Piscataway rolls past Old Bridge in football

PISCATAWAY - As Piscataway’s lead began to increase over Old Bridge in Saturday’s Central Group V semifinal, the Chiefs’ Ibn Robinson knew something.

“We can not let up at all,” the senior defensive end said. “Keep the gas on.”

Especially since Old Bridge rallied to win in the regular season. This time, Piscataway never let up, never relented, never let the Knights get comfortable en route to a 42-3 win.

It sets up a NJSIAA final in two weeks against Manalapan, which also rallied to beat Piscataway in the regular season. Old Bridge was the first redemption game. Simply, the Chiefs smothered Old Bridge on defense and rolled offensively.

Robinson had three sacks and swatted two balls. Elijah Barnwell rushed for 102 yards and three touchdowns. Danny Haus threw a 30-yard TD pass to Trey Hogan; Brevin Donerson recovered a backward pass for a 10-yard touchdown run and Juwon Jackson added a 10-yard touchdown.

All in all, Piscataway (8-2) had everything working.

“They’re good,” Old Bridge coach Anthony Lanzafama said. “Piscataway’s good. We had a hard time moving the ball on them. We had a hard time stopping them. And they beat us in all three phases. They’re a good football team.”

Robinson, who also caught a touchdown pass at tight end that was negated because of a holding penalty, said the disappointment of the earlier loss to the Knights, “turned to hunger. It made sure that we got the W today.”

Old Bridge (5-4-1) had an entertaining first drive. The Knights recovered the onside kick on the opening kickoff at Piscataway’s 41-yard-line. Then on fourth-and-nine from the 42, punter Jake Kodros threw a 12-yard pass to TJ Angstadt for the first down. The drive ended with Jon Sammarco kicking a 25-yard field goal for a 3-0 Old Bridge lead about halfway through the first quarter.

“The onside kick, it was more like a pooch that, kind of, we got lucky with,” Lanzafama said. “It wasn’t intentional. The fake punt was definitely something that we practiced this week. We thought we could get it. We didn’t think we’d run it on the first series, but we did and it was good. We got a little momentum. Would have loved to punch one in the end zone on that drive, but we settled for three points. And unfortunately that’s all we got today.”

Piscataway came back with a two-play, 71-yard drive in 34 seconds to take a 7-3 lead. First, Nahjir Woods ripped a 31-yard run. Then Haus threw a short pass to Hogan, who rambled down the right side for the touchdown with 6:00 left in the quarter.

The Chiefs forced Old Bridge to punt, keyed by a Robinson sack for a loss of 13 yards. Piscataway drove 80 yards in 11 plays in just under 5 minutes to take a 14-3 lead with 10:47 remaining in the second quarter. Jackson, a 5-foot-9, 165-pound sophomore and perhaps Piscataway’s next star runner, had two carries for 28 yards. Barnwell, the current star runner, had seven carries for 40 yards, including a 9-yard touchdown.

From there, it was all Chiefs. Piscataway’s roll call included Michael Stalenyj hitting five extra points and deep kickoffs that often forced Old Bridge to start with poor field position. Additionally, Michael Petite recovered a fumble.

While Piscataway led 21-3 at halftime, it wasn’t time to start celebrating, just yet, for Piscataway. On Oct. 14, Old Bridge’s Nick Sodano scored three touchdowns in the final five minutes as the Knights rallied from a 13-3 deficit to win 24-20.

“They did it to us before,” Chiefs coach Dan Higgins said. “So there was no way we weren’t going to stop playing. And we learned that lesson against Manalapan and Old Bridge the first time we played them. So we wanted to stay strong. Finish strong and that would be growth for our team.”

Higgins said the difference between Saturday and the first meeting was “mistakes. We minimized them. We executed well. We’re a better team than we were the last time we played them. We wanted to get better as the year went on, and I thought we did. So that was the key for us.”

In the earlier loss, Old Bridge’s Nick Sodano stripped Barnwell of the ball and scored a touchdown. Barnwell said, “this time around, I made sure I protected the ball and I fought for extra yards and helped my team as much as possible.”

When it was all over, the Piscataway’s 26 seniors locked arms and did “a senior march” from about half the field.

“It was a great win for us,” Barnwell said. “Especially seniors, being this our last time playing on this field and we finally got to do it playing a team that we lost to in the beginning of the season. ... This time around, we made sure we took care of business."

OLD BRIDGE (5-4-1) 3-0-0-0-3

PISCATAWAY (8-2) 7-14-14-7-42

SCORING SUMMARY

OB - Sammaraco 25 FG

P – Hogan 30 pass from Haus (Stalenyj kick)

P – Barnwell 9 run (Stalenyj kick)

P – Barnwell 3 run (Stalenyj kick)

P – Donerson 10 fumble return (Stalenyj kick)

P – Barnwell 3 run (Stalenyj kick)

P – Jackson 10 run (Stalenyj kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing - OB: Sodano 19-54, Sitkowski 7-minus 3; P: Barnwell 18-102, Jackson 7-72, Woods 3-37, Haus 3-20, Hogan 2-14.

Passing - OB: Sitkowski 6-17-1-53; P: Haus 5-10-1-90, Hogan 0-1-0-0.

Receiving - OB: Meyer 4-38, Imbimbo 2-15; P: Hogan 3-44, Jackson 1-32, Barnwell 1-14.