December 5, 2009: The football program at East Brunswick High School, my alma mater, in East Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey, began the 2000s about as bad as you can get. They reached the midpoint and the endpoint about as good as you can get.
On December 5, 2004, 5 years to the day earlier, the Bears broke a 32-year drought, and won the Central Jersey Group IV Championship. It was one of those, "Please, God, just let us win it once in my lifetime" deals. I never expected it to happen. But it did.
For once, there was no shocking moment that cost us a big game; there was no game-long brain cramp; there was no horrible call by a brain-dead or corrupt official; and, while it was cold at Rutgers Stadium that night, the weather wasn't a problem for us. For once, the other shoe didn't drop. We were State Champions.
We kept it going for our 1st 2 games of the 2005 season. And then the other shoe dropped: We lost our last 8 games. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
We went 5-5 in 2006, and again in 2007. There was one significant difference: In 2007, we won the Thanksgiving game against arch-rival Old Bridge. We didn't even do that in 2004. We went 4-6 in 2008, and there was no indication that another special season was coming.
But it was. We began the 2009 season winning big away to Woodbridge, winning big away to Freehold Township, and winning a thriller at home to Monroe, the only game Monroe would lose all season, on the way to winning the Central Jersey Group III title. Would this be the year we finally beat Piscataway? No, they beat us at our place, 13-10.
We won away to South Brunswick, then lost away to Sayreville. Since the early 1990s, a win over Sayreville meant a great season, and a loss meant an ordinary one at best. This time, oh well, shuffle along to .500, maybe.
The schedule had us playing away to Jackson Memorial, the team we beat for the 2004 title, the only game that school had lost in a 3-year stretch. But that stretch also saw the splitting of their district, with the opening of Jackson Liberty. Memorial hasn't been the same since, and we beat them. After a bye week at Halloween, we faced another Ocean County team, hosting Brick Memorial, and lost a 37-34 thriller. This remains the most points E.B. has ever scored and still lost. But we still qualified for the Central Jersey Group IV Playoffs.
The Quarterfinal was at home to West Windsor-Plainsboro South, and we won it, 27-0. The Semifinal was away to Sayreville. A rematch about which we were not enthused. But, as we did in 1994 and 2004, the Bears-Bombers match at War Memorial Stadium it was a defensive struggle that the Bears won, in this case 13-8. For the first time ever, we had beaten a team that we had lost to earlier in the season. This was a good harbinger for the Final, since, as we found out, we would be playing Brick Memorial. Another harbinger: As in 2004, we would be playing the defending Champions on an artificial turf field, at a college, on a December 5.
And then we lost on Thanksgiving again: Old Bridge beat us 23-17. As it usually does, that really pissed me off. We were just 5-4 in the regular season, but were a touchdown each against Piscataway, Brick Memorial and Old Bridge away from being 8-1. Now, we had 9 days to prepare for a rematch with Brick Memorial, who had beaten Brick Township on Thanksgiving.
The game was set for the night of December 5, a Saturday, at Lions Stadium on the campus of The College of New Jersey, formerly named Trenton State College, an NCAA Division III school in Ewing, Mercer County. EBHS had played State Championship games in both boys and girls soccer there, on a very slick artificial turf field bracketed by aluminum bleachers that seated about 8,000 people.
And something happened that had never happened before, in the 49-season history of EBHS football: Snow. It ended up being only a couple of inches, but it covered the field, making it slicker than ever (soccer balls and soccer players had a hard enough time on it), making running the ball difficult, passing the ball nearly impossible, and slipping on the aluminum steps and walkways all too common.
EB kicked a field goal in the first half to make it 3-0. In the 3rd quarter, we added a touchdown, but missed the extra point, o make in 9-0. After that, Memorial tried, but couldn't get anything going. For the 2nd time in these Playoffs, we avenged a regular-season defeat. For the 2nd time in the Playoff era, for the 4th time in our history, we were Central Jersey Group IV Champions.
This one was more enjoyable than 2004, for the simple reason that we'd already done it once before. The tension simply wasn't there: If we'd lost this one, I wouldn't have liked it, but I could have lived with it, even with the miserable weather and the long trip home.
This one was more enjoyable than 2004, for the simple reason that we'd already done it once before. The tension simply wasn't there: If we'd lost this one, I wouldn't have liked it, but I could have lived with it, even with the miserable weather and the long trip home.
But the pressure wasn't nearly as much -- maybe on the individual players, who were in junior high or even elementary school in 2004, but not on the program and the community as a whole. The 2009 victory was nicer. But the 2004 win was sweeter, because we'd waited so long.
E.B. has made the Playoffs twice since, in 2014 and 2021, losing in the Quarterfinals both times.
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December 5, 2009 was a Saturday. It was a day for college football Conference Championship Games:
* Southeastern Conference: Number 1 Alabama beat Number 2 Florida, 32-13 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
* Atlantic Coast Conference: Georgia Tech beat Clemson, 39-34 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. Tech went on to lose the Orange Bowl.
* Conference USA: East Carolina beat the University of Houston, 38-32 at Dowdy-Ficklin Stadium in Greenville, North Carolina -- East Carolina's home field. East Carolina went on to lose the Liberty Bowl.
* Big 12: Texas beat Nebraska, 13-12 at what's now named AT&T Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Texas moved up to Number 2, but went on to lose the National Championship Game, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, to Number 1 Alabama, who thus took the National Championship.
The other big conferences didn't yet have Conference Championship Games. Cincinnati won the Big East, but lost the Sugar Bowl to Florida. Ohio State won the Big 10, and Oregon won the Pac-10. They faced each other in the Rose Bowl, and Ohio State won.
There were 9 games played in the NBA that day:
* The Charlotte Bobcats (now the Charlotte Hornets) beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 106-105 at what's now named the Spectrum Center in Charlotte.
* The Toronto Raptors beat the Chicago Bulls, 110-78 at the United Center in Chicago.
* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Utah Jazz, 108-101 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.
* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Dallas Mavericks, 80-75 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
* The Denver Nuggets beat the San Antonio Spurs, 106-99 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio. Carmelo Anthony scored 34 points for the Nuggets, leading all scorers on the day.
* The Phoenix Suns beat the Sacramento Kings, 115-107 at what's now named the Footprint Center in Phoenix.
* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Indiana Pacers, 88-72 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
* The Orlando Magic beat the Golden State Warriors, 126-118 at what's now named the Oakland Arena.
* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Houston Rockets, 90-89 at the Moda Center in Portland.
And nearly the entire NHL was in action. Only the Montreal Canadiens and the Anaheim Ducks did not play:
* The New Jersey Devils beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3 in a shootout at the Prudential Center. Yes, the Devils won a shootout.
* The New York Rangers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 2-1 at what's now named the KeyBank Center in Buffalo.
* The New York Islanders lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-0 at the Amalie Arena in Tampa.
* The Washington Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 8-2 at what's now named the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
* An "Original Six" matchup was the opener of the traditional Saturday night doubleheader of CBC's Hockey Night In Canada, although this game was not played in Canada. The Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 7-2 at the TD Garden in Boston.
* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-3 at the PNC Arena in Raleigh.
* The Atlanta Thrashers beat the Florida Panthers, 2-1 in a shootout at what's now named the FLA Live Arena in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.
* The Minnesota Wild beat the Nashville Predators, 5-3 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Dallas Stars, 3-2 in a shootout at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 2-1 at what's now named the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.
* The Colorado Avalanche beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 3-2 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.
* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Ottawa Senators, 3-2 at what's now named the Gila River Arena in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.
* The St. Louis Blues beat the Los Angeles Kings, 5-4 in a shootout at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
* And the Calgary Flames beat the San Jose Sharks, 2-1 at the SAP Center in San Jose.