Andrew Constant – Sports Writer

MONMOUTH JCT. – Bottled up for the majority of the game, the Sayreville High School football team exploded for 21 points in the fourth quarter, en route to a 28-14 victory over South Brunswick, clinching the Greater Middlesex Conference Red Division title.

Zeke Perkinson rumbled 41 yards for the go-ahead touchdown with just 2:19 remaining and Thomas Spiecker returned a T.J. Perkowski interception 45 yards for another score 44 seconds later to seal the game. Sayreville finished the night with 327 yards of offense, but didn’t have a touchdown drive of more than four plays in length.

“It’s funny because we’re usually a ball-control team, a team that drives the ball down the field and punches it in,” Sayreville head coach George Najjar said. “Today, we had some spots and openings and we have kids that can go the distance and they showed that tonight.”

On the second play of the final period, Deion Miller exploded 60 yards down the middle of the field, tying the game at 14-14 and giving the Bombers life they’d been desperately seeking all night. In the first half, Sayreville (7-0) turned the ball over on downs twice and went three-and-out on another possession, compiling only 87 yards of offense.

“We overcame a lot adversity in the first half, but our kids responded in the second half,” Najjar said. “We had a lot of opportunities and couldn’t cash in, but the kids kept fighting and they never quit and showed a lot of heart.”

South Brunswick led 14-7 at the break, thanks to a pair of one-yard touchdown runs to cap long drives. On their third possession of the game, Perkowski went in from one yard out, capping a 10-play, 66-yard drive. Two drives later, the Vikings went 11 plays, covering 68 yards, with Dahrae Ford walking in on fourth-and-1 to make the score 14-7.

In between, Myles Hartfield got Sayreville on the board when he went 55 yards on a punt return. Hartsfield finished the game with 103 all-purpose yards.

The score remained the same until Miller’s touchdown with 11:36 to play in the fourth quarter.

South Brunswick only managed 34 yards after intermission, and Perkowski threw three second-half interceptions. Najjar credited his coaching staff with stopping the Vikings in the final 24 minutes and keeping their perfect record intact.

“In the second half, the defense bottled them up completely and they controlled the field position and the momentum in the game and that was the difference,” Najjar said.

Between halves, South Brunswick honored the best player in school history, retiring Mohamed Sanu’s No. 2. The current Cincinnati Bengal wide receiver starred for the Vikings from 2005-07, leading South Brunswick to the state playoffs for the first time in nearly 40 years in his final season.

The former Rutgers standout, who set a Big East Conference record with 210 career receptions, said it was an honor to have his number retired.

“I’m thankful for my town and the support I have behind me and they’ve always been by my side,” Sanu said. “I get phone calls and text messages all the time, so I’m thankful for all the people supporting me. I know I have a whole town behind me and it brought back a lot of memories to be here tonight, under these lights.”

NEW BRUNSWICK — It had been 1,079 long days since the New Brunswick High School football team last won a game. But on Friday night at Memorial Field, the Zebras got that monkey off their backs, defeating Perth Amboy 26-13, giving Castor Losada his first victory as head coach.

Shamal Ayton rushed for 81 yards and scored two second-half touchdowns and the Zebras defense held Perth Amboy to just 235 yards of offense.

Losada, drenched in Gatorade, tried to put the victory into perspective, after delivering a heart-felt speech to his players in front of the scoreboard.

“It feels great, especially for these seniors, on the night that they were honored, those kids have been through three years of misery and I can’t even imagine what that feels like for them,” Losada said. “We have a talented team. Yes, we’re young, but getting that first win was will just make the things I’m trying to put in place that much easier to understand. Getting that win and understanding that what we’re doing is going to work, feels great.”

The Zebras got out to a fast start, scoring the game’s first two touchdowns in very different ways.

On their second possession of the ballgame, senior quarterback Tereak Butler broke loose down the right sideline and ran in 75 yards for the score, putting New Brunswick up 6-0. After Perth Amboy turned the ball over on downs and the Zebras punted, the hosts added to their lead when James Sullen picked off Panthers’ quarterback Dennis Sutton and returned the ball 45 yards, going untouched up the middle of the field.

But Perth Amboy wouldn’t go quietly, refusing to let New Brunswick run away with the game.

Four plays after Sullen’s touchdown, Sutton got a bit of revenge, scampering 25 yards for a Panthers’ touchdown, cutting the lead to 12-7. Four minutes later, after New Brunswick had fumbled on the first play of a drive deep in their own territory, Darius Pearson went in from one yard out, giving Perth Amboy the lead at 13-12.

The Zebras got the final score of the first half after taking over at Perth Amboy’s 49 with just over four minutes left. A Luis Contreras 35-yard bomb to Yameer Shamary set up New Brunswick at the 15 and three plays later, Ayton plunged in from two yards out, regaining the lead for good.

“I told these guys that I’m so proud of them, because earlier in the season, we probably would have went in the tank and given up [when Perth Amboy took the lead] and to be able to deal with the highs and lows and the roller coaster of the game is what makes a good team win,” Losada said.

The last victory for New Brunswick had come on Nov. 6, 2009, when the Zebras beat Sayreville 28-13. After the game Losada stressed to his players that they needed to act like they’d won football games before. For some on the New Brunswick roster, that wasn’t the case, but now they can say they have.

“I told the players that this is a great time and a great experience, but we have to do it like we’ve been here before,” Losada said. “We’ve got three games left and I think we have a chance to win them all.”

MONMOUTH JUNCTION — Senior T.J. Perkowski ran for a 63-yard touchdown and threw a 57-yard touchdown pass, helping the South Brunswick High School football team to a 35-21 victory over Hillsborough in the NJSIAA Central Group V quarterfinals Friday night.

“It was definitely hard coming off a three-week break, but we picked it up,” Perkowski said. “It was huge to get those touchdowns right before the half and it really helped us put them away and pick up the win.”

The Vikings put the game away in the second half, playing solid defense and locking down on John Banaciski, who was ripping them apart in the opening 24 minutes.

South Brunswick opened the half with a four-play, 57-yard drive, capped by a Darhae Ford 5-yard touchdown run. Ford rushed for 34 yards on the drive, with a 17-yarder and a 12-yarder spliced in. Ford finished the game with 152 yards on the ground and had 16 yards receiving.

The Raiders quickly got a touchdown of their own, going 10 plays and covering 68 yards. Banaciski carried the ball four times on the drive, but it was an Andrew Zitel’s 13-yard touchdown pass to Tyshon Murdock that ended the possession. That would be the final time Hillsborough found the end zone.

Dontae Strickland polished off the South Brunswick offensive output with a 10-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter. Strickland finished the game with 85 yards of offense.

Banaciski was a workhorse for Hillsborough, carrying the ball 27 times and adding two catches for 79 yards and a touchdown.

The Raiders got themselves on the board just 25 seconds into the game, using a big catch-and-run from Zitel to Banaciski. The junior quarterback dumped the ball off to Banaciski, who did the rest, going 73 yards down the middle of the field, putting Hillsborough up 7-0.

They held that advantage until the very end of the first quarter, when South Brunswick took over on a short field. After Zitel was intercepted by Amir Johnson at the Hillsborough 26, the Vikings needed just six plays to find the end zone. Dahrae Ford pounded the ball in from two yards out, knotting the score at 7-7.

South Brunswick is just two wins away from capturing a sectional championship, something that Perkowski said has driven the team all season long.

“We wanted to do that last year, but obviously we didn’t get there and we worked our butts off to get back to that spot,” he said.

ISELIN – When your defense is on the field for nearly 10 minutes to open the game, things don’t look good. But the John F. Kennedy Mustangs defense bent but didn’t break, forcingPerth Amboy to kick a field goal after holding the ball for the first 9:49 of play, ending a 13-play, 43 yard drive.

On the ensuing possession, Anthony Roberts ran four yards to pay dirt, the first of three touchdown runs for the junior tailback, and J.F. Kennedy was off and running to a 21-13 victory Friday night. Roberts finished the game with 194 yards on 27 carries and those three touchdowns, leading a Mustangs offense that finished with 239 yards on the evening.

But stopping Perth Amboy on that opening drive and the Panthers’ third possession, an 8-play, 48 yard drive that also ended with a Chris Bermeo field goal was the turning point of the game, according to J.F. Kennedy head coach Rich Nyers.

“It was huge for us,” Nyers said. “We were playing some solid defense and we had a few penalties that hurt us, but the kids showed a lot of character to hold them to a field goal there. And to do the same thing on the next long drive was awesome. They held the ball for a long time and only came away with six points.”

From there, it was all about Roberts, who was the focal point of the J.F. Kennedy offense all night long. The tailback had six carries on the Mustangs’ first touchdown drive and nine of the final 11 runs to close the ballgame, with Perth Amboy only eight points down. J.F. Kennedy took over with 6:12 to play after the Panthers had sliced the lead to 21-13, and promptly turned it over to Roberts, who picked up the game-clinching first downs with gaggles of Perth Amboy defenders draped all over him.

Nyers credits the offensive line for a lot of the success running the ball tonight, but couldn’t do so without giving his star due praise.

“Anthony Roberts is an amazing tailback, no doubt about it,” Nyers said. “But the line did it tonight: Tom Patten, Louis Santa Maria, Brian Teehan, Taquari Ellis Webb and Jimmy Smith, along with fullback Mike Hogan just blocked phenomenally and when Roberts sees the holes, he runs it really well.”

In the opening 24 minutes, Perth Amboy held the ball for 17:25, while J.F. Kennedy had it for just 6:35, but in the second half, the hosts milked just enough out of the clock to keep the Panthers at bay. Both of J.F. Kennedy’s second half touchdowns came on short fields, set up by poor punts by the Perth Amboy kicking game.

Darius Pearson rushed for 43 yards on 14 and scored Perth Amboy’s touchdown with a four-yard run in the third quarter.