Twelve Game Schedule On Saturday Consists Of Both 6 Crossover and Non-Conference Games
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ–After the first full week of league play in the Greater Middlesex Conference in 2014, Saturday has a slate full of matchups involving GMC crossovers and Non-Conference games. Of the 12 games, six are crossovers including key matchups between Piscataway at Sayreville and Colonia at Woodbridge. The others are non-conference tilts including South Brunswick vs. Watchung Hills at the Coaches vs. Cancer Shootout in Montgomery, and St. Joseph’s vs. Wilbraham and Monson at the Under Armour Showcase in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Coming into Saturday’s play, the Greater Middlesex Conference was 25-30 against teams from outside Middlesex County so far this season. Timothy Christian helped narrow the gap on Friday with a 49-45 victory at the Princeton Day School. The GMC will have its first matchups against teams from the Hudson County Interscholastic Athletic Association with Perth Amboy hosting Union City while Carteret travels to Jersey City to face Dickinson. South Brunswick will be looking to improve the GMC’s 5-8 record against the Skyland Conference with its matchup against Watchung Hills today. Middlesex tried to do the same with a non-conference game against Pingry from the Skyland’s Valley Division.
J.F. Kennedy was also trying to improve the GMC’s standing against the Shore Conference. Coming into Saturday, the GMC had played 17 contests against the Shore, and compiled a surprising 9-8 record. St. Joseph’s was also looking to improve to 4-0 against non-conference opponents so far this season with its game later this afternoon against Wilbraham and Monson Academy from Massachusetts. Meanwhile, in crossover games, the Blue and Red Divisions are off to fast starts while the White and Gold Divisions are struggling. Entering play on Saturday, the Red Division was 4-1 in games against the teams from the other three divisions of the GMC. The Blue Division has enjoyed similar success with a 7-3 mark. Meanwhile, the White is 4-7 and the Gold is 1-4.
Bishop Ahr has had the most success of the GMC teams that have played crossovers so far with a 2-0 record while Edison and Dunellen have played the most games, but are only 1-2. Edison was planning to improve on that today with a matchup against Old Bridge in the morning. J.P. Stevens, which lost to crossover games over the holidays to Perth Amboy (49-46) and South Plainfield (54-50), was looking to break into the win column against neighborhood rival, Wardlaw-Hartridge, which is playing its first crossover of the year. An interesting matchup features two teams in Spotswood and North Brunswick that have only played one crossover so far this season. These two teams have faced off in crossovers in each of the past two seasons with the Raiders getting the best of the Chargers both times at North Brunswick two years ago and at Spotswood last season.
The marquee crossover matchups involve Red Division teams taking on White Division teams. First, Piscataway travels over to Sayreville to take on a Bombers team that is a favorite to win the GMC White. Since losing to Ridge on the second day of the Len Sepanak Memorial Tournament, the Bombers have reeled off four victories in a row including a win over New Brunswick on Thursday night. Meanwhile, P-Way is still searching for its first conference win after playing its first week of league play. The Chiefs opened the season with non-conference games against Orange of the Super Essex Conference, Hillsborough and Montgomery of the Skyland Conference, and Medford Tech of the Burlington Scholastic League. Piscataway has lost four in a row since defeating Medford Tech in overtime at the Montgomery Cougar Classic over the holidays.
The other matchup is a neighborhood rivalry game in Woodbridge Township between Colonia and Woodbridge HS. The Patriots, which are 4-1, are off to their best start since moving up to the Red Division several years ago. Colonia defeated both Piscataway and Old Bridge this week, and rolled past South Brunswick in its opener on December 20th. Meanwhile, Woodbridge has had its share of ups an downs already in a 4-4 start that have included wins over division rivals such as Monroe as well as conference rivals in Carteret, and four straight losses to Scotch Plains (60-58), Sayreville (72-48), St. Joseph’s at the SFIC Festival (82-45), and North Brunswick (46-43). The last crossover involves one of last year’s GMCT Finalists as East Brunswick travels to South Plainfield.
The Bears have not played much so far this season with only three contests under their belt, and none since defeating South Brunswick for the All Brunswick Classic holiday tourney title back on December 30th. EB should be chomping at the bit to play, but the Tigers have played spirited so far this season despite a 3-5 mark that includes a tough loss at home to Bishop Ahr on Friday night (52-44). SPHS opened the season with a win at home over then seventh ranked Spotswood, then lost two tough non-conference matchups with Union Catholic (77-63), and Middletown South (43-41), and a consolation loss to Monroe (64-57) in the Cotoia Tourney on December 30th. The Tigers then resumed league play with losses to J.F. Kennedy and Ahr sandwiched around a win at Middlesex.