The Brearley Bears football team will now open Sept. 14 at home vs. Dayton after their Sept. 7 opponent – Highland Park – decided to drop varsity football this week. Dayton opens this Friday night – Sept. 7 – at home vs. Belvidere.
Brearley was originally supposed to open at home against Roselle Park on Sept. 7, but Roselle Park back in June decided to go with junior varsity and freshman teams only because of a lack of juniors and seniors.
Highland Park opened at home last Friday against Montclair Kimberley Academy and lost 41-0.
Brearley will receive a forfeit win over Highland Park.
“We just can’t seem to play Week One,” Brearley bead coach Scott Miller said. “We went to the Highland Park-MKA game and Highland Park had 19 kids, with three of them getting injured and one of them not returning after halftime.
“Their AD (athletic director Craig Girvan) called me Tuesday afternoon and said that they had only 16 players, seven of which were freshmen. I understood. I knew it would be touch and go with them.
“They tried, to their credit, and it’s unfortunate. Other teams now will have to scramble to play games.”
Last year Brearley ended up opening on Sept. 1 and played Holmdel at home, falling 17-12. Brearley needed to find a team to replace Pingry, which dropped out of the Mid-State 38 Conference. Brearley and Holndel agreed to play on Week Zero, with Brearley then having Week One off.
The Bears went 5-5 in a non-playoff season, concluding with a 31-20 consolation home win over Dunellen.
Brearley is scheduled to play at Dunellen Oct. 26, which will be its Union County vs. Middlesex County crossover contest.
“This has sort of helped us a smidge with the weather we’ve been having,” Miller said, alluding to the high temperatures and humidity impacting outside practice time. “We’ve only been able to practice (outside) for 45 minutes. The heat has taken its toll.
“We’ve been able to continue practice in the classroom which has given us the opportunity to go over learning our schemes.”
The other Union County school affected by this decision is Dayton, which was scheduled to play at Highland Park on Sept. 28, which was its originally scheduled Union County vs. Middlesex County game. Dayton picked up Middlesex County school Middlesex to replace Roselle Park, with the Bulldogs facing the Blue Jays Oct. 12 in Middlesex.