By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
PISCATAWAY — The thing about sports — any sport, really — is that the more you win, the harder it is to keep winning. Once you get to the top of the mountain, everybody below you is trying to push you off so they can be king of the hill.
The Winslow High football team reached the top of the mountain last year, winning the Group 4 state championship, but the return trip was a whole lot harder — and this year’s state playoffs put the Eagles to the test, big time.
But when you have the kind of athletes Winslow does, and when said athletes have spent years building up their mental toughness to match their physical prowess, facing adversity is no big thing. The Eagles fell behind in the third quarter against Ramapo in this year’s state title game on Sunday afternoon at Rutgers University’s SHI Stadium, but responded in a big way down the stretch and beat the Raiders, 34-21, to capture their second straight state championship.
Winslow (12-2) faced a tough road to get back to the title game, getting blown out in two of its first three games against national powers IMG Academy (Fla.) and Bergen Catholic. But since that 41-14 loss against Bergen Catholic on Sept. 12, Winslow has ripped off 11 straight wins — including last weekend’s gritty 14-12 win over Brick Memorial in the state semifinals.
And in the first half of the state championship Sunday, the Eagles were plagued by penalties, dropped passes and other mistakes, and Ramapo took advantage, building leads of 14-12 and 21-18 in the third quarter before Winslow scored twice in the final 10 minutes to overtake the Raiders.
“That’s what good teams are made of. We wanted to come out here and do us, at the end of the day,” said Eagles coach Bill Belton. “What we learned (from the first half) was we just can’t shoot ourselves in the foot. We had to come out here, play fast and be able to execute. Late in the game we were able to do that.”
Liam Hayward, who finished with a game-high 146 yards on 36 grueling attempts, scored on a 7-yard run early in the fourth quarter to put Ramapo ahead, 21-18.
Winslow is not a team that has been used to trailing in the fourth quarter the past two seasons, but the Eagles responded calmly, and forcefully. A big run from Karon Ceasar on Winslow’s next possession set up quarterback Jalen Parker’s 13-yard touchdown run. He plowed a defender at the goal line to score, then hooked up with Quayd Hendryx on the two-point conversion to give Winslow the lead for good at 26-21.
“This feels amazing. You see the score. We haven’t been through a lot of adversity this year, so to go through adversity and know we have each other’s backs, as brothers — we came out on top and it feels great,” said senior lineman Cayden Gray. “This shows that we’re not just a team that can blow people out, we’re a team that can fight and stick it out.”
“We just go, day-in and day-out, perfecting our craft and trying to make ourselves better,” Parker said. “Our athletes are better than most athletes out there, so I’ll take our athletes over anybody. I trust all my guys. And my line always blocks for me.”
Hendryx, a senior committed to the University of Minnesota, had an incredible game, as he scored on an 88-yard touchdown pass from Parker in the first quarter, took a kickoff back 87 yards for another score before halftime, and added a 20-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter that briefly gave Winslow an 18-14 lead.
“If you don’t know who No. 5 is, you do now. I promise you that,” Gray said, referring to Hendryx. “Coach Bill and the whole coaching staff, they always keep us together and give us the best game plan to go in and perform, and as players we just have to go out there and perform. There was never a doubt because we knew we had that fight in us. We were never going to stop fighting until the clock hit all zeroes and we were on top.”
Ramapo got a solid performance from quarterback Casey Grusser, who threw for 166 yards, but Winslow countered with 240 passing yards from Parker and 173 rushing yards from five different backs.
“We knew we had to stop their quarterback, and our defense played a great game,” Parker said. “Our defense always shows up for us. Like today, they showed up and balled out for us. All we want to do is just keep winning.”
Winslow’s senior class has helped build the program into a state power, as the Eagles have gone 42-9 the past four years — including 14-2 in the state playoffs.
“This 2026 class, they were the class that we kind of built everything around and they deserve this. I’m proud of them and they get to go out as winners. They should enjoy this moment,” Belton said. “I’m happy for them. They earned it. They worked all year, since January, to get back to this point and the seniors wanted to go out the right way.”
