East Orange Campus HS football team is one win from a perfect season

EAST ORANGE, NJ — The East Orange Campus High School football team is just one win from completing a perfect season.

Under head coach Rae Oliver, who grew up in East Orange, the Jaguars are having one of the best seasons in East Orange football history.

The Jaguars, who are 12-0 on the season, will face Clifton in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s North, Group 5, regional championship game at Rutgers University’s SHI Stadium in Piscataway on Sunday, Dec. 5, at 1 p.m.

The Jaguars are looking to become the first undefeated football team in East Orange history since the 1967 and 1968 back-to-back state championship East Orange High School teams. The 1967 team went 8-0-1, with the one tie coming against Barringer in the “mud bowl” at Martin Stadium, which is now Paul Robeson Stadium in East Orange, in the final game of the season on Thanksgiving. The 1968 team finished 9-0.

EOCHS defeated Passaic County Technical Institute, 35-7, at Paul Robeson Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 20, in the NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 1, Group 5, championship game. It marked the team’s second-ever state sectional championship under the current playoff format, which began in 1974. The Jaguars’ first title came in 2007, when they defeated Montclair on a snow-covered field at the old Giants Stadium in East Rutherford to finish with an 11-1 record. It also was the EOCHS’ third state sectional championship appearance. The second was in 2009, when it lost to Roxbury at Giants Stadium.

The Jaguars are coming off a 49-0 win over Barringer on Thanksgiving in Newark. The EOCHS–Barringer game is one of the longest football series in the country. It started in 1897 and was the longest unbroken holiday rivalry until 1986, when the schools entered different leagues. In 2009, the series resumed after the creation of the Super Essex Football Conference. The teams played every year from 2009 to 2019 on Thanksgiving, with EOCHS winning every game. The game was not played in 2020 due to the pandemic-shortened season. Overall, East Orange has a 61-39-9 lead in the series. 

East Orange High School and Clifford Scott High School merged in fall 2002 to form East Orange Campus High School.

The Jaguars defeated Clifton, 36-0, at Robeson Stadium in the final game of the 2020 season to finish with a 5-2 record. The playoffs were canceled last season due to the pandemic.

Clifton won the North 2, Group 5, title with a come-from-behind 19-18 win over Paterson Eastside in the championship game held at Clifton. The Clifton Mustangs rallied from an 18-0 halftime deficit and improved to 10-2 on the season. It was Clifton’s second win over Eastside this season and its second state sectional title in school history.

East Orange Campus 2021 results

• Sept. 3: win, vs. Montclair, 37-28
• Sept. 11: win, vs. Bloomfield, 34-0
• Sept. 17: win, at Columbia, 52-0
• Sept. 24: win, at West Orange, 21-14
• Oct. 1: win, at Livingston, 47-7
• Oct. 9: win, vs. Newark East Side, forfeit 
• Oct. 16: win, at Pope John, 21-13
• Oct. 30: win, vs. Newark West Side, 35-0
• Nov. 6, win, vs. (8) Elizabeth, 21-7, quarterfinals*
• Nov. 13, win, vs. (4) West Orange, 14-0, semifinals*
• Nov. 20, win, vs. (3) Passaic County Tech, 35-7, final*
• Nov. 25: win, at Barringer, 49-0

*North 1, Group 5 playoffs (EOC is the No. 1 seed)

Photo Courtesy of Kerry E. Porter

  East Orange Campus High School football