MILLBURN, NJ — The Orange High School football team defeated Millburn, 30-14, Thursday, Sept. 28, at Millburn.
The Tornadoes won their third straight game and improved to 5-1 overall on the season.
It was almost the calm before the storm that was predicted to come through the South Valley of the South Mountain Reservation and Millburn. Almost, because there wasn’t quite a storm per se, but there was a storm of a different nature that landed on Millburn High School’s Dr. Keith A. Neigler Field in Millburn. It was the storm in the form of the OHS Tornadoes, led by dynamic senior quarterback Maurice Williams and his weaponry in receivers Ma’Khy Acey, Samir Wilkins, Sameir Ward, Adeiza Albert and Luis Rivera, tight ends Tyshawn Boyd and Aaron Biart and running backs Shamar Myers and Samir Holman. Millburn had its own weapons to counterbalance the Tornadoes in senior quarterback Cooper Titan and receivers Thomas Chernansky, Ryan Feldman and William Davis, along with senior running backs Brett Molka, Eli Rosenblatt and Quentin Kuehn.
Orange narrowly escaped the Blue Bears of Barringer in a down-to-the-wire, all-out 50-37 football shootout last weekend, while Millburn was able to coast past Belleville in a 40-6 win. Both teams were looking to play for the division titles in coming weeks, but it would take this head-to-head matchup to bring them closer to that opportunity.
The first quarter started with the Tornadoes winning the coin toss and receiving the opening kickoff to their own 25-yard line. With Williams calling the signals, the Tornadoes were looking to pick up where they left off in their previous game. Williams combined for a 9-yard pitch-and-catch before he would scamper for back-to-back 3-yard gains, getting a first down in the process. The first mistake of the game was when Williams connected with Rivera for another 7-yard gain, but Rivera coughed up the ball, with the Millers pouncing on the opportunity with 10:08 left in the opening quarter. The Millers were enthusiastically in business at the Orange 48-yard line. Titan guided his Millers inside the Orange 30-yard line, before attempting to pass the ball for the first time in the game. That proved to be a big mistake, as Boyd, from his defensive end position, stuck his big mitt up for a 71-yard snag-and-go interception return to open the scoring at 6-0 with 6:11 remaining in the first quarter.
After seeing that, the Millers decided to play keep-away with the ball, going 61 yards in 15 plays that spanned the rest of the first quarter and into the second, with an attempted double pass into the end zone that came up empty, giving Orange its first turnover on downs. Wasting no time, Williams flipped a quick pass to his big target in Boyd, who immediately sprinted down the Orange sideline for a 79-yard touchdown gallop, putting the Tornadoes’ lead up to 14-0 after a completed two-point conversion pass from William to Myers with 10:01 remaining in the first half. Millburn wasn’t taking it lightly, as it had launched its own attack, churning out the yards on the ground. Titan started the drive at the Millburn 32-yard line, calling for Kuehn to run back-to-back first downs up the gut of the Tornadoes defense, before setting the rhythm and calling his number a couple of times. Like a couple of pistons in an engine, the Millers kept punching on the inside of the Orange defensive front, but it came with a burst into the promise land, when Kuehn plunged in from a yard out, capping an 11-play, 68-yard march to pull within 14-7 with 4:59 remaining in the first half. Both teams traded the ball on a punt and a turnover on downs. Orange closed out the half with a fumble on a fourth-down play that gave Millburn the ball back with 19.3 seconds left in the first half.
Taking the opening kickoff in the second half, Millburn attempted to slow down the potent Tornadoes, who were very quick to respond with the ball in their possession. Orange’s defense only yielded 77 points, while the offense put up 203 points prior to coming into Thursday’s contest. So on that same kickoff, Millburn fumbled the ball, giving Orange the opportunity to jump further ahead with 11:48 left into the third quarter. Two plays later, the Tornadoes touched down in the end zone like the spinning force of nature, with two Millers defenders hanging on for dear life in the form of Boyd on the receiving end of a 31-yard aerial jump ball from Williams, who also hit the spin cycle and egregiously dumped a few more Millers en route to the scoring play. Boyd followed up with the second two-point conversion of the day, only taking 32 seconds off the third quarter clock. Millburn did not have an answer for the Tornadoes, except for taking the ball in five chunk running plays before turning it over on downs. Orange struck again, keeping the game firmly in its grasp, starting from its own 22-yard line with 5:30 remaining in the third quarter. Williams fed the ball to his bruising running back Myers for short yardage, while picking up a few yards on the ground for himself as well. After a Millburn timeout, it was a crucial fourth-and-7 play and the Tornadoes decided to take a gamble to keep the drive alive at the Millburn 32-yard line. Williams found Acey streaking down field for a 32-yard hookup and score to put the game at a comfortable 30-7 lead heading into the final quarter.
Millburn’s keep-away method was showing signs of effectiveness when Titan started to incorporate some passes to Chernansky and Feldman. But once again, the stingy Tornadoes defense found themselves bending, but not breaking, and forcing another turnover on downs. Williams made a costly mistake when he scrambled out of the Millers defensive pressure. Looking for Acey, who was open near the Millburn sideline, Williams threw the ball in Acey’s direction, but Millers senior LB Erik Davis jumped the route with his own sticky fingers, snagging the ball for a 55-yard interception return, putting the Millers inside the 10-yard line for a first-and-goal at the Orange 6-yard line. Doing the honors for the Millers’ second score of the game was Titan, calling his number from 4 yards out, capping the short drive in two plays with 3:45 left in the game. The 30-14 score proved to be the final shot the Millers had to close the gap, as Orange’s defense kept the ball out of the end zone, while the Tornadoes offense had a little fun by pulling a fake punt of their own to all but seal the game after the final turnover on downs to Millburn.
Orange head coach Khalfani Alleyne made it clear that there were a few things his team could have done better, and they would need to be more conscious of the game decisions that are to be made. “I am happy that we have the win today, but I am looking forward to our bye week, so I can get my guys healthy and ready to go for the last couple of games on our schedule,” he said. Williams said he was slightly frustrated because of the mistakes that were made during the course of the game. He finished 13-for-20 passing for 238 yards with three touchdowns and one interception, completing 65% of his targets. Williams also rushed the ball nine times for 77 yards, averaging a whopping 8.5 yards per carry. Boyd led the receiving corps with 152 yards on six catches and two TDs.
Orange will play Dickinson on Saturday, Oct. 14, at 1 p.m. before closing out the regular season with Lincoln the following week at 4 p.m.
Millburn head coach Chris Drechsel said, “We knew that ball control was going to be the name of the game. We stuck to our game plan in getting them where we wanted them, but Orange was just too tough to manage. We have Barringer next week and we will have to plan for them as well.”
Millburn will head on the road for a two-game tilt, starting with a visit to Newark Schools Stadium to tangle with the Barringer Blue Bears, led by senior RB Rakir Brown and senior QB Alexander Feliciano. The game will be on Saturday, Oct. 7, at 3 p.m. From there, the Millers will take the 25-minute trip up the Route 21 Corridor to visit the Passaic Indians on a Friday, Oct. 13, at 7 p.m.
Photos by Joe Ungaro
Orange vs. Millburn (Thursday, Sept. 28)
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