EAST ORANGE, NJ — The East Orange Campus High School football team defeated Bloomfield 34-6 on Friday, Oct. 3, at Paul Robeson Stadium in East Orange to improve to 5-0 on the season. Bloomfield moved to 4-2.
It was Homecoming weekend at Paul Robeson Stadium. With all the pageantry, there are a few things that stood out in this game before the coin was tossed, the ball was kicked, and most importantly, the naming of this year’s Homecoming Court. This is the first time that the Homecoming game was played on a Friday night in East Orange since 2018 under the lights. With the Bloomfield Bengals making the short drive down from Foley Field, the East Orange Campus Jaguars were set to do something they haven’t done since the 1960s as the then-East Orange High Panthers – go unscored upon through their first five games of the current season.
East Orange Campus outscored its opponents 152-0 heading into the tilt against Bloomfield. The Jaguars have owned the last five head-to-head matchups against Bloomfield, with a resounding 211-18 score dating back to 2020. East Orange Campus, coming into this game, was among 37 remaining undefeated teams in the state and was the sole unscored upon team standing. Bloomfield yielded one game while gobbling up four other opponents with a combined 161-80 score in its five games this season.
East Orange got off to a relatively slow start after Bloomfield deferred the opening kickoff to the second half. The Bengals were able to force the Jaguars to punt after their first five plays, taking the ball from the Bengals’ 31-yard line. But that proved to be a bad decision two plays later. Bloomfield junior running back Taylor Guerrero met a wall of hungry Jaguars, led by junior defensive end Esa Wittingburg, who pounced on a forced Guerrero fumble on the Bloomfield 33-yard line. Bloomfield’s stubborn defense, led by junior lineman Makai Douglas, wasn’t going to let Jaguars junior quarterback Zachary Concepcion get into a rhythm. Concepcion completed only one pass on three attempts during this possession, while feeding the ball to senior running back Tyshawn Sewell for three rushing attempts for 12 bruising yards, before turning the ball over on downs.
The first quarter was proving to be a bruising duel of the minds, as both defenses didn’t budge through the first four combined possessions. But the Jaguars had enough of the dancing around late in the opening quarter. With 3:49 remaining in the opening quarter, Bloomfield punted after a three-and-out, setting the Jags up at the Bloomfield 31-yard line. Concepcion found senior RB Shaler Jackson III and senior wide receiver Jaquay Chambers on back-to-back pass plays that went 12 yards each, respectively. Jackson finished off the three play, 31-yard drive with an 8-yard bruising scoring run for the 7-0 lead with 2:32 remaining in the first quarter.
But Wittingburg wasn’t satisfied with that touchdown. Two plays after the ensuing kickoff, Wittingburg made Bloomfield senior QB Jeremy Tejada look for an escape hatch. Wittingburg not only registered the sack, but he also logged in a stripped takeaway, putting the Jaguars back on the Bengals’ 33-yard line with 1:33 remaining in the opening quarter.
The Jaguars marched to the Bengals’ 13-yard line, before flipping the field to start the second quarter. Sewell capped the eight-play, 33-yard march with a 1-yard headlong dive into the end zone, giving the Jaguars the 13-0 second-quarter lead with 11:14.
But Bloomfield’s Tejada wasn’t going to take that lightly. Bloomfield was determined to score and looking to make the Jaguars think about their next moves. Tejada and Guerrero led the 15-play, 65-yard charge, which included a mishandled fumble exchange that the Bengals were able to save. Guerrero found the end zone after he was bottled up on an inside zone play. He bounced out to his right to barely beat the Jaguars’ pursuit for an 8-yard touchdown. The point-after kick was blocked with 4:31 remaining in the half and the Bengals trailing 13-6.
The Bengals, using the momentum shift, almost came up with an interception on the Jaguars’ next possession, but instead forced a punt. East Orange switched to ball-control mode as the quarter wound down before the half. Leaving the Bengals with :33 in the half, Tejada took a knee to set off the halftime bell.
The third quarter was all East Orange. The Jaguars kept the ball on a 16-play, 71-yard sustained drive that took up six minutes and 45-seconds. Concepcion called a healthy mix of runs and passes that he would take the pleasure in capping the drive with a 2-yard scoot for the 20-6 stretch with 3:30 remaining in the third quarter.
The Bengals found themselves in a rare opportunity, as the Jaguars’ Sewell fumbled the ball, giving Bloomfield the chance to look for another score with 2:09 left in the third quarter. In the heat of the moment, Tejada was able to put his team on his back with a 7-yard gain, before fumbling the ball, which Jaguars senior LB Abdoul Kafando was able to recover on the East Orange 41-yard line.
Concepcion and company immediately made the Bengals pay for their mistake. Concepcion, for most of the game, was looking for his big playmaker, Alex Hanks, who just missed an early score in the second quarter. Hanks would have hauled in a 35-yard strike had the play counted. “I knew I had both my feet in when I caught the ball,” said Hanks after the game, “but the referee called it out.” But he was able to make it up in the fourth quarter with 8:29 remaining in the game. Hanks had two defenders beat when Concepcion found him with a 28-yard airmailed back-shoulder throw for the 27-6 lead.
With the game almost in hand, East Orange’s invigorated defense came into the Bloomfield backfield more times than Tejada would have liked. He was accosted and rushed four times, as well as sacked by junior LB Abdur Rahman Ali for a 9-yard loss on the next Bloomfield possession. Then Tejada, in desperation, was looking for junior WR Mike Mickens, who seemed to have beaten the Jaguars’ defensive backfield. But East Orange senior DB Robert Minter recovered quickly and snagged the touchdown-saving interception, giving the Jags the ball back on their 20-yard line. Jaguars junior RB Jaleel Halsey made his presence felt with six big rushing attempts, racking up 64 yards, which included a 10-yard dancing sprint to paydirt for the final 34-6 score of the game.
“We have a good bunch this year,” said Bloomfield head coach Mike Carter, when asked about the Bengals’ chances of snapping the Jaguars’ unscored-upon streak to start the season, which dated back to the fnal game of last season, when the Jaguars defeated Barringer 62-0 on Thanksgiving. “We knew this game was going to be tough. We had certain goals we wanted to accomplish in this game, but (East Orange Campus head) coach (John) Jacob’s team is probably one of his best so far.”
“Every week is our Super Bowl, so we won this game; enjoy it, because we turn the page for next week when Paterson Eastside comes here,” said Jacob.
East Orange will kick off against the Ghosts of Paterson Eastside on Saturday, Oct. 11, for their final home game of the season. Bloomfield will face Paterson Kennedy in Paterson on Friday, Oct. 10, at 7 p.m.
Photos Courtesy of Kerry E. Porter
About the Author
