Bridgewater-Raritan High School’s football team will not successfully defend its state sectional playoff championships this season.
For the second straight year, Passaic County Institute of Technology ended Bridgewater-Raritan's football season.
Fourth-seeded Passaic County Institute of Technology posted a 35-0 victory over fifth-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan in the opening round of the North Jersey Section 2, Group 5 state sectional playoffs on Friday night, October 30, in Wayne.
Bridgewater-Raritan won the school’s first state playoff sectional title when it captured the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 5 tournament last season.
Bridgewater-Raritan was then knocked out of the Group 5 state playoff semifinals by Passaic County Institute of Technology, 23-14, at Basilone Memorial Field in Bridgewater in November of 2025.
Washington Township would later beat Passaic County Institute of Technology in the Group 5 state championship game
Bridgewater-Raritan ended this season with a 7-3 record, one year after the Panthers finished 9-4.
Passaic County Institute of Technology will now meet the winner between top-seeded Elizabeth High School and eighth-seeded Linden High School in the state sectional playoff semifinals on the weekend of November 6-7.