Tag: winning streaks

by Mike Pavlichko

While Bernards, Woodbridge extend Big Central win streaks, New Jersey has two new leaders

The four Big Central Conference teams with the longest active winning streaks in league play all opened up in Week Zero, and while all four won, just two of them extended their streaks with wins against BCC foes.

But with a loss by Toms River North Friday, there’s a new longest statewide winning streak of 14 games, and it’s held by two schools.

The Mariners had their state-best active streak snapped at 19 games with a 21-0 shutout loss at Red Bank Catholic’s Thursday night. Ironically it was the Caseys who handed them their most recent loss, a 28-25 overtime defeat on October 20, 2024.

So now it’s Rumson-Fair Haven and Glassboro – the defending state Group 2 and Group 1 champions, respectively – sitting at 14 straight wins. Both date back to the beginning of last year, after losing their final games of 2023 in the playoffs.

Rumson topped Pt. Pleasant Boro, 34-0, in its opener on Friday night, and the Bulldogs’ last loss came in the 2023 Group 2 championship game at Rutgers, a 17-0 defeat at the hands of Westwood, which had knocked Bernards out in the semifinals the game prior. Rumson-Fair Haven will be back in action Friday at Brick Memorial (1-0)

Glassboro, meanwhile, was a 36-20 winner Saturday night in the Battle at the Beach at Rowan University. They last lost in the 2023 Group 2 title game at Rutgers, 24-6 to Mountain Lakes. The Bulldogs next host Haddon Heights (0-1) next Friday night.

In the Big Central, Bernards (24) and Woodbridge (11) both extended their win streaks against conference teams with Week Zero wins.

St. Thomas Aquinas beat non-conference foe Montclair 56-3, so their streak holds at 31 for the moment. And the rest of the league can gain ground on them this seaosn as St. Thomas only plays six of its ten games this year against BCC teams. They have Catholic Memorial (MA) at home next Friday night, and also play Paramus Catholic and Pope John later in the year.

Bernards was a 27-15 winner over Cranford on Friday, upping its win streak against the BCC to 24 games. Saturday, they’ll visit the last team to beat them: Hillside. The Comets beat the Mountaineers 35-20 on September 2, 2022, and no one else in the Big Central has been able to get a W against them since.

Woodbridge is now at 11 straight against the Big Central, after a 14-0 win over Union Thursday. The Barrons were 10-1 last year, with their lone loss coming to Northern Highlands in the second round of the playoffs. They’ll be at Watchung Hills Friday, playing a team they beat twice last year: once in the regular season, and the second time in the opening round of the playoffs. Their last BCC loss came on October 27, 2023 to Ridge, 42-14, in the playoffs.

Somerville – which last lost to a league team at Hillsborough in mid-October 2023 – beat Schalick out of the West Jersey Football League Friday, 34-17. But that means their BCC streak remains at ten. They’ll get a chance to make it 11 Friday when Cranford comes to town. Somerville’s last loss came OCtober 13, 2023 at Hillsborough, 14-7.

by Mike Pavlichko

St. Thomas Aquinas, Bernards will enter 2025 with top two league winning streaks in Jersey

Finishing a season strong is a good springboard for the following year.

That team that might have started 0-4 but won four of its last five games has a better feeling going into the next season than if it had been in reverse.

While the all-time New Jersey winning streak is held by Paulsboro at 63 games, that record may never be broken now that we play all the way down to group champions in the Garden State. Most teams would have to go 13-0 or 14-0 in several consecutive seasons (nearly five) to reach that mark.

Currently, the longest active win streak in New Jersey belongs to powerhouse Toms River North, which has actually won all three Group 5 state titles since the NJSIAA expanded the playoffs, but they only finished undefeated (14-0) last season.

Winslow – last year’s Group 3 champ – has won 13 straight overall, as has Rumson-Fair Haven (Group 2 champs in 2024) and Glassboro (Group 1 champ).

What about league winning streaks?

That’s where St. Thomas Aquinas and Bernards come in. They’ve got the two longest active winning streaks against their own league in the entire state.

The Trojans have won 31 straight against Big Central Conference competition, in a streak that stretches back to 2020, a 16-14 win over Colonia in their season finale. They won eight games east against the Big Central from 2021 to 2022 (one was a forfeit win over South River) and six against the BCC last season.

Their last loss came to Bernards on November 12, 2020, a 41-6 defeat.

Almost two years later, the Mountaineers would start their own Big Central streak, which now stands at 23: eight each last season and in 2023, and seven in a tow in 2022 following a September 2 loss to Hillside, 35-20.

St. Thomas and Bernards won’t play each other this year, but Bernards and Hillside will meet on September 6th at Conant Street Park in Union County, following the Mountaineers’ opener against Cranford this Friday.

The next longest win streaks against Big Central competition are Somerville and Woodbridge, each at ten games. The Pioneers were 9-0 against the BCC last year in setting a program record with 13 wins en route to the Central Jersey Group 3 championship. The Barrons had a perfect regular season last year, finishing 11-1, with their lone loss coming in the second round of the playoffs to Northern Highlands, which won its section, then lost to Phillipsburg in the Group 4 semifinals.

How about the rest of the state?

Here’s where the other leagues across New Jersey have fared against their own:

  • Super Football Conference: Bergen Catholic was won 22 straight against the SFC, a tremendous feat considering their beast of a division and overall schedule. That includes nine against the league last year in an 11-1 season, seven in 2023 and six straight in 2022, with their last loss SFC coming September 24, 2022 at the hands of Don Bosco Prep. The next closest teams, at ten straight wins against the SFC, are Union Citty – which won nine in a row after dropping its opener to St. Peter’s Prep – and Cedar Grove, which won all ten SFC games it played last year, and whose last loss came in their 2023 finale against Shabazz.
  • North Jersey Interathletic Conference: Butler is the standard bearer here. The Bulldogs have won 13 straight against NJIC opponents, including nine last year, and four in 2023.
  • Shore Conference: Rumson-Fair Haven has won 12 straight against Shore opponents, including ten last season, and their last two league games at the end of 2023. The Bulldogs were 13-0 last season and Group 2 champions, but could be one of those teams “moving up” under the NJSIAA’s new rules which allow for moving teams that pull in students from other districts to larger groups, based on a metric that includes the number of those students and success in the postseason. Toms River North – a Shore Conference behemoth – has won ten straight against the league, including eight last season, and two the year before.
  • West Jersey Football League: 2025 Group 1 champion Glassboro (13-0 in 2024) leads the pack here, and is fourth in the state overall. They were 13-0 last year, winning all eleven games against WJFL opponents, and also won their last four league games of 2023. Winslow and Camden Catholic have each won ten. Winslow’s all came last year in a 14-0 season that saw them beat Phillipsburg for the Group 4 championship, while Camden Catholic was 9-2 last year, beating all nine WJFL opponents (including one by forfeit) and its final league game of 2023.