SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ – Completing its best year in school history including its first sectional championship of the playoff era (since 1974), the Bernards Mountaineers went coast to coast as the top-ranked team in the Big Central Gridiron Small School Poll.
Bernards won the most games in school history with 12. The Mountaineers not only won the 2023 NJSIAA North Jersey Section 2 Group 2 Championship but also claimed the Big Central Conference’s Patriot Gold Division crown for the second straight year. A.L. Johnson of Clark, South Hunterdon, and Middlesex finished in the top four. Final season records in parenthesis:
- Bernards (12-1)
- A.L. Johnson (6-3)
- South Hunterdon (9-2)
- Middlesex (7-2)
- New Providence (4-6)
- Delaware Valley (5-4)
- Spotswood (8-2)
- Roselle Park (6-5)
- Dunellen (5-4)
- Brearley (3-5)
Other Teams Considered: Roselle (4-6), Belvidere (3-7), Metuchen (5-5) Bound Brook (2-7), and Manville (3-7).
