EAST ORANGE, NJ — It was a sunny first November Saturday afternoon where backyard rivals Montclair and East Orange Campus took to the field at Paul Robeson Stadium in East Orange for the first round of the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 1, Group 5 quarterfinal football playoffs. Montclair, seeded fifth, defeated Livingston last week to punch their ticket to the party and make their way down Orange Road to the Jaguars’ front gate on North Clinton Street in East Orange. East Orange, seeded fourth, took a tough loss to West Orange two weeks ago and dismantled Clifton easily last week to earn their home playoff game this past weekend. But there was an added inspiration for both teams; Montclair defeated East Orange 19-12 during Week 3 and was looking to sweep their rivals, but the Jaguars were looking for some get back and advance to the next round for the first time since winning the state regional championship in 2021.
The game got off to a relative fast start after East Orange deferred the opening kickoff to the second half. Montclair started from their 31 yard line, as QB Jaylin Bullock led the charge with the help of RB Ja-khi Chance, Richard Williams and WR Jayden Lee covering 69 yards in 9 plays with Williams casting the first 3-yard touchdown with 9:38 remaining in the first quarter taking the early 7-0 lead. The Mounties were able to force the Jags to punt on their first possession but nearly lost the ball as it was muffed and recovered at the Mounties 21-yard line. Bullock completed two passes during the Mounties’ next possession to WR Oswald Russell, Jr. and Lawson Richberg while feeding the ball to Chance and Williams as well as trying to not get caught up with a tenacious Jaguars defense led by DL Alvins Collins, Esa Wittenberg, LB Abdoul Kafando along with DB Samaj Toney-El and Shakur Taylor. The Jags would force a turnover on downs with just 3:16 seconds left in the first quarter. East Orange QB Sa’eed Cole would perfect a textbook drive with the help of RB TyShawn Sewell starting from the Montclair 42-yard line. They were a two-headed problem that the Mounties defense thought they solved back in week 3. Sewell and Cole would combine for 16 rushing yards for the first three plays of the possession before the Mounties defense led by LB Teryq White and Richard Williams reviewed the test answers from the last game and applied pressure to Cole dropping him for a loss of 11 yards for an improbable fourth-and-10 situation. Cole would bust the Mounties containment, slipping through the heart of the defense for 18 yards setting up the inevitable response heading into the start of the second quarter. Sewell and Cole played tag team down to the Mounties 8-yard line to start the second quarter, where Cole called his number back-to-back before Sewell would dive in from a yard out to tie the game at 7-7 after the successful point-after kick with 10:33 remaining in the half.
That was all it took for the Jaguars to rev up the engines on defense affecting the Mounties aerial lanes while hunting down Chambers, Williams and Bullock. Bullock was unceremoniously sacked three times during the first of the game by East Orange’s defensive front seven that included Collin, along with Wazyn King, Ernst Jeune, Darell James Jr., Hanks, and Kafando. They would ultimately register six total sacks on the day. The Mounties and Jags would trade turnover over on downs before East Orange would pounce again. Taking the ball from the Montclair 48-yard line with 3:45 remaining in the first half, Cole would call on RB Shaler Jackson III to tote the ball twice for 11 yards and a speedy first down before launching a 34-yard strike that hit its mark, WR Alex Hanks, who put the Jags in scoring position on the Montclair 4-yard line. Two plays later, Cole capped the five-play, 48-yard drive with a 3-yard skip to paydirt, taking a 14-7 lead with 1:53 left in the first half. Montclair QB Jaylin Bullock completed 3 of 7 passes to put his Mounties in field goal position where PK Quinn Previdi would attempt a 46-yard field goal. But both Montclair and East Orange would call exhaustive timeouts in a bout of gamesmanship. East Orange had the icing ready for Previdi with 13 seconds left in the opening half. Previdi’s field goal sailed wide left to give the Jags a breath of fresh air going into the half.
With both teams trading punts to start the third quarter, East Orange mashed the gas pedal going 60 yards in eight plays, where Cole fed the ball to Jackson, Sewell, tossed another 35-yard strike to Hanks and called his number three times capping the drive with a 1-yard walk into the front door for 21-7 stretching lead with 5:05 left in the third quarter. Much like the first half, the Jags would force a punt with 2:43 left in the third quarter. Jackson and Cole would tag-team the rushing duties from the 42-yard line where Cole would score his third touchdown of the day when he found a 32-yard express lane to start the final quarter of the game extending the lead 28-7. The Mounties were able to get two fumbles by the Jaguars. One of those fumbles was an errant snap that sailed over Cole’s head sparking a mad scramble for the ball by both teams. Montclair LB Richard Williams beat Cole and company to the ball and recovered the fumble for a touchdown. East Orange’s defense would continue to harass Bullock and seal their right to play Ridgewood who won easily over Passaic this past Friday evening.
“We had a lot of kids playing both ways this year,” said Montclair Head Coach Jermaine Johnson. “We had to make the necessary adjustments and we wanted to be competitive coming into this game.” He also said that it was tough to play the same team twice in the season. East Orange didn’t qualify for the playoffs last season finishing the 2023 season 3-7 and is currently 7-2 this season. “We had tough practices this past week,” said East Orange Head Coach John Jacob, “but we knew that they were going to try us.” He went on to say that his team is looking towards the next game. “They worked so hard for this and we aren’t finished yet,” said Jacob.
The winner of the East Orange vs Ridgewood North Jersey Section 1 Group 5 semifinal will face the winner of the Piscataway vs West Orange game in the final. The winner of Section 1 will face the winner of Section 2 for the North Jersey Group 5 regional Championship. The winner of the regional will face the winner of the Central/South Group 5 regional championship for the State Group 5 championship.
Photos Courtesy of Kerry E. Porter
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