Mission Complete: The 13-0 East Orange Campus HS Jaguars celebrate year of firsts

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

EAST ORANGE, NJ — What more can be said about the East Orange Campus High School Jaguars 2021 football team that hasn’t already been said? Quite frankly, a lot. The East Orange Campus Jaguars looked to celebrate a season of firsts when they played the Clifton High School Mustangs in the fourth annual NJSIAA Rothman Orthopaedics North, Group 5, regional bowl at Rutgers University’s SHI Stadium in Piscataway on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 5.

They celebrated some team firsts prior to the season, starting with three of their senior players making early commitments to the schools of their choice.

They were the first team in program history to record multiple shutouts — six total — in the season since 2011, breaking a school record of five shutouts.

Recently, East Orange Campus celebrated turkey day with the archrival Barringer Blue Bears, a 49-0 affair. The ball for that game went to senior running back Jessica Felix, who carried the rock three times for 7 yards and a score. Felix is only the second girl to participate actively in a Jaguars game and the first to score in program history.

The Jags, for the first time in their 20-year history, claimed three out of the last four division titles — 2018, 2019 and 2021; this is the first time they have been state sectional champions since the 2007, 11-1 squad led by Keion Wade, and their third time overall playing for it all. It was the first time in any era of the East Orange High School Panthers, the Clifford J. Scott High School Scotties and the East Orange Campus Jaguars that there have been two-headed offensive threats, in seniors Raeden Oliver at quarterback — 90 completions on 126 attempts for 1,615 yards and 19 touchdowns — and the ever-elusive Damon Phillips at running back — rushing for 1,648 yards on 179 carries and hitting pay dirt 19 times.

It’s the first time that East Orange can celebrate a true undefeated season, 13-0, and say it’s mission complete after a hard-fought, knuckle-dragging, slobber-knocking, triple-overtime, heart-pounding, heavyweight North Jersey, Group 5, regional championship win of 30-24.

From the opening kickoff, East Orange, for the first time since the first game of the season against Montclair, had trailed considerably at any point of the game. Clifton drove the ball 75 yards in 15 plays in the first quarter, with Clifton quarterback Kyle Vellis throwing the first punch from a yard out to take the early 7-0 after the point-after kick by Ryan Linzer. Never to shy away from anyone or anything, East Orange Campus came right back with a healthy dose of body blows in the form of Damon Phillips, Raeden Oliver and Joshua Richards. It would be Phillips taking the ball 9 yards to dive in for the responding touchdown to tie the game 7-7 after Geraldo Gibson’s point-after kick. The Jaguars took their first scoring drive in eight plays, taking it 62 yards with just under a minute left in the first quarter.

Enter the high drama of the second quarter. There were a few questionable calls that Clifton was the solid beneficiary of. But true to their nature, the Jaguars defense, led by Kyle Louis and Ahmad Nalls, found their bend-but-don’t-break mentality, holding the Mustangs to a 33-yard field goal by kicker Ryan Linzer. Again, East Orange was facing adversity and would be looking for an answer, but they wouldn’t be able to find it immediately. The Mustangs were in the driver’s seat and looking to pull away from the Jags after the ensuing punt by Geraldo. The Jags punter flipped the field and pinned the Mustangs on their own 3-yard line, but Clifton quarterback Kyle Vellis had other things on his mind as he delivered a 97-yard bomb to wide receiver Donovan Swasey to stretch their lead to 17-7 with 1:29 left in the first half. East Orange would finally answer with an eight-play, 54-yard drive and a 28-yard Geraldo Gibson field goal to pull with a touchdown by the close of the half.

The second half was an all-out defensive slugfest. Neither squad would score in the third quarter, trading punts and turnovers on downs in the third quarter and most of the fourth quarter. East Orange, under key heady plays by quarterback Raeden Oliver, also known as the field general, was back in business with just 3:20 left to go in the game. Oliver put the team on his back, rushing and passing the ball 54 yards in 13 plays, capping the drive with a game-tying 4-yard dart to Joshua Richards to force overtime.

East Orange wouldn’t go away without the trophy in its possession. Clifton would take the first possession of the overtime period, going two plays in 18 yards before East Orange would stuff them with a goal-line stand, forcing Clifton running back Bryan Feliciano to fumble — a fumble that was recovered by Jags defensive back Chris Amos. East Orange didn’t waste any time with its possession. With the ball on the Clifton 19-yard line, East Orange’s Gibson attempted a field goal, but he missed the 36-yarder, wide left, to close out the first overtime.

East Orange would come back in the second overtime, grasping the lead in quick-strike fashion, going three plays with Damon Phillips gaining 11 yards before Oliver connected with Richards on a 14-yard game-changing bullet to pull ahead 24-17. But the fight was far from over. Clifton’s Bryan Feliciano, who had been a thorn in the Jaguars’ side all game, made his presence felt again by scoring on a 3-yard push into the house to tie the game for a third time, at 24-24.

But the catalyst of the game came as Clifton was once again looking to steal away perfection. East Orange linebacker Ahmad Nalls took it upon himself to wrestle the ball out of Clifton running back Jacob Maldonado’s hands as he reached the ball toward the goal line. Nalls was already in the end zone and ran out of the scrum with the ball in hand. “I wasn’t sure if the referees were going to call that down, or a fumble, so I heard everyone yell to me to go,” said Nalls, who closed the game in grand fashion going 101 yards for the championship touchdown. The Jaguars win! The Jaguars win!

Although the Clifton team wasn’t available for comments after the game, a trusted source said that Clifton head coach Ralph Cinque wasn’t happy with the turn of events, stating that he and his players thought they had scored.

East Orange head coach Rae Oliver said, “I’m happy for what we had accomplished. For the challenges we faced to get here and to be successful in getting this trophy means a lot to our students, our players, our community and our legacies before us.” He went on to say that his son, Raeden, found some things and decided to switch things up since Damon Phillips would be the focal point. Raeden Oliver, who rushed for 103 yards on 11 carries, finished the game with 12 completions on 27 attempts and no interceptions for 142 yards along with two touchdowns. He will finish his senior year with a remarkable 102 completions on 143 attempts, two interceptions, 1,757 yards and 21 touchdowns thrown. Damon Phillips finished the game with 25 carries for 129 yards and a touchdown. He ended the year with 204 carries with 1,777 yards and 20 touchdowns.

There are so many superlatives for this season of firsts that it would be hard to name just one. “We all played together as a family, as brothers,” said Nalls, “We wanted to make sure that, no matter what, we played at our best.”

The sentiment was echoed by teammate and field general Raeden Oliver. “I wanted to make sure that we, as a team finished, what we started,” Raeden Oliver said. “Now is up to the ones behind us to keep the tradition alive.”

East Orange is the fourth Essex County school to claim its stake in the NJSIAA North Jersey Group regional championships. In the previous week, the Cedar Grove Panthers took the North Jersey Group 1 title over the Park Ridge Owls, edging them out, 13-12, and the Caldwell Chiefs went ahead and blew out the Jefferson High School Falcons, 42-6, in the North Jersey, Group 2, final at MetLife Stadium. Fast-forward to championship weekend at Rutgers University’s SHI Stadium in the third game on Saturday, Dec. 4, as nearby neighborhood rival, the Irvington Blue Knights, pulled the ultimate upset with a late-game, come-from-behind touchdown to win the North Jersey, Group 4, championship, 19-14, over the highly touted Northern Highlands High School Highlanders, making it the first state championship for Blue Knights football.

When asked if this was mission complete, East Orange head coach Rae Oliver answered with an emphatic, “Yes!”

Congratulations to East Orange Campus High School Jaguars! This is mission complete, 13-0!

2021 East Orange Campus results: