Running the ball gets harder as a football game progresses.
Carrying the physical load that comes with this backfield position – along with the rock itself, running backs are tasked with pushing through up to 11 men from an opposing defense to fulfill their team’s primary objective: get into the end zone. and score points.
While they are the ones ultimately credited with the final amounts of carries, yards, and touchdowns for a football game’s final stat sheets, statistics like these are not possible without the offensive line, which is arguably one of the most important positions in all of sports that may not directly appear in a game’s box score.
Traits for offensive linemen up front, such as strength, stamina, endurance, concentration, awareness of immediate surroundings, eye-hand coordination, and even eye-foot coordination are among the many requirements needed to execute a football team’s rushing plays and pass protection on offense over 48 minutes of high school football – or perhaps longer if overtime is necessary.
These qualities are also needed for members of a football team’s defensive line, which has to navigate an opposing team’s offensive line, put pressure on the quarterback, and make tackles towards its primary objective: get off of the field, and do not allow points.
For football teams like Bridgewater-Raritan High School, however, the job is not finished for most of its players who fulfill this objective on defense.
They get right back on the field on offense – of course with the special teams’ assignments of determining field position on ensuing drives in between.
According to Bridgewater-Raritan’s online roster, senior Justin Simpson is one of 15 players who are members of both the Panthers’ offensive line (OL) and defensive line (DL), and they have been instrumental in their program’s best start to a season since 2016. Their roles were even more important against Elizabeth High School in front of a big crowd on Homecoming night, especially after a Pep Rally just hours earlier on the same football field to close out Spirit Week on campus and with Panthers’ alumni scattered throughout the newly-renovated venue to celebrate.
Prior to the game’s kickoff against Elizabeth, the following three pairs making up the 2025 Bridgewater-Raritan High School Homecoming Court were honored: Ashlin Papasavas and Dylan Kelly, Megan Tracey and Dahlia Adams, Aesha Acharya and Aarushi Senjalia. As stated in the pregame announcements, students were asked to choose a partner to run with and submit an application talking about their commitment to the principles of respect, responsibility, and kindness in the Bridgewater-Raritan community. Last year’s Homecoming Royalty: Austin Guzman and Lucas Ovando, were also introduced to crown this year’s Homecoming Royalty, though it was also stated that Ovando was unfortunately unable to attend.
Guzman and Ovando’s friend: Alexa Smith, then crowned Papasavas and Kelly as 2025 Bridgewater-Raritan High School Panther Royalty.
It was then time for football at John Basilone Memorial Field: a venue Bridgewater-Raritan sought to remain unbeaten at this season after suffering its first defeat of the year at Ridge High School one week earlier.
This was especially true with junior quarterback Evan Woodring making his first home start of the season in place of senior Declan Kurdyla, who has been sidelined for the last two full games due to an injury he sustained on the Panthers’ home field two weeks earlier.
At the end of the night, Spirit Week and Homecoming Night was capped off with the Panthers’ football team fulfilling their overall mission: finish with a 1-0 record.
Under the direction of Woodring in the backfield, Bridgewater-Raritan (5-1) orchestrated 44 of its 52 total plays from scrimmage on the ground to the tune of 243 total rushing yards, including 25 runs for 142 yards and one touchdown by junior Jahmier Black to lead all players. Even though they registered what appeared to be a comfortable 10-point lead at halftime, the Panthers were then tasked with thwarting a valiant comeback bid by visiting Elizabeth (2-4), which rallied to within one point late in the third quarter on an impressive 43-yard field goal by senior David Lazo.
Bridgewater-Raritan responded by pitching a shutout and forcing a game-swinging turnover during the final 15:41 of regulation, while Black and senior Denzel Amoafo (14 carries, 84 rushing yards, two touchdowns) dominated behind the Panthers’ unphased offensive line en route to a 34-23 Homecoming victory Friday, October 3, at John Basilone Memorial Field in Bridgewater.
“We preach the next-man-up mentality,” explained Simpson, who made a critical sack of Elizabeth junior quarterback A’rique Fleming in the red zone with 1:03 remaining to help Bridgewater-Raritan seal its win. “Everyone practices like they are the starter, and that translates to the game. We came up together through middle school and are a close-knit team, so we’ve built that camaraderie. It really helps for everyone to be ready and prepared when their number is called.”
“When our number is called, we know that everyone on our team is going to be ready.”
In the second quarter of Bridgewater-Raritan’s 35-7 win over Hunterdon Central Regional High School back on September 19, that phone suddenly rang for Woodring.
Senior quarterback Declan Kurdyla exited that game in the first half due to injury, but Woodring has picked up right where he left off with Kurdyla sidelined since. Having a 28-35 point lead throughout the entire second half of that game certainly had to help ease the initial pressure he likely faced after suddenly being thrusted under center for previously-undefeated Bridgewater-Raritan in front of his home crowd.
Even though Bridgewater-Raritan then fell by a score of 33-14 on September 26 at Ridge High School, having a full half of reps against Hunterdon Central certainly helped Woodring quickly settle in during his first start of the road, especially since he hurled a game-tying, 77-yard touchdown pass to senior Mikey Bratus on the Panthers’ first offensive drive of that game in a hostile environment.
Whether in triumph or defeat so far, Woodring and the Panthers’ offense has most importantly played turnover-free football over his six full previous quarters of work heading into Homecoming night, and this has made a huge impact on a Bridgewater-Raritan squad that began the night atop the NJSIAA North New Jersey, Group 5 standings that will be eventually used to seed the state tournament.
“Evan is special when it comes to competition,” praised third-year Bridgewater-Raritan head coach DJ Catalano about Woodring. “Last week was kind of an anomaly with him, and he got a little flustered with things. But the one thing you just know about him is that he has a goldfish memory and that he is able to focus on the next thing.”
“When we asked him to make big plays, he made them, and he really ran the offense well.”
Given the Panthers have won the opening coin toss in each of the last two weeks, it’s probably an even bigger vote of confidence from your squad when it elects to receive the opening kickoff, like the Panthers did both at Ridge last week and at home against Elizabeth this week.
Although Bridgewater-Raritan’s opening drive ended with a turnover on downs at midfield last week, the opposite was true on Homecoming night.
As part of a five-play opening drive that started near midfield, Woodring used his legs to pick up a first down in Minutemen territory before flicking a 33-yard touchdown pass just 2:56 into the game to senior Jack Cifuentes: one of just eight passes thrown by Woodring all night. Six of these passes were completions, and they were good for a total of 120 yards and one score on a night the Panthers outgained Elizabeth by a total margin of 363-173.
Short fields still proved to be impactful in defeat for Elizabeth, which opened at the Panthers’ 39-yard line due to an interference penalty on the ensuing kickoff. Junior Qua’Yon Williams then caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from sophomore Aiden Waheed, who knotted the score at 7-7 with 5:54 left in the opening quarter.
Even after Bratus was tackled for a two-yard loss after his reception on the Panthers’ second drive of the game, Woodring tossed a 51-yard strike to Bratus to put Bridgewater-Raritan immediately into the red zone. This set up a six-yard run by Amoafo: his first of two scores on Homecoming night, to extend the Panthers’ lead to 14-7 with 2:59 left in the first quarter.
Senior Christian Antunes, who also plays on both the offensive and defensive lines for Bridgewater-Raritan, then collected one of his team-high two sacks to go with two tackles for loss to round off a three-and-out as time expired in the first quarter.
This was part of a night the Panthers tallied a whopping seven-and-a-half sacks and nine tackles for loss on defense, including a team-high 12 total tackles for Cifuentes with senior Nick Stark (eight total tackles) just behind that amount.
Facing fourth-and-two to open the second quarter, Black caught a 28-yard pass from Woodring before rushing for a 12-yard touchdown, which ballooned Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead to 21-7 just 47 seconds into the second period. But another short drive for the Minutemen set up via a 59-yard kickoff return by junior Eric Cespedes ultimately ended with a one-yard keeper into the end zone by Fleming, who cut Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead to 21-14 with 8:44 left in the second quarter.
Woodring, Black, and Amoafo then kept Bridgewater-Raritan on the ground for an impressive drive that eclipsed the seven-minute mark. Although a holding penalty wiped away a potential play inside of the Minutemen’s 10-yard line, senior Joe Squicciarini eventually was able to boot a 28-yard field goal with 1:38 to go in the first half to make it a 24-14 lead for the Panthers.
Not a bad response for Woodring and the Panthers’ offensive line, which had to quickly switch roles from the defensive front following Elizabeth’s scoring drive.
“Evan is confident in himself and his teammates,” assessed Catalano of Woodring’s performance. “Just having situational awareness like knowing who to look at and when to snap it so we can bleed clock, little things like that go a long way.”
“He had some great throws, was calm in the pocket, and I’m really proud of him.”
With Elizabeth then set to receive the second-half kickoff, Bridgewater-Raritan’s defense then forced a turnover on downs against the Minutemen to send the Panthers into the locker room up 24-14.
Fleming and the Minutemen then answered with a five-plus minute drive capped by his seven-yard touchdown run with 6:53 left in the third quarter to launch the second half, but his ensuing two-point conversion attempt on the ground failed. While Elizabeth settled for its deficit being cut to 24-20, the Minutemen responded with a three-and-out on defense and a blocked punt by senior Charles Prezzy to set Elizabeth’s offense up at the Panthers’ 15-yard line with 5:13 left in the third quarter.
The aforementioned two-point try then loomed large for Bridgewater-Raritan, which collected a pair of sacks and forced an incomplete pass to set up a 43-yard field-goal attempt by Lazo. He ultimately squeaked his kick through the uprights with little room to spare, and Elizabeth trailed just 24-23 before he booted the kickoff through the end zone for a touchback with 3:41 left in the third quarter.
Even in a one-point game, it was still business as usual for the Panthers’ ground game.
With the Panthers’ offensive line continuing its big night, Black took control on a drive that nearly went the full 80 yards down the field and ate close to seven more minutes off of the clock in a stretch that spanned the third and fourth quarters. Even though Elizabeth kept Bridgewater-Raritan out of the end zone again on this drive, which nearly matched the length of its long drive to end the first half, Squicciarini’s resulting 26-yard field goal gave the Panthers a 27-23 lead with 8:53 remaining.
Fittingly on Homecoming night, the ensuing kickoff was bobbled by Elizabeth right by the Panthers’ sideline near the home stands, and Bratus’ resulting fumble recovery gave Bridgewater-Raritan another possession at its own 34-yard line.
Although the Panthers’ offensive line had to go right back to work, they did not mind or break a sweat, as Black ran for four more first downs prior to his dagger nine-yard rushing touchdown with 3:08 remaining.
This extended Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead to 34-23 to end the night’s scoring, but the game was far from over.
“We had to play the clock game and make them use their timeouts,” described Catalano. “We thought we would have a better shot with that, because they had a great game plan for us. They did a lot of things that they had not shown all season, but they did some things they did last year, which is why we kind of figured it out quickly. We wanted them to spread it out and keep them one-dimensional when they were on offense. I thought our defensive line did a great job.”
“Bringing [Fleming] down is really tough, but making him uncomfortable is what they did, and we did a great job containing him.”
With an 11-point hole to dig out of and time not on its side, Elizabeth still advanced all the way from its own 25-yard line to the red zone in less than two minutes with two timeouts still in its back pocket. With Fleming bidding to get the Minutemen to within one score late, Simpson then had other ideas for Bridgewater-Raritan, as he bursted through Elizabeth’s defensive line the biggest sack of the night to bring up third down and 17 from the Panthers’ 22-yard line with 1:03 remaining.
No problem for what has proven to be a dangerous group of conditioned ironmen on both offense and defense for Bridgewater-Raritan, which sealed its 34-23 victory on an incomplete pass followed by a tackle just short of the sticks on a long keeper run by Fleming to end the game.
“We came off of the field offensively, and they put me in there in the red zone to help out our defense,” revealed Simpson of his late key play against Elizabeth. “[Coach Catalano] told me that we needed a big play and needed to stop them. I got in there, did my one-eleventh, and you can see what happened at the end of the day.”
“I got the sack, and we got the win.”
If the 2025 season ended today, despite its brutal schedule and the Panthers’ opening-day quarterback in Kurdyla being sidelined for the last two full games, Bridgewater-Raritan (5-1, 1-1) would have home-field advantage throughout the first four rounds of the NJSIAA Group 5 Football Tournament, which begins on October 31. Even though the Panthers have escaped the first two-thirds of their regular-season schedule with just one loss on the road: a Ridge High School team that cannot match up with Bridgewater-Raritan in the state tournament due to its Group 4 designation, they know their path will not get any easier leading up to what it hopes to be a deep run after Halloween.
But with the No. 1 overall seed in the Group 5 state playoffs emerging as an attainable goal after the first Friday of October under the guidance of Catalano, you can bet Bridgewater-Raritan will be more motivated than ever during what will be another grueling slate to end the regular season.
Especially since it has not yet fallen at John Basilone Memorial Field this year.
Until then, next up for the Panthers is a 6 p.m. kickoff on Friday, October 10, at Hillsborough (1-4, 0-2), which has defeated Bridgewater-Raritan in seven straight regular-season meetings going back to the 2018 football season.
Hillsborough is currently awaiting a 2 p.m. kickoff Saturday, October 4, at Westfield High School (2-3), which will be the opponent Bridgewater-Raritan faces in its regular-season home finale on Senior Night at 6 p.m. Friday, October 17, at John Basilone Memorial Field. The Panthers then will end their regular season with a massive road test at reigning Group 4 runner-up and undefeated Phillipsburg High School (5-0, 3-0): New Jersey’s fifth-ranked public school and No. 11 ranked team overall.
Kickoff at Phillipsburg will be at 6 p.m. Friday, October 24, at Maloney Stadium in Phillipsburg before the state’s playoff brackets are then finalized later that weekend.
“We’re going to get back in the lab and fix what we need to fix, because while we did great, there were definitely some mistakes,” concluded Simpson of the Panthers’ preparation for Hillsborough, who last fell at home to Bridgewater-Raritan September 16, 2016: a 30-10 result that began the Panthers’ most recent stretch of back-to-back wins in this rivalry. “When we go on the road, it’s a business trip. It’s no games and no jokes. We want to do exactly what we do here away, and we want to make their home our home.”
“We want to do the same thing we did here.”