For the first time ever, New Jersey will play Texas in high school football. Two-time national champ Don Bosco Prep will travel to the Lone Star State to play Melissa on August 29.
Don Bosco is coming off an 8-4 season, finishing No. 106 in the High School Football America 300 national rankings, powered by NFL Play Football. In 2009 and 2011, before the HSFA rankings, USA TODAY crowned the Ironmen national champs.
DBP owns 15 New Jersey state championships with the last one coming in 2015.
Melissa is one of the fastest growing communities in north Texas. In 2023, the Cardinals opened a new $35-million stadium that seats 10,000 fans.
Last season, Melissa started No. 294 in our preseason rankings, but lost its opener (27-20) to defending Arkansas state champ Parkview. After a 4-1 start, the Cardinals finished the season 6-4 and didn’t qualify for the postseason.
In 2023, Melissa finished No. 269 in our national rankings.
Our friends at Prep Gridiron Logistics, helped put this Jersey/Texas matchup together.
“When I founded Prep Gridiron Logistics in 2015 (this year is our 10th Anniversary) one of our main goals was to create historic matchups on an annual basis,” said PGL founder Joe Maimone. “This game accomplishes just that. Up until now the states of New Jersey and Texas have never competed against each other in the sport of high school football. August 29 can’t get here fast enough! Kudos to Melissa and Don Bosco Prep for making this historic game happen. Don Bosco was one of the teams that started the out-of-state game trend back in the early 2000s. The Ironmen have scheduled almost every elite team in America over the past two decades. As a program on the rise both in Texas and nationally, Melissa can and will only benefit from scheduling high-profile games like this going forward.”