Shane Moore – Central Jersey Sports Radio

Everyone had to wait a couple of extra days for one of the marquee Big Central Conference matchups of the year, as the big Nor’easter that parked itself over the Garden State for the entire weekend forced No. 1 Phillipsburg and No. 5 St. Joseph-Metuchen to reschedule their game for Monday afternoon.

And no matter what rush-hour traffic they may have faced heading back out on Route 78 to Warren County, it’s guaranteed the Stateliners didn’t care, as they came away with a 42-31 win over the Falcons at Brenner Family Field, a win that will surely help them keep their top ranking in the Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten for at least one more week..

The Stateliners (4-1) got the opening score on a 47-yard pick-six from David Pacewicz, but then trailed three times – rallying on each occasion, with the difference being back-to-back touchdowns in the third and fourth quarters.

Julian Colon tied the game for St. Joe’s (2-2) in the first quarter with a four-yard touchdown run, and in the second, Dillon Diaz caught a 47-yard pass from junior quarterback Cole Seyler to give the Falcons their first lead of the game.

That set a back-and-forth in motion for the rest of the contest. Phillipsburg senior runningback Shane Moore scored from 44 yards out to the the game at 14, while St. Joseph answered back with another eight-yard touchdown catch by Diaz, giving his team a 21-14 lead at the break.

In the third, Phillipsburg tied it at 21-all with a 29-yard touchdown run by Xavier Campbell-Graham, but St. Joe’s again took the lead on a 22-yard field goal by Austin Loreti.

Then, Phillipsburg put together back-to-back scores for the first time in the game, giving them their first lead since the opening interception return by Pacewicz. Marcus Jordan brought the fireworks with a 94-yard kick return for a score – breaking multiple tackles on the left sideline all the way – to make it 28-24 ‘Liners. Then, in the fourth, Vincent Berger put his team up by eleven with a one-yard touchdown run.

That insurance was much-needed, as Seyler engineered a fourth-quarter scoring drive that culminated in his own one-yard touchdown run with 5:55 left, getting Joe’s to within four. But again, P’burg answered, as Campbell-Graham punched one in from 14 yards out with 1:37 to go. S

St. Joseph – with time outs – got as far as the P’burg 25 before turning it over on downs, and the Stateliners kneeled to take the W.

Next up, both teams have a quick turnaround: Phillipsburg will travel to Ridge (2-2) Friday night, while the Falcons travel to Delbarton (2-3) for a non-league contest.

Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Marcus Borden with Phillipsburg senior runningback Shane Moore and head coach Frank Duffy, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

Every football program in New Jersey has their goals. For many, it’s: win the division, win a sectional title, win a state title.

At Phillipsburg, of course, there’s one more to throw in: Beat Easton.

The last four years have been highly successful for the Stateliners in different ways. In 2022, they beat Easton for the first time in eight seasons, and lost in a Group 5 state sectional final. The next year was the same. In 2024, they moved down to Group 4, and again went to two sectional finals, this time winning both, even going to the Group 4 state final in ’24 – but they also lost to Easton that year, and last season.

So, what will the move to Group 5 bring?

That’s an interesting question, as the Phillipsburg program has decided to opt-out of taking most Big Central Conference crossovers this year.

They have three divisional opponents – Ridge, Bridgewater-Raritan and Hillsborough – while playing crossovers against Hunterdon Central and St. Joseph-Metuchen. But they will open with three straight Pennsylvania opponents, harkening back to their days in the East Penn Conference from 1976 to 1994, before they “came back” to Jersey and joined the Skyland Conference, which allowed them to take part in the state playoffs.

But that’s all side stuff and noise. Something Phillipsburg players ignore when they talk about D.I.G: Discipline, Ignore the Noise and Grit. That’s what allows their team talent – and team unity – to take over.

On the offensive side, Dominic Bracco ran the offense superbly last year as a sophomore. While he threw for just 714 yards, the team ran for over 3,400, led by now-graduated senior Sam Deck (1,530 yards, 23 TDs). But the cupboard is hardly bare. Bracco ran for 255 himself, and there are many others, like senior Shane Moore (75 carries, 451 yards, 1 TD last year), who expects to see an increased load on what should again be a run-heavy team.

Duffy calls him a “typical Phillipsburg runningback” who has “great vision and runs very hard.”

Defensively, the loss of Aedan Hywell – who led the team and was near the top of the Big Central in sacks with 14 1/2 in 2025 – will be a big one, but watch out for guys like rising senior Elijah Montgomery (2 1/2 sacks, 6 TFLs.

Click below to learn more about the Phillipsburg Stateliners in 2026 from head coach Frank Duffy, along with senior runningback Shane Moore, senior TE/DE Donovan Samson and senior two-way lineman Alex Randazzo with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko at Big Central Conference Media Day: