The Bridgewater-Raritan High School football team successfully capped off its run of four home games to start the 2025 season.
Bridgewater-Raritan dominated its first Big Central Conference American Silver Division matchup when the Panthers rolled by rival Hunterdon Central Regional High School, 35-7, on Friday evening, September 19, at Basilone Memorial Field in Bridgewater.
That victory followed a string of victories at Basilone Field, and it resulted in Bridgewater-Raritan’s first 4-0 start since the 2016 team, which eventually fell in the NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 2, Group 5 state playoff championship game to Westfield High School.
Bridgewater-Raritan opened this year with a 35-20 victory over Notre Dame High School, followed by a 34-27 triumph against Pisctaway High School and a 27-21 decision against Morris Knolls High School.
Bridgewater-Raritan will bid to remain undefeated when it hits the road on Friday, September 27, against Ridge High School, one of the few teams in the American Silver Division that Coach DJ Catalano has never beaten. Ridge, which holds a 1-2 record, will be the host in Basking Ridge Friday night to a Bridgewater-Raritan team that will seek to avenge last year’s 47-10 loss on Homecoming.
Coming into the game against Hunterdon Central, Bridgewater-Raritan had defeated the school from Flemington four of the last five years.
Bridgewater Raritan looked to follow up a hotly contested 28-20 road victory against Hunterdon Central, a game in which all 48 points came in the first half. A defensive battle ensued in the third and fourth quarters. The game came down to the final two minutes when Alex Berbarian came away with a game-sealing interception for Bridgewater-Raritan.
However, in 2025, the game was set to have a completely different complexion.
Declan Kurdyla, Bridgewater-Raritan’s standout senior quarterback, no longer had his only three receiving targets from that game, Jordan Johnson, Dylan Tierney, and Nick DiEsso, who all graduated.
But Kurdyla has formed new connections this season with multiple emerging senior wideouts, particularly Joey Confalone, Jack Cifuentes and Mikey Bratus.
However, on the ground, the Panthers retained their senior backfield threat Denzel Amoafo, who torched the Red Devils last season, carrying the ball 21 times for 149 yards and a touchdown. During the offseason, Bridgewater-Raritan boosted its run game even further, adding Immaculata High School transfer Jahmier Black, who has already rushed for 269 yards and four touchdowns in three games in his new uniform.
The Panthers entered the game against the Red Devils on the heels of a 27-21 rushing-oriented victory against Morris Knolls.
Coming into Friday night, the Panthers looked to not only match their 2024 victory total of four triumphs but also keep their foot on the gas, which, according to Coach Catalano, was equally as hard. In order to motivate his team to continue firing on all cylinders, Coach Catalano said that he showed them a cutscene from the classic Rocky IV movie.
“I think that’s where we kind of have been,” Catalano remarked. “We made a dent. We’ve made some noise. Do you sit back and be content with that, or do you keep going? So we talked about keep going, keep firing. That should motivate you more.”
Hunterdon Central travelled last week to Phillipsburg High School to open divisional play and suffered a 56-14 defeat against the undefeated and state-ranked Stateliners.
To open the game, Bridgewater-Raritan won the coin toss and elected to receive. The Panthers opened their first drive looking to continue to rely on their strong running game from last week, alternating carries between Amoafo and Black all the way to the Red Devil 39-yard line. That was when Amoafo broke off an outside rush and won the race to the left pylon for the game’s first score.
Hunterdon Central looked to establish a run game of its own on its inaugural series, as despite an initial loss of yards on their first run play of their drive, three consecutive first-down rushes led the Red Devils into Bridgewater-Raritan territory. However, the Panther defense made a huge stand, stalling out the possession on fourth down following a sack from senior linebacker Connor O’Hare.
That fourth-down stop set Bridgewater-Raritan up in shouting distance of midfield. After a few rushes from Black, Amoafo and junior back Jonathan Okolo, Kurdyla found Black on a wheel route down the right sideline to set the Panthers up inside the 10-yard line. Kurdyla eventually found sophomore receiver Evan Woodring on the right side of the end zone to give the Panthers a two-score lead shortly before the end of the first quarter.
Woodring spoke to that touchdown following the game, which was his second in as many games.
“It was special,” Woodring said. “My coaches trusted me to make a play. I was just in the right spot at the right time.”
The Red Devils started the second quarter on offense, but were quickly sent back to the sideline following a three-and-out.
Bridgewater-Raritan got the ball back for its third drive and kept it brief, as after entering Hunterdon Central territory, a designed run for Kurdyla saw the QB take it 32 yards downfield for the score, giving the Panthers a three-touchdown lead.
However, the team was not satisfied with the score, as the phrase “We’re not done yet” echoed up and down the sideline from senior leaders.
The Red Devil Offense continued to sputter, as a deflected pass from QB Drew Sella was deflected and picked off by Black inside Hunterdon Central territory.
The offense of Bridgewater-Raritan couldn’t be any different, as following an early false start penalty, Kurdyla found Bratus on a drag route and let him do the rest, as Bratus ran it in from nearly 20 yards out. Joe Squicciarini’s fourth of his five placements resulted in a 28-0 lead for Bridgewater-Raritan.
The Panthers looked to push their lead out to five scores on their next drive, and were well on their way as a screen pass to wideout Cifuentes put Bridgewater-Raritan in the visitor’s half of the field.
However, disaster struck when Kurdyla needed to be helped off the field by two of his teammates, nursing his knee. This left Woodring, the same player who had already caught a touchdown in the game, to take over quarterbacking duties. Woodring echoed the sentiment of his teammates, calling the injury “a little scary.”
“Declan’s my guy, Declan’s our guy,” Woodring said. “But we have the next guy up mentality. I know that my guys have got my back on the field. I just gotta do my job.”
Woodring goes through any given week of practice preparing to play at wide receiver, cornerback, and quarterback. He described that sort of training not so much as preparation, but more as just film study.
“You get a lot of tells from the defense [watching film]. I’m preparing, like I said, for any given moment that anything could happen. I gotta be ready to play quarterback, you know.”
Woodring came into the game cool, calm, and collected, finding senior Will Higgins down the sideline for 23 yards to put the Panthers inside of the five. However, the play was called back due to unsportsmanlike conduct and holding penalties, pushing the Panthers back 25 yards. Two more penalties right after pushed Bridgeater-Raritan back another 15 yards, leading to a promising drive stalling out.
Hunterdon Central looked to ride their first defensive stop into a score before halftime, but two false starts stalled the Red Devils inside of their own 15, leading Cella to attempt to push the ball downfield, but right into the hands of senior safety Nick Stark, who nabbed his fourth interception of the young season.
The Panthers took this momentum into halftime, preparing to come back out on defense in the third quarter.
Hunterdon Central opened its first drive coming out of halftime looking promising, as a handful of runs moved the sticks into Bridgewater-Raritan territory, but a costly fumble on an outside run saw Stark come away with his second turnover of the game.
The Panther coaches showed their confidence in the now quarterbacking Woodring, as he completed his first official varsity pass to Confalone, crossing midfield. Bridgewater Raritan rode Amoafo the rest of the way, letting him punch in a 20-yard run to light up the scoreboard again. Squicciarini’s conversion closed the scoring for Bridgewater-Raritan.
Kurdyla, who now stood on the sideline with his shoulder pads off and on crutches, encouraged his team, telling them, “The game isn’t over, keep fighting.”
With the game essentially out of reach for Hunterdon Central, Cella eventually ran into the end zone from a yard out when the Red Devils avoided the shutout.
Coach Catalano praised his team’s effort not only on the field following the game, but in the week of practice that they spent preparing for Hunterdon Central. He revealed that on Friday night, he unveiled some plays that he had never run in a game before.
“It was a lot of how we wanted to disguise coverages,” Coach Catalano said. “We haven’t shown some things that we did tonight, but we’ve been practicing all season long. We thought we had a good game plan.”
Coach Catalano spoke more about the 4-0 start, saying that he’ll likely appreciate it more after the 2025 season concludes.
“I’m proud of our team and I’m proud of what I think that we can accomplish. But it’s just all about the process and being 1-0 again.”
“Going 1-0 every week, being process-oriented, and being where our feet are,’ he concluded.
