SPRINGFIELD- Following a rough season-opener where they were defeated by 30 by division rival Roselle, the Dayton Bulldogs were not about to let that happen again in their home opener against archrival Brearley.
Before you knew it a 7-0 lead blossomed to 15-2 in large part to a run sparked by a tenacious full-court defense that produced almost as many steals as points scored.
Dayton led by 14 at the end of the first eight minutes. The Bulldogs were up by 18 at the break.
Dayton didn't let up at all in the third quarter, winning the period 25-14.
When sophomore Chris Ramirez dazzled the home crowd with a somewhat-reverse layup with a minute to go he provided Dayton with its biggest lead of 35 points.
That turned out to be the final margin of victory. That was the dominating difference.
Dayton rolled to a decisive 67-32 Union County Conference-Valley Division boys basketball victory over 2-0 Brearley on Saturday, Dec. 20, evening its record at 1-1.
The Bulldogs, after opening with a 68-38 loss at Roselle Thursday, Dec. 18, felt a lot better about basketball once Saturday's final buzzer sounded.
"We started slow in our first game, so we put in a lot of work to play much faster this time," said Dayton junior forward Adrian Bernknopf, who led all scorers with 18 points. "We wanted to play at our pace, much faster."
Senior forward Nick Perez was next in scoring with 14 points, filling the hoop from inside and out.
"We wanted to go strong to the basket," Perez said. "We wanted to work the middle and find an open spot."
Following one of many steals the Bulldogs produced in the first quarter, Perez scored inside and was fouled. He made the ensuing free throw to give Dayton its first 10-point lead of 12-2.
"We weren't mentally locked in against Roselle," Perez said. "Against Brearley we wanted to get out quickly and run our plays. This time we got to our spots. It was our home-opener and against a rival team and we wanted to play much better than we showed our first game."
Two free throws by senior guard Danny Perez, who finished with 12 points, gave Dayton a 40-18 advantage midway through the third quarter.
Later in the third, senior guard Patrick Ferguson connected on his only field goal of the game to give the Bulldogs a lead of 29 for the third time.
"We had a good practice after our first game and came out here and protected our home court," said first-year Dayton head coach Joe Pulice, who won his first game and initial home contest at Dayton after taking over for Bobby Martin, who retired from coaching basketball.
Pulice, who has been coaching over 10 years, was previously an assistant coach at Millburn under Roger Blind and at Dayton under Martin.
"We set the tone with our style of play, with our speed and finished at the basket," Pulice said. "Our man defense dictated the turnovers. Our emphasis was to limit them to one shot and to clean up the boards on offense and defense."
Senior guard Tyler Zawacki paced Brearley in scoring 11 points as he was the only Bears player to reach double-digits. Sophomore forward John Beronio, who finished with six points, scored Brearley's first basket following Dayton's quick 7-0 start.
UNION COUNTY CONFERENCE-VALLEY DIVISION BOYS BASKETBALL
Brearley (2-1, 1-1) 06 08 14 04 - 32
Dayton (1-1, 1-1) 20 12 25 10 - 67
BREARLEY BEARS (32):
3-Brody Zawacki, senior, 0-0-2-2
5-Tyler Zawacki, senior, 2-1-4-11
12-Ryan Nelson, sophomore, 0-1-0-3
21-Greg Scalise, senior, 2-0-0-4
24-Mateo Cruz, freshman, 0-0-1-10
25-Josiah Bilewu, junior, 2-0-1-5
45-John Beronio, sophomore, 2-0-2-6
Starters: B. Zawacki, T. Zawacki,
Scalise, Cruz, Beronio.
Totals: 8-2-10-32.
DAYTON BULLDOGS (67):
2-Chris Ramirez, sophomore, 2-1-0-7
3-Patrick Ferguson, senior, 1-0-0-2
12-Danny Perez, senior, 2-2-2-12
15-Adrian Bernknopf, junior, 6-1-3-18
21-Nolan Mohabir, senior, 1-0-0-2
22-Nick Perez, senior, 6-0-2-14
24-Jalen Waldron, senior, 3-0-0-6
30-Ryan Drennan, senior, 0-0-2-2
5-Joshua Gordon, senior, 2-0-0-5
Starters: D. Perez, N. Perez,
Bernknopf, Waldron, Gordon.
Totals: 23-4-9-67.
BREARLEY HAS RARE 2-0 START
From the worst feeling to winning again.
The Brearley boys basketball team snapped an 18-game losing streak on Feb. 11 with a 62-57 home win over an 0-20 East Brunswick Magnet squad. The Middlesex County school finished 0-24 last year.
Brearley didn't fare much better, closing its 2024-2025 season with another loss to finish at 1-18.
It was not the greatest of starts for first-year head coach Brian Cunado.
However, sort of like the football team, the Bears have turned things around in a hurry.
Brearley produced victories in its first two games this year and took that 2-0 record to Springfield on Saturday, Dec. 20 to face arch-rival Dayton. The Bulldogs were 0-1 under first-year head coach Joe Pulice, who has succeeded longtime, highly-successful mentor Bobby Martin.
Brearley went from losing 18 in a row to, beginning with last year's lone win, capturing three out of four games prior to facing Dayton in Union County Conference-Valley Division play.
Brearley began its 2025-2026 campaign with a 66-61 win at Somerset Tech Dec. 17 and followed that up with a 57-48 Valley Division triumph over Roselle Park Dec. 18. Brearley had healthy leads in both games entering the fourth quarter.
Scoring in double-figures for the Bears against Somerset Tech were senior Brody Zawacki with 20 points and sophomore Ryan Nelson with 12. Netting eight points were senior Greg Scalise, junior Josiah Bilewu and sophomore John Beronio. Scalise and Beronio also grabbed 10 rebounds and Nelson nine.
Tyler Zawacki, also a senior, led the Bears with 21 points against Roselle Park. He also contributed five rebounds, four assists and one steal. Tyler poured in a team-high four three-point field goals.
Also scoring in double-digits for Bearley were Nelson with 12 points and Scalise with 10.
Brearley began 2-0 for the first time in more than 15 years.
Dayton's first game was a 68-38 Valley Division setback at Roselle Dec. 18. Roselle turned a close game, the score was in favor of the host Rams 17-14 after the first eight minutes, into a big lead of 39-25 by halftime after they won the second quarter 22-11.
Junior forward Adrian Bernknopf, the quarterback of the Dayton football team that just had a successful 7-2 season, paced the Bulldogs in scoring with 10 points and rebounding with 15 boards.
Scoring in double-figures for the host Rams were seniors Carl King with 17 points, Isaiah Morrison with 15 and Zaire Hopson with 14.
Last year's Valley Division champion, Johnson of Clark, moved up to the Mountain Division. Scotch Plains-Fanwood, which captured the Mountain Division title, rose to the Watchung Division. Eventual Group 4 state champion Plainfield and Roselle Catholic shared last year's Watchung Division championship.
Here's the UCC's division alignment for the 2025-2026 season that just tipped off.
UNION COUNTY CONFERENCE
BOYS BASKETBALL ALIGNMENT
FOR 2025-2026 SEASON
WATCHUNG DIVISION (7 schools):
Elizabeth
Linden
Plainfield
Roselle Catholic
Scotch Plains-Fanwood
Union Catholic
Westfield
Defending co-champions: Plainfield (10-2) and RC (10-2)
MOUNTAIN DIVISION (7 schools):
Hillside
Johnson
Oratory Prep
New Providence
Rahway
Summit
Union
2024-2025 champion: Scotch Plains-Fanwood (11-1)
VALLEY DIVISION (6 schools):
Brearley
Dayton
Gov. Livingston
Johnson
Roselle Park
Roselle
2024-2025 champion: Johnson (10-0)
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