Live coverage: High school football semifinals
Follow our sports reporters as they cover Friday night's high school football playoff action from the Greater Middlesex Conference and Mid-State 38. Fourteen local teams are vying for a spot in the state finals scheduled for Dec. 5-7. Scroll below for links to all our coverage including the Game of the Week preview, expert picks and more.
Manalapan at Hillsborough
Middlesex at Shore
J.F. Kennedy at Colonia
Trenton at South Brunswick
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Stay with us at MyCentralJersey.com all season long and you'll be the first to know about the bone-crushing tackles, game-breaking touchdowns and who emerges as this week's heroes.
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After the game, be sure to check out our comprehensive coverage of the night that was in the GMC and Mid-State 38 in the Red Zone; the online home of MyCentralJersey.com high school football. For details of GMC action, visit blogs.mycentraljersey.com/tufaro and blogs.mycentraljersey.com/frezza will have all the Mid-State 38 reports.
SCHEDULE
Friday
Manalapan at Hillsborough
Westfield at Linden
Hoboken at Dunellen
Middlesex at Shore
South Hunterdon at Palmyra
Immaculata at DePaul
J.F. Kennedy at Colonia
Trenton at South Brunswick
Carteret at Long Branch
Woodbridge at Phillipsburg
Saturday
Elizabeth at Piscataway
Delaware Valley at Roselle
PREVIEW
As the fourth-smallest football-playing public high school in New Jersey, forgive Dunellen for having a bit of a Napoleon complex.
Dunellen often uses its diminutive enrollment as motivation but won't do so before Friday night's New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) playoff game against Hoboken.
A two-time defending North 2 Group I champion, Hoboken enters the contest with 47 percent (25 of 53) of its players enrolled at the high school under New Jersey's Interdistrict School Choice Program Act, according to Hoboken Interim Schools Superintendent Richard Brockel.
ANALYSIS
ALSO
For senior quarterback David Johnson, the Dunellen High School football team's unique double wing offense, in which players are packed tightly together at the line of scrimmage, serves as a metaphor for his close-knit hometown.
"You are working for the guy next to you, who is literally three inches away," Johnson said, referring to seven offensive linemen who front himself and three backfield mates.
"You have each others' backs in our offense. We are real tight, real close. I think that's the way the town is."