Preview: West Orange Welcomes the Stateliners to Suriano Stadium

PHILLIPSBURG, NJ - While the Phillipsburg High School’s football team continues to rack up yards and touchdowns on offense like it’s going out of style it’s the Stateliner defense that is a cause of concern as we near the midway point of the 2024 regular season.

An extremely speedy and well-balanced West Orange squad welcomes the Stateliners to Suriano Stadium on Friday for a rare 8 p.m. kickoff in a non-conference matchup.

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And the Mountaineers (4-1) will undoubtably test P’burg’s defense, which has allowed exactly 383 yards in 51 plays the last two weeks along with four TDs in back-to-back games.

The 35 points the ‘Liners allowed last week in a seven-point victory over Hillsborough was the most the program has allowed since a 35-21 loss to Wayne Hills in 2018. That’s a span of 81 contests.

“I remember Elizabeth scored 50-something points one time against us a long time ago,” said Stateliner head coach Frank Duffy, who is also the defensive coordinator. “There was a kid who ended up playing for the Carolina Panthers on that team.”

P’burg enters the game with a 3-1 record with its only loss coming against Ridge, 28-21, two weeks ago.

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“Listen, there are some things we had trouble with,” Duffy said. “Against Ridge we had some schematic issues and you had the kick return so that’s seven points. There are some things in space we have to clean up. We went zone on defense at the beginning of the second half last week and Hillsborough was able to put some drives together. After two weeks I’m not going to all of a sudden say we’re a poor defensive team. There were some calls that we didn’t agree with on the field but that’s part of the game. Not everything is going to go your way. We just have to regroup and focus and this is a great week to do it.”

Meanwhile, despite three lost fumbles last week and a penchant for too many penalties on both sides of the ball all season long, Phillipsburg’s offense is humming along. It’s on pace to score 57 touchdowns if the ‘Liners reach a third straight sectional final game after taking it to the house a school-record 61 times a year ago.

“The offense has been outstanding this year. But you can’t turn the ball over three times,” Duffy said. “And we have to play better compilatory football, too. It all goes hand in hand. Coach Ian Decker has done a great job of running a balanced offensive attack with a lot of explosive plays.”

West Orange

The Mountaineers only loss came against UPR’s No. 1 ranked team in North Group 5 in undefeated Passaic County Tech, 28-21 in their second game of the season. In their four victories they have outscored opponents by an outrageous combined score of 160-17. West Orange beat the Stateliners at Maloney Stadium, 28-7, in the 2022 North 2, Group 5 championship game.

Quarterback Charlie LaMorte has completed 62 of 98 passes for 1,142 yards and 16 touchdowns while being intercepted three times. The 6-foot-3, 205-pound senior has completed passes to a dozen different players led by senior wide receiver Terrell Wilfong, who has caught 24 for 551 yards and scored nine touchdowns in West Orange’s pass-happy and successful offense.

Senior Iyan Gainer (5-10, 175) and junior David Moore (5-10, 175) are also dangerous receivers. Junior Farad Green has gained 438 of West Orange’s 662-yards rushing with four of the team’s eight TDs on the ground.

Senior linebackers Joshua Heartwell (5-10, 175) and EahJay McAdams (6-1, 200) lead the Mountaineers in tackles while Chris Barrino and Moore have each picked off two passes each.

Phillipsburg

Senior cornerback Matthew Scerbo Jr. scored on a 75-yard interception return last week and senior lineman Luke Hywel and sophomore defensive end Tyler Wargo were credited with their first career sacks. Senior linebacker Jayden Lucas also recorded a career-high 15 tackles.

But there is much the ‘Liners defense must improve on. Hillsborough drove 69-yards and scored on its first drive of the game after converting three third-down plays including two from nine and 11 yards.

Offensively, Phillipsburg gained 478 total yards and scored five touchdowns last week on a season low 34 plays from scrimmage. It has scored 19 TDs this season, nine rushing and 10 through the air. It isn’t often that P’burg has more passing touchdowns than rushing at any point of the season.

Freshman back-up QB Dominick Bracco and senior wide receiver Felix Matos have also tossed TD passes this season.

“They run a 3-3 stack on defense,” Duffy said. “That’s a formation that gained some popularity about 20 years ago. It’s a blitzing front, a slanting front and an active front. And they have some very good players running it. We’ll have to handle the stunts and blitzes and we like our plan going in.”

Red-hot senior quarterback Jett Genovese has completed 24 of 30 passes the last two weeks for 392 yards and four touchdowns. For the season Genovese is 38-for-60 for 649 yards and eight touchdowns to just one interception.

Genovese, who has also made an impact as a starter at linebacker this season, is third all-time at Phillipsburg with 35 career passing touchdowns behind only Jack Stagaard (39) and Justin Scourzo (36).

Scerbo Jr. leads the receivers with 19 receptions for 376 yards and five scores while senior Matos has caught 16 passes for 313 yards and three TDs.

Junior running back Sam Dech leads a balanced running attack with 264 yards on 34 carries and has scored a team-high four TDs. Junior running back Jah’quil Dooley (17 carries-216 yards), Matos (9-190) and Genovese (22-184) are also involved heavily in the running game.

“When our run game isn’t going, we have to get the passing game going,” Duffy said. “When we get both of them going like against Hillsborough then we’ll be in good shape. We don’t want to be one sided.”

LiveStream the Game

The game will be streamed by the National Federation of State High School Associations network (NFHS). A subscription is available to livestream the game .

Notes:

P’burg enters the game ranked fifth among North Group 4 teams while West Orange is ranked fifth in North Group 5 by the United Power Rankings.

Only five of the 58 Group 4 football teams are undefeated after five weeks. Woodbridge (5-0) and Morris Knolls (4-0) in the North and Winslow Twp. (5-0), Central (5-0) and Middletown North (4-0) in the South.

The Stateliners return home next week to face 4-0 St. Joseph (Metuchen) in their last regular season home game. They close with games at Union (0-5) and Bridgewater-Raritan (2-3). The NJSIAA sectional playoffs begin on Nov. 1 and run for three straight weekends.

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