Tag: Roselle

by Mike Pavlichko

In final Union County Thanksgiving Day clash, Roselle Park tops Roselle, 41-19, while Phillipsburg falls to Easton at Lafayette Coll.

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.

A hand holding a commemorative coin for the 106th game between the Roselle Rams and Roselle Park, featuring a ram logo and the text 'ROSELLE RAMS 106TH GAME'.
A commemorative coin for the pregame coin toss marking the 106th meeting between Roselle and Roselle Park on November 27, 2025. (Photo: Marcus Borden)

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.

by Mike Pavlichko

Roselle rallies in final minute on Anderson’s brilliant TD grab; Rams take Saturday afternoon tussle at Metuchen, 18-12

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!

by Mike Pavlichko

Gameday with Marcus Borden: Week 2

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”:

by Mike Pavlichko

Early look at Big Central Football 2025: Patriot Silver Division expected to be solid again with talent returning

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)

  • Week 0: Madison (Thursday)
  • Week 1: Brearley
  • Week 2: at New Providence*
  • Week 3: at Roselle* (6p)
  • Week 4: Metuchen*
  • Week 5: Governor Livingston
  • Week 6: at Delaware Valley
  • Week 7: at North Plainfield
  • Week 8: Perth Amboy

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)

  • Week 0: Delaware Valley (Sat, 1p)
  • Week 1: at South River (Sat, 1p)
  • Week 2: Roselle* (Sat, 1p)
  • Week 3: New Providence (Sat, 1p)
  • Week 4: at A.L. Johnson
  • Week 5: at Highland Park
  • Week 6: JP Stevens (6p)
  • Week 7: at Brearley (Thurs, 6p)
  • Week 8: North Plainfield (Sat, 1p)

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)

  • Week 0: bye
  • Week 1: at Governor Livingston (Sat, 1p)
  • Week 2: A.L. Johnson *
  • Week 3: at Metuchen* (Sat, 1p)
  • Week 4: Roselle*
  • Week 5: at Middlesex
  • Week 6: Verona
  • Week 7: Bound Brook
  • Week 8: at Delaware Valley

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)

  • Week 0: bye
  • Week 1: at Spotswood (6p)
  • Week 2: at Metuchen* (Sat, 1p)
  • Week 3: A.L. Johnson* (6p)
  • Week 4: at New Providence*
  • Week 5: Hillside (Sat, 1p)
  • Week 6: at Newark Collegiate
  • Week 7: at Delaware Valley
  • Week 8: at JP Stevens (6p)

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).

by Mike Pavlichko

Friday Night Big Central Roundup: Aquinas cruises, Highland Park rebounds from loss, Linden tops 50 for first time in seven years

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:

  • Brearley at South River, 1 pm
  • Dayton at Spotswood, 1 pm (Follow Marcus Borden on Twitter)
  • Rahway at No. 9 Watchung Hills, 7 pm
  • Governor Livingston at Voorhees, 7 pm

Thursday Scores

by Mike Pavlichko

Metuchen holds off Roselle for 35-28 road win

Metuchen took a 21-6 lead over Roselle at halftime, but needed to score more in the second half of a 35-28 win over the Rams up in Union County Friday night.

Jason Woods opened the scoring with an 11-yard touchdown run four minutes into the game, then Evan Toth punched one in a few minutes later to make it 14-0. Roselle got on the board with a Damari Julius return of the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown, but Toth plunged in from four yards out with 9:05 to go before the half to make it 21-6.

After the break, Rams junior Brandon Puryear scored on a 40-yard touchdown run seven minutes into the third quarter to make it 21-12 – as Roselle’s second two-point try of the night failed, but then Justus Leitner caught a 25-yard touchdown pass to make it 28-12 with a half-minute left before the final quarter.

Puryear then threw a touchdown pass on fourth down to Damari Julius get the Rams back within eight on the QB’s two-point conversion run, but the Bulldogs’ Kyle McPartlan answered with a seven-yard scamper to make it 35-20.

And Roselle wasn’t done yet. Puryear scored on his second TD run of the night with 2:37 left to get Roselle within nine. They got the two to get it to 35-28, stopped Metuchen’s next drive, and got the ball back with 1:24 left, with both sides out of timeouts.

Evan Toth then sealed the deal for Metuchen (3-0) with an interception with 26 seconds left. Roselle falls to 0-3.

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

by Mike Pavlichko

Late coaching changes jolted what was otherwise a calm offseason in the Big Central Conference; Here are the ten schools with new football coaches

The springtime departure of Joe LaSala from Woodbridge and the controversial dismissal of Andy Steinfeld at East Brunswick added to what otherwise would have been a calm off-season in the Big Central Conference for coaching changes.

With 14 new coaches in 2022, and another ten for 2023, only six schools would have seen new mentors this year in the BCC. That would have been the fewest since the transition from Year One to Year Two in the league, when only six schools – Spotswood, Dayton, Middlesex, Plainfield, Roselle and South Plainfield – changed coaches.

But Joe LaSala resigned from Woodbridge in late March, leading to three other changes: Joe Goerge left South Brunswick to lead the Barrons, Ibrahim Halsey left Roselle to replace Goerge, and Tyrone Turner left his Co-Defensive Coordinator job at Plainfield to take over at Roselle.

Then, just a couple of weeks before preseason practice began, Matt Pazinko was elevated from Offensive Coordinator to interim head coach at East Brunswick.

Here’s a look at the league’s new mentors heading into 2024:

East Brunswick – Matt Pazinko: Described by his former boss as his “right-hand man,” Pazinko – who, like Steinfeld, played for, was a captain, and coached under longtime mentor and current Central Jersey Sports Radio high school football analyst Marcus Borden – will have to help his team tune out the noise after the events of late July and early August. Little will likely change in the offensive scheme, as all of Steinfeld’s assistants remain on staff. The Bears will try and rebound from back-to-back one-win seasons after going 8-4 in 2021.

Middlesex – Robert Swercheck: When they say people do stuff “for the kids,” they mean a coach like Phlip McGuane, who stepped down after a cancer diagnosis. All indications are his prognosis was good, but he didn’t want the team to suffer if he had to spend any time away. So, he stepped aside, and in comes North Brunswick alum Robert Swercheck, who had been holding down the fort at Scotch Plains-Fanwood since head coach Austin Holman stepped aside for personal reasons mid-season. Swercheck takes over a Blue Jays team that went 7-2 a year ago, its best showing since going 8-2 in 2019.

Roselle: Tyrone Turner: “Go out and have fun” is how Turner put it to his new kids, as he takes over a Rams’ program once coached by his most recent boss. James Williams preceded Ibrahim Halsey before leaving for Plainfield, and Turner was his co-defensive coordinator with the Cardinals. Prior to Plainfield, Turner – an East Orange Campus alum – was offensive coordinator at Weequahic in 2015 and 2016, with the Indians going 12-0 and winning the North 2, Group 1 title over Shabazz. He later became the head coach at Shabazz, going 13-23, improving the team to 5-6 his final season in 2022, before heading to the Queen City.

Sayreville – Mark Poore: Though the Bombers went 8-2 in 2023, Don Soflikanich is out after one season, and Sayreville alum Mark Poore is in. He was an assistant under the program’s last three head coaches, including Sofilkanich, Chris Beagan and George Najjar, for whom he played in the early 2000s. His senior year, the Bombers went 10-1, their only loss coming to Scotch Plains Fanwood in the North 2, Group 3 semifinals. A quarterback, he threw for over 1,000 yards that year and ran for 500 more. Poore also brought on former North Plainfield coach James DiPaolo as offensive coordinator.

Scotch Plains-Fanwood – Shawn Johnson: A former standout for the Raiders at , Johnson coached the Scotch Plains-Fanwood PAL youth team to a Super Bowl victory, and retired last year as a juvenile detective as a sergeant, spending 25 years with the department. SPF was in a bit of flux last year, with head coach Austin Holman leaving mid-season and Bobby Swercheck keeping things going, but he’s now at Middlesex. The Raiders were 1-3 when Holman left, and lost their next four before closing things out with a pair of wins over JFK – ironically, Holman’s previous coaching stop – and South Plainfield.

South Brunswick – Ibrahim Halsey: The Vikings were right in the middle of the late-Spring coaching carousel in the Big Central Conference. The vacancy at Woodbridge lured away Joe Goerge, and Ibrahim Halsey getting hired by South Brunswick left Roselle looking for a new coach. The Rams were 17-16 in three years with Halsey at the helm. The 2011 Gatorade Player of the Year in New Jersey starred at Elizabeth, then in the Big Ten at Illinois. The Vikings are coming off back-to-back 5-5 seasons under Goerge, and won their last two games last season over Howell and Egg Harbor.

Union – Jason Scott: When you’ve worked under the previous coach – as Jason Scott did for Lou Grasso – for nine years, you’re bound to pick up a thing or two, and probably not mess too much with success. After all, he helped lead Grasso’s 2019 Farmers to the North 2, Group 5 title and a 12-1 season that just adds to the tradition at The “U.” Though 5-6 last season, that’s just a cyclical public school hiccup; the future looks bright at Union in 2024.

Voorhees – John Hack: An Immaculata alum, where he played for the legendary Pierce Frauenheim, he later coached there, then at Morris Catholic. Now, he’s at a public school in Glen Gardner taking over for Ricky Kurtz, whose Vikings had four losing seasons before breaking through last year, going 7-4. But Kurtz stepped down after a ten year run, during the first five of which he was an assistant. Though they graduate top runnignback Brandon Kurzeja and his 1,070 yards, Voorhees rushed for a mind-boggling 3,081 yards last year, and they have two junior backs returning who contributed nearly 600 yards and five touchdowns last year in Antonio Sauchelli and Matteo Tramutola.

Westfield – Matt Andzel: The first alum to coach the Blue Devils in its long and storied history, Andzel takes over for Jim DeSarno, who retired to take the Athletic Director post, after Sandra Mammary,at the end of the year. So, the former head coach truly got to pick his own replacement. A 2007 College of New Jersey graduate, he played for DeSarno’s predecessor, Ed Tranchina, from 1999-2001. Westfield is one of the legendary programs in Central Jersey, and won three straight North 2, Group 5 titles from 2015 to 2017, all coming over Bridgewater-Raritan at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands, going unbeaten all three years. Andzel was on the staff during that run, and takes over a team that went 6-5 last year, beating solid teams like Hillsborough and Thanksgiving rival Plainfield.

Woodbridge – Joe Goerge: After two years in his second stint at South Brunswick, Joe Goerge has moved North to coach the Barrons. Goerge won the Vikings their only state titles – three of then in a seven-year stretch where his teams were 63-17. Woodbridge is loaded, so talent won’t be an issue. But Goerge has run option a good portion of his career, so it’ll be interesting to watch if he works any of that in or lets senior QB Derek Anderson fling it to his twin brother, Bryan whenever he gets the chance. The Barrons were 6-4 last season, dropping their last two games, to Sayreville and Ridge.

DID YOU KNOW?

There have been 40 coaching changes in the Big Central Conference since its inaugural season in 2020. Some have had multiple changes, like Somerville, which started with Dallas Whitaker, then Ian Pace, and now Matt Bloom.

In the end, there are 22 schools who have the same head football a coach now as they did four seasons ago. (Two of them had a change, but didn’t play varsity in 2020. Carteret sat out fall sports that year, and Matt Yascko left to become offensive coordinator and coach his son at Edison; Kevin Freeman was hired in the spring. And Highland Park hired Shawn Harrison after the 2019 season to replace Derrick Nobles, but the Owls didn’t have the numbers to field a varsity team that year.)

Here are the 22 schools who have not had a coaching change during their time playing in the Big Central:

  • Bernards: Jon Simoneau
  • Bound Brook: Dave LePoidevin
  • Carteret: Kevin Freeman
  • Colonia: Tom Roarty
  • Dunellen: Dave DeNapoli
  • Highland Park: Shawn Harrison
  • Hillsborough: Kevin Carty
  • Hillside: Barris Grant
  • Hunterdon Central: Casey Ransone
  • Linden: Al Chiola
  • Johnson: Anthony DelConte
  • Montgomery: Zoran Milich
  • New Providence: Chet Parlevecchio, Jr.
  • North Brunswick: Mike Cipot
  • Phillipsburg: Frank Duffy
  • Piscataway: Dan Higgins
  • Rahway: Brian Russo
  • Ridge: Andy West
  • Roselle Park: Greg Dunkerton
  • South Hunterdon: Toby Jefferis
  • South River: Rich Marchesi
  • Summit: Kevin Kostibos
  • Watchung Hills: Rich Seubert
by Mike Pavlichko

Roselle’s Ibrahim Halsey prepping to take over as new South Brunswick football coach

The coaching carousel continues in the Big Central Conference.

South Brunswick Athletic Director CJ Hendricks has recommended Ibrahim Halsey as the Vikings new head football coach, with his approval scheduled for a vote by the Board of Education at its June 13th meeting.

Halsey spent the last three years as head coach at Roselle, leading the Rams to a 17-16 record in that span, with an 8-4 mark in 2022 being the high point. He takes over for Joe Goerge, who took the Woodbridge job after Joe LaSala stepped down as head coach of the Barrons in late March.

Halsey was an outstanding football player at Elizabeth High School, where he was the Gatorade Player of the Year in New Jersey in 2001, then went on to play collegiately at Illinois. He later got his Master’s Degree in Special Education and Teaching at Grand Canyon University, and returned to the Elizabeth program in 2012 as an assistant coach, where he was until he took the Roselle job right after COVID, for the 2021 season.

With the latest round of coaching changes, Halsey takes over a bit late in the game, but he has already made progress assembling a staff. He’s eyeing former New Brunswick and Rutgers standout Nate Harris as his Offensive Coordinator, expects some of his Roselle staff will join him, and anticipates some South Brunswick staff will remain as well.

Now, Roselle will be looking for a new coach as the calendar is about to turn over to June.

Click below to hear Ibrahim Halsey talk to Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko about taking the South Brunswick the job, and his plans for the Vikings in 2024 and beyond:

by Mike Pavlichko

Cutoff Weekend Playoff Analysis: Group 2

It’s down to the final weekend of the regular season in high school football, and Cutoff Weekend is just days away. This week, Central Jersey Sports Radio will bring you exclusive, team-by-team analysis of all the playoff scenarios for the 57 public schools in the Big Central Conference.

It’s all brought to you by My Family Appliances on Route 1 South in the Wick Plaza, Edison.

And don’t forget to join us for our “Playoff Projection Show” on Saturday at 6 pm (moved to an hour later) as Mike Pavlichko brings you all the playoff projections, with analysis and commentary by Marcus Borden, live in studio!

With that, here’s a look at the Group 2 supersections, with all scores and playoff standings based on Gridiron New Jersey’s official calculations as of Sunday, October 15, 2023. Click on the heading to see the standings at Gridiron New Jersey:

NORTH GROUP 2

4. Bernards (8-0, 4.2 UPR): The Mountaineers are the only Big Central Conference team in this supersection. Even with a win over Governor Livingston (6-2) Saturday afternoon, and losses by the three teams above them (Westwood, Caldwell, and Rutherford), and then the three directly behind them, we think they top out at three, but most likely end up a No. 4. Should they lose to the Highlanders, the lowest they could drop is six, and that’s probably the extreme. Our best guess is a fourth or fifth place overall finish, but that’s a big difference: between a semifinal home game or a road game.

SOUTH GROUP 2

5. New Providence (4-4, 5.2 UPR): The Pioneers can bump up as high as a four-seed overall, but they need to win first on Friday night at Middlesex (6-1). Then, they’ll need a little help from Haddonfield and Pleasantville in the way of losses. The other teams in the top nine won’t matter; we think those are the only ones that can potentially jump them into fourth if others lose. With a defeat, however, they could drop as low as ninth if everything foes the wrong way for them with other teams behind them winning. Watch the Pleasantville (6-1) game at Middle Township (7-1), because they play each other, and a Middle loss keeps New Providence from dropping to ninth – and losing a first round home game – in the Pioneers’ doomsday scenario; that would leave them no lower than eighth. A Greyhounds loss and New Prov drops back to ninth.

9. Johnson (5-2, 8.8 UPR): The Crusaders’ meteoric rise was well-documented by us last week, and surprised us. The gist: On Friday, without even playing, everyone around them lost but one (Lower Cape May, which beat winless Buena) and ALJ skyrocketed from 17th to ninth place. That’s how bunched up teams were. By the time they scored a 48-0 road win over previously-undefeated Spotswood, they had jumped all the way to eighth, only to settle in ninth after the other scores came in. They jumped a grand total of eight places in one weekend, and now are firmly in the playoff picture. The Crusaders will beat winless South River (0-7) this week, so assuming that, we don’t think Johnson can move up. In fact, the best they can probably do is finish tenth. A loss, and the worst they can do is probably 13th. Basically, they played themselves in – and got some help – last week. Count Johnson in.

12. Delaware Valley (4-3, 14 UPR): At North Plainfield on Friday night, the Terriers should win that one over the 1-7 Canucks, even on the road. Looking at teams ahead of them, Monmouth (5-3) at Pinelands (5-2) is a toss-up, but we’ll give a win to the Falcons, Haddon Heights should beat a bad West Deptford team, and Johnson will beat South River. We think Del Val is going to end up around the 15th seed.

13. Spotswood (7-1, 14.4 UPR): Spotswood also benefitted from all those teams losing last week. That’s always a worst- or best-case scenario, but it never (or rarely) actually happens. But this time it did. And losing by 48 when Spotswood had an SI three points higher than Johnson also helped. The Crusaders’ SI value rose more than 10 points, so Spotswood got about five more points for a loss than they would have if they’d lost a one-point game. We’re going to try and find the best case scenario for the Chargers, but who knows if it will be enough? Certainly a loss against winless JP Stevens leaves them out, so we’ll assume a win. Delaware Valley should win at North Plainfield. If other games break wrong, Spotswood could end up in the 17 slot, but they could make it, too, barring a wacky residual showing up somewhere. Bottom line, they’re going to need some help somewhere along the way. If their luck continues and they get a smidgen of the help they got last week, they just might make it.

OUT: Roselle (18th, 18.8 UPR) looks to be out. Looks like a case of too little, too late for the Rams, who started 0-4, but have won three straight since. The problem is this week’s opponent – Belvidere – isn’t enough to move the needle into the top 16.

by Mike Pavlichko

Who’s got the longest win streak in the Big Central? In New Jersey? A closer look

The longest active winning streak in the Big Central doesn’t belong to a traditional football power in Central Jersey like a Piscataway or a Phillipsburg.

It doesn’t belong to either of the teams who won sectional titles last year in Edison or North Hunterdon.

In fact, with the state playing to group champions for the first time last year, that’s five fewer teams that will end their season on a high note coming into the following year.

Yes, the Big Central team with the longest active winning streak at the moment – after nearly three dozen teams opened up in Week Zero – is Roselle.

The Rams got off to an inauspicious start last season, losing their first four games, but rattled off eight straight wins to finish the season and finish 8-4. That included two “consolation” wins at Bordentown and Haddon Heights, and then a victory in their annual Thankgiving rivalry game against Roselle Park.

The stars aligned, and Roselle finished red hot. Junior quarterback Nazir Baker returns, but head coach Ibrahim Halsey will be looking for someone else to make up for graduated runningback Emmanuel Lyles’ 1,272 yards rushing and 16 touchdowns.

Elsewhere in the league, no one else has a streak better than three games. Three teams have won three straight: Spotswood won its last two last season and is 0-1 this year. Same for Linden. Summit won its final three games last year, but hasn’t opened yet this season.

The Hilltoppers host Woodbridge Saturday, while Linden hosts Rahway Friday, and Spotswood is at Belvidere Friday.

The longest active winning streak in the state currently belongs to Caldwell, which has won 28 straight games.

The Chiefs haven’t opened this season yet, but after winning their final three games in 2020, went 12-0 in 2021 and won the North 2 Regional Championship. Then, last year, they went a step further, 13-0, winning the state Group 2 title. They open Friday night at home against Morris Catholic.

A good distance behind them is Toms River North, which won its opener last week 14-7 over Millville in the Battle at the Beach in Ocean City. Micah Ford and company have now won 15 in a row, including 14-0 last season with a state Group 5 championship. Their last loss was in the 2021 playoffs to Kingsway in the South 5 sectional semifinals. The Mariners are back in action Friday against Toms River East.