Owls Look to Continue Winning Ways While Bulldogs Try to Rebound
SPRINGFIELD, NJ – It has been three years since Big Central Gridiron last saw Highland Park in action. The Owls have suffered through a great deal of struggle over the past 7 seasons. After just missing the state playoffs and finishing 6-4 with a Thanksgiving Day victory over arch-rival Metuchen in 2016, Highland Park endured a 51-game losing streak.
One of those losses came early on in the 2021 season to Dunellen at Columbia Park, which was the last time BCG saw the Owls in competition. However, there are signs of a turnaround in Owls Country. Led by QB and basketball standout, Markos Hantsoulis, Highland Park put an end to its 7-year winless streak with a blowout win over Point Pleasant Beach in an NJSIAA Regional Crossover to end the 2023 season.
The Owls then began in 2024 much like they had ended in 2023. This time, Highland Park won its first-ever Big Central Conference game with a 28-7 victory over Dunellen at Columbia Park last Friday night. The Owls will be looking to improve to 2-0 and raise their winning streak to three games when it travels over to Jonathan Dayton Regional High School in Springfield on Friday night.
The Bulldogs finished 3-7 overall a year ago after splitting their final six games of the season. Two of those victories included a 20-18 win over Highland Park on September 29th and a 23-20 victory over J.P. Stevens on November 2nd. Jonathan Dayton lost its season opener to South Hunterdon last week (30-0). The Bulldogs are led by senior QB J.J. DeSarno.
The last time BCG saw these two teams play each other was on September 28, 2017, in Springfield (Dayton won 42-14). At that time, Big Central Gridiron was GMC Gridiron. Highland Park was still playing football in the Greater Middlesex Conference while Jonathan Dayton was competing in the Union Division of the Mid-State 38 conference. Dayton has won the last 6 meetings between the two schools.
Hantsoulis is no stranger to turning things around at Highland Park. Two years ago, the senior signal caller was a key contributor to the Owls’ best boys’ basketball season in 20 years as a sophomore. He is hoping to perform a similar turnaround on the gridiron this year. Hantsoulis is tall and athletic, which is something the Owls haven’t had at QB in a while. In the win last week over Dunellen, Hantsoulis averaged over 13 yards per carry and scored 3 TDs on the ground.
A year ago, Hantsoulis only completed 6 passes, but four of them were for touchdowns. He also scored another five TDs on the ground. Junior Kaseem Qualls accounted for the other score against Dunellen with a fumble recovery returned for a touchdown. Senior RB Zaire Holland rushed for almost 100 yards and 12 yards per rush for the winners in the Week 1 win.
Meanwhile, DeSarno and the Bulldogs are looking to rebound after their shutout loss to South Hunterdon. DeSarno only completed 6 passes for 55 yards in the loss but threw over 1,000 yards and 7 TDs a season ago. One weapon that the Bulldogs will miss greatly is Alex Altemus, a standout player on both sides of the ball at running back and linebacker, who graduated in June. Another big threat from a year ago who graduated was Brandyn Bernknopf, who could throw, run, and kick.
James Walker and Aiden Delpeche will help assist DeSarno in the ground game while Delpeche, seniors Anthony Picardi and Jordan Gonzalez, and sophomore Adrian Bernknopf, will be targets for DeSarno in the passing game. Highland Park will also look to get contributions from the likes of Kaan Dolu, Kosta Hantsoulis, Stamatis Hantsoulis, Quantrey Sadler, and Jacob Quiros Porras.
Last year, Highland Park showed a good deal of improvement on offense and has continued that through Week 1 of this year. Jonathan Dayton will need to stop the Owls running game while getting DeSarno on track via the ground and the air. Look for this contest to be another battle like last year’s game, but with Highland Park coming out on top.
Prediction: Highland Park wins 24-14.
