Jaguars dominate for their third straight shutout to start the season

Pictured are East Orange Campus HS players prior to their home scrimmage against Chatham last month.

EAST ORANGE/MONTCLAIR, NJ — The East Orange Campus High School football team defeated Montclair HS 48-0 on Saturday, Sept. 20, at Woodman Field in Montclair for its third straight shutout to start the season.

East Orange would make things look easy from the opening kickoff, electing to defer after winning the opening coin toss. Montclair, led by junior quarterback Samad Jiles and junior running back Tyree Hayes, was immediately met by the Jaguars’ hungry defense, led by junior end Esa Wittingburg and sophomore defensive back Musa Wittingburg, forcing an early three-and-out.

On the ensuing punt, senior Auchavian “AJ” Simmons settled under Montclair senior Oscar Crosbie-Smythe’s punt for what seemed to be a routine fair catch. But Simmons had other ideas; he charged and caught the punt on the fly. With a head of steam, he broke through several arm tackles, galloping for a 58-yard punt return for the game’s opening touchdown with 10:24 left in the first quarter. East Orange made it a point to go after Jiles and Hayes on Montclair’s next possession, forcing their second punt of the day. Montclair thought they had the Jaguars pinned deep in their own territory after a holding call on the punt return. East Orange junior QB Zachary Concepcion decided to feed the ball to junior RB Jaleel Halsey, who quickly gave the Jags some breathing room, before Concepcion air-mailed the ball to senior WR Alex Hanks, whose aerial acrobatics brought down a 47-yard connection, peppered in by Halsey’s big runs and another 19-yard connection, setting up Concepcion’s 2-yard easy skip to paydirt with 3:24 remaining in the opening quarter, stretching to a 14-0 lead after the successful point-after kick.

Montclair again would punt after its unsuccessful possession, giving East Orange yet another scoring drive, which they completed with a nine-play, 54-yard methodical march through the Mounties’ defense, with Jiles gobbling up valuable yardage that led to his 2-yard touchdown up the gut, putting the Jags in a commanding 21-0 early second-quarter lead with 11:17 remaining in the first half.

The Mounties would get a bright spot later in the quarter, when they were punting for the fifth time in the game. East Orange was hit with a roughing-the-kicker penalty, giving Montclair a fresh set of downs with 3:31 left at its 49-yard line. It proved to be ineffective, as East Orange’s defense quickly rectified the mistake, forcing another punt. Montclair’s defense, led by senior lineman Aaron Smith, was able to get the Jaguars to punt for the second time in the game, only to have senior RB Qwawi Bennet lose five yards to close out the first half.

Much like the beginning of the game, East Orange did not waste time to begin the second half after receiving the kickoff. Starting from their 31-yard line, the Jaguars let Halsey run wild. He gutted the Mounties’ defense in two plays, the first a 9-yard rush, before busting the middle for a speedy 60-yard touchdown, giving the Jags a 27-0 lead after the failed extra-point try with 11:01 remaining in the third quarter.

Montclair opted for a quarterback change after Jiles didn’t return to the game late in the first half. Backup senior QB Jake Martin made it interesting, as he was able to get positive yards going, although East Orange’s defense seemed to enjoy the quarterback buffet that the Mounties were serving up. The Mounties’ defense was able to pounce on a Jaguars’ fumble, giving them an opportunity to make some kind of impact on the game. But Montclair was forced to turn the ball over on downs with 1:28 remaining in the third quarter.

East Orange was set to make another push from its own 43-yard line. Halsey made quick work of the first three plays of the drive, with back-to-back first-down runs, before the turn of the final quarter. His next three runs of 5, 7 and 11 yards would set up Concepion’s second rushing touchdown of the day from 4 yards out with 10:41 left in the game.

East Orange’s 34-0 lead put Montclair back in the corner as they punted yet again. The punt would lead East Orange returner Simmons back and into the teeth of the Montclair punt coverage team. Much like at the beginning of the game, he charged the punt on the fly and made the 77-yard return look easy with 7:21 left in the game.

“In the first couple of games, he didn’t really have a clean punt to really show what he can do,” said East Orange head coach John Jacob after the game, “but today was perfect getting him to score, not once, but twice.” East Orange would take advantage of a sacked fumble recovery by junior DL Malick Ndiaye from the Montclair 4-yard line. East Orange junior backup QB Mitchell Willis broke off a 6-yard run, followed by classmate RB Tarike Bryan-Maloney’s 28-yard run inside the Montclair 8-yard line, setting up the final score, where he jabbed-stepped through Montclair’s defensive onslaught and dove in for the 48-0 nail-in-the coffin. Concepcion would finish the game with five completions out of 14 attempts for 80 yards and no passing touchdowns, while rushing five times for 22 yards and two touchdowns. Simmons would rush 18 times for 196 yards and two touchdowns.

“We started our gauntlet,” said Montclair head coach Ron Anello, “With East Orange, we knew that this game would be tough. They are well-coached and our hats off to them. But next week, we have Ramapo on the road, followed by Union City here at Woodman Field. Then we go to West Orange. We also have Barringer here and close out our season in Livingston.”

He touched on the fact that they had to use three quarterbacks due to injuries, saying his staff will evaluate their players before making any decisions for the Ramapo game this week.

Meanwhile, East Orange has turned the page and is now focused on the Orange High School Tornadoes and “The Battle of the Oranges” at Paul Robeson Stadium in East Orange on Saturday, Sept. 27, at 1 p.m.

“That’s all we care about,” said Jacob, noting Orange is now on the clock and he wants his team’s focus on that. The Jaguars posted shutout wins against Livingston and Newark West Side. They outscored their opponents 105-0. Montclair fell to 0-4. In addition to East Orange, they lost their first three games of the season against St. Thomas Aquinas 56-3, Ridgewood 41-28 and Bloomfield 46-21.

“We were 12 plays from being 2-1 on he season,” said Anello after the game.

The Tornadoes fell to 0-4 after losing a tough 14-6 decision at Lincoln HS, of Jersey City, on Friday, Sept. 19.

EOCHS results and schedule:

Sept. 5: win, at Livingston, 27-0.

Sept. 13: win, vs. West Side, 30-0.

Sept. 20: win, at Montclair, 48-0.

Sept. 27: vs. Orange, 1 p.m.

Oct. 4: vs. Bloomfield, 1 p.m.

Oct. 11: vs. Paterson Eastside, 1 p.m.

Oct. 17: at West Orange, 7 p.m.

Oct. 24: at Clifton, 7 p.m.

Nov. 27: at Barringer, 10 a.m.