The Bernards Mountaineers stayed perfect with a 7-0 win over the South Plainfield Tigers, moving to 6-0.
The biggest headline of the day was starting quarterback Nolan Walsh ‘27 being ruled out with an ankle injury, forcing a start from freshman quarterback AJ MacCracken. On the second offensive drive of the game, MacCracken led the offense marching down the field, capping the drive off with a Rickey Giebel ‘26 four yard receiving touchdown.
This touchdown was the only scoring of the game, but it didn’t stop the game from being exciting. Each team was in the red zone several times, with South Plainfield threatening multiple times late in the ballgame. However, the Mountaineer defense stayed strong with an important sack and tackle for loss by Victor Nina ‘26.
As for South Plainfield, they were led by star running back Dominic Massaro, who went for 161 yards on the ground and had nine total tackles defensively.
An important storyline for Friday’s game was the playmaking decisions by each coach. Both coaches went for a rushing attack, with only 74 total receiving yards in the entire game meanwhile 352 total yards on the ground. Logan Stevens ‘26 had a big game, with 101 rushing yards.
Despite the lack of passes, MacCracken showed poise in his first career start, leading his offense down the field several times and securing his first career victory. The 6 ‘1 quarterback received praise with head coach Jon Simoneau saying “We asked everyone around and we can’t remember the last time a freshman quarterback started and called his own game for Bernards, it takes guts.”
Simoneau continues, calling the team’s performance “gritty” and giving praise all around saying, “Defense played great, young guys played well, and Jordan Riley [‘27] was great after he was forced to move to middle linebacker towards the end of the game. All good, happy stuff.”
As for the winning quarterback, MacCracken said “I’m really happy to get the win, it was awesome. I thought the defense played great, held [South Plainfield] to zero points and got us the win.”
This win keeps the Mountaineers on the top of the Patriot Gold division, and in first in the entire Big Central Conference.
The Mountaineers (6-0) play next Saturday away at Summit (5-1) at 1pm. Bernards finishes up their regular season schedule with two home games, playing Governor Livingston on 10/17, and Carteret on 10/24 on Olcott Field.
