It remains to be seen if Essex County will have at least two teams in the NJSIAA group state finals - as Cedar Grove and Shabazz both reached their respective Group 1 and Group 2 state championship games in both 2024 and 2025 - however, what does appear promising as the 2026 finals are still more than a month away (Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 28-29 at MetLife Stadium) is that in addition to those two holdover-likely-title-contenders, teams such as Caldwell (in Group 2) and West Orange (Group 5) could also both challenge for deep runs in their respective brackets as well.
The final regular season action - other than a handful of Thanksgiving Day contests - will be played Friday and Saturday Oct. 23-24, and then the state sectional playoffs will commence with first-round action on Halloween weekend, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 30-31.
All four aforementioned teams will have high seeds in their respective groups.
Cedar Grove (5-1), which has been the runner-up to South Jersey power Glassboro the past two years, should be the top seed in North, Group 1. Coach Rob Gogerty’s Panthers have continued to prosper, even with the loss of sophomore starting quarterback Dan Lastella who absorbed a fractured ankle vs. Hoboken in their Sept. 25 game. Converted junior wide receiver Andrw Loftus has stepped in behind center to do a commendable job.
Cedar Grove could remain head and shoulders above anyone else in the North; although nothing – of course - is ever guaranteed when looking to the challenge of winning three straight games to capture a sectional playoff title.
One certainty should Cedar Grove keep advancing all the way to MetLife for a third straight year is that Glassboro will not be the South, Group 1 representative this time around since the Gloucester County-based Bull Dogs are now in Group 2 after being one of the successful football playoff teams that the NJSIAA selected last winter to move up a group size for 2026.
Shabazz, a Group 2 runner-up to Rumson-Fair Haven in 2024 and Camden last year, was another football program elevated to a larger group size as the Newark-based Bulldogs are now in Group 3 where they are currently No. 2 in the overall 16-team field behind state power Old Tappan, and ahead of fellow Essex County member West Essex, which is fifth in the North power index standings used to determine the two 8-team fields for Section 1 and Section 2 in North, Group 3.
The Bulldogs have a host of veteran standouts including the offensive pass-catch tandem of veteran senior QB Kariem Coston and the exciting junior WR Nosym Brown, plus a stern defense led by senior D-lineman and Vanderbilt commit Adekunbi Adetayo.
Caldwell (6-0) is No. 2 just behind Westwood in North, Group 2, and if all stays the same at the top, the Chiefs will be the top seed in the North 2, Group 2 state sectional playoff field.
Led by junior QB Adam Sepe who has already surpassed the 1,000-yard aerial show plateau for a third straight season, Caldwell has as proficient a passing attack as any team in Essex County and is certainly capable of winning at least a sectional title, and perhaps also be able to advance all the way to the Group 2 state final which it last won when it edged Rumson-Fair Haven, 18-14, at Rutgers in 2022.
One of the more intriguing and perhaps the deepest North Jersey playoff grouping is North, Group 5 where West Orange (5-1) is at No. 2 just behind Ramapo (5-2) which edged the Mountaineers, 13-12, in the season-opening Mountaineer Classic at Suriano Stadium when the Green Raiders roared back from a 12-0 fourth-quarter deficit to win the nip-and-tuck contest which could also be used two months later as a prime example of just how close North, Group 5 could wind up being leading into the sectional playoff finals on Nov. 13-14.
