Bull Session Week Three
September 23, 2026
Believe it or not, this week marks the official regular-season mid-season mark!…. The big games in North Jersey were the Catholic school matchups, and Bergen Catholic beat St. Peter’s Prep, St. Joe’s (Montvale) beat DePaul, and Don Bosco beat Paramus Catholic. I don’t watch as many of their games these days because it is not high school football to me. They are glorified junior college teams…. South Jersey teams won all five public state championships last year for several reasons. But one thing is certain: there is a lot of bad public school football in the north. If one tallied the 20 worst programs in the state, four or five could be in Hudson County alone. And that comes after Marist closed and Harrison dropped football. And there is more where that came from….Now that Jaxson Dart is out for the year with the Giants, I feel like I was kicked in the midsection….One thing I see players do to celebrate a big play is put their index fingers to their mouths, as if to say sssssh. I am not a fan of that, but it is better than the one where they motion that they are eating…. A big game in South Jersey was St. Augustine against Winslow, won by St. Augustine. It featured Bill Belton coaching for St. Augustine against the team where he used to coach…. Here’s to a speedy and proper recovery for Jason Torres of Absegami, who suffered “three compression fractures in his neck” last weekend, according to nj.com…. One player who is near the top of the passing totals each week is Freehold Township’s Dakota Lasater. I have him listed this week, and I could list him almost every week, but I don’t put an individual up every week. I like to give other players recognition for a good week…. An impressive player on a struggling program I saw last week was Belleville wide receiver, Sean Sharpe…. In the colleges, Princeton lost to Bryant, 21-12; Monmouth beat Albany, 28-20; FDU (Florham) lost to Widener, 17-15; William Paterson lost to Salve Regina, 41-6; and Montclair State, Kean, TCNJ, and Rowan had a bye…. That was a brutal loss for North Carolina State against Vanderbilt last week, fumbling in the end zone on the last play that Vanderbilt recovered for the touchdown and win. It brought back memories of The Fumble in 1978, when the Giants fumbled away a win against the Eagles….Top performances that jumped out at me, courtesy of nj.com: Passing: Cole Seyler of St. Joe’s (Metuchen): 24-47-381-5, A’rique Fleming of Elizabeth: 19-28-380-5, Dylan Boehm of Somerville: 18-25-362-5, Dakota Lasater of Freehold Township: 23-41-354-3, Gavin Yablonowitz of Robbinsville: 20-32-336-3, Trevor Thompson of Hightstown: 22-34-326-3, Charlie Foulke of Glassboro: 21-32-310-4, Julian Broughton of Middle Township: 15-19-272-2, Brodie Ramiza of Ramsey: 21-29-270-3, Ethan Varona of Belleville: 7-7-269-4, Luke Magerko of Ramapo: 20-23-258-2….Rushing: Noah Rivera of Vernon: 27-271-2, Chase Rizzo of Old Bridge: 27-252-2, Roman Coney of St. Augustine: 28-248-5, Abel Paul of Livingston: 35-245-3, Evan Cotter of Newton: 16-239-4, A’Shaad Carter of Eastern: 16-233-2, Axcel Bailey of Overbrook: 24-223-2, Colin Schoellkopf of Brick Memorial: 38-212-2, Kenny Callaghan of Hawthorne: 18-190-3, Brandon Thompson of Monmouth: 9-180-2….Receiving: Sean Sharpe of Belleville: 4-200-2, James Hampton of Somerville: 5-171-2, Brady Veenstra of Ramsey: 9-166-2, Tyronn Holloway of Colonia: 9-165-2, Cole Spoonire of Rumson-Fair Haven: 4-159-1, Cayson Williams of Matawan: 7-158-1, Vashon Jones of Hightstown: 17-158-0, Elijah Msomi of Freehold Township: 7-155-4, Trey Williams of Triton: 4-150-3, Donato Perri of Burlington City: 10-150-1, Xavier Sabb of Glassboro: 13-132-2….That’s all for this week! I will be back soon with more bull!