was 7-3 in Year Three under Jordan Leitner.
Here are the preliminary schedules for the Patriot Silver Division teams – in alphabetical order – compiled from the official league schedule and other online sources to the best of our knowledge. Please note game dates and times may be changed without notice as the season approaches. Division games marked with an asterisk (*).
A.L. Johnson Crusaders (7-2, 3-0, Patriot Silver champs in ’24)
Head Coach: Gus Kalikas (1st season)
After the departure of Anthony DelConte as head coach, Athletic Director Gus Kalikas steps in to take the reins, and he’ll have the starting quarterback and the Crusaders’ top-rusher return from a team that lost just one Big Central game last season. That includes QB Robert Gallagher, a dual threat who threw for 742 yards and 7 TDs as a junior, while going for 634 on the ground with eight touchdowns. Runningback Ryan George also is back for his senior year after going for 656 yards and 10 TDs last season. The defense was a little more senior-laden, and will have some big shoes to fill, like those of linemen Sebastian Perez (6 sacks, 1 forced fumble) and Mark Hansen (3 sacks, 1 forced fumble), who graduate.
Metuchen Bulldogs (7-3, 1-2, 3rd place in ’24)
Head Coach: Jordan Leitner (15-15, 4th season)
Alum Jordan Leitner has truly done well at Metuchen, where it wasn’t long ago the program was struggling with numbers. Symmetrically, he took a 3-7 team his debut season to 5-5 in 2023, and flipped the numbers last year, going 7-3. And there’s no reason they can’t continue to improve. While senior Evan Toth – the team’s top rusher at 746 yards and eight touchdowns – graduates, his younger brother Ryan is back after a sophomore year at QB where he went 56 of 91 for 651 yards and 10 touchdowns. And there are other receivers back like Josiah Bourne and Matt Jelleme, Justus Leitner and Kyle McPartlan, who all will be seniors. The defense, however, loses a number of seniors, like Kyle Johnston (4.5 sacks, 14.5 TFLs) and Michael Montemurno (3 sacks, 6.5 TLFs) that will be tough to replace.
New Providence Pioneers (9-3, 2-1, 2nd place in ’24)
Head Coach: Chet Parlevecchio, Jr. (51-31, 9th season)
Coming off their first trip to a sectional final in 14 seasons, the Pioneers will have a mixed bag on offense in 2025. They’ll lose senior quarterback T.J. Munn to graduation. He threw for over 600 yards, but more importantly ran for over a thousand last season. But junior running back A.J. Whitehead, who also rushed for over 1,100 yards and 13 touchdowns is back, and should be the focal point of the offense. There are some good receivers in the stable, too, and Kevin Reilly – who saw action in just two games last year as a sophomore – could be an option at QB. A number of key contributors on defense return, including lineman Drew Gullo (3.5 sacks, 1 TFL) and junior Mike Petses (5 TFLs, 1 forced fumble, 1 INT, 1 safety) among others.
Roselle Rams (4-7, 0-3, 4th place in ’24)
Head Coach: Tyrone Turner (4-7, 2nd season)
In Turner’s first season with the Rams, they maintained their win total from the previous season. Can they take a step up in 2025? That will be tough losing senior QB Brandon Puryear, who threw for 1,130 yards and eleven touchdowns last season, but junior Deion Nelson saw significant time last season, too, and should compete with fellow rising senior Tyrone Smalls, Jr. Puryear also led the team in rushing at 579 yards, but some younger backs return as well, including Davon Rhodes and Raekwon Anderson. Defensively, lineman Jaeden Shorey (2 sacks, 3 TFLs, 2 INT, 1 fumble recovery) should be back for his senior year, along with fellow senior Mike Hnderson (also 2 sacks, 3 TFLs).
Day Two of a three-day weekend of high school football in New Jersey was complete with some big Big Central Conference wins.
Here’s a look at some of the key games on Friday in Week Six, with full scores and the remaining Sunday schedule.
No. 3 St. Thomas Aquinas 57, Edison 7: The Trojans lit up the scoreboard Friday night in North Edison against their in-town rivals, the Eagles. The win made it 29 straight over Big Central Conference opponents, with their last loss coming during the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020 to Bernards. The Trojans are now 5-2, with one out-of-state and one non-conference loss.
Next week, St. Thomas travels down Plainfield Avenue to Metuchen to take on No. 7 St. Joseph, which will drop after suffering its first loss of the season Friday night, dropping to 5-1 with a 49-14 defeat at No. 7 Phillipsburg.
Highland Park 34, Roselle Park 14: The Owls improved to 4-2 with a road victory over the Panthers, their first win against a team .500 or better this season. The last team they beat with a winning record was Point Pleasant Beach, which finished 6-5 in 2015, when Highland Park came away with a 31-0 road win. Ironically, it was against the Garnet Gulls that the Owls snapped their 51-game losing streak in last season’s finale.
Highland Park has a chance to match its 6-4 record from 2016 if it can win its last two games. Both are at home, against Manville (5-2) next Friday night, and against South River (1-5) on cutoff weekend.
Linden 56, Perth Amboy 14: The Tigers put up 56 points against Perth Amboy, their first time scoring int he 50s since 2017, when they scored 55 in a 55-48 win at Ridge on September 22nd of that year.
It’s the fourth-highest point total in school history, which dates back to 1915. They beat Kearny 60-6 in 1994, Rahway 61-6 in 1971, and their biggest offensive output ever came in 1992, when they beat Newark East Side 69-6.
Roselle 28, Newark Collegiate 22: New Rams head coach Tyrone Turner picked up his first win with Roselle with the help of their special teams, as they earned a six-point home win at Arminio Field Friday night, snapping an eight game losing streak that dated back to last year, and an 0-6 start to the season.
Damari Julius scored two first quarter touchdowns, hauling in a 65-yard TD pass from Dione Nelson, and returning a 78-yard kickoff all the way to the house. Brandon Puryear had a 70-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, and Julian Colon recovered a fumble and took it in from two yards out for a score in the third.
Other Friday night scores…
Saturday’s Games:
Thursday Scores
