Toby Jefferis – Central Jersey Sports Radio

A high school football season usually has its ups and downs. For South Hunterdon, however, those ups and downs have become almost formulaic through six games.

Here’s how the Eagles season has gone so far: 30-0 win, 18-8 loss, 40-14 win, 21-14 loss, 16-8 win, 36-0 loss.

As the pattern shows, South Hunterdon is due for a win this week, right?

That’s where Spotswood, winners of six straight games, comes into play. The Chargers and Eagles face off in the “Big Central Game of the Week” presented by Bellamy & Son Paving on Friday, on Central Jersey Sports Radio. You can hear that game at 7 pm with Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel on the call. Pregame is 6:45; click here to listen.

Getting back in the win column will be a tall task for South Hunterdon, facing off against a red-hot team while also trying to manage expectations with a younger team. But it’s a win they will need if they want to have any hope of trying to make the playoffs from their current position at No. 20 in the South Jersey Group 1 supersection.

Eagles head coach Toby Jefferis says his team has been able to play the type of ball-control, game-manager style that he has installed at times – the wins – while also getting behind the turnover battle – the losses. A controlling run game led by senior Edward Cooper, who has 807 yards rushing and 11 touchdowns in six games, is key to managing the game and keeping the ball in their possession.

The best way to do that? Stay ahead of schedule on offense. Getting three and four yards per play – particularly on the ground – is the best way to do that. Jefferis says ideally, the Eagles continue to win the time of possession battle, and taking time off the clock is their ideal way to win. The Chargers are the main opposition to that battle this week.

For a team with several two-way contributors, South Hunterdon will have to fight its way past a Spotswood team that is playing some of its best football.

Will the keep-away style match up well against the Chargers?

That’s why they play the games.

Click below to hear South Hunterdon head coach Toby Jefferis talk about the Eagles, and Friday night’s game at Spotswood, with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Alec Crouthamel:

No, Toby Jefferis hasn’t been the coach of South Hunterdon football for 52 years. But he’s been around it that long: his entire life.

That’s because his father, Sam, had been the head coach for four years already when when he was born. So he spent plenty of time with pop, growing up on the sidelines, then playing for his father, and helping out as a scout and an assistant coach.

Oh, and his dad never really left either. In fact, at Big Central Conference Media Days last week, Toby Jefferis talked about some of his earliest memories of Eagles football, and some of his most recent, all of which seem to involved Sam Jefferis.

Click below to hear South Hunterdon head coach Toby Jefferis talk about his long connection with the Eagles football program: