Football: Defense, special teams carry Piscataway past Union City in N2G5 final

The way Piscataway head coach Dan Higgins had it figured, Saturday's North 2, Group 5 final was going to come down to defense and special teams.

Higgins, a 16-year coaching veteran, figured correctly.

The Piscataway defense pitched a shutout for all but 20 seconds and a punt return and blocked punt set up two touchdowns and Piscataway won the NJSIAA/Rothman Orthopaedics N2G5 title with a 28-7 victory over Union City.

Piscataway, which plays Franklin on Thanksgiving Day, will meet Ridgewood in the North 1-North 2, Group 5 bowl game in two weeks at MetLife Stadium. Ridgewood defeated Montclair, 27-7, to win the North 1, Group 5 title Saturday.

It was the 10th section title for Piscataway (11-0), ranked No. 3 in the NJ.com Top 20. Piscataway is now 41-17 all-time in the state playoffs.

"We thought it was going to be an up-front kind of game," Higgins said. "We watched Union City on tape and all we saw was them exploiting every team up the middle. We loaded the box. We wanted to force them outside and that's not their forte.

"We wanted to take away what they did best."

Piscataway did that successfully, limiting a Union City ground game that averaged 251 yards per game coming in to 124 yards -- 35 in the second half. Union City (9-2) averaged only 3.4 yards per carry against a beefy and speedy Piscataway defense. it averaged 7.8 yards per carry in its first 10 games.

Piscataway linebacker Nick Recine, who went over the 100-tackle mark for the season, led a sensational defensive effort that snuffed Union City's between-the-tackles running game.

Forced to attack the edges and pass, Union City struggled. It had only 36 yards on 11 carries on plays outside the tackles and it passed for only 81 yards.

"We watched a lot of film and we picked up a lot of little things that made a difference," Recine said. "This is a special defensive unit."

The Piscataway special teams were pretty good, too.

Khristian Hernandez returned a punt 50 yards to set up the first Piscataway touchdown.

Linebacker Marcus Petite drove the Union City punter protector backward far enough that the punt hit the blocker in the backside. Piscataway recovered, scored three plays later and took a 14-0 lead in the third period.

"The offense started a little slow and we needed something to wake us up," said Piscataway running back Juwon Jackson, who had 82 of Piscataway's 179 team rushing yards. "Those two plays gave us the lead until the offense got going."

After the Hernandez punt return, Piscataway took a 7-0 lead on a one-yard run by Jackson with 7:36 left in the first quarter.

The Piscataway defense protected the lead for the remainder of the first half, stopping two Union City drives at its own 21 and 11 yards lines.

Four plays after the blocked punt, Recine scored on a one-yard run to make it 14-0.

"It's always nice when JJ (Jackson) doesn't score all the touchdowns," Recine said with a grin.

Piscataway finally pulled away when Nasir Best, who had 69 second-half yards, scored a 13-yard touchdown on a stretch play going left with 3:26 left in the third quarter.

An 80-yard, 13-play, seven-minute, penalty-free drive accounted for the final Piscataway TD, an 11-yard run by best on another stretch play.

Union City broke the shutout bid when Jean Alvarez scored on a six-yard run. The 38-yard scoring drive was aided by two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties against Piscataway. Alvared, who came into the game with 1,200-plus yards and 24 touchdowns was held to 41 yards on 15 carries.

"This game was the reward for our big boys," Jackson said. "We brought another title back to Piscataway."