IRVINGTON, NJ — Playing with heavy hearts as the team honored its fallen teammate, the Irvington High School football team battled hard against a tough West Orange High School squad on Friday night, Sept. 12, at IHS’ Ralph C. Steele Sports Complex’s Matthew Field in a Super Football Conference- crossover divisional game.
Despite falling 20-19 in overtime, IHS head coach Marco Soto was proud of his team’s effort.
“The team’s effort was exceptional,” said Soto in a phone interview on Sunday, Sept. 14. “I’m very proud of the effort. But we can’t go by effort. Our kids are at the point where these are lessons learned. We’re going to move forward.”
The Blue Knights, who led 13-6 at the half, scored first in overtime, as junior Jazai Reid caught a touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Justin Spellman. But after the play, the Blue Knights were penalized for excessive celebration. The ball was moved back for the extra point, but the Blue Knights couldn’t convert it. West Orange answered with a TD and game-winning extra point.
IHS moved to 1-2, while West Orange, which was last year’s runner-up in the North Jersey, Section 1, Group 5 state playoffs, won its second straight to improve to 2-1.
Prior to the game, the Blue Knights honored one of their players, senior Ziyad Cook, who was shot and killed in Newark in late June.
“It was a homecoming for our guy,” Soto said. “It was emotional. The kids were running high on emotions. His little brother and his mother were honorary captains. They walked out for the coin toss. Ziyad Cook is one of our guys. It was an emotional game. (The IHS players) did handle their emotions well.”
Soto remembered Cook as a player who was always willing to be coached and had a team-first mentality.
“Ziyad was one of those kids who took criticism well, took coaching well,” Soto said. “Right, wrong or indifferent, what you told him was it. He performed. He was a very coachable kid and good kid in school. He was a great kid, man. A great kid. He would have been a starter for us at D-end and he would have been a captain. He was one of those kids that every team needs. He is that kid that, no matter how things are going, it’s team first.” Soto said Cook’s memory will always live on.
The Blue Knights have had an amazing run for the past 10 years as one of the top public-school teams in the area, producing a long list of players who have gone on to play collegiately, including many at major colleges. After a so-so year last season and a loss to Ramapo in this year’s season-opener, they have raised eyebrows with a 55-0 win over Orange High School on Friday, Sept. 5, at Orange and a near-win over West Orange.
“We’re still Irvington,” Soto said. “I might have 31 sophomores, but they are not normal sophomores. My kids have been through a lot. They’re battle-tested. We’re Irvington-tough for a reason.”
Soto put together a strong non-conference schedule that includes Ramapo and Seton Hall Prep. They also had a preseason scrimmage against DePaul Catholic.
“I made that schedule at the beginning of the year and let’s see what we got,” Soto said. “Because whatever we got this year, it’s only going to get better and we got two more years to build on that.
“I’m proud of my guys and I’m proud of the effort they put forward. Am I content? Absolutely not. These are lessons learned and we will get better and we will keep working.”
IHS will visit Bayonne HS on Friday, Sept. 19, in a Super Football Conference–Freedom White Division game at 7 p.m. Bayonne is 1-2.
Note – Darnell Grant, a 1991 IHS graduate, is in his seventh season as the West Orange HS head coach. Grant was the head coach of the Blue Knights from 2002-09, where he amassed an astounding 64-21 record. Grant guided West Orange to its first state sectional championship in 2022 in the program’s first-ever appearance in a state sectional final. WOHS won North 2, Group 5 that year.
Photos Courtesy of Felicia Laguerre Owens
Irvington (blue uniforms) vs. West Orange (Sept. 12)
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