BLOOMFIELD, NJ – After losing in the playoff semifinals in an inspirational run, the Bloomfield High School varsity football team hopes to finish a great season on a winning note.
The Bengals, under 27th-year head coach and BHS alumnus Mike Carter, will host Montclair in the annual Investors Bank Cup football game on Wednesday, Nov. 22, at 6 p.m. at Foley Field.
The seventh-seeded Bengals lost at third-seeded Union City, 35-0, in the semifinal round of the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 1, Group 5 state playoffs, Friday night, Nov. 17.
The Bengals, who came into the game on a four-game winning streak, fell to 6-4. Bloomfield upset second-seeded host Passaic County Tech, 21-3, in Wayne in the quarterfinal round the previous week for its third-ever playoff win in the current NJSIAA playoff format era.
Meanwhile, in the same North 1, Group 5 playoff bracket, top-seeded Montclair defeated fifth-seeded Ridgewood, 49-14, on Saturday, Nov. 18, at home to advance to the championship game. Montclair, now 10-0, will face Union City in the final on Friday, Dec. 1, at MetLife Stadium at 5 p.m.
The winner between the Bengals and the Mounties will take home the Investors Bank Cup.
Last year, Coach John Fiore’s Mounties brought the Investors Bank Cup back to Montclair High on Thanksgiving Day by defeating the Bengals, 30-23.
The competition between the Bengals and Mounties football teams began in 1922, when Bloomfield won the opening game with a 14-0 score. For the next 54 years, the football teams met annually through 1976.
The competition was renewed in 1992, and in 2011 the Bengals and Mounties began competing for the Investors Bank Cup during Thanksgiving weekend. Overall, Montclair leads the rivalry with Bloomfield in games played on Thanksgiving, 55-24-1.
The Mounties have won the Investors Bank Cup five times, and the Bengals placed the trophy in their display case following their victory in 2015.
Fans can start entering the stadium when the gates to Foley Field open at 5 p.m.
At the game, Investors Bank’s branch teams from Bloomfield and Montclair will be giving away seat cushions, while the supply lasts.
Following the game, Investors Bank Montclair Branch Manager Alicia Robinson will present a $500 scholarship and commemorative football to the Mountie player who is named MVP of the game. The Bengals’ MVP will receive a scholarship and commemorative football from the Bloomfield Branch Manager Catherine Samarati.
Robinson and Samarati will present the Investors Bank Cup to the winning football team.
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Sideline chatter says that the Thanksgiving Eve rivalry game on Nov. 22 rivalry between the Bloomfield Bengals and the Montclair Mounties may be last one in this storied rivalry.
Be sure to attend the game that is likely to mark the end of the era of Thanksgiving week games for these two great football programs.