NJIC Football
The North Jersey Interscholastic Conference regular season is coming to an end and each week gets bigger and bigger with plenty of contenders still vying for division titles. This week, the NJIC Liberty and Colonial Divisions take center stage with some of the biggest games of the week.
Here’s our breakdown of five of the best in the NJIC in Week 4:
Lyndhurst (3-0) at New Milford (3-1), Friday, 7 p.m.
Lyndhurst delivered a wild, come-from behind win over Pompton Lakes last week to remain unbeaten in NJIC Liberty play, winning 21-20 on a late two-point conversion run from Piotr Partyla. It was Partyla’s two fourth-quarter TD runs to helped Lyndhurst erase a 13-0 hole with less than five minutes left. The win kept Lyndhurst alone atop the division and it can clinch the division title with a win here. A New Milford win, however, would force a three-way tie between Lyndhurst, New Milford and Hawthorne, three teams who would all have one division loss in that scenario. The tiebreaker should that be the case at the end of the regular season for the spot in the NJIC playoffs would be least points allowed.
Butler (4-0) at Hasbrouck Heights (3-1), Friday, 7 p.m.
Butler went 10-2 last season, but one team — Hasbrouck Heights — denied Butler of a perfect season. En route to a perfect season of its own, Hasbrouck Heights downed Butler, 30-15, in the regular season and again, 41-7, in the North Group 1 Bowl Game at MetLife Stadium. Now, though, it’s Butler entering undefeated against one-loss Hasbrouck Heights, with the Bulldogs averaging 49 points per game behind QB Evan Smith. Butler needs this win here to keep pace with Cresskill atop the NJIC Meadowlands Division.
Hawthorne (3-1) at Pompton Lakes (1-2), Saturday, 2:15 p.m.
This became one of the more interesting games of the week after last week’s performances by both teams. Hawthorne shut out reigning Liberty Division champion New Milford, 27-0 — the first time New Milford had been shut out since 2015 — while Pompton Lakes held leads of 13-0 and 20-13 against undefeated Lyndhurst before falling on a go-ahead two-point conversion with just seconds left. If Hawthorne wins here and gets from help from New Milford against Lyndhurst, there will be a three-way tie atop the Liberty Division involving those three teams.
Waldwick/Midland Park (3-0) at Rutherford (2-2), Friday, 7 p.m.
Waldwick/Midland Park has started 3-0, outscoring its opponents, 108-24, including two shutouts. Rutherford, a program which has been do dominant in the NJIC in recent years, suffered its second straight loss last week to Glen Rock, 35-21. It’s the first time Rutherford has lost back-to-back games since 2014. The Colonial Division is now shaping up to be a two-team race between Waldwick/Midland Park and Garfield. If W/MP wants a shot at a division title, it’s going to have to beat a Rutherford team it has not topped since 2014 — falling to the Bulldogs in each of the last four meetings.
St. Mary (Ruth.) (1-3) at Park Ridge (3-0), Friday, 7 p.m.
Park Ridge QB Vincent Pinto made his season debut last week against Bogota and looked every bit as good as he did last year when he accounted for 42 total touchdowns. Pinto was 7-of-10 for 174 yards and four touchdowns in Park Ridge’s 42-0 win over Bogota and added three rushes for 56 yards and another score as the Owls moved to 3-0. This week, they’ll take on a St. Mary team they beat last year, 34-0, and are 11-4 all-time against.
JJ Conrad focuses on the Super Football Conference and North Jersey Interscholastic Conference. He may be reached at jconrad@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter, @JJ_Conrad.
