Elizabeth's Historic Senior QB
Latest Parisi Fairfield/SC AOW

How's this for a lineage of highly-successful Elizabeth quarterbacks during the playoff era: Bob Drake, Al Hawkins, Asad Abdul-Kahliq, Billy Gilbert, Michael Eargle and Phillip (PJ) Walker.

Add 6-foot-3, 230-pound A'rique Fleming to that list.

Fleming hopes to lead Elizabeth to its ninth sectional state championship in the playoff era, the first eight won in 1981 under Don Somma; 1988, 1989, 1997, 1999 and 2000 under Jerry Moore; 2006 under Chet Parlavecchio and 2012 under John Quinn.

"He'll go down as one of the great ones for sure," said Elizabeth coach Gene Kline. "He deserves to be on the Mount Rushmore of the top guys from Elizabeth."

Fleming completed 15-of-19 passes for 352 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions in this past Saturday’s 34-3 victory at Westfield. He rushed for Elizabeth's other score.

For his efforts - which have been consistently outstanding all season long, and throughout his storied scholastic career - Fleming is the latest Parisi Fairfield/Sideline Chatter Athlete of the Week.

"He's matured a great deal," Kline said of the four-year varsity starter, who dons No. 2 and is also a full-time starter on defense for the first time at outside linebacker.

Fleming, also the Minutemen punter, is approaching 7,000 career yards passing and has thrown 71 touchdown passes against only 27 interceptions since the beginning of the 2023 season.

So far this year Fleming has thrown 23 touchdown passes and has been picked off just twice.

"He looked in the mirror and discovered what he had to get better at," Kline said. "Playing on defense and making an impact there just makes him more marketable.

"The kids have so much respect for him. If he decides to run off a cliff, the kids will follow him right off it.

"He can also do so many things well with his athletic ability aside from football. People that are recruiting him don't quite know this."

Kline said Fleming's most recent interest has come from a Big 12 school.
"He's continuing to grow as a player as we speak," Kline said.

Notes from Elizabeth football information director Kevin Meacham include Fleming tying Elizabeth's single-season touchdown pass record of 23 set by Walker his senior season of 2012. Fleming's 1,888 passing yards are just 205 short of the single season school record set by Walker his junior season of 2011 when Walker guided Elizabeth to the North 2, Group 4 final.

Meacham also states that Fleming and Walker, who excelled in college at Temple and in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers and Cleveland Browns, have had similar levels of production from their sophomore seasons on.

Kline said that Fleming has received an offer from Temple.

In 33 games from 2010 to 2012, Walker passed for 5,673 yards and threw 62 touchdown passes in addition to rushing for 1,300 yards and rushing for 23 touchdowns.

In 29 games so far from 2024 to 2026, Fleming has passed for 5,271 yards, 56 touchdowns and rushed for 1,703 yards and 27 scores.

Other numbers of note include Elizabeth at 322 points for 2026 is the ninth most in school history so far, including the Battin-Jefferson years going back to 1896.

The 40 points per game average is the best in school history as of the Westfield win, just a shade ahead of Walker's 2012 team, which averaged 39.8 points.

Elizabeth's defense is allowing only 11.0 points per game, which is the team's best mark since Parlavecchio's 2006 team. The Minutemen had given up 33, 20, 25 and 27 points per game over the last four seasons.

"We feel that the only team that can stop us right now is ourselves," Kline said.

Looking at this past Saturday’s game in Westfield, it took a little while for the Fleming-led Elizabeth offense to get fully on track, but that did eventually happen.

When going up against a Ken Miller-led Westfield defense, the capacity to move the chains becomes an ultimate challenge.

With less than two minutes remaining in the first half of the Big Central Conference-American Gold Division gridiron game at Gary Kehler Stadium heavily-favored, undefeated Elizabeth held just a slim four-point advantage over a Westfield team that, despite riding a six-game losing streak, was playing inspired football.

Considering the defense Elizabeth's offense was going up against you could understand the Minutemen being in a dogfight up until that point.

Enter Elizabeth’s star QB Fleming. Enough was enough. It was time for one of the best senior signal-callers in the state to take over.

With 1:53 remaining before intermission following a solid Westfield punt to the Elizabeth 33, Fleming dropped back and threw a dart to senior wide receiver Eric Cespedes, who caught the slant pass in stride at the 50.

Cespedes then outran the Westfield secondary, untouched, into the end zone to put the visiting Minutemen up by a more comfortable 10 points.

"We were disappointed at that point and I wanted another score before halftime," Fleming said.

Fleming explained what he said the "right call" was. The play sent in was an RPO, (read possession option).

"We battled with injuries all week and also had a couple in this game," Cespedes said. "For us it's just next man up."

Elizabeth ultimately pulled away in the second half en route to a 34-3 triumph that saw the Minutemen win the American Gold Division championship outright at 3-0 with wins over Union, St. Joseph's of Metuchen and Westfield.

Elizabeth improved to 8-0 for the first time since 2012, which is also its last state championship season, and increased its regular season winning streak to 11.

Westfield, a playoff team a year ago out of North, Group 4, fell to an uncharacteristic 1-7.

Elizabeth, now preparing for a tough home game against Somerville (5-3) this Friday, Oct. 23 at 6 p.m. at Williams Field, is projected to be the top seed for the upcoming North 2, Group 5 playoffs.

Elizabeth's goal now is to be playing at Williams Field the next four Friday nights. That would mean hosting the North 2, Group 5 final on Nov. 13 in an attempt to capture its first sectional state championship in 14 years.

"All we're focusing on right now is going 1-0 to finish the week," Cespedes said.

"Our mentality is next game," Fleming said. "Nothing beyond that."

As quick as Elizabeth can score and as punishing as its defense can hit at times, the Minutemen also display a measure of humility that allows them to not take anything for granted.

There's no looking ahead. For Elizabeth, being humble is as important as making a game-changing first down on third-and-five.

"We're happy to be 8-0, but it's still not really where we want to be," Cespedes said. "There's still plenty of room for improvement, whether it's converting a first down in a certain situation or making a tackle when needed. We need to keep improving."

"Our main goal is to go 1-0 every week," Fleming said. "The biggest difference this year is that the seniors are being held accountable."

Elizabeth will be in the playoffs out of North, Group 5 for the third straight year and home again. The Minutemen reached the North 2, Group 5 semifinals with one playoff win two years ago and were eliminated in the first-round last year.

"We went through a lot of adversity this week, some of it in our control and some of it not," said Kline, who was elevated to head coach status in 2024 and had Elizabeth playing in home playoff games in 2024, a 6-5 finish, and 2025, a 5-5 conclusion.

"We've got to stop having mishaps during the week," Kline continued. "That said, I'm proud of the way we've pulled together as a brotherhood and sealed the division championship. Words can't express how proud I am to see how much we've grown."

Here's how Kline described what it took to go from being a .500 squad to undefeated 12 months later: "it's a tribute to our kids. "We did a lot of things differently in our program and for us coaches it was back to the drawing board in the off season.

"We've been on the other side of a 34-3 score, so our kids wanted to be successful. We've also focused on their school studies so there would be more opportunities for them to excel.

"We're still a work in progress, but we're at a point now where they're beginning to believe that they can achieve something not done here in some time."

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