Frank Duffy issued three challenges to his Phillipsburg football team before Friday night Mid-State 37 divisional crossover at Watchung Hills.

“I told them I wanted a shutout on defense; I wanted us to block a punt and stretch the field with a vertical passing game,” Duffy said. “And we did all of those.”

Passing those challenges proved decisive as the Stateliners rolled to a 35-0 triumph over the hosts.

Phillipsburg improved to 5-0 on the season as the Warriors fell to 0-5.

The Stateliners led just 14-0 at the half, a situation Duffy was not pleased with.

“It’s the same thing as I have been talking about for a couple of weeks – we did not capitalize on opportunities we had,” Duffy said. “We came out in the second half and had some nice balanced offense to put the game away but we have not put four good quarters together yet on the season.”

The Stateliers got two rushing touchdowns from Joe Green and one from Abdul Salahuddin, and quarterback Jack Stagaard delivered touchdown passes of 15 yards to Sterling Walker-Sutton and 5 to Ray Stem.

Mark Zgoda delivered the blocked punt Duffy wanted – “that was huge for momentum in the first half.”

The defense also delivered with the whitewash.

“They played phenomenal all night,” said Duffy of a unit that has allowed 33 points in five games.

Phillipsburg enters its bye week on a high note.

“I do feel good going into the bye week, though there are always things to work on,” Duffy said.

Brad Wilson may be reached at bwilson@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @bradwsports. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.