Knights prepare to face dangerous Braves team Sayreville gets past Westfield, prepares for Scotch Plains-Fanwood BY WARREN RAPPLEYEA Staff Writer The Old Bridge Knights are now the favorites in the Central Jersey Group IV football tournament. Their 30-0 win over Pennsauken on Saturday, coupled with losses by both Toms River North and Brick Township, leaves the Knights as the top remaining seed in the bracket heading into this weekend’s second round. The Knights will now host the Manalapan Braves, who shocked second-seeded Brick last weekend, 21-7. The Braves are a team that has peaked at the right time, and are a far more dangerous team than their 5-4 record would indicate. As for the Knights, they played extremely well against Pennsauken, dominating play on both sides of the ball. In the second half, Old Bridge, which scored its first touchdown after a John Hoernlein interception, also converted a second turnover into six points when Matt Donnelly recovered a fumble at the Pennsauken 28. Four plays later, on fourth-and-six, Joel Scarano, behind a terrific block by Bryant McCombs, weaved his way for a 24-yard TD run to give Old Bridge a 16-0 lead 2:09 into third quarter. On the ensuing drive, Pennsauken, which committed four turnovers, advanced to the Old Bridge 27, but on fourth down, receiver Shawn Mock was brought down running a reverse by defensive tackle James Connor for a 13-yard loss. Old Bridge, keyed by a 41-yard pass play from DePalma to Hoernlein, followed with a three-play, 60-yard drive in just 1:04 capped by a 15-yard touchdown run by McCombs on an option as Old Bridge built a 23-0 lead midway through the third. "I thought the key was our defense all day," DeMarco said. "We gave them some yardage, then we shut them down and made some big plays. In the second half, we opened them up by making a couple of adjustments on the outside part of our option game." Old Bridge scored again late in the third quarter after holding on downs at the Pennsauken 39. Three plays later, Danny Martin took an inside hand-off from DePalma and raced 28 yards to the end zone and a 30-0 advantage with 1:35 remaining. The Knights will be looking for a similar effort on Saturday when the Braves look to spring their second major upset in as many weeks. Head coach Tom Tarver’s squad’s confidence is at an all-time high following their dismantling of a Brick team that was one of the Shore Conference’s most dominant teams on both sides of the ball all season. "This is a huge win for the program," said Tarver. "This is our biggest win." The Sayreville Bombers got solid games from junior Vinnie Otero and sophomore Shaune Thomas on Saturday to top Westfield, 20-13, in the first round of the North Jersey 2 Group III state tournament. Otero rushed for 75 yards on 17 carries, while Thomas accumulated 104 yards on 14 carries to lead the top-seeded and unbeaten Bombers into the next round, where they will face fourth-seeded Scotch Plains-Fanwood on Saturday. Scotch Plains beat Warren Hills 10-0 last weekend in the quarterfinal-round match-up. Sayreville jumped out to a 14-0 first-quarter lead on a pair of touchdown runs from Thomas (from 15 yards) and Kurt Pogoda (one yard). Westfield picked off a pass and drove 94 yards in three plays to get within 14-7, which was the score at the half. But the Bombers received the kick-off to start the second half, and marched down the field before Otero found the end zone from five yards out for the winning score. Westfield got within 20-13 with another TD with 7:32 remaining, but Sayreville was able to run out the clock the rest of the way. — Doug McKenzie contributed to this story