Piscataway-St. Joseph’s Rivalry To Continue For Years To Come

PERTH AMBOY, NJ–On the final day of February, Piscataway and St. Joseph’s, two of the currently pre-eminent programs in the Greater Middlesex Conference, did battle in tournaments at two levels. Earlier in the day, the top seeded St. Joseph’s-Green team fought tooth and nail with the second seeded Piscataway Chiefs in a matchup that was between two of the “best freshmen teams” that St. Joe’s freshman coach Eric Lemverakis, “had ever seen.” P-Way would emerge victorious despite several late charges by St. Joseph’s, 57-52 in the Championship Game of the 2009 Perth Amboy/GMC Freshmen Tournament. Later on that night, the two proud programs as well as two of the winningest programs in GMCT history, battled it out in a rubber game of their three games played this season. Piscataway’s size as well as the clutch play of Tristan Benjamin, and the inspired play of Thomas Bennett proved to be too much for Steve Rennard, Nikko Vastola, and Gerard Lewis in the Championship Game of the 2009 Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament.

The one thing I did come away with though from this day was the fact that not only is the Piscataway-St. Joseph’s rivalry as contentious as it has ever been, but it is also going to be that way for years to come. For example, the two St. Joseph’s freshmen teams were a combined 33-15 with St. Joe’s-Green finishing up at 22-5 overall. Meanwhile, in addition to winning the Perth Amboy/GMC Tourney, Piscataway’s Freshmen squad won its Christmas Tournament over the likes of Union in the first round, 51-23, and Bridgewater in the Championship, 52-45. Meanwhile, the two teams also played each other three times at the 9th Grade level with Piscataway winning 40-36 at home on January 15th, and St. Joe’s-Green winning at the Bird Cage in Metuchen on February 6th, 58-52. P-Way’s frosh would win the rubber game by a 57-52 margin. In the three games, Piscataway only outscored St. Joe’s-Green by a 149-146 margin, or an average of a point per game (49.7-48.7).

Moving on to the JV level, St. Joseph’s was dominant during the course of the season up until where it mattered most. The Junior Falcons seemed to be even better than they were the year before when they lost in the semifinals to Bishop Ahr as the top seed. This time, not only were the Green and White Birds the top seed, but they rolled into the Elite Eight round with a perfect 24-0 record. Two of those wins were over Piscataway’s J.V. by scores of 53-48 on the road, and 56-46 at home, or by an average of about 8 points per game (109-94 or 54.5-47.0). Unfortunately, the Junior Falcons were stunningly upended in the 2009 East Brunswick/GMC JV Tournament Quarterfinals against eighth seeded Hillsborough, which went on to lose in the semifinals to eventual champion, Monroe, 62-59.

Meanwhile, Piscataway, which was the second seed in the tournament, reached the semifinals only to lose to defending champion, and sixth seeded Cardinal McCarrick, 74-67. Regardless of the failures by the two JV teams, their success along with that of their freshmen teams will add to what should be another great chapter of this rivalry when it resumes next year. Although St. Joe’s varsity experienced disappointment in the GMCT finals for the second straight year, the Falcons will have Steve Rennard along with a solid senior class returning in 2009-10. However, don’t count out Piscataway, which was pre-season ranked second by this web site behind St. Joseph’s. The Chiefs won’t be rebuilding, but rather they will be reloading. On top of that, St. Joseph’s is starting up a football program, which will begin varsity play in a few years. The rivalry is just getting started between P-Way and Joe’s.