KENILWORTH, NJ — The Brearley Bears have done quite well, going into the final weekend of the regular season before the playoffs commence.
Kenilworth’s David Brearley High School appears headed to the playoffs out of North, Group 1, in large part due to winning against bigger schools situated in South, Group 2, with victories over Johnson, Spotswood, Bound Brook and Middlesex, and its only losses to New Providence and Bernards.
Unfortunately for Brearley, the Bears again had a cancellation when the home game on Thursday, Oct. 21, against Dunellen could not come off, because the Middlesex County Group 1 school was hit with a COVID-19 situation.
Earlier in the year, Brearley’s home game against Roselle Park was canceled when Roselle Park suffered a similar setback.
Brearley head coach Scott Miller said that, because he could not find teams to replace Roselle Park and Dunellen to play on those weekends, the Bears will receive forfeit wins against those two teams.
This will improve Brearley’s record from 4-2 to 6-2 going into the home game on Friday, Oct. 29, against a 3-4 Dayton squad seeking to even its record, coming off an 18-13 win at Roselle Park on Saturday, Oct. 24.
“It’s definitely disappointing not being able to play a second game and both of those games were home games,” Miller said. “It was to be senior night, but we will now have senior night vs. Dayton. It’s just disappointing for the kids.”
Before the scheduled game against Dunellen on Thursday, Oct. 21, Brearley was positioned in the middle of the pack of teams that were to qualify for the playoffs out of North, Group 1.
A win against Dayton on Friday, Oct. 29, would go a long way toward bolstering Brearley’s playoff positioning. The playoffs commence around the state on Friday, Nov. 5. The pairings should be released the night of Saturday, Oct. 30.
“We like where we’re at now,” Miller said. “Right now, the focus is just on Dayton. Then it will be on where we are as far as the playoffs are concerned.”
The Bears have been led offensively by junior quarterback Matt Sims, with 682 yards rushing and 533 passing, and by senior running back Quinn Lonergan, who has rushed for 451 yards and has a team-leading nine touchdowns. Sims has scored seven and passed for another seven.
Junior Brendan Fitzsimmons has caught a team-leading three touchdown passes, and senior wide receiver Connor Hannon and Lonergan have caught two each. Fitzsimmons has caught 19 passes for 175 yards and Hannon 14 for 168.
Defensively, sophomore Kristian Janeczko and Lonergan have 30 tackles each. Junior Riley Caburis, Fitzsimmons and Hannon each have one interception.
“We’re a very small team, as far as numbers go, and we ran into a couple of injuries when playing New Providence and Bernards,” Miller said. “We’ve had to play some younger kids.
“However, from what I saw at the beginning of the year, I’m a little surprised. Week by week, our kids have put together some pretty good efforts.”
Brearley began with shutout wins against Johnson and Spotswood and then moved to 3-0 after winning at Middlesex.
After the consecutive losses to New Providence and Bernards, Brearley bounced back with a big 34-20 win at Bound Brook.
The Bears finished second in the Big Central Conference’s Division 1A with a final 2-1 league record. New Providence, 6-1 overall, won the Division 1A title at a perfect 4-0.
Brearley has outscored six opponents 164-111 and has two shutouts. On Friday, Oct. 29, the Bears will be seeking their second win at home and first since their season opener vs. Johnson, which was moved from Thursday, Sept. 2, to Saturday, Sept. 4, because of the effects from Tropical Storm Ida.