Schools
Game Day: An Early Look at Mid-State 39 Football
Each week, Patch will preview games from the local Mid-State 39 area, and beyond.
The beginning of school means cooler days and nights, late nights hitting the books, and, of course, high school football. This weekend, the Mid-State 39 will kick of its season with rivalry games, rematches, and plenty of exciting match-ups throughout the conference.
For some teams, including the Ridge High School Red Devils, this year’s game will be a rematch of last year’s. Immaculata High School in a televised game to start last year, and Ridge lost by one touchdown, 21-14.
This year, Ridge and Immaculata will have another chance to test one another in the first week of the season in Somerville, and the Red Devils are coming off a 28-3 in their last scrimmage of the preseason.
Bridgewater-Raritan and Hillsborough will also , a game in which Bridgewater’s then new starter, Ray Mastroianni, led his team to a 26-8 victory over Hillsborough.
These games, of course, are only two of the games that will be taking place in the Somerset Patch area. More action scheduled this weekend:
Friday
- Bernards at Pingry, 4 p.m.
- Watchung Hills at North Hunterdon, 7 p.m.– Both teams are predicted by NJ.com to take seventh in their respective divisions this season. For North Hunterdon, that is seventh out of eight teams, but for Watchung Hills, a team that was winless last season, that is last place. After week one though, there is one guarantee: One of these teams will be undefeated headed into week two.
- Bridgewater-Raritan at Hillsborough, 7 p.m.
- Ridge at Immaculata, 7 p.m.– NJ.com predicts that Immaculata will be first in the Watchung Division, and lists defensive end Tashawn Bower as a player to watch on defense.
- Hunterdon Central at Linden, 7 p.m.
- Montgomery at Union, 7 p.m.
- Summit at Voorhees, 7 p.m.
- Johnson at Cranford, 7 p.m.
- Delaware Valley at Governor Livingston, 7 p.m.
- Bound Brook at Brearley, 7 p.m.
- Dayton at New Providence, 7 p.m.
- Roselle Park at Belvidere, 7 p.m.
- Warren Hills at North Warren, 7 p.m.
- Manville at South Hunterdon, 7 p.m.
Saturday
- Phillipsburg at Plainfield, 1 p.m.
- Elizabeth at Franklin, 1 p.m.
- Scotch Plains at Westfield, 1 p.m.
- North Plainfield at Rahway, 1 p.m.
- Somerville at Hillside, 2 p.m.