East Orange Campus HS football team’s furious comeback falls short against Randolph

RANDOLPH, NJ — The East Orange Campus High School football team made a valiant comeback attempt but fell short, losing to Randolph, 42-35, on Friday afternoon, Sept. 15, at Randolph.

The Jaguars fell to 0-3 on the season.

Whenever two old foes get together, you can expect two things: frank cordiality underscored by some tensions that were started by entities stirring the pot in the opposing camp or fan base and a highly competitive shootout that won’t stop until the final whistle. Who will want it more? Well, that was exactly the case between old Iron Hills Conferences foes East Orange Campus Jaguars and Randolph Rams. East Orange went on the road for the first time this season, after opening up the season at home against Clifton and Irvington. They traveled 40 minutes to Randolph’s John J. Bauer Stadium to visit the Rams of Randolph High School for a 4 p.m. kickoff. 

The Jaguars had a relatively short week to turn around and prepare for the Randolph game after dropping their second game of the season to Irvington Blue Knights on Monday, Sept. 11. Randolph was coming off a two-game skid when they unsuccessfully ran into two brick walls – former Iron Hills foes Mount Olive in week 1 and Roxbury in week 2 after barely escaping with a 42-40 week 0 win over perennial North Jersey, Group 1 powerhouse Shabazz. But you wouldn’t be able to tell either side that this would be a friendly game.

The game had already been pushed back a day from the original Thursday Night Lights kickoff due to the weather delays that East Orange Campus had experienced with Irvington on a special Monday Night Lights edition. To add fuel to the fire and open an already old wound, along with other emotions mixed in with some controversy, there was a release during the week on an unauthorized Randolph student social media fan page that described the city of East Orange and East Orange Campus High School in an explicitly derogatory manner. By game time, it was understood that the Randolph school district was contacted about this by the East Orange School administration. Subsequently, the Randolph administration had it taken down before any further irrevocable harm and/or actions could be taken between these two heavyweights, on or off the field. Many East Orange fans were up in arms about this, which gave the Jaguars motivation to play their hearts out in Friday evening’s Rosh Hashanah game.

The game got off to a fast start, with Randolph quarterback Josh Anderson guiding his squad to an eight-play, 64-yard score, where he opened the scoring with a 6-yard dash to pay dirt and a 7-0 lead after the point-after kick was successful. Fumbles, interceptions and other mistakes continued to plague the Jaguars offensively early in the game, which Randolph’s dynamic duo of Anderson and running back Jessie Wilfong took full advantage in the first quarter. 

In the second quarter, Randolph made East Orange pay again after a punt. Randolph drove 73 yards in nine plays to help its cause and scored off of Anderson’s 8-yard sneak in the back door for a 14-0 lead with 6:06 left in the half. 

East Orange quarterback Kyree Fisher was not letting this go away so easily. Digging into his explosive arsenal, he decided to pick apart the Rams defense both through the air and on the ground. First, he sent running backs Corey Woolridge and Davion Thomas, along with receivers Shakur Taylor, Alex Hanks and Ahkir Morgan, into fluid action. Woolridge and Thomas started the nearly 80-yard drive with back-to-back gut punches through a stingy Rams defensive front, only to loosen them up from what was to come next. If you guessed a big bang play, then you are correct. Fisher dropped back under pressure and uncorked a 45-yard bomb to Morgan, a sophomore, who had three Randolph Rams draped on him like they were a superhero’s cape. The play put the Jaguars inside the Rams 30-yard line. But Fisher wasn’t done. Coupled with a short fury of penalties on both teams, the one-two punch of Woolridge and Thomas pushed the ball deeper into the red zone to about the Rams 11-yard line where Fisher fired an 11-yard bullet to Hanks, a sophomore, for the Jaguars’ first score of the game with 2:02 left in the first half. 

East Orange forced a punt to get one more crack at the end zone with under a minute left. With good field position, Fisher drove the Jaguars 36 yards in four plays through the air and a key defensive pass interference call. He pushed in for a tying score, but it was ultimately taken away due to an offensive pushing/participation penalty to end the half with Randolph dodging a bullet.

Things would set off with a bang in the second half, as both quarterbacks found their way to the end zone via an old-fashioned shootout. Again, both would utilize their best weapons of choice – Anderson mostly on the ground and Fisher doing it all on the ground and through the air. But it would be Anderson’s 56-yard strike to senior tight end Kevin Kleiven who would help the Rams to temporarily stretch their lead 21-7 with 7:29 left in the third quarter. 

Fisher’s immediate response was 80 yards and three bang-bang plays later. He tossed a quick 10-yard strike to move the chains, had an incompletion, then launched another 70-yard targeted bomb to Hanks, who put the Rams defensive backfield on skates when he hit the brakes before throwing up the ‘Sharkfin’ as he skipped into the house for the 21-14 score with 6:07 left in the third quarter. 

East Orange’s defensive unit as a whole forced another Randolph punt, getting the ball on its own 45-yard with 3:45 left in the quarter. Quickly, but patiently, Fisher sent his backfield, including wide receiver Isaac Mathurin, to take a few more bites out of the Rams defensive middle, taking up quite a bit of yards along the way. Keeping in line with the other big bombs, Fisher found Hanks roaming freely for a 42-yard air assault, setting up Fisher’s 7-yard touchdown scamper and knotting the game at 21-21 with just 12 ticks on the clock left in the third quarter.

The fourth quarter was an insane mad dash to the finish line. Both quarterbacks lit up the scoreboard like it was a fireworks display. Anderson struck first from his 35-yard line, digging into the playbook on an apparent fourth-down play. Rams head coach Will Nahan said, “We had to do something because we were definitely down to the barrel with our players and they had us dead to rights,” referring to the fourth-down fake punt to start the fourth quarter. That crucial play turned into a 12-play, 65-yard, sustained march that ate 4:12 off the 12-minute clock. Anderson took a page from his opposing quarterback and started to run the ball and completed 3 of 4 passes in that series, the last a 5-yard scrambling pitch-and-catch to sophomore WR Justin Novak, who slipped past the Jaguars coverage for the 28-21 score with 7:48 left in the game.  

Randolph rallied again, taking advantage of an extremely short field, after intercepting Fisher for the second time in the game from the East Orange 12-yard line. This time, Anderson sent Wilfong for all 12 yards in three plays where he would punch into the teeth of the Jaguars defensive front seven, led by junior defensive lineman Alvins Collin, who made the initial tackle at the goal line, but Wilfong would argue and win the judgment of the referees for his second effort for the 35-21 stretching score for the second time and 5:51 left in the game. 

Fisher, however, gave the Rams a dose of their own second-half medicine for which Randolph is known. Fisher put on his rally hat and just willed the next two touchdowns to nearly pull his version of a Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers come-from-behind upset. The first touchdown came in two plays. The Jaguars were on their own 16-yard line with 5:41 left on the clock, needing to cover 84 yards relatively quickly, score, and force another stop. Fisher found one of his receivers with a 42-yard missile strike, but then on the ensuing play, there was a parting of the almighty green sea where he flashed his wheels for a 55-yard touchdown run to pull within 35-28 with 4:33 left in the game. 

Plenty of time, right? That’s what both coaching staffs thought as well. East Orange head coach John Jacob was looking for the next score, while Randolph’s Nahan was looking for an escape hatch to seal the game. But it would be East Orange’s Fisher drawing on the motivations of the week, letting his actions do the talking, completely airing the Rams out in three consecutive passes covering 80 yards. On the final pass with 1:59 left in the game, he found Morgan crossing the doorsteps of the end zone and fired a 25-yard touchdown pass that would tie the game again at 35-35. With time running out, Randolph found its escape hatch seven plays later from its own 33-yard line. Anderson found one of his favorite targets, WR Mason Wilson, for a big first down pass, then continued to eat up as much of the clock as possible before calling his number again for a short 1-yard plunge into the end zone to edge the Jags 42-35 with under 20 seconds on the clock. 

Fisher drove his squad into scoring position with just 12 seconds left. But the Rams were able to breathe a sigh of relief when the final whistle blew.

Jacob stated previously that he didn’t want to start the season 0-3 for the second year in a row but this is exactly what happened. He mentioned to his squad that last year they started out the same way and were in the playoffs as a sixth seed. He wasn’t overly happy with the outcome of the game. However, he was proud that his team fought tooth-and-nail, leaving no stone unturned to the very end. “We wanted to execute our game plan,” said Anderson after the game. “We knew we had to prepare for a tough battle with East Orange. They definitely were going to bring it to us.” 

Nahan was completely in agreement with Anderson, simply saying, “We’re on the next-man-up with our players and we were definitely worried that we would have an issue. I’m happy that we pulled it out to be 2-2, but we have another tough game next week.” Nahan is the third opposing coach to say that East Orange Campus is a very good squad, and it could have gone either way. He felt if his team didn’t pull out the fake punt, it would have switched the momentum into East Orange’s favor. “I like those kinds of plays – it’s what makes the game fun,” he concluded. 

Randolph will travel to Chatham for a Saturday Night Football game on Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. East Orange will remain on the road for the second of its two-game road trip to face the Bloomfield High School Bengals at Foley Field in Bloomfield on Friday evening, Sept. 22, at 7 p.m.

  East Orange Campus High School football