EAST ORANGE, NJ — The East Orange Campus High School football team lost to Montclair, 19-12, to move to a 2-1 record on the season.
It was Montclair week for the East Orange Campus Jaguars as the Montclair Mounties came calling at Paul Robeson Stadium in East Orange this past Saturday, Sept. 21. The City of East Orange officially christened the newly renovated field that marked the completion of a yearlong project that took the Jaguars away from their home crowd last season.
The Jaguars are coming off a 20-0 shutout over Newark East Side last week and had this game circled on the calendar. Much like their neighbors, Montclair wanted to flex their chops as they were coming off a big win over Bloomfield 48-14 after losing their first two games of the season to Winslow Township and Ridgewood. It didn’t take long for the game to get interesting as the Jaguars took the opening kickoff and started their drive from their 35-yard line. The Jaguars would punt after six plays and converted a first down. But they would benefit from the muffed punt to set up a first and goal on the Mounties 8-yard line with 8.29 left in the first quarter. Montclair would answer the challenge by building a brick wall on defense to hold East Orange’s quick-strike offense, led by QB Sa’eed Cole, RB Tyshawn Sewell, WR’s Shakur Taylor and Samaj Toney-El.
Montclair led by LB Richard Williams on defense came up big with the stop, denying the Jaguars, who were accustomed to scoring first and setting the tone. That gave the ball back to sophomore QB Jaylin Bullock, who immediately brought Ja-khi Chance and Richard Williams into the backfield with him after trading another set of punts.
With just under three minutes remaining in the opening quarter, the Mounties set up shop on their own 20-yard line. What happened next was an eruption that the Montclair faithful was looking for. Ja-khi Chance would run for a quick 4-yard gain, setting up a quick slant pass from Bullock to WR Richard Williams, who found a crease up the Montclair sideline for the 76-yard house call to get the first 7-0 lead on the day with 1:53 left in the first quarter. On the very next play, East Orange would fumble the kickoff, giving the ball immediately back to Montclair at the East Orange 36-yard line. Chance would again get the ball rolling with a 5-yard run, but would add another 15-yard defensive face mask penalty by East Orange that would put the Mounties back in scoring position on the East Orange 16-yard line. Bullock would hit Jayden Lee for a 7-yard gain, followed by Chance, who wiggled and danced his way through 9 yards of traffic, reaching pay dirt for the Mounties 14-0 lead with 44 ticks on the first quarter clock.
East Orange could buy field position heading into the second quarter. Starting on their 30 yardl-ine with :39 left in the first quarter, East Orange’s spark plug, Sharkur Taylor, would come out of the backfield with a 6-yard run, but the Jags were hit with a 10-yard personal foul, pushing them back against their own goal line. Two plays later, East Orange was forced to punt, but East Orange punter Abdoul Kafando fumbled the snap and pooched the ball out of play for a Montclair safety, giving the Mounties 16-0 early second quarter lead. But that was all the scoring the Jaguars were going to allow as QB Sa’eed Cole fed the ball to his playmakers, Sewell and Taylor, as well as taking the ball himself, capping a seven-play, 70-yard march that took almost four minutes off the clock. Cole would sneak his way into the end zone from a yard out, cutting the Mounties lead to 16-6 with 4:34 left in the half. Again, the Mounties were looking to keep the momentum in their favor as they covered nearly 80 yards in nine plays, only to kick a 31-yard field goal by Quinn Previdi to take a 19-6 halftime lead.
With the start of the third quarter, Montclair found themselves on the business end of a potent Jaguar attack on both sides of the ball. The Jags would take the ball from their 26-yard line and proceed to pepper the Mounties with a healthy mixture of runs and passes that ended with Cole taking the initiative to close off the 74-yard, 12-play drive with another one-yard scoring run to cut the game down to a touchdown with 1:32 left in the third quarter. The Jaguars had pulled out their rally caps for the first time this season as they were looking to catch and pounce on the Mounties, going into the fourth and final quarter. But the Mounties had one last opportunity to put the game out of East Orange’s clutches when they took the ball on their 46-yard line after the ensuing kickoff. The Mounties covered the 43 yards in seven plays and was threatening inside the East Orange red zone, but the staunch Jaguar defense was showing their penchant to be stingy, forcing the Mounties to attempt a 26-yard field goal by Previdi. Previdi’s kick was golfed wide left to keep the game at 19-12, giving the Jaguars their second goalline stand on the season with 7:54 left in the game.
Jaguars QB Sa’eed Cole took over from his 20-yard line and proceeded to complete an aerial assault with the help of Taylor and Toney-El. He found Taylor first for a quick 10-yard strike. On the very next play, he launched a 66-yard bomb to Toney-El, who outran the whole Mounties secondary for a potentially game-tying touchdown. But there was laundry on the field that prevented the touchdown as there was a late holding call on the Jags that negated the score, forcing them to keep the rally caps on. The Jaguars’ defense came up big with 4:26 left in the game where they snagged their third interception on the season. But Montclair wasn’t having it. With the help of costly penalties, the Mounties were able to stave off a serious Jaguar threat that would have either forced overtime or wrestled the game out of their grasp. “We had to play each game like it was a playoff game the rest of the way,” said Montclair head coach Jermain Johnson. “We lost our first two games and I felt that by treating each game going forward as a playoff game, we can keep our teams’ focus on the goals ahead.” A similar sentiment that was iterated by East Orange’s head coach, John Jacob. “We had a lot of mental errors that we had to correct,” he said. “It was the first time we trailed like that and yet we nearly won it.”
With key penalties that hurt the Jaguars; chances of winning, it was surely not missed by rival West Orange, who was in the building checking out the competition.
Both coaches are looking ahead to the next game as Montclair will host Ramapo, at Woodman Field Saturday, Sept. 28, at 1 p.m. in Montclair, for what could be a possible playoff matchup, should Montclair make a solid push on the back half to the season. East Orange will make the short trip over to Tornado Alley, better known as Bell Stadium in Orange, to face a young surging Orange Tornadoes squad. It will be Homecoming for the Tornadoes as it will be the first time the two teams had played each other since prior to the merger of the old East Orange High School and Clifford J. Scott High School back in the early 2000s. “It certainly a good thing for us since our Thanksgiving game was with East Orange’s Clifford J. Scott High School back then,” said Orange head coach Khalfani Alleyne, who played on one of the last teams to go up against the playoff-bound Scotties back then under former longtime head coach Randy Daniel. “I think this is a great thing for the neighborhood,” agreed Jacob. “At the end of the day, our kids all know each other. They grew up together, as well as have families living in both towns. Even have older family members that attended both schools and remember the rivalries well.” Some of those former players are back in the communities coaching or working in the school districts at all levels, ranging in teaching, administration, and/or a part of the school board delegation.
Kickoff is set for the next installment of the War of the Oranges: East Orange Campus vs. Orange High School, at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 28. Orange is coming off its second win of the season after shutting out a tough Lincoln Lions squad 28-0 out in Jersey City this past weekend.
East Orange Campus HS football team loses to Montclair in a thriller added by Kerry E. Porter on
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