BRIDGEWATER - Coming into the 2022 season, the Hillsborough High School Raiders were forced to face the standards set by their 2021 version. The one with two NCAA Division 1 players that went 13-0 and won a state championship is a daunting one to try to live up to just one year after. 

Coach Kevin Carty and the rest of the Raiders know that, for sure, this is not the same team as it was last season. But they still hold themselves to a championship-level standard and so far this year, they’ve met the expectations.

The streak lives on as Hillsborough (2-0, 2-0 Big Central Conference) defeated Bridgewater-Raritan (1-2, 1-1 Big Central) 17-6 on Friday night on the back of a dominant defensive performance and timely offensive outbursts. The defending Group 5 South champions have now won 15 straight games dating back to last season.

The Raiders slugged their way to victory on Friday night. In a battle of two stout defenses, the Raiders simply outmuscled the Panthers, racking up six sacks on the night and not giving the Panthers running back committee any room to operate in the backfield. 

“This is a great win by these players,” Carty said. “An awesome team win. Sometimes you have to win games like how we did tonight with a lot of muscle. [Bridgewater-Raritan] is always a team that we have to beat. It’s one of the biggest games of our season. Anything that signifies us winning makes me happy.”

In the game’s opening drive junior Jonathan Lobelo leveled Panthers senior running back CJ Stevens, forcing a fumble which junior Tyler Van Cleef recovered and returned 46 yards for the opening touchdown. 

Lobelo and fellow junior Shayne Powell were particularly physical all night and several times blew through the line of scrimmage and stopped runs right at the handoff. 

“[Lobelo and Powell] are so good and physical,” Carty said. “We have some really good young players. They’re so physical, they play so smart. We have such smart guys in the secondary led by Tyler [Van Cleef]. I hope we just keep on getting better. Our defensive coaching staff does an unbelievable job with them and they came out and executed. [Bridgewater-Raritan] is as good of a defense that we’ve seen having to go against, but we outscored them just on defense.”

The offense wasn’t stellar and routinely got pushed backwards by the Panther defense for most of the night, but Hillsborough made plays when needed. 

Senior quarterback Ryan Tasetano took care of the ball and managed the offense all night and was rewarded for his efforts with a 54-yard touchdown to senior Shane Donoghue late in the fourth quarter. The touchdown would end up being the final score of the evening, proving too much for the Panther offense to come back from. 

“Ryan [Tasetano], nothing fazes him,”Carty said. “We didn’t do anything good for a while and then he’s got no problem throwing a touchdown late.”

“I’m so happy for and proud of this group,”Carty said. “We’re playing really well and physical right now. I don’t know how much credit a lot of these guys got going into the season after what we lost from last season. That’s a pretty good two games and a really good start to our season. We got six more hard games though so we have to keep getting better.”

Up by still just a touchdown and not being able to convert on a third-and-long nearing halftime, senior kicker Sam Meechan connected on a 41-yard field goal to push the Raider lead to 10-0.

Meechan was perfect on the night, going 2/2 on PATs and 1/1 on FGs.

Carty on knowing the game would be low-scoring going in: “I was hoping that it wouldn’t. I thought there was a chance that we’d score more but I hamstrung our offense a little slightly because we played such good defense. I think I was a little more conservative and maybe I should’ve let them gang up more. But our running backs took care of the ball and Ryan [Tesetano], nothing fazes him. We didn’t do anything good for a while and then he’s got no problem throwing a long touchdown pass late. That’s what our guys can do.“

Carty on how the offense can improve: “We gotta clean up some things in the run game. I don’t think we gave our quarterback and receivers a chance to do a whole lot today. Because it was such a defensive game we played to that. But we need to run the ball better, we have the ability too. There were too many three-and-outs in the second half when we needed to keep the ball.”

Hillsborough will host another American Silver Division opponent next Friday night in Ridge.

Bridgewater-Raritan will also play an American Silver Division next Friday night at Hunterdon Central.