Bayonne crowned NJ.com's 2026 team of the year after perfect season

Bayonne’s 17-0 flag football run ended with NJ.com naming the Bees its 2026 team of the year, a fitting cap to a season defined by scoring, depth and a comeback that flipped the state bracket. The title-clinching moment came at Kean University on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, when junior quarterback Taleiyah Smith found freshman Camryn Pipher for the winning two-point conversion in a 20-19 victory over Ridgewood.

That finish completed the program’s most dramatic result, but it did not define the season by itself. Bayonne trailed 19-0 before rallying past the defending champion and snapping Ridgewood’s 41-game winning streak. Jersey Sports Zone’s account of the game had Ridgewood ahead 19-0 with 3:35 left in the third quarter after a Penelope Pace rushing touchdown and conversion, then Smith answered with a 66-yard touchdown pass to Tatyanna Watson. Pipher scored again from the goal line, Bayonne converted a fourth-and-12 to keep the drive alive, and Smith hit Pipher for the go-ahead two-point play with 10 seconds left. Eva Chambers intercepted Ridgewood’s final Hail Mary to finish the comeback.

The path to that scene was built on relentless domination long before the final. Bayonne went 15-0 before the North/Central final, won the Super Football Conference South final 6-0 over West Orange on June 2, and moved through the postseason with wins over Newark Collegiate 41-0, Passaic 53-7, Fair Lawn 12-6, West Orange 6-0 and Plainfield 33-6. In the regular season, the Bees routinely buried opponents, including victories over Columbia 38-0, Kearny 52-0, Memorial 54-0, BelovED Charter 32-8, Elizabeth 31-21, Union City 53-0, Weequahic 26-0, Dickinson 40-0, Newark Lab 41-7, Hoboken 46-0 and Bloomfield 49-0.

The numbers behind the record showed how far the program had come in two seasons under head coach Tico Baret, with Jon Mullin, Tyler Rickard, Vin Gorski and Ken Jaworski on the staff. Bayonne finished 11-1 in 2024-25, then followed with a perfect 17-0 season for a combined 28-1 over its first two years. Smith threw for 2,775 yards and 53 touchdowns, while Watson led the attack with 1,428 receiving yards and 27 receiving touchdowns. Bayonne scored 866 points in 17 games, an output that made the title look less like a surprise than the result of a program that kept adding talent, experience and precision.

The championship also landed in a narrow historical window. New Jersey flag football is set to become an NJSIAA-sanctioned sport in 2027, making Bayonne’s win the last New York Jets-sponsored trophy before the official sanctioning era begins. That gave the Bees’ perfect season a place in the sport’s record book, and in the state’s new pecking order.