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The Football Show! w/Hoboken's Borkowski · NorthJerseySports.com

• 0:08
  Back on The Football Show, North Jersey, sports.com's original
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  multimedia series talking all things football across North
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  Jersey. It is playoff time.
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  I am Corey Dobiak, being joined by my illustrious panel of North
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  Jersey football insiders, starting with the venerable 1.
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  He is Jimmy Abatabe. What's going on, Jim?
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  What's up, Corey? I can't believe it's playoff
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  time already. It's just absolutely amazing how
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  fast the season goes. It is funny how we say it every
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  year when we touch base for the first time after our summers, we
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  say, all right, we're going to start, you know, season 1 next,
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  you know, episode 1 next Monday. And then we always say, and
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  before you know it, the playoffs are here and before we know it,
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  the playoffs are here. One guy chomping at the bit to
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  get to as many games as he can cover in one weekend, trying to
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  set the all time record. He is the head Husky.
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  He the former head Husky, I should say.
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  He is the Pope of the of the Cardinal of the Westwood.
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  He is also the alpha dog in the pack of Rutherford Bulldogs.
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  He is Brian Carr. What's going on, Brian?
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  Acor I had a little short in season this year so I didn't get
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  to early games, but trying to catch up right now get to 3-4
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  games a weekend now so but great time of year.
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  NGIC final 10th edition congratulations.
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  We'll talk about that. You know, tough to lose, but you
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  know, hey, it's part of the part of the game and hey, playoff
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  football is here Corey and we'll talk about some of the games and
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  some of the teams last week what they did got to mention Stevie
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  Klein West. Jimmy has always talked about
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  him. He had 20 yards, 4 touchdowns.
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  So let's go Stevie Klein senior. I think he wanted to go out with
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  his last game on a really good note for.
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  Jimmy, he almost said we when he was talking about the NJI said
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  did you hear that? Yes, he did.
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  Almost #75 in your program number.
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  Number. One in your heart.
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  That's. The great Brian car, right.
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  So we are going to do all those things that Brian just
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  mentioned. We're going to talk NJ IT final.
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  We're going to talk the Big Boy Game of the week last week with
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  Burton. Well, Saint Joe's, Burton
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  Catholic. I should use it in that order.
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  And then we're going to go over playoff brackets.
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  We're going to make our picks. But before we do all of that, I
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  want to jump in right now because we have a special guest
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  joining us on this episode of the football show.
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  The guy who has led the Hoboken to its first undefeated season
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  since 2005, his first undefeated regular season, I should say,
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  since 2005. He's a friend of the show.
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  He's a bad disc golfer, but he he is the head coach of the
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  Hoboken Red Wings. He is Joe Borkowski coach.
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  Thanks for hopping on here on THE FOOTBALL SHOW.
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  How we doing, gentlemen? What's?
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  What's going on? Yeah, So pumped to have you on
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  the show here because, you know, we followed your, we followed
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  your ascension, you know, like we've been, you know, I've been
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  beating your. Well, let's just say that, you
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  know, disc golf hasn't gone as well as your coaching career,
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  let's put it that way. And I've been so.
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  Busy. I've been so busy in Hoboken, I
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  haven't had time to do any disc golf.
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  But we saw you from North Arlington, you know, you took
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  the Hoboken job, it was a build. And here you are, 9 and O after
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  the 2025 regular season. Unbelievable.
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  Yeah, it was. I was actually on with you guys.
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  My last time on with you guys. It was before my first game at
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  Hoboken, right after I just got hired.
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  And you know, it's been a great two years and I'm happy to be
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  back. What I mean, yeah, obviously you
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  go into every season with optimism.
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  You go into every season, you know, hoping for the best,
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  trying to stay healthy and all this.
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  But in your wildest dreams, do you think, hey, you know what,
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  Hoboken is going to go nine and oh this year?
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  So. We went three and six last year
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  and you know, at three or four of those losses really could
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  have gone either way. We had a lot of talent coming
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  back. I, I knew we would have 9
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  competitive football games. You know, I don't want to say I
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  thought we were going to go on the season, but I definitely
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  knew we were going to compete. And I was hoping that, you know,
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  we get a couple, couple bounces to go our way, which seemed to
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  not happen last year and they did this year and you know,
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  we're working hard. It's great to see them hard work
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  day off go. Ahead, Jimmy.
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  Yeah, Coach, you mentioned this is your second year at the helm
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  2023 they go O and 9 and I remembered seeing you guys at
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  the Becton 7 on 7 in the summer of not this past year, the year
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  before. And I said, wow, they really
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  have some good young skilled kids led by your quarterback
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  Isaiah Blanks. Talk about you know him and
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  you're you know, you're running back Devin McMillan and your
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  wide receiver Jayvon Walker. Seems that you have a really
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  really good skill set of kids. Yeah, absolutely.
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  So prior to to me getting a whole book and they had never
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  really done the seven on seven circuit or anything like that.
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  So that was a great, great buzz. And you know, those three kids
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  that you mentioned, Isaiah Blanks, Jayon Walker, Devin
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  McMillan, they were on the field as freshmen and sophomores
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  during, during that year that they went, they went and you
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  know, they, they, they took it personal and they didn't quit
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  and they came back and they worked harder than ever.
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  And from the day I met them, they really bought into the
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  process. And you know, like I said
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  earlier, it's great to see it all finally pay off and.
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  You know, Hoboken, we've talked about it.
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  I remember the conversation that we had last time we were on the
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  show is coming back to me. Alan, Hoboken is such a
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  tradition rich program and it needed a little cultivation and
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  need a little reminder. And as before we were talking
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  before we came on the show here, it's been a long time.
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  I mean, 2019, last playoff appearance, 2005 last time they
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  went an undefeated regular season, you know, so you had to,
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  I don't want to say start from scratch, but from O and nine you
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  kind of did. What's been the biggest thing?
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  You know, obviously you need players.
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  You mentioned those kids, they're great players and all
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  that stuff, But I know there's a lot more that goes into building
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  a program than just having obviously every coach needs the
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  kids. I don't mean to take anything
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  away from, but just talk about the build and the process to
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  bring the pride of Hoboken football back-to-back to
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  Hoboken. So community support has been
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  awesome, administrative support has been awesome.
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  You know, I was fortunate I was able to get into the school
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  district, you know, that's that that school year before my first
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  season. Developing relationships with
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  students has been awesome. You know, I, I got the best
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  coaching staff around. I inherited a couple of Hoboken
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  guys and their dogs that will run through a wall for us, you
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  know, and, and like I said, the kids really bought into the
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  culture. We had a couple solid senior
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  leaders last year and you know, they set the tone and, and this
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  group now is just following their footsteps.
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  Our senior class is not not that big in numbers this year.
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  We got a lot coming back next year and you know, I'm super
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  proud and I'm super excited for the future.
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  What does it look like down below?
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  Like what's the setup with your feeder system and and that
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  stuff? I mean you still.
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  Get that? Funny you ask that, because we.
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  We actually just. Started a middle school football
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  team through the school district.
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  So there is. Acal program, you know, pretty
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  rich in tradition they have that I got a great relationship with
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  with with the guy who runs that. And we started a middle school
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  football program. We have a little bit of a, you
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  know, the schedule, we travel a little bit, but that team's
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  playing great and I think they're five and one, right?
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  Now this year. They have one or two more games
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  left, but they're running our offense and they're getting
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  familiar with their terminology. And it's, it's, it's great to
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  have those guys on the sideline on Friday nights, you know,
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  supporting the varsity and getting a little taste of the
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  action. Jimmy, that's the way you do it.
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  We talk about it all the time. They're not.
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  You know, absolutely, Coach, you mentioned the tradition at
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  Hoboken, the environment on a Friday night at JFK Stadium.
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  And when you walk down Washington Ave. you see the
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  stores with the Hoboken gear. You know that that's one of the,
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  the, the crown jewel towns as far as high school football, you
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  know, have you, have you been able to bring that back, that
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  excitement? Oh, absolutely, man, It's been,
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  it's been awesome. You know, your buddy, your buddy
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  Brian promised that he was going to come out to a game a couple
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  weeks ago. I was hoping, I was hoping that
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  he got to experience it. But you know, last year we were
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  three and six. Every home game was, was, was
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  bumping. And now that we're winning, I
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  mean, it's, it's, it's madness. It's a zoo, it's circus.
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  It's fun. We walk on and off the field as
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  people give all the coaches and players high fives.
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  Screaming music, dance team, cheerleaders, band.
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  It's, it's it's a great environment with Empire State
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  Building in the background. You know it's.
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  Awesome. Yeah, Jimmy, you got to walk
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  down Washington Ave. and see everything because that's where
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  you got to park. You got to, you got to walk 15
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  blocks to the stadium. You get to say hi to everybody
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  in town. Oh, it's crazy, though.
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  It's so good that it gets you pumped up because, you know,
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  just, I lived in Hoboken when I was young, you know, had an
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  apartment there. And when I was writing, one of
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  my first jobs in journalism was writing for the now defunct
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  Jersey Journal. So I mean, Hoboken, I was there.
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  I was there during the heyday, like in 99 when they played
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  Jimmy, maybe the greatest football game ever in North
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  Jersey in the 0° weather with Chris Sims and Greg Toll at
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  Ramapo against that great Hoboken team.
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  So the, you know, the history is rich there and you know, it's
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  great to see. It's great.
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  Even if my friend Joe Borkowski wasn't the head coach, I'd be
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  happy to see Hoboken back in the mix.
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  But it's even better when you know Joe's putting in the hard
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  work to do it. So you know what's bringing it
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  to the present day here, it gets no easier.
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  Regular season check, Nine wins and nine games and your reward?
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  A road game at Rutherford in the first round of the North to
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  group to state sectional playoffs.
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  Joe, what are you up against? Rutherford is always a well
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  coached team. You know, Coach Stone and I are
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  pretty good friends. I have experience in the NJIC.
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  I'm I'm expecting a dogfight, you know, and our kids are super
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  excited. They're super excited because
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  you know, like we said earlier, two years ago a lot of these
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  kids were O and eight and got outscored by about 300 points.
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  You know, so we got 3 great captains who are who are doing a
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  great job leading and got a great coaching staff that's
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  young and hungry and we're fired up man.
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  We're ready to go Saturday. You got 1 for them, Jimmy.
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  Yeah, I mean, you mentioned Saturday, which most of the time
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  Rutherford plays their games on Friday night and then Saturday
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  at 12. Were you given any reason why it
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  why did the Saturday game and the 12:00 start?
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  We were not given a reason. I'm assuming that Halloween has
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  something to do with it possibly.
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  So, you know, like I said, we, we, we were able to have a
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  couple of Saturday games this year.
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  So we'll have our boys ready to go.
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  I mean, let's get back to the Bryant Carr thing.
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  I mean, he did mention on the show couple weeks ago that, you
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  know, Hoboken was on his, you know, list of things to do.
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  And then, you know, Joe, we communicated via text.
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  He asked me. I mean, even he went Jimmy, this
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  guy's he's going through a nine and O season.
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  He's got preparation. So he goes as far to text me and
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  ask what size T-shirt Bryant Carr is.
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  I mean, that's what he's thinking about, He looks.
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  Around right I had a bag with a shirt for.
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  Ryan. And yourself.
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  And you. Big time me to go see Shadow
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  Broker, whoever the hell he went.
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  Yeah, and then he's not here for this interview tonight.
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  Jimmy, what are we? You think Brian Car now is
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  running scared of Joe Bocavy, but it sounds like maybe he is.
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  No, I, you know, I think Brian has has stepped wet well beyond
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  the T-shirt level coach. He's into Larson's game.
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  Worn uniforms. I'm sure he's I'm sure he's
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  going to be wearing his jersey on Saturday and I'm not even
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  going to shake his hand. It's going to wave from the from
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  midfield. He'll be #75 on the home roster.
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  Oh, craziness. All right, So what are the keys
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  against Rutherford? I mean, on field, obviously we
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  saw them, Jimmy and I, we were, I was down there on Friday
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  night. We saw the NJIC final against
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  Butler. And you know, we've had Steve
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  Dunn on the show this year and they're very young.
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  We know that that's that's been their big thing.
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  I mean, if Brian were here right now, he'd be Jimmy.
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  What would he be yelling? Super soft, Super soft.
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  Super soft, Super soft. But you know, so and not that I
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  don't want to say they were exposed against Butler.
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  Butler had a whole bunch of seniors on that team.
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  They're now two time defending NJIC champs.
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  And you know, I'm sure you've gotten to see a lot of film on
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  Rutherford. What are the keys for Hoboken to
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  get the win and move on against the winner of top seeded Shabazz
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  at #8 Lyndhurst? So, you know, all season we've
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  been preaching just just worry about our side of the ball.
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  You know, there's not a team that we're not going to be more
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  physical then there's not a team that we're not going to be more
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  athletic. Then when we line up, I still
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  believe that we just, we got to play disciplined football.
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  We got to take care of the football.
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  We got to continue to play the defense the way we've been
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  playing defense and, you know, focus on us more so than our
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  opponent because I know we're more than capable.
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  Jimmy, what else you got anything?
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  I mean, this is this is a great catching up with coach and you
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  got one last. Time, you know, I'm just looking
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  forward to the game. I mean, when, when you look at
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  the games on Saturday, that's the game that, you know, it
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  jumps out. You know, people in Bergen
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  County want to see what Hoboken's all about.
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  Everyone knows that Rutherford's one of those programs that you,
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  you know, you try to measure up against because they've been
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  very, very consistent. And I'm looking for a very
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  exciting game. So I'm looking forward to seeing
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  you guys on the sideline and you know, if if we things go the way
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  we hope, you know, maybe we can get Ryan to put the shirt on,
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  take a couple pictures. Oh, Joe, if you win, he will
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  take that Rutherford jersey off so fast he'll stash it.
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  He'll give it to Bobby James to stick inside his jacket.
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  He'll go into the bag that you brought.
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  He'll be running around taking selfies with every Hoboken thing
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  he can find. So yeah, he'll be he'll be
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  laying in front of Stan's Sports Center on Washington.
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  Hopefully that's the result. I look forward to seeing Brian
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  as fans. It's Saturday evening.
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  That's so great, Joe Borkowski, the head coach of the Fighting
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  Red Wings from Hoboken. A pleasure as always, catching
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  up and best of luck this weekend in the playoffs.
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  I appreciate it guys. Thanks for having me on.
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  All right, that was great stuff there with Joe Borkowski.
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  Good luck to Hoboken moving forward and their opponent is
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  going to be Rutherford, as we mentioned there with Joe.
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  And let's start there first. We will let's wrap up what
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  happened last year. I mean, this is such a crazy
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  show. So many things happened at one
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  time. We had, you know, championship
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  games, all timers in the big boy division and the brackets came
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  out this week. So let's wrap up the regular
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  season and what happened there and then we'll jump into the
• 16:17
  playoff stuff. And we got to talk about
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  Rutherford right off the gate. Bry.
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  We were all down there together at Tryon Field on Friday night
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  and it was fun at the start. And listen, I'm never rooting
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  against Butler. It's just that Butler is
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  technically not in our area and we have such a nice relationship
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  with the Rutherford football program, so it's hard not to
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  root for him at least a little bit.
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  And then they get off to the good start and they get in the
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  plus territory a couple more times.
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  You know, maybe if they could have taken advantage of some of
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  those early opportunities and built the lead, it could have
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  been a different story. But Brian, I think we saw
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  experience shine through with the Butler Bulldogs.
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  Yeah, I'm sure Coach Dunn would mention that as well.
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  You know, it's it's tough putting the young guys under
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  pressure. You know, Butler been through
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  it. I mean, in case you didn't know
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  this, Butler has won the last 25 out of 27 games back to 2023.
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  So the team is on a roll. I mean, I don't know if you saw
• 17:18
  David Smith play. I saw him once before, you know,
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  the couple weeks ago. This kid can do it all.
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  He throws the ball well. He runs well and they do a good
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  job up front and, you know, moving them out, you could see a
• 17:31
  lot of holes getting opened up when they wanted to run the
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  ball. But you know, hey, credit to
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  Rutherford, you know, Coach Dunn had them ready.
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  Steve Dunn, you know, they were only down 13, seven and a half.
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  Corey had a chance to even score there at the end of the half.
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  And just, you know, maybe some of that young, the young puppies
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  haven't, you know, not used to game situations.
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  It kind of got caught up and they they spiked the ball on 4th
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  down and they still would have a chance maybe to go for a field
• 17:57
  goal. But you know what, that's not
• 17:59
  the game right there. That's just one of the things
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  like you said to Corey had a number of opportunities driving
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  the ball. You know, they held Butler and I
• 18:07
  think coach Dunn said this to us on the during the game or after
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  the game that Butler hadn't kicked the punt all all season
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  long in the first quarter. They had to kick it twice.
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  They had to punt the ball against Rutherford.
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  So they came out early did well. But you know what, you know the
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  season veterans that they are at Butler, bending champs, just
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  really too much, too tough. You know, we walked the
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  sideline. The young guys, man, they're
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  going to be good. There's some really good lying
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  guys. Diaz, Waddell, they're the kid
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  that caught the first touchdown for Rutherford.
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  Munziano, only a junior quarterback, Miles Bolton, only
• 18:45
  a junior, had a great game. He started slow but ran later.
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  So you know it's going to happen.
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  You know, I couldn't get excited as you mentioned, but you know
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  what I mean? They did everything they they
• 18:56
  could, I think, but wait till next year.
• 18:59
  Watch out for a rather for NGIC because there's only two
• 19:03
  seniors. So they'll be back.
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  We'll see how Butler does. But congratulations to Butler.
• 19:08
  Great job. You know, they had execute, you
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  know, they they kept it close. And then at the end they really
• 19:14
  showed their experience because game was still close 2013 early
• 19:18
  fourth quarter. And when they do put the pedal
• 19:21
  to the metal, score another touchdown.
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  Say guys, you're not going to you're not going to beat us.
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  We got control first game and then pressure, pressure.
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  They got a couple touchdowns late on turnovers.
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  They ran one back for like the three.
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  So you know, 4120 not the real score at the end of the game.
• 19:37
  It was a lot closer. But you know, David Smith, you
• 19:41
  know, what does this do right now?
• 19:43
  David Smith? We'll talk about the playoffs in
• 19:44
  a second. They're the number one seed of
• 19:46
  all Group One in the North. They'll be N one Group One
• 19:50
  number one seed. We'll talk about who we think is
• 19:53
  going to happen there, but you know, they're on a roll.
• 19:56
  Corwell comes to mind. Westwood, the last few years,
• 20:00
  these are teams that have been very successful and winning like
• 20:04
  they have been winning the last couple years.
• 20:07
  Core. Yep.
• 20:09
  Yeah, No, I both. I mean, the the quarterback was
• 20:11
  fun to watch too. I mean, you know, you could just
• 20:15
  see his poise. He ran through every fake Jimmy,
• 20:18
  you know, like great handler of the ball and he he kept his eyes
• 20:24
  downfield the whole time. You know, a lot of times when
• 20:26
  you see a a quarterback drop back and he has time to throw
• 20:29
  and then he has nobody, he can't pick out a receiver.
• 20:32
  Sometimes you could see some panic, you know, like because
• 20:35
  the the internal clock of the quarterback starts to run and
• 20:38
  he's like, I know I should be getting rid of his ball.
• 20:40
  Butler's guy doesn't do that until he has to, you know what I
• 20:43
  mean? So you couldn't speed him up And
• 20:46
  they, you know, he, he just did a great job of, you know,
• 20:48
  controlling the game and controlling his emotions and
• 20:51
  playing well. Well, I, I think, you know, you
• 20:53
  talk about someone that's driving the bus, it's certainly
• 20:57
  him. He's in the in the line of a
• 21:00
  David Estevez at Riverdale, a, you know, that type of player
• 21:05
  that just is in control from the minute the the ball is kicked
• 21:09
  off and Andrew Burrito at Paramus Catholics, that type of
• 21:13
  kids can beat you with their arm, with their legs.
• 21:16
  And you know, Brian said it. I think the difference was
• 21:19
  experience. I think when you play the champ,
• 21:22
  you play the defending champ and you have an opportunity to knock
• 21:26
  them out, you have to do that. I think Rutherford, the game
• 21:29
  played out the 1st 5 or 6 minutes, just what they wanted.
• 21:33
  They got a three and out, then went down and scored to take the
• 21:36
  lead. You mentioned Corey had other
• 21:39
  two or three other opportunities in the first half.
• 21:42
  It just didn't work out for them.
• 21:43
  But you got to give you got to give Butler credit.
• 21:46
  You know, when they smelt blood in the water and that third and
• 21:50
  the third quarter into the fourth quarter, they took
• 21:52
  advantage of it. And, you know, I think it'll
• 21:55
  make Rutherford a better team. I you know, they'll go back to
• 21:58
  the to the drawing board, so to speak.
• 22:00
  They'll clean some stuff out, they'll correct some stuff up.
• 22:04
  And you know, I expect a real good effort by them in the
• 22:07
  playoffs. And you know, Butler has Brian
• 22:11
  mentioned is the number one seed and N 1 and N one Group 1, you
• 22:16
  know they're going to be a tough out with their experience.
• 22:18
  Great stuff there. NJIC tournament once again, a
• 22:22
  lot of fun. Wrapped up a try on field on
• 22:25
  Friday night and now try on field will be used for other
• 22:28
  purposes this coming week. We'll get into the playoff match
• 22:31
  up shortly, but Jimmy, I'm going to go to you first.
• 22:34
  Our resident big boy football expert and craziness with Bergen
• 22:40
  Catholic Saint Joe's on Saturday.
• 22:43
  I mean an all timer. Yeah, You know, Corey, we were
• 22:47
  at the game. You mentioned an all timer, but
• 22:50
  you know, and and the parochial brackets will come out this
• 22:53
  Sunday when they have their committee.
• 22:55
  The as everyone knows, it's not a PowerPoint formula, it's a
• 22:59
  committee which votes it. You know, it really threw this
• 23:03
  potential seeds, you know, crazy right now.
• 23:06
  You got to figure Don Bosco the the number one seed, they're
• 23:10
  still undefeated with victories over Saint Joe's and Bergen
• 23:13
  Catholic. You know, Saint Joe's had had
• 23:16
  two losses this year. They they needed an opportunity
• 23:20
  to file it finally finish one off and they, they certainly did
• 23:24
  with a 4342 overtime win at Bergen Catholic.
• 23:31
  You know, with a game of two halves, Corey Saint Joe's pretty
• 23:34
  much dominated the first part of the game.
• 23:37
  They wound up with a 28 to 7 lead, you know, over Bergen
• 23:42
  Catholic. And then all of a sudden Bergen
• 23:45
  Catholic came out, wind up tying the game at 35 late in the
• 23:51
  fourth quarter, goes to overtime erging Catholic scores and kicks
• 23:58
  the extra point to go over go up. 4235 Saint Joe's I think had
• 24:04
  a third and 12:00 or so in overtime, completed a, a bubble
• 24:12
  screen and got the first down and wound up scoring.
• 24:16
  And then they went with a little razzle dazzle with our buddy Mr.
• 24:19
  barely scoring. You know, he got in maybe by
• 24:22
  about a foot or so on a 2 point conversion to to win. 4342 You
• 24:28
  know, as we walked out of there and I think what Brian would
• 24:31
  agree, you know, you thought you found out like you felt like
• 24:35
  that was the appetizer because you know, here, here comes the
• 24:38
  playoffs. Everybody will start with a
• 24:41
  clean slate. I think the margin of error as
• 24:44
  as the thinnest it's been in in quite some time with the top,
• 24:49
  with Bergen Catholic, with Don Bosco, with Saint Peter's prep
• 24:54
  and and St. goes the regional Saint Peter's goes up the Don
• 24:59
  Bosco. You know, if they can, if they
• 25:02
  can beat Don Bosco, Maybe, you know, that whole top four really
• 25:05
  gets topsy turvy. But you know, just a good game,
• 25:09
  the great environment and like I I said, congratulations to both
• 25:14
  teams on on their efforts. Yeah, no doubt about it,
• 25:17
  probably. What do you want to add from
• 25:18
  there? It's crazy.
• 25:22
  I don't know how you describe it.
• 25:23
  You know, like Jimmy said up Joe's up 28, seven halftime and
• 25:30
  it's furious second-half. It was just back and forth crazy
• 25:33
  game. And you know, give credit to
• 25:35
  Joe's, you know, they they went for it.
• 25:38
  Bergen goes scores a touchdown and gets goes for extra point
• 25:41
  and then Joe scores and hey, we're going to win it right now
• 25:43
  go for two. And they're lucky to even get
• 25:46
  it, you know, because they only almost got tripped up.
• 25:49
  The DB was right there and just missed him as he caught up.
• 25:52
  So you know, there's not a lot of difference between these
• 25:55
  schools. You know, look at you know,
• 25:57
  Joe's lost to Saint Peter's on a 2 point conversion as well.
• 26:00
  So, you know, easily games could have gone the other way here.
• 26:04
  But you know, I think at the end of the day, like Jimmy
• 26:06
  mentioned, we were talking before, I think it's good
• 26:09
  overall. You know, you now have, you
• 26:12
  know, he knows more of in the conversation, Bosco's in the
• 26:15
  conversation, Bergen's been in the conversation for four years.
• 26:18
  So now it's anybody's game. So here we are.
• 26:22
  We're going to get into it after this week, next week they go
• 26:25
  into it and that's the true gauntlet.
• 26:28
  We've been in the gauntlet now for the last month, but this is
• 26:30
  the real ones coming up and that's what they really play
• 26:32
  for. So it'll be exciting and good
• 26:35
  luck to all the teams. Hopefully everybody's pretty
• 26:37
  healthy out on the field and the best teams out there and they
• 26:41
  minimize Eternal have a good, good run.
• 26:45
  Jimmy, we talked about it a little bit off the air about
• 26:49
  Saint Joe's. You know, they lost one game
• 26:51
  early in the season when that team from I forget where, didn't
• 26:54
  make the trip or couldn't play them or host them or whatever it
• 26:57
  was. And then they had the
• 26:59
  cancellation against Pope John. And, you know, best on best
• 27:04
  phrase we've used here for the last 10 years since the, you
• 27:08
  know, parochials basically split off from the publics and only
• 27:11
  play each other and those willing to play them.
• 27:15
  There's no respite for these teams.
• 27:17
  And Saint Joe's was forced to take two weeks off, you know,
• 27:20
  got an extra, an extra 2 bye weeks during the season.
• 27:23
  And I think there's no doubt that that played some part in
• 27:28
  the way they came flying out in the first half and had enough
• 27:32
  to, you know, carry him through against the, we know, a really
• 27:35
  quality Burgen side. Yeah, You know, I think first of
• 27:39
  all, you gotta feel bad for specific Saint Joe's players.
• 27:42
  And specifically, they're, they're seniors, you know, being
• 27:47
  able to play your senior year is a, it really is a special thing.
• 27:52
  And to lose 2 opportunities to play, you know, is kind of, it
• 27:58
  kind of stinks for them. But you know, as you mentioned,
• 28:01
  they didn't have to play games that week.
• 28:03
  They probably turned their attention to Bergen Catholic a
• 28:08
  couple of days earlier than they probably would have.
• 28:12
  I think barely looked healthier to me.
• 28:17
  Maybe they were able to to sit back and and rest a little bit,
• 28:21
  get a little healthier. But you know, it it Brian
• 28:25
  mentioned the end of that game was crazy.
• 28:28
  Saint Joe's gets hit with 212 men on the field penalties and
• 28:33
  then when Bergen scores, they they wind up only having ten men
• 28:39
  on the field. So, you know, it was a pretty
• 28:41
  pressure packed situation and and again, it's it it was, it
• 28:47
  did feel like a a playoff atmosphere.
• 28:51
  The year before in the state semi, Saint Joe's had taken a 14
• 28:55
  nothing lead over Burton Catholic.
• 28:58
  Burton Catholic, I wind up tying them at 21 and the game went to
• 29:04
  overtime and Burton Catholic won that one.
• 29:07
  So, you know, they are. So I mean, Saint Joe's extremely
• 29:11
  talented. I mean, there are players all
• 29:14
  over the place, athletic. So again, looking forward to the
• 29:18
  to the playoffs. Speaking of playoffs, I think it
• 29:22
  is time we should turn our attention there.
• 29:24
  Now we'll go through these brackets here.
• 29:27
  I mean, it's so great when you see the the news come across
• 29:29
  like, hey, the brackets have been have been made official, so
• 29:34
  check them out. And then you then you go through
• 29:35
  it. You're you're the first time
• 29:37
  through, yeah, you're looking for one thing and then the
• 29:40
  second time through you kind of thought that's a good match up,
• 29:42
  That's a good match up. And I think we'll start with the
• 29:44
  small schools, which is our bread and butter anyway.
• 29:47
  And N one, Group 1, I don't even know what that means anymore.
• 29:51
  It doesn't have any meaning geographically really.
• 29:54
  It's just about, you know, small schools from a general area
• 29:57
  against other small schools from the same general area with North
• 30:01
  in numbers and everything else. But Butler is the number one
• 30:04
  seed again. They will host #8 Hawthorne in
• 30:07
  the first round, what I think is going to be a marquee first
• 30:11
  round matchup. Pagoda the number 5, visiting
• 30:13
  New Milford the number 4. Then you move out West for
• 30:17
  Wallkill Valley against Kittatinny and Park Ridge
• 30:21
  against Kinnelon. Park Ridge the visiting team in
• 30:23
  the seven two game. Bry, where do you want to start
• 30:26
  in that bracket? And then when you finish your
• 30:28
  summation, please pick your winner because we are keeping
• 30:32
  tabs. And I think the steaks this
• 30:34
  year, pun only half intended, Jimmy already owes me a sandwich
• 30:39
  from a great little Italian restaurant in Lodi.
• 30:41
  So Jimmy and I are going double him down.
• 30:43
  He said he'll throw sausage bread into the mix against my
• 30:46
  Italian Job from Amato's here in Northvale.
• 30:50
  I don't know. Where's your go to spot in
• 30:51
  DuMont Bride? What do you bring?
• 30:52
  What do? We got man, I wish I could give
• 30:55
  you something from Dunkin' Donuts, but you know they don't.
• 30:57
  I don't really. I just drink coffee.
• 30:59
  I could be your coffee from there.
• 31:00
  I don't eat the Donuts. I have to think about that where
• 31:05
  we're going to go. Maybe, maybe we're going to go
• 31:06
  to New Milford and we're going to go to Roman pizza and get you
• 31:09
  some of the best Italian food. Eggplant Parmesan is my
• 31:13
  favorite. So I it's my go to thing.
• 31:16
  Hey, but a little clarification on how they're doing the
• 31:19
  brackets now, Corey. So there's 16 teams, right?
• 31:22
  The way I understand it, not an expert Jimmy may be able to
• 31:25
  clarify better. The first top two teams one and
• 31:29
  two become the top 2 seeds in each group.
• 31:33
  So the north in Group one, for example, Butler, it gets the
• 31:37
  number one seed N one. The second, the second seed was
• 31:41
  mountain lakes. They're the number one seed on
• 31:43
  the north two side. OK, that was the two two key
• 31:46
  things that go on after that they Northam and Southam.
• 31:51
  So the North Group 1 is every, everybody from the North based
• 31:56
  on the ranking gets shoved over to the North and then on the
• 32:00
  other side is the Southern teams get pushed to there now, Yeah,
• 32:04
  so. It's all about north or South.
• 32:06
  It's where you're working. It's right.
• 32:07
  It's small schools from a general geographic vicinity
• 32:11
  against other small schools from AI mean the whole.
• 32:14
  So it's not about really, you know how they fit.
• 32:17
  You know, it's it's close to being old school, you know, one
• 32:21
  versus 8, but it's not really. So I mean whatever so far.
• 32:25
  So far past complaining about what they do.
• 32:27
  It's it's one thing. I'll say one thing I'll say
• 32:30
  Corey, if you we'll talk about it later when we get to another
• 32:32
  group and Jimmy may want to I notice one group and we'll talk
• 32:35
  about that. I'm sure the coaches notice the
• 32:37
  North two group 2 is a little heavy on one side versus the
• 32:43
  other just because of the teams in the South Group 2 or a little
• 32:47
  bit stronger. There's three undefeated teams
• 32:49
  and we'll talk about that later. Let's talk about it later.
• 32:51
  Let's go to Group One for right now though.
• 32:53
  Talk about that. So as we talked about before,
• 32:56
  the NGIC champs, Butler, they are the number one seed.
• 33:01
  They are the defending group champ.
• 33:05
  You know, I think looking at that bracket, you have the you,
• 33:08
  as you mentioned, you have an NGC matchup, Pagoda and New
• 33:11
  Milford. That should be interesting.
• 33:13
  You got Park Ridge and another one there as well and you got a
• 33:17
  Butler Hawthorne NGC matchup. So for, you know, they know each
• 33:22
  other. Some of these guys.
• 33:24
  I kind of like Butler. Obviously, you know what I
• 33:26
  mentioned before, having won 25 to 27 games there seem to be on
• 33:31
  a roll. Everything falls into place.
• 33:34
  They should do well. Watch out for Kinnelon, the
• 33:36
  number two seed in that bracket. On to the other side, the north
• 33:40
  two side, you know, there's a few teams we know here.
• 33:43
  You've got Cedar Grove, not Cedar Grove.
• 33:45
  I'm sorry you got an NGIC matchup, rematch, Woodridge and
• 33:49
  Heights. That's going to be an
• 33:51
  interesting game there. I wish they could schedule.
• 33:53
  It's probably going to be Friday night, but that would be a great
• 33:56
  game to go see the rivalry of those two play.
• 34:01
  So on that side there on the other side, on the north two
• 34:03
  sides, I tend to lean towards Mountain Lakes, but I love the
• 34:08
  aviators from Hasbrouck Heights. You know, they're they run very
• 34:12
  well. I think the challenge for them
• 34:14
  is a little bit of passing. Got to play good defense.
• 34:18
  Haven't seen Mountain Lakes too much, but you got to watch out
• 34:21
  for Cedar Grove too in that side.
• 34:22
  Cedar Grove very tough. I'm sorry.
• 34:24
  You also have Seacaucus in there going out to play New
• 34:27
  Providence. So the winner of Seacaucus, New
• 34:29
  Providence will play the winner of Woodridge Heights.
• 34:32
  You could get another. Obviously there's one NGIT team
• 34:35
  going to the semi there, so you could get 2 if Seacaucus could
• 34:38
  find a way to New Providence. Who's the three seed over there?
• 34:42
  But yeah, you know, they have a challenge.
• 34:45
  So, so my pick, like I said, on the one side is Butler and I,
• 34:50
  I'm going to go with Hometown, be a homie and say Heights, even
• 34:53
  though Mountain Lake 6 is probably the favorite to take
• 34:57
  that side, of course. All right, Jimmy, where do you
• 35:01
  stand on? All right, so wait, Brian, let
• 35:03
  me get this right here. I got it, says right here on my
• 35:06
  notebook. So G1N 1N2 Brian, who's winning
• 35:11
  N 1 and who's winning N 2. Let me get it.
• 35:13
  I got Butler in one, Butler one, and I've got Heights in two.
• 35:19
  OK, Jimmy. You know, you how could you not
• 35:25
  go with Butler? Really experienced team, a
• 35:29
  successful team, the one team to look out for, obviously.
• 35:33
  And and they were two seeded Kinnelon, they were 8 and O
• 35:37
  going into Shabazz. They took on a very, very
• 35:40
  talented Shabazz team last last week.
• 35:43
  They were only lost 28 to 14, but from what I understand, they
• 35:47
  really did a good job in that game.
• 35:50
  You know, I they're a little bit of a mystery team.
• 35:53
  I know the last time they they they won a sectional kennelon is
• 35:57
  when former Paramus Catholic player Kevin White was the head
• 36:02
  coach. I, I think it'll be, I think
• 36:04
  it'll be a one versus two final. And I'm going to go with with
• 36:09
  Butler. I just think with the the
• 36:11
  ability of David Smith to run it, to throw it a big offensive
• 36:15
  line, a physical offensive line. I I think it's, it's butlers to
• 36:20
  lose in the other section in north to Group 1.
• 36:24
  You know, Mountain Lakes is, is always there.
• 36:27
  They're they're like the Yankees in in the 1950s, Corey, they
• 36:31
  were always there. They always do a good job.
• 36:35
  New Providence undefeated, led by led by Czech Parlavecchio.
• 36:40
  Amazing junior. You know, an undefeated team, I
• 36:45
  know they might have had a sustain a major injury, but
• 36:48
  they've been they've been really taking care of people this this
• 36:52
  year. Hasbro kites, Woodridge, you
• 36:56
  know, a nice story. I I someone mentioned to me
• 36:59
  today that Woodridge has lost the last 28 meetings between the
• 37:05
  two former long long time Thanksgiving Day, you know,
• 37:11
  participants Woodridge jumped out six and O they look really
• 37:16
  good. They played very close to to
• 37:19
  Rutherford 1413 in the NJIC semi.
• 37:23
  They they lost they lost last week to Becton 13.
• 37:26
  Nothing in a consolation game. You know, I expect that to be a
• 37:31
  very competitive game. I know Coach Surrey expects that
• 37:34
  to be a a very competitive game. I do think Hasbro tights, who is
• 37:39
  very talented as far as speed and one of the quickest Group
• 37:43
  One teams. You see if they can get good
• 37:45
  line play, if they can hold their own, you know it it'll be
• 37:49
  a battle. I'm going to go with New
• 37:52
  Providence and so when it. New Providence.
• 37:57
  All right, hey, hey, what? If I'm not mistaken, New
• 38:00
  province won a Group 1 baseball right?
• 38:03
  Yeah, they've been. They've been.
• 38:04
  Yeah, they've been. They've been a very good
• 38:06
  baseball program. They've.
• 38:07
  Been and girls basketball, too. Yeah, Oh yes, They've been
• 38:10
  around in football, they've been in the playoffs.
• 38:12
  They've had some pretty gaudy records the last couple of
• 38:16
  years. I I this year might be their
• 38:18
  year as far as I'm concerned. All right, new problem.
• 38:22
  Listen, I'm going to take, I'm going to just go a little bit
• 38:24
  outside the box. I'm going to go with Kinnelon in
• 38:27
  North one simply because the suburban trend, the newspaper of
• 38:31
  which I was the sports editor in the late 90s and early 2000s was
• 38:35
  located in Kinnelon. And so I got a little nostalgia
• 38:38
  there. I'm going to go with the
• 38:39
  Mountain Lakes because As for all the reasons that Jimmy
• 38:42
  mentioned that Mountain Lakes is always and they have a great
• 38:44
  logo, the same as the Buffalo Bills, which is different
• 38:47
  colors. So, you know, forget about
• 38:51
  breaking down game tape and scouting and everything else.
• 38:55
  I'm going to choose all the alternate route for all of my
• 38:57
  picks tonight. Kinelon Mountain Lakes in Group
• 39:01
  1. Brian, let's go over to well,
• 39:03
  Jimmy, you start Group 2GO. Ahead.
• 39:06
  Well, the first group we talk about is N 2, excuse me, N one,
• 39:12
  Group 2 and the Westwood Cardinals.
• 39:15
  I mean, going into this year, there was some questions as to
• 39:22
  how good Westwood would be based upon their graduate heavy
• 39:25
  graduation losses the last two years.
• 39:29
  And all they've done Corey is go out and put up an 8 in one
• 39:33
  record, their only loss being an overtime loss to Caldwell.
• 39:40
  Their defense is very, very good and and quite honestly, they
• 39:45
  have the best player in the section.
• 39:48
  Yeah. You know, every time he, Mr.
• 39:51
  Klein steps on the field, he is the best player in that on that
• 39:55
  field. And he's been playing like that
• 39:58
  against Ramsey two weeks ago, he ran wild and against Riverdale,
• 40:03
  you know, Riverdale and and Westwood in the Bird Bowl, they
• 40:06
  play for the Bird Bowl trophy. And coach DJ Niff has always has
• 40:11
  his team ready. And there was a lot of talk
• 40:14
  about a potential upset based on that.
• 40:16
  And Mr. Klein took care of that, you know, with four touchdowns
• 40:21
  and. Just a tremendous job and you
• 40:25
  know, I'm going to, you know, Newton coming out of Sussex
• 40:29
  County, Corey a very, very well, very well coached team.
• 40:33
  And they're going to be tough kids.
• 40:34
  They're going to be tough. That's not an easy 18 match up
• 40:39
  physical. They run the wing fee and that's
• 40:42
  going to be, that's going to be interesting.
• 40:45
  I think Westwood does find a way to get through that.
• 40:49
  We have Bryans do. Former Bryans do not against
• 40:55
  Caldwell. Caldwell is another one of those
• 40:57
  teams, an unbelievable schedule. You know that they played W
• 41:01
  Essex, they played Westwood, Wayne Hills, Cedar Grove,
• 41:05
  Shabazz, you know, just to don't play anybody anywhere.
• 41:11
  Plus their sophomore quarterback, an electric kid who
• 41:14
  can beat you with his legs. They could beat you with his
• 41:17
  with his arms. You know, they're tough.
• 41:19
  They're used to winning. They're going to be tough.
• 41:22
  You got Coach Bear and the Ramsey Rams hosting High Point,
• 41:26
  High Point, another one of those Sussex County teams, very, very
• 41:30
  physical. You know, the question in that
• 41:33
  game is will they be able to defend Ramsey and their spread
• 41:37
  offense, You know, Ramsey, if they can play some defense, I
• 41:42
  think they come out of there with the win and Waldwick and
• 41:45
  Glenrock. Waldwick has hit their stride
• 41:48
  coming in as the seven seed. They've won their last five in a
• 41:52
  row. So that's, you know, that's
• 41:55
  where Dan Dastasi has been going.
• 41:58
  Glen Rock, You know, what can we say about Glen Rock?
• 42:01
  There were the other like Mountlake score.
• 42:03
  They're always there. They're six and two.
• 42:05
  Kyle McCourt. Their losses are three nothing
• 42:09
  to Rutherford and 13 seven to Hasbro tights.
• 42:12
  So yeah, they're that's going to be a game.
• 42:16
  They play very good defense, maybe not as explosive on
• 42:19
  offense as as they use they usually are.
• 42:23
  I'm going to go with Westwood in that section.
• 42:26
  Oh, Jimmy going out on a limb. Wow.
• 42:29
  Yeah, you know when you when you when you have the best player in
• 42:33
  in the bracket, Yes, I'm I'm going to go with that.
• 42:36
  How funny is it to say like Glen Rock, you know, if they could
• 42:39
  just score some points, you know, because we've been around
• 42:41
  long enough to remember the run and shoot Glen Rock days when it
• 42:45
  was like, you know, if they could just get one stop, they're
• 42:47
  winning. So.
• 42:49
  Yeah, anyway, all right, well, I'll give my prediction.
• 42:52
  I think you broke down everything in that bracket.
• 42:55
  So all I need to do is name my team and listen, I'm, I'm going
• 42:58
  with the DuMont Huskies. I don't think it's right that
• 43:00
  Brian just drops him like a hot potato every time, you know, a
• 43:04
  a, a New Girl with the curl catches his eye.
• 43:06
  You know what I'm saying? So you know, I know Brian's
• 43:10
  going westward. I'm going DuMont.
• 43:12
  I'm bummed because I was hoping that DuMont would have a first
• 43:15
  round home playoff game. I talked to Joe Sutera a couple
• 43:18
  weeks ago, he said if they did, they would have it on the
• 43:21
  Saturday afternoon to not enter. You know, especially now you got
• 43:25
  the weather plus Halloween. So I think a lot of games are
• 43:27
  being moved to Saturday. That would have been fun, but I
• 43:30
  ain't going to Caldwell. So I'm not making the trip.
• 43:34
  But I will take the Huskies to in to win their first state
• 43:38
  sectional championship. Since when?
• 43:41
  1980. Four since 1984.
• 43:47
  Back in the good old days. So DuMont is my pick.
• 43:49
  Go ahead, Bry, prove me wrong. No, no, I'm not going to.
• 43:54
  You know, hey, you mentioned DuMont.
• 43:57
  They went off. They hosted Ramsey last week in
• 43:59
  their season finale. And that was kind of, you know,
• 44:04
  let's see what DuMont has. And Ramsey got ahead there,
• 44:09
  scored four touchdowns, got ahead.
• 44:11
  DuMont was able to get it close at the end, get it within one
• 44:14
  score. Onyx Trinidad had a couple
• 44:18
  touchdowns, but, you know, just weren't able to get over that
• 44:21
  hump, you know, and what that ended up doing to them.
• 44:24
  They were sitting pretty and it made them fall down and they
• 44:29
  were originally going to have a home game.
• 44:30
  And now you got Caldwell. As Jimmy mentioned with
• 44:32
  Caldwell, they played some really good teams and the teams
• 44:36
  they've beaten really helped. Their PowerPoints just get them
• 44:40
  a better seed and they just jumped over DuMont and got into
• 44:43
  that four seed and end up doing now DuMont to travel out to
• 44:47
  Caldwell. That's going to be a tough game
• 44:49
  for them on a Friday night out there.
• 44:52
  Atmosphere is very electric. We've been there for a couple of
• 44:54
  games. The fans are into it.
• 44:57
  You know, it's a long time successful program and they get
• 45:00
  the fans and like Jimmy said, their quarterback is solid.
• 45:04
  They've got a tradition. The program I mentioned earlier,
• 45:06
  just continued success. So it'll be a tough game for
• 45:10
  DuMont, but that's why they play the game Then the next game
• 45:15
  there, so I didn't talk about will come back high points at
• 45:18
  Ramsey. High point should be a challenge
• 45:21
  for Ramsey. Ramsey I need to play some
• 45:23
  really good defense, shut them down and obviously score a few
• 45:27
  more points. Walwick, Glen Rock should be a
• 45:30
  battle for two NGIC teams and you know, and Glen Rock the
• 45:36
  other week just beat Lyndhurst, who's the 8th seed over on the
• 45:38
  other side. So Glen Rock, you know, having
• 45:41
  some good success late. They lost to Rutherford by 330
• 45:45
  score. So so Glen Rock play some good
• 45:48
  defense and will be a tough out for Warwick.
• 45:52
  But on that side, as Corey mentioned, I'll have to go as he
• 45:56
  said, he made my pick for me. I'll have to go with the coach
• 46:00
  Jimmy, and I'm going to take the Western Cardinals on that side.
• 46:05
  I think they have a very favorable schedule.
• 46:07
  Newton will be tough as Jimmy mentioned, but I think they can
• 46:10
  deal with that and then they look forward to the rematch for
• 46:13
  Caldwell. But let's not get too far ahead
• 46:15
  of myself. They got like to play them
• 46:17
  again. That's their only losses to
• 46:19
  Caldwell by an overtime field goal, so that should be
• 46:24
  interesting to you. Mike DuMont?
• 46:26
  No way. Not.
• 46:27
  Out, yeah. Jimmy, Jimmy, Can you believe
• 46:30
  that Bryant Carr took Westward to win the section?
• 46:32
  I mean, are you shocked? Yeah, you know, I and also I'm a
• 46:40
  first time on my life core. I'm at a loss.
• 46:42
  He's at a loss. He's at a loss for words.
• 46:44
  I was listening to the coach, you know.
• 46:47
  I think Ramsey had a favorable draw because, you know, at this
• 46:49
  time of the year, high points just looking to start wrestling.
• 46:51
  I mean, they they don't want, they'd rather stay home and and,
• 46:56
  you know, tackle the hay bales in the wrestling room on
• 46:59
  Saturday rather than or whatever it is Friday, then drive all the
• 47:02
  way to Ramsey for a road playoff game.
• 47:04
  So I think move through there. Yeah.
• 47:07
  But I I think now, all all kidding aside, like Westwood is
• 47:10
  the, you know, the the cream of the crop, both historically last
• 47:15
  few years and also this year. But I do think there are a lot
• 47:19
  of good teams in this bracket. So I wouldn't say it's going to
• 47:23
  be a cakewalk for Westwood. I mean, no state sectional
• 47:27
  championship run ever is. But you know, there there's a
• 47:31
  lot of good teams in there. We'll see if anybody can
• 47:33
  dethrone the Pope of the cardinal of the Westwood bride.
• 47:38
  And let's see, North two Group 2, Jimmy Bry, you could have a
• 47:43
  first stab at this one talked a little bit.
• 47:45
  Maybe you want to start with Rutherford.
• 47:46
  I mean, you haven't talked about Rutherford in about 10 minutes
• 47:49
  and that you. Probably get is, Yeah, yes, I
• 47:51
  mean, I do like that game. And for those who don't know,
• 47:55
  that's a noon Saturday start down to try on field as you had
• 48:01
  the coach. We have the coach on the show,
• 48:03
  Coach Burkowski. And just a couple weeks ago we
• 48:07
  had Coach Steve Dunn on the show.
• 48:09
  I I think that's a nice match up.
• 48:12
  You know, they don't usually play each other.
• 48:14
  Hoboken down Hudson County and Rutherford right, just up to
• 48:18
  Route 3 there in Bergen County. So that that that should be a
• 48:23
  good one. An hour and 45 minutes to get
• 48:25
  there, but that's, you know. Well, that's why it's good
• 48:27
  they're playing Saturday. It would be, yeah, Friday night.
• 48:29
  So good for them guys to schedule that out of Hoboken.
• 48:34
  And by the way, that was one of the challenge I had to consider
• 48:36
  when I was looking to go to the Hoboken game a couple weeks ago.
• 48:39
  And you realize the challenge to get down to Hoboken in rush
• 48:44
  hour. It's too late.
• 48:45
  You're already persona non grata.
• 48:47
  You're, you're they, they have pinned up the T-shirt that they
• 48:50
  were going to give you on. It's now fodder in the locker
• 48:54
  room, like Brian Carr doesn't even want to come see us play.
• 48:57
  So you you just gave your your T-shirt hangs on the bulletin
• 49:01
  board. Sorry, but A on this bracket
• 49:04
  though, Corey, we've mentioned Shabazz before, Shabazz, just
• 49:08
  one loss. I think it was the Peters number
• 49:11
  one seed last year that they took out Westwood last year in
• 49:15
  the final, right? I think it was the final in the
• 49:18
  sectional final at Westwood. So Shabazz tends to be the
• 49:23
  favorite. Now the other teams in this
• 49:25
  bracket too. Let's just mention real quick
• 49:28
  undefeated teams in the bracket. You've got Hanover Park 8 and O
• 49:32
  sitting right there. You got burners ain't no and
• 49:36
  Hoboken ain't no you got undefeated.
• 49:40
  No, no, this, this is a tough bracket and anybody would tell
• 49:44
  you. Westwood and I'm sure Danny
• 49:46
  Devino knows we're in a good place over here because we don't
• 49:50
  have the head, you know, the heavy hitters.
• 49:52
  Bernards, as we saw last year, tough team to play, very
• 49:55
  physical coach. We've had on.
• 49:59
  Do we have them on the show? Yeah, we had them on the show
• 50:00
  last year. Remember, we had last year we
• 50:02
  had coach on the show. John Seminar.
• 50:06
  John Seminar, who lives up in he lives up here in Passaic County,
• 50:10
  but doing a great job. Undefeated #2 seed.
• 50:14
  They're going to host Madison. You know, likely Beckton's going
• 50:18
  to have to play an undefeated Hanover Park probably have a
• 50:20
  hard time time with Hanover Park very strong beating all comers
• 50:24
  Hanover Park, West Essex. I think Cedar Grove just a very
• 50:28
  good team successful program. Bexton's going to have a hard
• 50:32
  time with that one. Likely to see Hanover Park have
• 50:34
  to play burners 2 undefeateds at that point.
• 50:38
  If they both get there, they're both be still undefeated.
• 50:40
  So should be exciting matchup on the other side.
• 50:43
  Rutherford Hoboken. Hey, we don't know what's going
• 50:46
  to happen. Good luck to both teams.
• 50:49
  I'm over for a. Good game.
• 50:52
  I love what he has in his bets. It's so great.
• 50:56
  You know, I can't, I can't say too much because I haven't seen
• 51:00
  Hoboken live where I've seen Rutherford.
• 51:03
  So I don't, you know, you know, you got to watch out.
• 51:06
  You don't. You got to watch out for what
• 51:07
  you don't know and what you don't know, I don't know.
• 51:11
  So I'm going to leave, by the way.
• 51:13
  But by the way, you got to watch out for, you got to watch out
• 51:17
  for those Red Wings. Joe Berkowski, Coach Berkowski's
• 51:21
  got a solid running back. Devin McMillan, 1000 yard rush
• 51:25
  for 12 TDs. They're going to be tough.
• 51:28
  Their quarterback is solid, 85 for 149.
• 51:31
  Fourteen, 100 yards and 16 touchdowns, only 5
• 51:36
  interceptions. Isaiah Blanks, he's going, I
• 51:39
  haven't seen him, but we'll see him on the field.
• 51:42
  I have to try to find some video to kind of get an idea.
• 51:45
  But hey, congratulations to Coach Burkowski, getting them
• 51:48
  there and looking forward to an exciting game.
• 51:51
  You got to try on feel with. I don't have to pick that one.
• 51:59
  I don't have to pick the winner in that game.
• 52:01
  I'm going to pick the sections in in this section.
• 52:04
  I like, I'd like to root for Burners because I just like the
• 52:09
  coach, but I think Shabazz may have too much and a little too
• 52:13
  much firepower. So you're going to have a you
• 52:16
  should have a good game, Hanover Park Burners and then likely to
• 52:19
  be one of those Hanover Parker Burners against Shabazz.
• 52:22
  But I'll let's go with burners. I'm going to thank Coach and
• 52:25
  pick Coach since we had him on the show last year and wishing
• 52:29
  him good luck. There, you're picking burners.
• 52:32
  Burners, let's go all. Right.
• 52:33
  Good for you. I like that.
• 52:35
  I like that pick. All right.
• 52:36
  Good, Jimmy. You know, you mentioned this
• 52:39
  might be the stronger of the two sections, Brian, but if you
• 52:43
  remember last year, the N 1 section with Westwood Bernards,
• 52:49
  the bags was the stronger of it. So flip flop.
• 52:53
  But you know, listen, a very, very good section, obviously
• 52:57
  Shabazz, Hoboken, Rutherford, Hanover Park, you know, Becton
• 53:01
  is not an easy out either, You know, always play great defense.
• 53:06
  They'll be there. They'll they'll give Hanover
• 53:08
  Park everything they want. Madison as a seven seed, Corey,
• 53:14
  a very scary seven seed. They lost 3319 to Hanover Park.
• 53:22
  They played Cedar Grove, they played Mountain Lakes so that
• 53:26
  you know, they play a very good schedule.
• 53:28
  Burners has done a great job. If you remember two years ago
• 53:32
  when Westwood won this, the Group 2 state overall
• 53:35
  championship, we were all at that game and Burgers gave
• 53:39
  Westwood everything they wanted that night.
• 53:42
  Their coach trimming out and nine and O again this year.
• 53:47
  You know, again, be careful with that.
• 53:50
  You know, Shabazz, obviously the most talent of any SEC team in
• 53:54
  the section. You know, they beat West Orange,
• 53:58
  they played Saint Peter's, they've beaten Caldwell, they've
• 54:02
  beaten Kinnelon. I'm going to go with the chalk
• 54:07
  with the with Shabazz, but do not be surprised if Bernard's or
• 54:14
  Hanover Park beats them in the in the final.
• 54:17
  And I am going to lose an Italian Job sandwich from
• 54:21
  Amato's in Northvale because I appreciate Joe Borkowski coming
• 54:25
  on the show this evening. And I am taking Hoboken Nine and
• 54:29
  oh, and you know, whatever I'm I'm it's no fun for me to pick
• 54:35
  Hanover Park. I don't even know how to get
• 54:36
  there. So I'm not doing that.
• 54:37
  I'm not, you know, Berners and John Semeno.
• 54:40
  Great that great quote about recruiting and don't complain
• 54:45
  about it. Just do a better job of getting
• 54:47
  kids in your building. So I it looks like his he laid
• 54:51
  the groundwork, obviously, for a tremendously successful program
• 54:54
  and doing a great job, but I'm taking home.
• 54:56
  OK, now Jimmy, officially you went with.
• 54:58
  I went with Chabaz. Chabaz.
• 55:02
  All right, Bry, let's move on. Group Three.
• 55:06
  Group 3. Bats we head towards the world
• 55:09
  headquarters, Corey in the north warm group three side, I mean
• 55:14
  defending champs Old Japan Golden Knights.
• 55:19
  They will welcome in a local local Riverdale team which they
• 55:24
  played. Already once this.
• 55:26
  Year game was that and that was. I was in the car in half time,
• 55:30
  put it that. Way uneventful, yeah, but you
• 55:33
  know, hey, that's why they play the games.
• 55:36
  Riverdale, you know, DJ Nymphius will have them ready and Ultra
• 55:40
  Ban will be ready too. I'm sure Coach Brian Doug will
• 55:43
  have his boys ready. You know, we've seen the
• 55:46
  Michelle boys do well. The you know, Shane Small.
• 55:52
  Jack Etter. Who?
• 55:53
  Who's Jack Leo Etter. Leo Etter.
• 55:55
  Jack. Maybe that's his father.
• 55:56
  His father. Jack Leo But you know, we've
• 55:59
  seen some solid play up there at Old Japan and by now a few kids
• 56:03
  are going to be back. So they're ready for a good
• 56:06
  playoff run and a little out of the area teams, Montville, West
• 56:10
  Milford, those two teams, one of those two will meet likely to be
• 56:14
  Old Japan there, the next two teams.
• 56:18
  In the state playoffs again, by the way, Yeah.
• 56:20
  Yeah. That's half Cap Valley.
• 56:23
  We might have dropped the ball there.
• 56:24
  We might have, should have had that guy on for the, you know,
• 56:27
  because it's been a long time since West Milford has been a
• 56:30
  player in the play offs. I mean, going back probably 20
• 56:33
  years since they, they had a chance.
• 56:35
  I, I, they probably made the playoffs between then and now,
• 56:38
  but probably, you know, with a chance to, to win a first round
• 56:40
  game at home. I, I, I don't know when the last
• 56:43
  time they had a home Football Playoff game was, Yes.
• 56:45
  Hey, West Milford had a good season, you know, they won their
• 56:48
  division and solid, you know, playing teams like Sparta and
• 56:52
  Vernon Lakeland Jefferson. So they're they're in a good
• 56:57
  place and they move on. And the next one is interesting.
• 57:02
  2 Valleys, you got Pascack Valley, which will have to go to
• 57:06
  Pascack Valley. There's a little bit of a
• 57:09
  connection right between those two schools because like Lenny
• 57:13
  Kuzmano is a Passaic Valley guy coached up at Pascack Valley.
• 57:19
  You know, Pascack Valley has been going through some Nicks
• 57:21
  and bruises. So solid program.
• 57:24
  You talked about wrestling at High Point.
• 57:26
  Pascack Valley has a very good wrestling program as well.
• 57:29
  So it should be an interesting match up between those two, the
• 57:33
  two valleys. And then you've got Sparta,
• 57:35
  which would come down and play Wayne Hills.
• 57:37
  Wayne Hills played a a tough schedule.
• 57:39
  They're a big game. Beaten Wayne Valley, right
• 57:42
  maybe. Oh no, Wayne Valley beat them at
• 57:44
  Wayne Valley. And then Old Japan kind of, you
• 57:49
  know, told him who was boss and Old Japan took care of business
• 57:52
  up there against Wayne Hill. So, but I like on that side, we
• 57:57
  got to go with the, you know, I never got that moniker.
• 58:01
  I guess you're the Golden Knight, right Corey?
• 58:03
  Yeah, yeah, you. You're the Golden Knight.
• 58:06
  I could never be the Golden Knight.
• 58:09
  But when our friend, the old AD up there, Tom Cruise shell, and
• 58:13
  he would probably tell me that, you know, you can.
• 58:16
  You're a Golden Knight too. Brian Corey.
• 58:18
  The only guy, the only school I can go merch, merch for merch
• 58:22
  with you. I got a lot of old Japan swag in
• 58:25
  the world headquarters of, you know, and of course in in
• 58:28
  Northvale where we have the statue of Brian Dunn that was
• 58:32
  unveiled on Dundee at, you know, the formerly named Hogan Field,
• 58:36
  which is now Brian Dunn Celebratory Park.
• 58:40
  But you can't get there on the weekends because the traffic is
• 58:43
  crazy. So I will just a couple of
• 58:46
  things. Pascack Valley amazing, you
• 58:50
  know, from a team, a sectional championship last year with all
• 58:53
  that coming back to a number six seed on the road at Passaic
• 58:55
  Valley. I mean, it's one one of the more
• 58:58
  baffling stories. I know injuries, of course it's
• 59:01
  but injuries are a part of football.
• 59:02
  And I do remember who were we talking about, Brian, when old
• 59:07
  Japan lost a couple of offensive line and put a couple freshmen
• 59:09
  and still won again. So, you know, they happened to
• 59:12
  everybody and the the fall of Pascack Valley this year has
• 59:15
  really been dumbfounding. So that's an interesting story
• 59:19
  going the other way. And the other thing I wanted to
• 59:20
  mention, Jimmy, you mentioned when we were talking about Group
• 59:22
  2, how one side of the bracket seems to be tougher than the
• 59:25
  other side of the bracket. And it's flip flop isn't how old
• 59:27
  it started anyway. I mean, we used to have
• 59:29
  brackets, but the north one group, the north one Group 3 was
• 59:32
  too hard because you had the old school, you know, bully programs
• 59:37
  of Bergen County would just beat each other up.
• 59:39
  And then in north two Group 3, that was so much easier.
• 59:41
  So we can't do that anymore because one side, you know, it's
• 59:45
  not fair because you got an easier and then we go through
• 59:48
  something called Northing. We take this team because it's
• 59:51
  on this side of 48, latitude versus longitude.
• 59:55
  We got to move it over a year. They're the six seed, they'd be
• 59:57
  the two seed. But now they're playing this
• 59:59
  team and we still have one side of the bracket heavier than the
• 1:00:02
  other. So what are we doing?
• 1:00:04
  But anyway, Brian, did I hear your pick?
• 1:00:06
  Did you take old Japan? Yes, I'm going to.
• 1:00:09
  Do the right thing. And did you take old Pam Bry?
• 1:00:11
  I'm taking old Pam, Jimmy. Just say it.
• 1:00:16
  Say I take old Japan too. Yeah, I mean, listen, it would
• 1:00:20
  it would take some kind of crazy thing for old Japan.
• 1:00:24
  They've been unbelievably consistent.
• 1:00:28
  They have two real good players, their quarterback and tight end,
• 1:00:32
  Mr. Small, like you said, a lot of injuries during the season,
• 1:00:38
  but they just keep coming and coming and coming.
• 1:00:40
  I I think it's their section obviously to lose.
• 1:00:44
  And and I would. I would pick old Japan
• 1:00:47
  regardless. I mean, you know, just for all
• 1:00:49
  the reasons that we've said. But I'm looking around the
• 1:00:52
  bracket, right? I mean, who would you even take
• 1:00:54
  to beat them? Wade Hills, the number two seed
• 1:00:56
  and they took care of them pretty easily, you know, and and
• 1:01:00
  you know, Wes Milford is a great story.
• 1:01:04
  Riverdale, the old depends already.
• 1:01:05
  Who would you take? But we can't have easy brackets
• 1:01:09
  or hard brackets. Maybe, you know, it's West
• 1:01:12
  Milford. You know what I mean?
• 1:01:13
  You. Know.
• 1:01:13
  Yeah, maybe. You got to take because you know
• 1:01:16
  they're so you know, only one loss coming in so.
• 1:01:20
  It'll be the team. The bit old Depends.
• 1:01:23
  Sweep all right now. N two Group 3 N 2 Jimmy, you
• 1:01:27
  wanna take a swing? I mean, we got very, very.
• 1:01:30
  I'm just looking. At it.
• 1:01:32
  Slim tickets as far as local. Yeah, let's let's take a look.
• 1:01:40
  Let's see. I mean, obviously W Morris has
• 1:01:44
  been one of those teams, Corey, that's gone toe to toe with old
• 1:01:47
  Japan. Yep.
• 1:01:49
  And the past a very good offensive line power running
• 1:01:54
  game that you know, they they are, you know, there they've
• 1:01:59
  been there for 25 years. You know, Summit, the home of
• 1:02:04
  Willie Wilson for Major League Baseball player who some people
• 1:02:10
  say was the best running back they've ever seen in New Jersey.
• 1:02:14
  West Essex is a team that, you know, they play anybody.
• 1:02:19
  You look at their schedule. We have, you know, Old Japan,
• 1:02:23
  Wayne Hills, Caldwell, the Sake Valley, Hanover Park, Morris,
• 1:02:29
  Knowles. So, you know, they play a big
• 1:02:31
  time schedule. I just think W Morris is the
• 1:02:35
  most physical team in the brackets.
• 1:02:37
  I think they're going to come out of the bracket.
• 1:02:41
  Well, I'm going to pull up Bryant Carr and listen to the
• 1:02:43
  coach. I'm going to go West Morris too.
• 1:02:45
  If Jimmy says it, I'm going. You too, Brett.
• 1:02:49
  Yes, yeah. All right.
• 1:02:50
  That's, I mean, yeah, definitely Jimmy Corey, we're all big the
• 1:02:54
  same. All right, go ahead, Group 4,
• 1:02:56
  bro, you're up. Group 4, we got some local
• 1:02:59
  interest in there. I think we you kind of when you
• 1:03:02
  look at that bracket you like to 0 in on a rematch.
• 1:03:07
  They just played last week, Ramapo, Northern Irelands.
• 1:03:11
  They don't get there until the final in the bracket, but you
• 1:03:14
  know, first Ramapo starts with Hackensack.
• 1:03:17
  Ramapo at #1 seed will play 8 seed.
• 1:03:20
  Hackensack. Ramapo just seems to have it
• 1:03:23
  rolling. The quarterback, you know, Casey
• 1:03:25
  Grusher is just keeping them in the right direction.
• 1:03:28
  Liam Hayward, they, you know, people, they're not that big
• 1:03:31
  Lloyd, but they play the position well, good defense.
• 1:03:36
  They can score. You see what they're doing in
• 1:03:38
  Northern Highlands. Last, you know, when they play
• 1:03:40
  Northern Highlands, they were able to shut them down, keep the
• 1:03:43
  passing down, minimize the running and round.
• 1:03:47
  PO just is able to keep it rolling.
• 1:03:50
  Wayne Valley, we saw them, we saw them, you know, playing up
• 1:03:54
  at Northern Highlands. You know it, You know, there was
• 1:03:58
  a good game there. Northern Ireland was able to
• 1:04:00
  come out with the win, but it's tough, physical game there.
• 1:04:04
  Expect Wayne Valley to make it through over Chatham, play
• 1:04:07
  Rattle PO and have a challenge there.
• 1:04:09
  But I kind of like Mount of Mount Olive had AI think they
• 1:04:12
  lost 1813, if I recall, to West Morris and we just talked about
• 1:04:18
  West Morris in Group 3 in that N 2 side.
• 1:04:23
  That's their only loss to West Morris.
• 1:04:25
  So be careful. You never know W Morris could
• 1:04:29
  be, you know, the upset in this bracket.
• 1:04:32
  But we do look and see, you know, northern Highlands be able
• 1:04:35
  to make it through and and play Ramapo, but I wouldn't count out
• 1:04:39
  Mount Olive. So let's not get too excited,
• 1:04:42
  Vallopo. Northern Ireland's possibly and
• 1:04:44
  you and I think Mount Olive could be the upset maker and
• 1:04:47
  avoid that rematch on that bracket.
• 1:04:51
  Yeah, it's a great call, Brackets.
• 1:04:52
  I just pulled up the Mount Olive schedule and until they lost
• 1:04:56
  1613 at West Morris on the road this past week, they started the
• 1:05:01
  season with seven straight wins and scored at least 31 points in
• 1:05:05
  all of their games. And they also threw in
• 1:05:09
  A3543544142 and they beat Vernon 6227.
• 1:05:14
  Now it's hard. You know, they they can score a
• 1:05:16
  lot of points. I don't know about the level of
• 1:05:18
  competition of those other teams.
• 1:05:19
  I don't know anything about Vernon or Roxbury or Randolph,
• 1:05:22
  but still, you know, to be able to, you know, score 678
• 1:05:26
  touchdowns in a game is pretty impressive no matter who you're
• 1:05:29
  playing. So I think you could be right.
• 1:05:32
  Did you make a pick there? Did I hear or are you or you
• 1:05:36
  Ramapo Highlands? That's that's it is a Yep,
• 1:05:38
  because Ramapo looks great first time around.
• 1:05:41
  But you know, Highlands is a if they are an underdog, they are a
• 1:05:44
  live underdog. You know, can we come back to
• 1:05:50
  you? Yeah.
• 1:05:50
  Come back to me and let me think about it.
• 1:05:52
  Yeah, let me think about it. I'm going to take Ramapo because
• 1:05:55
  just Ramapo football in the playoffs, that's really all you
• 1:05:59
  need to say, Jimmy. Yeah.
• 1:06:02
  You know, you mentioned Ramapo. I think the difference between
• 1:06:05
  Ramapo core and Bryan and Northern Highlands, very
• 1:06:09
  similar. Northern Highlands a big
• 1:06:12
  offensive line physical, but I think Ramapo gets the extra nod
• 1:06:18
  there because their ability to throw the football.
• 1:06:21
  Northern Highlands if they have one area they have to improve to
• 1:06:26
  win, it would be their ability to sort of football.
• 1:06:29
  But you know, Mount Olive is a is a really good program.
• 1:06:32
  Coach O'Connor, who you might remember was it Wayne Valley for
• 1:06:35
  some time? I mean, they're they're very,
• 1:06:39
  very explosive. I'm gonna go out on a limb here
• 1:06:42
  and I'm gonna say the final will be Ramapo Mount Olive and I will
• 1:06:48
  give the championship to Ramapo. OK, Brian, we can move on to.
• 1:06:55
  Newton Well, you know what, let me let me no, I won't.
• 1:07:00
  I'll I'll be the, you know, try to stay away.
• 1:07:03
  We we all agree on the same thing.
• 1:07:04
  It's no fun. So I'm going to go with Jimmy.
• 1:07:07
  I like I like the two in the finals, but I'm going to go with
• 1:07:11
  the other team from Mount Olive out route 80 S on two O 6 and
• 1:07:16
  take Mount Olive the Marauders. I mean, it's a watchable game,
• 1:07:19
  that first round, you know, the sinkhole has been patched over
• 1:07:22
  so you can get there and cruise right into Mount Olive.
• 1:07:26
  Yeah, I mean. It's true.
• 1:07:28
  It's on the way out. Beautiful.
• 1:07:30
  I mean, beautiful this time of year, late fall on the way to
• 1:07:32
  the Poconos, that you can't beat it.
• 1:07:34
  All right, So that's good. I like that.
• 1:07:36
  But, I mean, I did take DuMont, so you got to give me one back,
• 1:07:38
  you know, every now and again. Yeah, and here we go north to
• 1:07:43
  Group 4 again. Not heavily loaded with any team
• 1:07:46
  I've ever heard of. But Jimmy, what do you?
• 1:07:49
  I'll go first. I'm taking Phillipsburg.
• 1:07:51
  Phillipsburg and New Jersey State player football.
• 1:07:55
  Go with the state liners. I've learned that over the
• 1:07:57
  years. Yeah, I mean, you know, one of
• 1:08:00
  the one of the storied tradition traditional schools in New
• 1:08:05
  Jersey, there were years, Corey, where they did not participate
• 1:08:08
  in the state playoffs so they would be able to play Easton on
• 1:08:13
  Thanksgiving. Brian's been to that game and
• 1:08:15
  draws 25,000 people. But you know, they they do a
• 1:08:20
  great job. They're not an overly big
• 1:08:23
  physical football team. They just seem to have tough
• 1:08:26
  kids. Ridge.
• 1:08:28
  Believe it or not, their colors are Green Corey, but they're
• 1:08:32
  known as the Red Devils. Yes, I do know that.
• 1:08:35
  That's crazy. Oh my God, that's one of those
• 1:08:38
  quirky things. That's those are the things I
• 1:08:40
  love about high school sports. Like what?
• 1:08:43
  I don't know. I would like to know the origin
• 1:08:45
  story behind. That well, as far as I, as far
• 1:08:47
  as I know, Red Devil Paint donated the land for Ridge High
• 1:08:55
  School and that's why they're known as the the Red Devils,
• 1:08:59
  even though they're green, which I could be wrong, but that's,
• 1:09:02
  that's what that's what's been told to me.
• 1:09:05
  Listen, it's Halloween. Everybody's got ghost stories.
• 1:09:07
  We'll take it. Yeah.
• 1:09:09
  I mean, let's, let's, let's put it as fact, you know?
• 1:09:13
  Yep, no. I'm gonna go with Phillipsburg.
• 1:09:19
  I I think they've, they've been very, very consistent.
• 1:09:24
  If you look at their schedule, they only have one loss, which
• 1:09:29
  is 2. Saint Joe's Metuchen, a
• 1:09:32
  parochial school, 21 nothing. So you really can't punish them.
• 1:09:37
  So Saint Joe's Metuchen plays predominantly public schools, so
• 1:09:43
  you can't punish the public school for that loss.
• 1:09:47
  They had a nice win over 100 and Central.
• 1:09:49
  They beaten Ridge. I mean you.
• 1:09:51
  They beat West Orange, a very talented West Orange team.
• 1:09:56
  I'm gonna go with Phillipsburg. Phillipsburg for Jimmy and
• 1:10:02
  Brian. Yeah, I, I like Philsburg.
• 1:10:06
  They beat my alma mater last week.
• 1:10:09
  The running back, that's the guy you got to watch running back
• 1:10:12
  Sam, I think it's called. Ditch, ditch, DECH.
• 1:10:18
  He basically run for about 100 yards a game against Bridgewater
• 1:10:23
  last week. 3613 win. 21 carries, 162 yards, 2 touchdowns.
• 1:10:30
  He's been running. Early in the year he was running
• 1:10:32
  even more. He had three touchdowns against
• 1:10:35
  Westfield, four against Hundred and Central, three against
• 1:10:38
  Hillsborough, four against Union.
• 1:10:41
  He's averaging 10 yards a carry. They run, they run, they run.
• 1:10:44
  The team total I think is 2400 yards rushing.
• 1:10:48
  They have about 500 yards passing.
• 1:10:50
  So the name of the game against them and you got to stop the
• 1:10:53
  run. If you don't stop the run,
• 1:10:55
  they're going to run you over. But that's what they do really
• 1:10:58
  good. And they've been doing this for
• 1:11:00
  quite a while. Run, run, run.
• 1:11:02
  I haven't seen Woodbridge Woodbridge much, but I would,
• 1:11:06
  you know, be careful about those guys, their perennial power.
• 1:11:10
  Haven't even see ever seen one of their games.
• 1:11:12
  But they they have a very good record and traditionally we've
• 1:11:16
  seen them repeatedly in the bracket.
• 1:11:18
  So they must be doing something well, you know, difficulties
• 1:11:21
  getting through films. Berg and Westfield.
• 1:11:25
  Westfield's won a couple titles. Phillsburg's been there.
• 1:11:29
  So I like Phillsburg to win this bracket.
• 1:11:35
  OK, Phillipsburg, it is for Brian.
• 1:11:38
  Let's move on to North One Group 5 here.
• 1:11:40
  And I'm just doing some preliminary research here and
• 1:11:42
  this is a bad bracket. That one.
• 1:11:49
  Yeah, yeah, I, I mean it, it I'm just, it's #1 W Orange, OK, this
• 1:11:55
  is North one group 5. So this is the biggest of the
• 1:11:58
  big boys. And West Orange is 7 and two,
• 1:12:00
  their losses coming against Phillipsburg, no shame there.
• 1:12:03
  And the other one against Shabazz.
• 1:12:04
  Now, we all know how good Shabazz is, but Shabazz is a
• 1:12:06
  Group two team and they lost 10. So there's your number one seed
• 1:12:10
  with a loss to a Group 2 school further down the list.
• 1:12:14
  They they will open the playoffs against a four and four Passaic
• 1:12:18
  team. And again, we've mentioned it so
• 1:12:20
  great to see, you know, Passaic organized and, you know, winning
• 1:12:24
  games. And it's great, Jimmy, because
• 1:12:28
  then we always get to mention Craig Ironhead, Hayward and all
• 1:12:30
  that stuff in the history. But you know, Passaic is their
• 1:12:34
  first round of opponent and Passaic has losses to
• 1:12:36
  Hackensack, Nutley, Passaic Tech.
• 1:12:39
  And which one am I missing? Franklin.
• 1:12:41
  I don't know how good Franklin is or is not anyway.
• 1:12:43
  But their wins are against Clifton, which is O, and eight
• 1:12:46
  against Teaneck, which is, you know, one of those teams that
• 1:12:50
  drops in and out of the Ivy League and then you have a win
• 1:12:53
  over East Side and Kennedy. And as we know, the Patterson
• 1:12:56
  publics have struggled this year and Eastside, they only squeaked
• 1:13:01
  out a 1614 win. So Passaic is your eighth seed.
• 1:13:03
  They're getting in Ridgewood at 3:00 and 5:00 is the #5 seed.
• 1:13:10
  And they will go on the road to face Livingston, the number four
• 1:13:14
  seed who is 6 and three. And you know, their losses,
• 1:13:19
  they, they've lost to Chatham, West Orange and East Orange.
• 1:13:23
  So it's just, it's crazy here. Here's the craziest 1.
• 1:13:27
  Ready for this? Morristown is in the bracket and
• 1:13:31
  they're not even the last seed. They are the number seven seed.
• 1:13:33
  Their record is 2 and seven with two wins, one over Randolph,
• 1:13:39
  Randolph's record this year, 2 and seven.
• 1:13:43
  Their other win is over Clifton. Clifton's record this year, Zero
• 1:13:48
  wins, zero wins, 8 losses. And they beat Clifton 8 to
• 1:13:51
  nothing. So I mean Morris, if Morristown
• 1:13:55
  is a playoff team, I think we need to re evaluate this entire
• 1:13:59
  thing. But you know, who am I to say I
• 1:14:03
  I'm a guy who likes Thanksgiving football and good matchups and
• 1:14:06
  then wrap it up and say goodbye. But no, we had to blow that off.
• 1:14:09
  We had to blow that out. We had to do away with
• 1:14:12
  tradition. We had to have teams put their
• 1:14:15
  helmets away after last Friday night because we need to extend
• 1:14:20
  the season so we can play down to one state champion, which is
• 1:14:24
  really 7 state champions and we need to be able to get a team
• 1:14:28
  like Morristown into the state playoffs.
• 1:14:31
  I rest my case, Jimmy. Yeah, you know, from the
• 1:14:36
  beginning we've looked at at the Group N one, Group 5 and you
• 1:14:40
  know, listen, it's a down year. There's no question about it.
• 1:14:43
  But just say the least. Yeah, but somebody will be
• 1:14:48
  somebody will be crowned champion.
• 1:14:49
  Yeah. So I'm.
• 1:14:51
  Taking Mars Now I'm taking Mars. Yeah, write it down.
• 1:14:54
  But let me let me talk to you about Livingston.
• 1:14:56
  They're running back Belle Paul ran for over 500 yards against a
• 1:15:03
  a a 522 yards, 7 touchdowns against against the struggling
• 1:15:08
  Montclair program. You know you Yeah, that's, you
• 1:15:12
  know, it's been a tough year for Montclair.
• 1:15:14
  And that's our coach, Coach Anello, who, you know, is a
• 1:15:18
  Frank the program, great guy and a great football coach.
• 1:15:21
  Great AD is trying to put that program back.
• 1:15:24
  But you know, you look at that bracket, the number one seed is
• 1:15:28
  West Orange, Darnell Grant, very talented.
• 1:15:32
  You mentioned a 10/7 loss to Shabazz and a 2420 loss to to
• 1:15:40
  Phillipsburg. They did beat at the time, East
• 1:15:44
  Orange, who was undefeated, coach John Jacobs, 7:00 and
• 1:15:48
  1:00. I'm going to go with East Orange
• 1:15:52
  to win it. OK, Oh, Bryan's another one of
• 1:15:56
  Bryan's former favorite. Team Bryan's favorite.
• 1:15:58
  Team the Sharks, yeah. Yeah, right.
• 1:16:01
  You're not they have the Jaguar sharks anymore or they just what
• 1:16:04
  are what are they? They're still the Jaguars, but
• 1:16:05
  they use shark as they're like a little mascot.
• 1:16:08
  They like to, you know, use that.
• 1:16:10
  You're seeing more teams do that now.
• 1:16:11
  I see kids running around all over the place putting up the
• 1:16:14
  shark signal just like East Orange used to do.
• 1:16:17
  So it's all right. But you're right.
• 1:16:20
  I think they're West Orange. East Orange played each other
• 1:16:22
  very close game and only lost for East Orange.
• 1:16:25
  So yeah, so East Orange, that's their rival.
• 1:16:30
  And I think if I recall correct, last year they played each other
• 1:16:33
  regular season, East star and loses and play them in a playoff
• 1:16:37
  and then they beat them. So these two teams know each
• 1:16:39
  other well. That should be a, you know, that
• 1:16:42
  would be nice if they both get there.
• 1:16:45
  Good luck to both and getting to that getting there, you know
• 1:16:49
  what I mean? Both of them got to win their
• 1:16:51
  game. They should likely win those
• 1:16:53
  games to get there. You know what, Jimmy, you're
• 1:16:56
  you're making me think about our old, you know, the state champs
• 1:16:59
  from what 2021 under coach Ray Oliver?
• 1:17:05
  You know, so I got AI got a soft spot for the Jaguars and their
• 1:17:09
  new field down there and I wish them well and they got to come
• 1:17:13
  out and play against West Orange and they should be able to they
• 1:17:16
  got some athletes too. A lot of talent there under
• 1:17:18
  coach John Jacobs there. They should have a good run and
• 1:17:24
  I wish them well. All right, I guess that leaves
• 1:17:28
  us with. The other bracket.
• 1:17:31
  The other. Bracket side of the bracket.
• 1:17:34
  Hey on the outside one. I have a a small spot on that
• 1:17:37
  side of that bracket too. Bridgewater, Raron is my alma
• 1:17:40
  mater. At the time we had two high
• 1:17:42
  schools in Bridgewater. I went to East, we were the
• 1:17:44
  Golden Falcons and then the other sisters school East was
• 1:17:48
  the Minutemen. Now we have 1 school there, the
• 1:17:51
  Panthers. They're the number one seed.
• 1:17:53
  As we mentioned earlier last week, loss of Phillipsburg, not
• 1:17:58
  a you know, a bad loss to lose to a very good team.
• 1:18:01
  I've seen them on tape, very big Bridgewater on the line, some
• 1:18:05
  really good talent. The running backs are solid.
• 1:18:09
  Their challenge I think in this bracket will be to scatter away
• 1:18:11
  the Chiefs traditional power going back to when I was in high
• 1:18:16
  school, they were one of the big teams very be a good team and
• 1:18:20
  still today under coach. What's coach?
• 1:18:23
  I forgot his last name now coach been there long time and I think
• 1:18:29
  he's also an alumni there. They should Piscataway be their
• 1:18:33
  challenge. They have beaten Piscataway in
• 1:18:35
  the regular season Bridgewater the Panthers.
• 1:18:38
  So I think that's the you know, challenge, Elizabeth.
• 1:18:42
  I think Bridgewater played them and beat them.
• 1:18:47
  I think I picked one of those two teams, but I like to go with
• 1:18:49
  my alma mater, Bridgewater Raritan, to come out on top on
• 1:18:52
  that side. I'm going with Brian's alma
• 1:18:55
  mater, Bridgewater Raritan, too. Yeah, you know, Union City, a
• 1:19:03
  little bit of a down season for Coach Valdez.
• 1:19:05
  They're five and three. You know, they have won their
• 1:19:09
  last four games, but it's against Montclair, Orange,
• 1:19:15
  Columbia, A7 to six, win over Irvington, who they get a
• 1:19:20
  rematch of. I think Coach Chickens at
• 1:19:23
  Piscataway, He's been there a long time.
• 1:19:26
  They've been down for a few years.
• 1:19:28
  They're 7 and 2. They did lose 34 to 27.
• 1:19:33
  Week 2 to Bridgewater Raritan and they all there are the
• 1:19:37
  losses to Sayreville. I'm gonna I'm gonna make it a a
• 1:19:41
  trio here. I'm gonna go Bridgewater Raritan
• 1:19:45
  over Piscataway. All right, so that's where it's
• 1:19:49
  at. That is everything you need to
• 1:19:51
  know about the upcoming football playoffs in North Jersey
• 1:19:55
  specifically. Well, I guess we'll do our big
• 1:19:59
  boy picks next week, right? Because the.
• 1:20:01
  Yeah. They come out to be Sunday, I
• 1:20:03
  think, yeah. They come out Sunday and there's
• 1:20:05
  gonna be a lot of buys and first round, you know, all that stuff,
• 1:20:08
  too. So we will get back at it.
• 1:20:11
  It's going to be fun. Oh, we got a bride.
• 1:20:13
  Yeah. What's?
• 1:20:14
  The schedule look like schedule, you know, looks like the weather
• 1:20:18
  will make Thursday a bad night and see our friends.
• 1:20:22
  Joey Catrona was able to move his game from Thursday to
• 1:20:26
  Wednesday night. Tomorrow night over at the new
• 1:20:28
  field in Saddlebrook, they will host Tenafly.
• 1:20:31
  So I'm going to make my best effort to get over there and
• 1:20:34
  watch that game. Sure, Coach Vinny and Coach
• 1:20:38
  Catrona and maybe Coach Jimmy will be around the sideline and
• 1:20:41
  I think Bobby Maze will be there.
• 1:20:43
  Jimmy won't make any calls, but I'm sure Jimmy will make some
• 1:20:47
  calls. So that would be the beginning.
• 1:20:49
  Thursday looks like a washout Friday.
• 1:20:53
  I talked to Coach Mains yesterday after we left the PC
• 1:20:58
  sub varsity and you know Coach Mains always leans towards his
• 1:21:04
  favorite Cardinals in Westwood because it's not a long trip.
• 1:21:09
  You know, if I wasn't going near the other one I liked as well is
• 1:21:12
  I, I love our coach Bear and the staff up at Ramsey.
• 1:21:16
  That would be another game I would have considered.
• 1:21:20
  So then on to Saturday. Coach Burkowski will be coming
• 1:21:24
  over to try on field play, Coach Brian, Steve Dunn and Rutherford
• 1:21:28
  on Saturday at noon. So I don't know if there's a
• 1:21:31
  Saturday night game. We'll see if my wife will allow
• 1:21:36
  me to go on a Saturday night as well.
• 1:21:37
  You know, that's the plan, Corey.
• 1:21:41
  That sounds that sounds great. Jimmy, are you going to follow
• 1:21:43
  that same track or are you going to?
• 1:21:46
  Yeah, I think I, I think so. I obviously Daniel Vivino,
• 1:21:51
  Westwood, always great homes for us, but I really want to see, I
• 1:21:55
  want to see Newton. I think, you know, like I said
• 1:21:58
  earlier, I don't think that's a typical 1/8 matchup.
• 1:22:04
  And and when you get an opportunity to see Stevie Klein
• 1:22:07
  play, you know, you take it and then you don't want to see
• 1:22:11
  Hoboken Rutherford. You know, again, we mentioned,
• 1:22:15
  we mentioned Coach Berkowski and Coach Dunn.
• 1:22:18
  They're very good friends. Coach Berkowski was on Coach
• 1:22:21
  Dunn's staff when they were at Richfield Park.
• 1:22:25
  So it'll be interesting. Last time we went to a playoff
• 1:22:29
  game at Rutherford in the afternoon was the infamous
• 1:22:33
  Westwood Rutherford Central final.
• 1:22:37
  The the two point conversion. Was it a touch that wasn't good?
• 1:22:41
  Was it not good? Some people, you know, still
• 1:22:44
  feel that Westwood cheated in that game.
• 1:22:48
  I, I don't know how that happened, how Westwood treated,
• 1:22:51
  but some, you know, some people still talk about that game.
• 1:22:55
  Yes, we do it often too. So that's I'm going to check out
• 1:22:59
  the weather on Friday night. Saturday I will be unavailable
• 1:23:01
  because I will be on the I'm taking a road trip up to
• 1:23:07
  Cookstown University. They play my beloved East
• 1:23:10
  Stroudsburg University Warriors on Saturday at noon.
• 1:23:14
  Cookstown, the number 3 ranked team in America in Division 2,
• 1:23:20
  will be playing at Andre Reed Field.
• 1:23:22
  They'll be hosting the Warriors and Jimmy Fusey, the former head
• 1:23:27
  boys soccer coach at Cliffside Park and also the former
• 1:23:31
  baseball coach at Cliffside Park.
• 1:23:32
  His daughter is a freshman at Cooktown.
• 1:23:34
  So, you know, like we're betting sandwiches over here on the
• 1:23:38
  football show on North Jersey sports.com.
• 1:23:40
  We're going to set a wager, Jimmy and myself, and then we're
• 1:23:43
  going to enjoy rooting for and against each other this week in
• 1:23:48
  Southeastern Pennsylvania. So should be fun.
• 1:23:50
  And we will report back with everything we find out this
• 1:23:55
  weekend on The Football Show. Follow the leader.