In a perfect world, all 17 Union County football playing schools would have played either their eighth or ninth games last weekend.
Hurricane Sandy prevented that.
All 17 teams attempted to play those games again this weekend, but because students at many of those schools could not attend school because of the lack-of-power situation created by Hurricane Sandy, an original schedule of 12 games will be shortened.
Rahway will host Roselle Friday night at 7 at Johnson’s Nolan Field in Clark. Rahway was to host Roselle last Saturday at 1 p.m. at its Veterans Field. The game was then moved to this Saturday at noon at Veterans Field – which is grass – before being moved again to the field turf at Nolan Field.
After the Oct. 29 snowstorm we had last year, Rahway had a home game against Governor Livingston played at Johnson on a Monday afternoon.
Games that have been cancelled include Union at Hunterdon Central, Elizabeth at Plainfield and North Plainfield at Cranford.
Union and Elizabeth were the only Union County teams to qualify for the first North 2, Group 5 playoffs.
Union (5-2) should finish as the seventh seed and play at second-seeded Ridge next weekend in one of four quarterfinals.
Elizabeth (8-0) clinched the top seed and will host either Phillipsburg (3-4) or Columbia (4-3) – whichever team garners the eighth seed. Both are predicted to lose this weekend if they play – P-Burg home to Immaculata (7-1) and Columbia at Montclair (7-0).
Cranford is the defending North 2, Group 3 champion and has qualified for the playoffs in consecutive years for only the second time and the first time since making the grade in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
Union, Elizabeth and Cranford will have had two weekends off before their first round playoff games.
THIS WEEKEND’S SCHEDULE INVOLVING UNION COUNTY TEAMS:
FRIDAY, NOV. 9
Johnson at Delaware Valley, 7
Bound Brook at Brearley, 7
Roselle vs. Rahway at Johnson, 7
SATURDAY, NOV. 10
Manville vs. Dayton at Union, 1 p.m.
Roselle Park at New Providence, 1
Bridgewater-Raritan at Linden, 1
Westfield at Scotch Plains, 1
Hillside at Summit, 1
Bernards vs. Gov. Livingston at New Providence, 6 p.m.
– JR PARACHINI