Phillipsburg head coach Frank Duffy talks to his team after a 42-31 win at St. Joseph-Metuchen on September 28, 2026. (Photo: Marcus Borden)
There can be no doubt, and no denying: the Phillipsburg football program has been the most successful and consistent of all 59 Big Central Conference football teams over the past five seasons.
In 2022 and 2023, the Stateliners reached sectional finals in Group 5, but lost both times. They followed that up by winning the next two – in 2024 over Northern Highlands and in 2025 over Montgomery – while playing in Group 5. And they even went all the way to the Group 4 state championship game at Rutgers in 2024 – the only BCC team to do so since state finals were introduced in 2022 where they fell to Winslow…