EAST ORANGE, NJ — The East Orange High School football team defeated Orange High School 47-0 at Paul Robeson Stadium in East Orange on Saturday, Sept. 27. The EOCHS Jaguars remained unbeaten, as they improved to 4-0 with their fourth straight shutout to start the season. The Orange Tornadoes moved to 0-5.
It was the second consecutive year that the Jaguars took ‘The Battle of the Oranges’ with ease over neighbor OHS.
The Tornadoes, who are under first-year head coach Akil Boucaud, came into the contest with hopes of fighting for their first win of the season, as they had been outscored 134-25 through their first four games. Meanwhile, the Jaguars had outscored Livingston, Newark West Side and Montclair 105-0.
The game would get off to a fast start with East Orange making its presence felt. Orange elected to defer the opening kickoff to East Orange, which made them pay for that decision. Junior quarterback Zachary Concepcion, senior wide receiver Nymir Johnson, junior running back Tarike Bryan-Maloney and Jaleel Halsey all got to touch the ball.
Maloney got the party started from the Jaguars’ 39-yard-line with a 15-yard bruising run through the Tornadoes’ defense, led by junior back Dylan Pierre. Concepcion would find Johnson on the back end of a quick slant play that went for another 12 yards and a first down. But it would be Halsey picking up where he left off last week against Montclair, hitting the gas for a 29-yard sprint and the early 7-0 score.
Orange was in negative yardage for its opening series and was forced to punt, giving the Jaguars a very short field with which to work. Concepcion, from the Orange 20, would find senior WR Auchavian “AJ” Simmons for the first of two consecutive one-hit quitters for an easy 14-0 lead with 5:14 left in the first quarter.
Orange senior QB David McLaughlin would have trouble getting the ball into positive territory, when Jaguars senior lineman Zion Thompson pounced on a forced McLaughlin fumble by junior end Esa Wittenburg, who would tally a second one later in the second quarter.
Concepcion would follow up his one-play-and-out with a 45-yarder to senior Alex Hanks, who had a Tornado defender draped at his feet as he crossed the goal line for the 20-0 lead to close out the opening quarter.
The second quarter would be much of the same, with the Jaguars starting the quarter after a forced punt on the Orange 42 with 8:39 left in the half. Concepcion found senior WR Jaquay Chambers twice in the next series. Halsey lost a yard rushing during the drive, but Chambers came down with a 12-yard reception, then adjusted for a near behind-the-back, one-handed snag that he immediately escaped for a 32-yard touchdown reception, increasing the lead to 27-0 with 7:28 left in the half.
For the Jaguars, it wasn’t just the offense scoring. It was the defense getting in on the fun, as well. McLaughlin was looking for senior WR Aaron Blart in flat on a screen play that got batted around before Johnson, playing back, said he was just sitting in the right place at the right time, as he scooped the interception for a 26-yard scoring return to make it a 34-0 halftime lead.
The Jaguars continued the onslaught in the second half, when Bryan-Maloney rushws three times, capping a fou-play, 38-yard march with a 7-yard touchdown run to put the game at 40-0 with 3:30 remaining in the third quarter. East Orange had a 68-yard punt return called back for holding. EOCHS junior backup QB Mitchell Willis came in relief of Concepcion and immediately rushed for 20 yards, then uncorked a high-flying, 83-yard bomb to sophomore WR Musa Wittingburg, Esa’s older brother.
“I saw the ball was behind and the defender was on my hip,” said Musa Wittingburg of his Odell Beckham-esque high-flying near behind the back one-handed nail-in-the-coffin snag that shut down the game with just a minute left and the walkoff 47-0 win.. “Being able to see my brother do that and then have two forced fumbles and a couple sacks was something that we expected to do,” said Esa Wittingburg. “We practice this everyday and we just continue to focus on our ability to work hard and execute the plays that (EOCHS head) coach (John) Jacob gives us.”
“We knew that we wanted this game to mean something. Now that has happened, we now turn the page and get back to work,” said East Orange head coach John Jacob after the game.
“Musa, made a great adjustment to the ball,” said Jcob of Musa Wittingburg’s one-handed grab for the final score, “but now we are focused on Bloomfield, who is coming to our homecoming on Friday evening (Oct. 2).” He stated that he has nothing but respect for the Bloomfield coaching staff that includes former Montclair head coach Jermain Johnson, who left Montclair last year to coach where it all began for him at Bloomfield High School. “They are 4-1 and they are going to come here on Friday night and we’ll lock the gates to see who will come out on top,” said Jacob to his team after the game.
“Hats off to East Orange,” said Boucaud. “We had to start over and bring our young guys up to the varsity level and fight our way through.” Boucaud was a late hire for Orange this season and has attributed their struggles to inexperience and little to no active seniors on this year’s team. “We will continue to fight as the season goes on,” Bouchard stated, “We have Newark Central on our homecoming night this Friday Evening.” Bloomfield is coming off 46-12 victory over Lincoln this past week and will be looking forward to disrupting the stranglehold that East Orange Campus and West Orange High has on the Super Football Conference –Freedom Red Divisional Race. Bloomfield’s lone loss is to Nutley back in Week 1 where they dropped a close game to the Maroon Raiders 21-14.
Orange will have a daunting task, taking on a surging Blue Devils squad who erupted for two late third quarter touchdowns that included a special teams scooped fumble and score on their way to a 27-7 win over Verona this past Friday Evening. Orange will hit the road for two weeks after homecoming, traveling to the “Rooftop Eagles Nest” to face Union City and then head out to John J. Bauer Sr. Stadium to face the Randolph HS Rams, before closing out the regular season at home against Bayonne. East Orange will have Paterson Eastside come down for its final home stand of the season, before going on the road to face Clifton, West Orange and Barringer.
Photos Courtesy of Kerry E. Porter
About the Author
