Summit Hilltoppers are going for North 2, Group 3 football crown

SUMMIT, NJ — There are at least four more games remaining in this 2025 Union County football season.

One is a consolation contest Thursday, Nov. 13, in Roselle and the next two are sectional state championship games the following day.

The fourth is Abraham Clark High School at Roselle Park High School on Thursday, Nov. 27, at 10 a.m. at Herm Shaw Field, which will be the final Thanksgiving Day football played in Union County.

On Friday, Nov. 14 Summit and New Providence high schools will be going for sectional state championships.

It’s been a while since both have triumphed. Summit won its last in 2018 when the Hilltoppers captured North 2, Group 3 for the fifth time in the playoff era. New Providence won its last in 2010 when the Pioneers captured North 2, Group 1 for the fourth time.

Summit has won nine sectional state championships in the playoff era: North 2, Group 3 five times and North 2, Group 2 four times. New Providence has won six: North 2, Group 2 twice and North 2, Group 1 four times.

On Friday, Nov. 14, it will be fourth-seeded and defending champion Cedar Grove High School (8-3) at third-seeded New Providence (10-0) at 6:30 p.m. at New Providence’s Lieder Field for the 2025 North 2, Group 1 sectional state championship. The roles are reversed a bit from a year ago. Last year, Cedar Grove hosted New Providence in the final and was 11-0. Cedar Grove won, 35-14, to win its ninth sectional title in the playoff era.

That 2024 Cedar Grove team was 13-0 and won all 13 games by double digits before falling to Glassboro High School, 56-14, in the overall Group 1 state championship game played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford.

In the 2025 North 2, Group 3 sectional state championship game in Long Valley, it will be Summit (9-2) at West Morris Regional High School (11-0) at 7:30 p.m.

Summit has won four straight and captured both playoff wins at home the last two weekends, courtesy of game-ending field goals kicked by sophomore Cooper Smoragiewicz.

Summit’s last road game was a big 10-7 win at 7-0 Woodbridge High School on Friday, Oct. 17, which snapped a brief, two-game losing streak.

Both Summit and West Morris have played Warren Hills Regional High School at home and both were very close games. West Morris edged Warren Hills, 28-27, on Friday, Sept. 19, and in a first-round North 2, Group 3 clash, Summit got by Warren Hills, 24-21, on Saturday, Nov. 1, coming back from a 14-0 deficit.

The last time Summit and West Morris battled was also in a playoff game. In a first-round North 1, Group 3 contest at West Morris in 2021, it was the host Wolfpack topping the visiting Hilltoppers, 56-31.

West Morris last won a sectional title in 2023, when the Wolfpack captured North 1, Group 3 honors. They also went on to win North 1, Group 3 in 2021 and North 2, Group 3 in 2022.

Last year, West Morris lost at West Essex in the North 2, Group 3 semifinals.

West Morris is tough at home. The Wolfpack have only lost twice at home since 2020, with both losses coming by just one point.

When Summit won in 2018, the Hilltoppers beat Rahway High School, 36-14, at home in the North 2, Group 3 final. The Hilltoppers then lost to North 1, Group 3 champion Ramapo High School, 42-22, in the first North, Group 3 Regional Championship game, which was played at MetLife.

This will be Summit’s first sectional final on the road, not at a neutral site, since 1994, when the Hilltoppers repeated as North 2, Group 2 champs by winning at West Morris Mendham High School. Summit defeated Mendham at home in the 1993 North 2, Group 2 final.

Give Summit credit. The Hilltoppers got to a sectional final without their quarterback, senior Cole Sabol, who has been sidelined with an injury suffered during lacrosse season.

“No matter what, these kids continue to believe in themselves,” said Summit head coach Kevin Kostibos, who has now been at the helm of the Hilltoppers since 2013, after serving as an assistant.

Kostibos has guided Summit to its last two sectional state championships, which came in North 2, Group 3 in 2013, his first year, and in 2018.

Behind center has been a combination of senior Alex Schwark, who got injured against Cranford High School and then came back to play in the big Woodbridge High School win, and junior Matt McKeever.

Schwark has rushed for 1,210 yards and also leads the team in touchdowns with 11, while McKeever has passed for 705 yards and scored nine touchdowns.

Charlie Garvey, Connor Gawronski and Will Holmes, all seniors, each have more than 240 yards in receptions.

Defensive leaders include McKeever with 80 tackles, senior linebacker Daniel Licciardi with 76, junior linebacker Gavin Schnall with 70, senior back Jake Reimold with 61 and senior lineman Ben Cohen with 44. Eight Summit players have at least one interception, with Reimold and Schnall leading the way with three each.

“Once you get to the playoffs, all the teams you face are good and the games are not easy to win at all,” Kostibos said.

New Providence won its first nine games by double digits, including two shutouts, before needing overtime to win at second-seeded Hasbrouck Heights High School, 28-21, in its sectional semifinal on Friday night, Nov. 7, in Bergen County.

The Pioneers have continued to excel with a new quarterback this year, after all-state signal-caller T.J. Munn was lost to graduation. Stepping up has been junior Kevin Reilly, who has passed for 1,000 yards and thrown 14 touchdown passes and only two interceptions.

Union County football this weekend

Playoffs

Sectional Finals

Friday, Nov. 14

North 2, Group 1

4-Cedar Grove (8-3) at 3-New Providence (10-0), 6:30 p.m.

North 2, Group 3

2-Summit (9-2) at 1-West Morris (11-0), 7:30 p.m.

Consolations

Thursday, Nov. 13

Henry Snyder at Abraham Clark, 6 p.m.

Union County football last weekend