RIDGEWOOD, NJ — The East Orange Campus High School football team is back in a sectional championship game.
The fourth-seeded Jaguars will make the short trip to West Orange to battle No. 2 seed West Orange High School in the championship of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s North Jersey, Section 1, Group 5 state playoffs on Friday night, Nov. 15, at WOHS’ Joe Suriano Stadium.
In the semifinals on Friday night, Nov. 8, the Jaguars, under head coach John Jacob, defeated top-seeded Ridgewood, 14-3, at Ridgewood, to improve to 8-2 on the season, while the WOHS Mountaineers defeated No. 3 seed Piscataway, 35-0, to improve to 9-2.
Under second-year head coach John Jacob, EOCHS improved to 8-2 on the season.
The East Orange Campus Jaguars are on a roll. They made things look easy when tested behind the leadership of senior quarterback Sa’eed Cole. They have been able to shut down opposing offenses in their last five games to a combined 42 points coming into Friday night’s semifinal game in the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 1, Group 5 playoffs against top-seeded Ridgewood. Both teams made last week’s quarterfinals look relatively easy. Ridgewood defeated Passaic, 33-14, and EOCHS defeated Montclair, 28-14. It also serves as the first time that the Jaguars and Maroons faced each other since 2013 when the Maroons won their regular-season matchup, 53-0, and then their quarterfinal round, 63-34, in the North 1, Group 5 playoffs that year. Since then, Ridgewood has been a consistent figure in the North Jersey, Section 1, Group 5 playoffs, including four championship runs, winning two under former head coach Chuck Johnson. East Orange Campus, which was under former head coach Marion Bell at the time, transitioned under former head coaches Al-Majid Hutchins and more recently, Rae Oliver, who is now at Morris Catholic. East Orange would go undefeated in 2021 to win the North Jersey regional Group 5 championship under Oliver.
The game on Friday would start with the Jaguars taking the opening kickoff at their own 17-yard line. The Maroons’ defense, led by lineman Will Pruitt, was able to hold its opening drive to a three-and-out. Ridgewood would benefit from a short punt, setting up shop inside the East Orange 18-yard line. East Orange’s defense, led by linebackers Darell James Jr., Ernst Jeune and Abdoul Kafando and linemen Alvins Collin, Wazyn King and Esa Wittenberg, was able to stall Ridgewood’s potent Wing-T offense, led by quarterback Gavin McCrone, running backs Calvin Ran and Owen Laffey, along with wide receiver Charlie Schwanwede. Maroons place-kicker Kyle Caramagno would eventually boot a 23-yard field goal to gain an early 3-0 lead over the Jags with 6:20 left in the first quarter.
The Maroons were able to force another punt but McCrone fumbled a snap two plays later, giving Cole the opportunity to take the game over. And take over he did, with the help of running backs TyShawn Sewell and Shaler Jackson III and wide receivers Shakur Taylor, Samaj Toney-El and Alex Hanks. Starting from their 38-yard line with just under a minute left in the first quarter, Cole would play the distribution game, completing one of four passes while feeding Sewell the ball four times and calling his number once before connecting with Hanks for a 20-yard dart to take a 7-3 edge with 8:07 left in the first half.
Ridgewood would struggle to get first downs, but would give East Orange problems, as well as trading punts like trading cards going into the half.
In the second half, East Orange would turn up the pressure after forcing the Maroons to punt to start the third quarter. The Jags were pinned on their 21-yard line, where Taylor took a jet sweep for 8 yards, but Cole decided it was his time to put the game in his control again. He would call his number four consecutive times for 2, 4, 61, and 4 yards to cap the five-play, 79-yard drive to extend the lead to 14-3 with 6:33 left in the third quarter.
Cole and company would get inside the red zone an additional three more times during the game, coughing up a fumble on the 1-yard line late in the third quarter while turning the ball over on downs the other two times.
East Orange’s defense effectively enforced another no-fly zone on the Maroons, not allowing any passes to be completed more than 5 yards while harassing McCrone for a total of 5 yards on eight carries for the night. East Orange amassed 299 yards in total offense, keeping the Maroons busy in trying to keep up with them.
“We already know who we’re playing next week,” said East Orange head coach John Jacob. “Monday, we’re back at it and it’s ‘Fight Club’ all over again,” Jacob told his team after the game. “It’s the first time we’ve been back to the championship since 2021 and it feels great for our program to get back there,” Jacob said. He was the Jaguars’ offensive coordinator for Oliver during that championship year. “We’ll play anyone, but this one means a lot more,” he concluded.
“East Orange wanted it more than we did and it showed,” said Ridgewood head coach Torre Watson. He said that there were necessary adjustments to make prior to the season starting that played to their strength in utilizing the Wing-T offense, which was highly talked about during the season.
East Orange lost a tough 7-0 game to West Orange back on Week 7 where the defensive war waged tightly at Paul Robeson Stadium. West Orange is the second seed in the North Jersey Section 1, Group 5 playoffs and they blew past Piscataway, 35-0, this past week, setting up the much-talked about rematch between the two rivals at West Orange High School on Friday, Nov. 15, at 7 p.m. The stage is set for the playoff edition of the “War of the Oranges.”
Photos Courtesy of Kerry E. Porter
East Orange Campus vs. Ridgewood
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