The 2025 Morris-Sussex high school football season began with extreme sorrow for many but ended with utter joy for two schools – and a near-Hollywood-like finish for a third.
Right before training camp began, the Morris Knolls coaching staff lost assistant Gerry Gallagher, who was as prominent a person in Morris County football as you’ll ever find (More on Gerry below).
The season was a particularly great one for two of Morris County’s greatest, historical programs: Butler and West Morris.
A third school with a great past – Madison – almost came away with one of the most unlikely state championships in Morris County history.
Here is my look back at some of the highlights of the exciting 2025 campaign. Then it is on to my preview of the 2026 Morris-Sussex season.
Each week, I’ll drop a story looking ahead to what figures to be another great year.
But first, one last look at last year.
Standing along elite company: Butler quarterback David Smith had as brilliant a season a Bulldogs quarterback has ever had, which is saying something at a quarterback-rich school.
While legendary Run-and-Shoot QBs Scott Brown (three titles) and Dan Madine (one) led Butler to sectional championships with their arms, Smith led the team to great heights – mostly with his feet.
Smith was 231 for 1,875 yards and 30 touchdowns rushing and was 90 for 144 passing for 1,284 yards and another 16 TDs in leading the Bulldogs to their 10th sectional title and second straight NJIC and sectional crown. For his career, he fell just shy of 5,000 yards rushing and passing combined with 76 touchdowns.
At the end of the regular season, there were several players in the running for Big State Sports Player of the Year.
But by the end of the playoffs, Smith literally ran away with the honor.
His playoff run was one for the ages for coach Jason Luciani.
- In the first round of the state playoffs in North 1, Group I, Smith was 20 for 200 rushing with five TDs in a 42-7 win over Hawthorne.
- In the sectional semis, he was 23 for 310 rushing with five TDs in a 49-13 win over New Milford.
- In a 28-14 sectional championship game win over Kinnelon, he was 24 for 213 with two TDs. It was Butler’s second straight sectional title with Smith at the controls.
- In a 24-21 state Group 1 semifinals, he was 33 for 301 with three TDs in a 24-21 loss to Cedar Grove.
- In a 41-20 win over Rutherford in the NJIC championship game, Smith rushed for 65 yards and two TDs but was 9 for 16 for 171 yards and two TDs passing.
Smith wound up being named Big States Sports first-team All-Area quarterback, as well as Player of the Year.
Here are some of my Butler stories from last season:
https://bigstatesports.com/butler-is-better-than-advertised-hs-playoff-thoughts/
https://bigstatesports.com/smith-leads-bulldogs-over-hasbrouck-heights/
As an aside, statistically speaking, Smith’s numbers are right alongside some of the greats in Morris and Sussex during this century. I did a Big State Sports all-century team that can be found here:
Running their way to glory – It seems as though West Morris has pounded the rock for 100 years out of the Delaware Wing – and that is exactly how the Wolfpack won their fourth sectional championship in five years.
West Morris’s running game overwhelmed Summit on the way to the school’s 11th state championship, 35-14.
The Wolfpack ran wild all night, carrying 48 times for 356 yards – despite the Union County visitors crowding the box. Big State Sports All-Area running back Deacon Frayne was 23 for 178 rushing for two TDs and Mike Finlay was 10 for 130 with two TDs.
Coach Kevin Hennelly’s team won its first 12 games, including winning the rugged SFC-Liberty White and North 2, Group III titles, before succumbing to Old Tappen in the state Group III semifinals.
The team rushed for more than 3,600 yards and scored 49 touchdowns rushing.
When I spoke with Hennelly last summer, he was arranging his backfield. Little did he know that Frayne (1,423 yards, 17 touchdowns), Finlay (943 yards, 14 TDs) and Brody Mansolino (700 yards, 7 TDs) would emerge in a mighty way.
They ran behind a veteran O-Line that included four-year starter Tommy Borgia ( a first-team All-Area D-Lineman who could just as well have been first-team O-Line), All-Area candidate A.J. Codella, Blake Parkinson-Gee, Joey Drown, Matt Lacerenza, and tight ends Sean Conway and Luke D’Aconti.
The irony in all of this? Frayne’s father Henry was a stellar lineman at West Morris back in the early 2000’s and has a knack for developing top-flight O-Linemen at the school through the years.
Young football players in the West Morris football world are more drawn to blocking than carrying the football.
Except Deacon Frayne, who had maybe the best sophomore season a running back at the school has ever had. Consider this: Stefano Montella, who made my All-20th Century team, didn’t start at running back until his junior year.
So Frayne has a chance to smash Montella’s school record of 4,296 yards and 50 TDs.
Was this the best team at West Morris this century? Well, the Wolfpack were very good but there were a few others who were better. Here are the columns I wrote last year detailing the best Morris-Sussex schools of the 21st century:
https://bigstatesports.com/joe-hofmann-football-notes-column-other-amazing-teams-of-the-century/
https://bigstatesports.com/who-are-the-best-football-teams-of-this-century/
https://bigstatesports.com/hofmanns-all-quarter-century-top-11-20/
https://bigstatesports.com/knolls-2005-team-the-best-in-the-area-from-2000-2025/
Dodgers almost complete miracle for outgoing Kubik: Madison had won five sectional championships for legendary coach Chris Kubik (127-69 record over 19 years).
In four of his titles (2010, 2011, 2012, 2016), Kubik’s teams went undefeated. In 2015, the Dodgers started out 1-2 but regrouped and wound up winning a sectional crown.
Last year’s team reached the finals and held a 16-14 lead with two minutes left before losing to Shabazz, 26-16 (Shabazz scored on an INT return on the game’s last play).
If the Dodgers were to have held on, it would have been by far their most unlikely title.
Kubik’s team had stunned previously undefeated Bernards in the first round of the playoffs (22-21) and then went on the road and hammered a Becton team (35-0) that had just stunned a very good (and previously-undefeated) Hanover Park club one week earlier.
Madison fell short against Shabazz, but that doesn’t take away from the dramatic turnaround the team staged.
The Dodgers didn’t exactly have the look of a playoff finalist early in the year. The team allowed an incredible 503 yards rushing in a 49-21 loss to Mountain Lakes.
Allowing that many yards rushing isn’t exactly a playoff recipe.
But one week later, the team began to right itself and scored an epic 48-42 come-from-behind win over a good Sparta club and the team the Dodgers didn’t lose until Shabazz.
If you want to harken back,here is my Madison coverage from last year.
https://bigstatesports.com/even-in-defeat-kubik-leaves-madison-as-a-winner/
https://bigstatesports.com/pressure-defense-leads-madison-past-becton/
https://bigstatesports.com/cripe-leads-madison-to-a-stunner-over-bernards
Here’s to the winners: Here is a final look at the division champions in the leagues involving Morris-Sussex schools:
- West Morris (12-1) won all 5 league games and won the Liberty White.
- Hanover Park (9-1) finished 4-0 and captured the American White.
- Delbarton (3-1) stunned DePaul in the regular season and wound up tying DePaul and St. Peter’s Prep for the United White title.
- High Point (8-2) finished 5-0 in the league and won the American Blue.
- Chatham (6-3) went 5-0 and won the Liberty Blue.
- Kinnelon (10-2) was 5-0 in the league on the way to winning the National Blue. Coach Dustin Grande wound up winning Big State’s Coach of the Year award.
- Butler (11-1) went 5-0 to win the NJIC-Meadowlands.
Here’s to the top players: The 2025 season had its fair share of terrific players. The All-Area, All-Morris and All-Sussex teams for last season can be found here:
https://bigstatesports.com/big-state-sports-all-morris-sussex-area-football-team/
https://bigstatesports.com/big-state-sports-all-morris-county-football-team/
https://bigstatesports.com/big-state-sports-all-sussex-area-football-team
Morris bids farewell to a coaching giant: Gerry Gallagher died suddenly right before the 2025 season got underway. His final coaching stop was with his son Bryan at Morris Knolls but Gerry also coached at Morris Catholic, Montville, and Parsippany. He was literally loved by all and left a gigantic footprint wherever he coached.
His void will always be felt.
My two stories about Gerry can be found here:
https://bigstatesports.com/remembering-gerry-gallagher/
and here:
https://bigstatesports.com/gallagher-left-a-lasting-impact-on-the-field-and-off/
More 2026 previews on the way: Here is a look at the preview stories I will be writing each week as we hit 2026:
July 13: Best Games to Watch for 2026
July 20: Top 20 Issues for 2026
July 27: Best Offensive Players to watch for 2026
Aug. 3: Best Defensive Players to watch for 2026
