EAST ORANGE, NJ — The East Orange Campus High School football Jaguars are having an outstanding season this year. Undefeated for the first time in program history — check. Thousand-yard rusher — check. Thousand-yard passer — triple check.
The Jaguars defeated West Orange High School. 14-0, in the semifinals of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s North Jersey, Section 1, Group 5 playoffs on Saturday afternoon, Nov. 13, at Paul Robeson Stadium in East Orange to improve to 10-0 on the season.
Both head coaches have a flair for being involved in heart-pounding heavyweight fights for the playoffs.
As a former head coach of Shabazz High School for nine years, West Orange head coach Darnell Grant was involved in some of the more memorable battles between Shabazz and Weequahic. He ran the tables in 2017 and gave the Shabazz Bulldogs their second sectional title under his regime. The first was in 2014, when they went 8-4. Grant has enjoyed winning seasons going back to when he took over the Bulldogs after leaving Irvington in 2009. He maintained a 68-32 record while at Shabazz. Prior to Shabazz, Grant enjoyed an outstanding 70-15 record at Irvington High School, where making the playoffs became almost expected every year.
East Orange head coach Rae Oliver is no stranger to high levels of play, with his experience as an assistant coach at Bergen Catholic, Montclair and Seton Hall Prep, and heading up Queen of Peace and St. Mary’s of Rutherford. Each of those stops brought Oliver closer to the style of coaching that is being implemented at East Orange Campus. From his opening season in 2017, Oliver has always maintained that there would be a process for them to reach the goals that they had set. The ultimate goal is the state championship. But much like Grant, Oliver’s biggest moments came during the playoffs, which included defeating Montclair twice in the same 2019 season. His Jags defeated the Mounties 26-6 and squeaked out a 15-14 decision later in the North 1, Group 5, quarterfinal round. The following week the Jags had a tough-out against a formidable Passaic County Tech squad in a highly competitive 14-6 loss in the semifinals.
The battle of the Oranges took on a new meaning for both squads, as this was the first time that they met in the playoffs. West Orange won the division crown in 2020 against East Orange at Robeson Stadium. But this time, things were different; this was not the divisional crown that East Orange had claimed outright for the third time in four years — a state sectional crown was hanging in the balance.
For much of the game, which included a weather delay due to lightning and thunder with 7:27 left in the second quarter, it turned out to be a knock-down, drag-out fight to the end. Both teams threatened to score on multiple occasions in the first half, but, as Rae Oliver stated after the game, “Our defensive guys bowed their backs and shut down their attacks.” That they did. East Orange shut down the Mountaineers’ offensive weapons in Jehki “Choo Choo” Williams and Makhi Green to zero scores on the day. They were swallowed up by the swarming defense led by Mounge Nyame, Kyle Louis, Ahmad Nalls and Noah Dorcin, who led the day with two of the three sacks of West Orange quarterback Amir Stewart. Stewart, a junior backup, started for Zander Lipsey, who was out for an undisclosed reason.
But the moment of the game came as Kyle Louis took over in the fourth quarter.
“I just knew there was an opportunity and I wanted to get out there and make it happen,” said Louis. And that he did, taking a West Orange punt 70 yards to the house, galloping with ease while breaking two tackles along the way. That proved to be the catalyst that the Jaguars needed.
“We were struggling to get our game on track,” said Raeden Oliver, East Orange Campus quarterback and the son of Rae Oliver. Raeden Oliver managed 4 of 7 pass attempts for 38 yards in the game.
East Orange rolled up a 17-play, 11-minute drive that started at the end of the third quarter. Louis kept the game in perspective as he continued to be the dominant force on defense. Not to be outdone, Damon Phillips put on a show worthy of any championship crown.
Phillips rushed 29 times for 152 yards. His day only got better after the weather delay. At the end of the first quarter, Phillips looked like he would have an off-day because of how the Mountaineers’ defense played against him. “They had me bottled up tight, and I felt there wasn’t going to be any openings to run,” he said. He went on to explain that, in the second quarter, he started to read the body language of the Mountaineer defense, which built up his confidence to go and do his thing. He actually had a 48-yard touchdown called back on a late holding call. He would later follow his teammate Kyle Louis and feast on the ground, chewing up 90 yards along the way. With the help of Phillips, it would be quarterback Raeden Oliver who capped the drive by taking the plunge into the end zone from 3 yards out and giving his Jags the 14-0 lead with 1:34 left in the game.
Grant said that he would rather have played with his best 11 players against East Orange’s best 11 players. He also felt that his squad played their hearts out for most of the game. He tipped his hat to Rae Oliver and the East Orange Campus squad, who ended the Mountaineers’ season and bid for the elusive championship.
“This is a season of ‘get back,’” said Louis. “We are looking for our championship and will not be denied.”
East Orange Campus will face Passaic County Tech at home in a rematch of the 2019 semifinals that the Bulldogs won, which led to a showdown with Ridgewood and the eventual winning of the sectional title. Ironically enough, Passaic Tech played Ridgewood in the other semifinal this past Friday, winning with a resounding 28-9 score.
“We did two things that didn’t work,” said Jaguars head coach Rae Oliver, “First, we told our quarterback in practice that he wasn’t going to run the ball, and two, we told Kyle Louis that he wasn’t going to play because of his elbow injury. And it turns out those two were the ones who put the team on their backs and pulled it out for us.”
The sectional final is set for Saturday, Nov. 20, at 1 p.m. at the Jaguars’ “shark-infested waters” of Paul Robeson Stadium, and, as Coach Rae Oliver reiterated after Saturday’s contest, “They have to come through the gates on North Clinton Street.”
Photos Courtesy of Kerry E. Porter
East Orange Campus HS football team blanks West Orange; advances to state sectional championship game added by Kerry E. Porter on
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