the East Orange Campus Jaguars charge the field before kickoff against West Orange.
EAST ORANGE, NJ — The East Orange Campus High School football team is getting ready to defend its state sectional championship.
With a 7-1 record on the season, the third-seeded EOCHS Jaguars will host No. 6 seed Bloomfield in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s North Jersey, Section 1, Group 5 state playoffs on Saturday, Nov. 1, at Paul Robeson Stadium in East Orange at 1 p.m. Bloomfield is 5-4 on the season.
West Orange, which is 7-2 on the season, is the No. 1 seed and will host No. 8 seed Passaic, which is 4-4.
EOCHS, under fourth-year head coach John Jacob, defeated West Orange 13-7 to win last season’s North Jersey, Section 1, Group 5 state playoff championship at West Orange.
The winner of East Orange Campus/Bloomfield will face the winner between No. 2 seed Passaic County Tech (6-3) and No. 7 seed Morristown (2-7). The winner of West Orange/Passaic will face the winner between No. 4 seed Livingston (6-3) and No. 5 seed Ridgewood (3-5).
The Jaguars are coming off another dominant win, as they defeated winless Clifton 41-0 on Friday, Oct. 24, at Clifton for their fifth shutout win of the season. The biggest highlight of the game was when senior safety and Temple University commit Alex Hanks made a spectacular one-handed interception that he returned 100 yards for a touchdown.
The Jaguars are looking to win their second state sectional title in five years. In 2021, they defeated Passaic Tech in the North 1, Group 5 sectional title and capped the 13-0 season with a triple-overtime victory over Clifton in the North, Group 5 regional championship game at Rutgers’ SHI Stadium.
Jacob was an assistant coach on that EOCHS squad.
The Jaguars defeated Bloomfield 34-6 in Week 5 on Friday, Oct. 3, at Robeson Stadium in an SFC–Freedom Red Division game. EOCHS allowed its first points of the season after posting four straight shutouts.
After a hard-fought 34-28 home win over Paterson Eastside, the Jaguars fell at West Orange 14-13 for their only loss. West Orange defeated Bloomfield 46-0 on Friday, Oct. 24, at Bloomfield to clinch the SFC–Freedom Red Division title for the third year in a row.
The Jaguars will visit Barringer on Thanksgiving in the regular-season finale at 10 a.m. at Newark Schools Stadium.
East Orange Campus (7-1)
- Sept. 5: win, at Livingston, 27-0
- Sept. 13: win, vs. West Side, 30-0
- Sept. 20: win, at Montclair, 48-0
- Sept. 27: win, vs. Orange, 47-0
- Oct. 3: win, vs. Bloomfield, 34-6
- Oct. 11: win, vs. Paterson Eastside,34-28
- Oct. 17: loss, at West Orange, 14-13
- Oct. 24: win, at Clifton, 41-0
Photos Courtesy of Kerry E. Porter
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